‘Birth of a Town’ premiers with thumbs up from Farragut Community Group
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Betty Dick and her husband, Jeremy Dick, were among those attending last week’s “Birth of Town” documentary premier in Farragut Town Hall. A member of Farragut Community Group, Dick was a Town founder who was featured prominently in the film. - Michelle Hollenhead
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Four of the original Farragut Community Group members who founded the Town of Farragut — from left, Ron Simandl, Betty Dick, Marianne McGill and Eric Johnson — also gave interviews as central figures in the movie “Birth of a Town,” which premiered Wednesday, July 15. They were among invited guests who attended the event in Farragut Community Center. - Michelle Hollenhead
More than three months after its planned premier, Town officials finally witnessed the “Birth of a Town” documentary Wednesday, July 14, recounting the founding of Farragut more than four decades ago.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled its original premier date of April 1 — set to mark the exact 40th anniversary of the election of Farragut’s first Board of Mayor and Aldermen — the film finally debuted to a select crowd comprised of current and past Town officials in Farragut Community Center along with other special invited guests.
Still focusing on social distancing and limiting the capacity inside the Center’s assembly room, about two dozen attended the premier, including four original Town founders who were known as Farragut Community Group — Betty Dick, Ron Simandl, Eric Johnson and Marianne McGill — who were prominent in the film.
In addition to those four, others included in the documentary were Marty Rodgers, wife of FCG founder and the Town’s first attorney David Rodgers; Doug Horne, Farragut native, prominent local businessman and owner of Republic Newspaper, Inc., parent company of farragutpress; the Town’s first assistant Town administrator, Bill Hammon; and Jeff Dobson, who served as an alderman in the mid 1980s.
“I think the filmmaker did a good job,” Johnson said after the premier. “There was nothing too controversial, and that’s the way to do it.
“I thought it was very nice.”
“It was very good, I was very happy with it,” Simandl said.
McGill, who worked alongside her late husband, the late Town Mayor Dr. Ralph McGill, on the founding, also was pleased with the finished product.
“I just told it like it was,” she said. “In some ways, it seems like it was just yesterday. I just wish Ralph could have been here to see it — I know he would have been so proud.”
“I thought it was really good,” said Dick. “I know you can’t get everything in, but still, he did a good job.
“We had our heart and soul in the founding of Farragut, and did it in just 27 days,” she added.
The film was directed by award-winning Oak Ridge filmmaker Keith McDaniel, who was unable to attend the premier due to a family illness. He also had directed the documentary “A History of Concord and Farragut,” which directly led to his working with the Town again on the most recent documentary.
Sue Stuhl, Town Parks and Recreation director who worked closely with McDaniel on the film, said, “Everyone I talked to really enjoyed the movie and thought that our filmmaker did a good job at looking at the beginnings from different viewpoints.”
She said she, too, “enjoyed the process and had lots of help from Julia Barham,” Town Historic resources coordinator. Stuhl said copies of the film will be available for sale at the Community Center at the end of July. Public on-site viewings will be scheduled “when it is safe to do so.”
