Driving Mr. Hanson
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| Dave Hanson at the WHA 50th Reunion Gala - Photo, Andrew Klaver |
I actually bought Dave Hanson's autobiography that came out in 2008, and of course I am a huge fan of the movie Slap Shot. I printed a small sign to hold at the airport with "DAVE HANSON" on it. I know what he looks night even nowadays, I just thought it would be a courtesy for him. As he entered the International Arrivals area he saw the sign and approached, I introduced myself then said, "Dave, I just have to say it...'Grab your friggin' gear and let's get going.'" quoting Paul Newman picking up the Hanson's at the bus station in the movie. I think he chuckled a bit.
Once in the car for our two hour mid-day drive to Whistler, I didn't want to come off any more "fan-boyish". He made a quick call to his son, checking in on his grandkids. His son, Christian once played parts of three seasons for the Maple Leafs a dozen years ago. I mentioned to Dave I was a big Leafs fan and remembered Christian's stint with the Buds. That opened the door to some great sports talk with Dave Hanson. Living in Pittsburgh, Dave currently runs a three-sheet hockey rink and of course is a big Penguins fan. We delved into a bit of baseball, and he even discussed the trials of his Pittsburgh Steelers and their signing of Mitch Trubisky in an attempt to replace Ben Rothlesberger. As we rounded the bend to Horseshoe Bay about 40 minutes into the drive, I had to start asking him about the movie.
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| Me and Dave, I'm wearing a Floorball goalie uniform for a demo at the event Photo - Andrew Klaver |
Dave asked me if I knew what was planned for that evening as there was a Slap Shot viewing event in conjunction with the WHA 50th Reunion. I mentioned that I had actually wrote some very in-depth trivia questions, of course he wanted to hear a few. "What was the name of Nick Brophy's wife who had left him forcing him to get "shit-faced" and "piss all over himself"? It was Louise, Dave said he kind of remembered that line. Then he asked me what was the name of Ned Braden's dog and of course I had that question on my list too. It was Ruby. From there I was able to easily segue into asking for some Paul Newman stories. I said, I heard he really enjoyed partying with you guys (Dave, and Jeff and Steve Carlson). So he gave me a pretty damn good Newman story.
During filming of the movie, Newman, being a big movie star had a large house rented in the hills above Johnstown. Newman loved to use the sauna every day after shooting. The rest of the cast had motel rooms rented in town, and even Newman had a room there for the times they would shoot extra late. Newman loved his sauna so much, he had a one-man sauna built inside his motel room. One day, Dave and the boys grabbed bags and bags of popcorn from the rink after a day on the set and emptied them into Newman's little sauna, filling it to the top. However, the next day and a few after, there was no reaction from Newman even though they all knew he had stayed at the motel post "popcorn-ing" of his sauna. It turned out they would have to wait a few more days for his reaction.
While on the team bus preparing to film the scene where the team meets up at with the Chiefs booster bus at a road-side stop, Newman came up with a prank. He suggested they all strip down and run off the bus buck-naked as a joke. Everyone having more than a few beers in them at that point agreed happily. (As an aside, the streaking off the bus story is not a new one, I think Dave had that in his book even. To the surprise of all, there were actually hundreds of people waiting at that location as the local townsfolk heard Paul Newman would be there shooting a scene. Afterwards, the local authorities wanted to arrest half the cast for public indecency.) Back to Newman, as the team ran out naked, hooting and hollering and shocking everyone, Dave noticed Newman was not amongst them. He looked up to see the blue-eyed movie star fully clothed, hanging out a bus window. Newman yelled to Dave and the Carlsons, "payback's a bitch boys!" They never put popcorn in his sauna again.
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| Two guys in need of a beer after a drive to Whistler |
According to Dave this was far from the only time there were pranks and beer on or off set. He said, pretty much every bus scene they shot they would have wake up someone who had passed out under a bus seat prior to rolling the cameras. I asked Dave about the "mooning from the bus" scene that actually did make it into the movie. The very last window on the Chiefs bus has someone with their naked legs sticking straight out the window while every other window simply has a mooning bum in it. I told Dave that makes me laugh every time I see it and asked if he knew which actor it was. He vividly recalled that night of filming but didn't know who it was. He suggested we ask Allan Nicholls who played Captain Johnny Upton that evening at the Whistler event. Dave admitted he hasn't watched the movie a lot in the last few decades, but that Allan had a great recall of events on set. Dave also mentioned that Nicholls was actually a terrific actor and had been in the original Broadway stage production of "Hair". After Dave introduced me to Nicholls later that night, he deduced it must have been an extra sticking their legs out the bus window, as he couldn't recall one of the actors doing it. Good enough for me.
Back to the car trip earlier that afternoon. Somewhere past Squamish, we continued talking Slap Shot. The scene in the hotel lobby where the Hanson Brothers drag the clerk over the counter, Dave told me he improvised by grabbing the plant and pile driving the manager with it multiple times. The Holiday Inn where they shot the scene sent the production a bill for the damaged plant. Another cool thing he mentioned; in the championship game against Syracuse, when Clarence 'Screaming Buffalo' Swamptown chases after Johnny Upton, it was Dave's voice that recorded the war cry he was screaming. I don't want to give the impression that the whole car ride was just talking sports and Slap Shot, Dave was actually interested after I told him I work in the Animation industry and asked a bunch of questions about the process and different shows I had worked on. We discussed travelling, and families, good wholesome stuff. He also told me about how the Hanson Brothers were doing about 100 events per hockey season back in the late 90's when Bud Ice was sponsoring the NHL. He said after a couple years of that it just got too much and the boys scaled back their schedule. The worst part of it however was having to drink the Bud Ice all the time, not good stuff he said.
Finally we arrived at Whistler and went to the hotel we were told he'd be staying. Wrong one apparently. We were sent to a nearby place where there was an unattended front desk with a sign that said to use the phone provided to talk to someone for help. Dave did, and it seemed there was ANOTHER hotel he'd be at. Luckily Whistler is small and all these places are close to each other. Oh yeah, and the final hotel wouldn't be ready for another hour. After hanging up, Dave just laughed and said, "Let's go get a beer." We did.
After finally depositing Dave at the Chateau Whistler Golf Clubhouse to meet up with the rest of the event folks, we parted ways. I saw Dave later that evening at the Slap Shot event and the following day at reunion festivities. He couldn't have been a nicer guy, and I'm pretty sure I didn't "fan-boy" too much on him!
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