“WORM KILLERS’ LAST SPRING” (#47 revised): Does anyone know Neil Degroot or Tom Dempsey? In the mid 1980’s, we went to Dallas to talk with potential investors for a movie they were making, a movie about a softball team called “Worm Killer’s Last. The cocktail party had been arranged by a former student of Bob Bradshaw, who was a teacher at Shorecrest Prep school in St. Petersburg.
This is the same friend who left Philadelphia and move to St. Pete after the Pennsylvania Bar Association told him he had failed the Bar Exam. Six months later when the Bar Association admitted they had made a mistake and he had actually passed, he never went back or practiced law (See #71).
At the cocktail party I was talking with an attractive blond who asked, “What do you want to do in Dallas, besides raise money to kill worms?” I replied, “It might sound a little corny to you, but I’d like to see Southfork. My wife and I are big “Dallas” fans. We watch it every Saturday night in the hot tub on a portable TV.”
To my surprise she said, “I’m going out to my in-laws in the morning. I’ll tell them you’re coming. Anytime in the afternoon, ring at the service gate and go in and look around the property. Just don’t go up to the main house.”
We went out the next afternoon. I was not prepared for what we saw after we buzzed at the service entrance and were let inside. All of the drives were pored concrete. All of the fence posts and rails were aluminum, as big around as a softball.
After we went by a large aluminum fenced pasture, we came to at least 8 duplex horse stalls, each nice enough to be a small house. There was a concrete circular drive leading to the main house and a concrete area as large as a football field ahead. To the right were three houses, each looking like a standard 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with a family room and a two car garage. Past the three houses were three large barns and a racetrack. We were talking serious, serious money.
Unfortunately, we never got any of it for our movie. I ended up investing $10,000 as Executive Producer of the movie. “Worm Killer’s Last Spring” was a film about a group of friends who had a team in a city softball league since college. Over the years they lost teammates as players dropped out due to the pressures of work and family. They managed to rally the team for one last season together. A “Worm Killer” is a hard hit ball on the infield grass that would kill any worm in its way.
The theme appealed to me because I had played in a city softball league with my Junior College fraternity brothers from Alpha Delta Epsilon. On the same day as Willie mays hit his 600th home run, I pitched the second no hitter in city slow pitch softball league history. The big guy in the red & white jersey is Mark “Bubba” Kaiser from our softball team.
It would have been a perfect game except our third baseman, who had signed with the Houston Astros for a bonus, threw the ball over the head of our 6’ 5” first baseman (see #55). Willie Mays was on the front page of the Evening Independent’s Sports section and I was on the third page. To be honest, I was only pitching because I was President, couldn’t be relied on to catch a ball hit or thrown in my direction, and they had to play me somewhere. We lost the next game when I walked four straight batters.
The deal with Neil and Tom was that our next movie would be one of my projects, either “35”, where I killed myself off the Monday morning after my big birthday party, or one based on a book I never finished about the assassination of a Republican appointed Supreme Judge. Of course, there was never another movie.
To their credit, when I approached Tom James and Ernie Mascara about investing they both warned me that putting money into an independent film made by unknowns was extremely risky. They were right, I would have been better off going to Las Vegas with a topless dancer (see #22) and putting it all on Red at the Roulette table.
It was Tom Dempsey’s directing debut, and not an auspicious attempt. The movie was over directed. Each line uttered by the players during a ball game was serious and studied, just not the ways guys talk. Where were the “Way to fucking go!”, “Why didn’t you catch the damn ball!”, or that was a real bullshit call Ump!” I pointed this out to Tom when I saw the daily takes, but he assured me it would all come together. Even though we had some good actors, the movie was stiff and boring. It didn’t capture the heart of the moment. Sad!
The movie premiered at the old Beach Theater on St. Petersburg Beach.
The response from our friends was underwhelming. Tom even got my name wrong in the rolling credits ; Executive Producer Scott J. Simmons (instead of J. Scott Simmons)
As far as I know, the movie was never seen again. I’ve searched the internet for any mention of “Worm Killer’s Last Spring” and came up with zilch. That was the first time I spent $10,000 on a movie.
I have spent $15,000 so far on CAST Of CHARACTERS Productions, my YouTube channel CAST Of CHARACTERS Live, and my website castorcharacterslive.com. At least we have product to show on Cast of Characters Live on You Tube and I have my 27” iMac for editing, and my Sony a6500 and iPhone 11 Pro for photos and video.
My Musical Documentaries to Tonio K.’s “Say Goodbye” have over 1,000 views, with no advertising. I am about to do a final re-edit of my 18 minute documentary “Racism in America: Why Black Lives Matter” and my 38 minute unauthorized documentary “John Prine: The Gulfport Years 2005 -2020. When I have them re-edited and my website is finished, I am going to try spending some money on advertising on FaceBook and YouTube.
I also am going to enter them and my short documentary “DENIAL: The Armenian Genocide” in the Guanajuato International Film Festival. Hopefully one will make it!
If anyone can help me contact Neil or Tom, I’d like know what they’ve been up to and see if I can get a copy of the movie for old times sake.