Bud horses may bring a split second of fame

Some in Burfordville, Mo., will forever remember May 7, 2005, as the day the majestic Budweiser Clydesdales came to town to film a beer commercial on their historic covered bridge.

Resident Linda Banger will, too. She'll also recall the horse manure she just missed getting for her plants.

"I would have loved to have said my lilies had been fertilized by the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales," Banger said. "But they had already bagged it up with drink cans and other stuff. So I guess I'll stick to Miracle Grow."

Burfordville was one of several locales across the country where a 60 second Anheuser-Busch TV commercial titled "Everyday Heroes" was shot.

The spot, which airs nationwide from Memorial Day through July 4, may not even include the footage that was shot on that recent Saturday, said Jack Smoot, caretaker of the Bollinger Mill historic site at Burfordville.

"They told me that if it gets used at all, it will probably be only two to four seconds of it," he said. "If you blink, you'll miss it."

But that didn't make it less thrilling for the residents of the small town when the Clydesdales were pulled into town on semitrailers, followed by a film crew, actors and Oscar-winning cinematographer Bob Richardson, who has worked on such films as "Platoon," "Nixon," and "JFK."

"It was exciting for the town," Smoot said. "They filmed in front of the old post office. The filmed them on both sides of the covered bridge and inside the bridge. There were a lot of people around taking pictures."

Shot on locations across America from April 24 to May 7, the ad will feature two Clydesdale hitches, one starting on the Manhattan Bridge in New York City and traveling westbound, and one starting on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco traveling east.

The hitches visit farms and cities, roadside stops and festivals, crossing paths with everyday people and eventually meeting under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

Smoot said that the filming company had originally picked another covered bridge, but changed when there were maneuverability problems. That's when the 137-year-old Burfordville covered bridge was selected. Smoot said the state was paid a "small sum," though he wouldn't say how much.

But even if the commercial doesn't show Burfordville, Smoot said the filming crew agreed to allow the state to use the footage for promotional material.

"Besides that, it was really a treat," he said. "It was spine tingling to hear those horses come across the bridge. It was sort of like a time warp."

Mardell Amelunke, owner of Burfordville's Old Mill Store, watched as the front of her store was used in the commercial, with actors pretending to come out.

"I thought it was really neat," she said. "They're beautiful animals and they were so behaved. It was a neat experience."

Banger agreed, even when it came to advertising types, who she normally is suspicious of.

"This was a huge deal for Burfordville," she said. "And the people were very nice. They didn't demand everything or get snotty. They cleaned out the trash receptacles. They cleaned up the horse poop, too, even though I didn't get to use it on my lilies."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137