My Christmas vacation had just begun as I sat down for lunch with friends at Chez Pierre, when the cozy French restaurant was in downtown Tallahassee.
I was enjoying a glass of wine off the clock when the waitress said I had a phone call from The Tallahassee Democrat newsroom. This was 1991. Pre-cell phones. That’s how things worked in those days.
My editor, Janie Nelson, had cooked up a novel idea. We knew colorful media mogul Ted Turner and Oscar-winner Jane Fonda (“On Golden Pond”) were getting married the next day, a Saturday, in a small ceremony at Turner’s sprawling spread in Jefferson County. The press had not been invited.
“We need you to drive down to Turner’s house in the woods near Lamont this afternoon and take him and Jane a wedding announcement form from the newspaper,” Janie said. “Ask then ask them to fill it out and see what happens.”
I jumped back on the clock, picked up a wedding form at the newspaper and headed south to Turner’s Avalon hideaway in the wilderness.
In the billionaire backwoods
As I headed south on US 27 in my Isuzu Trooper, I reflected on how Turner, thanks to his Superstation on TV, had filled my youth with a mishmash of oddball fare. Pro rasslin’ matches from the Deep South. Cartoons.
Japanese fare such as “Ultraman,” featuring fights between actors wearing outrageously preposterous monster suits. Braves baseball games. Commercials hawking faded country stars such as Slim Whitman and Red Sovine. If anyone longed for a musical toilet seat, just watch the ads on the Superstation.
Then Turner launched CNN in 1980 and started the era of the 24-hour TV news cycle, for better or worse. Eight years later, he came up with what became Turner Classics and gave old films a new life.
Sure, he got called Mouth of the South, Terrible Ted and Captain Outrageous for his extracurricular antics, but he sure shook up the landscape. Plus, he used his pile of money for environmental reasons including bringing back the bison herds out West.
Turner put his money where his motor-mouth was, I will tell you.
Finding a different gear
Turning off the paved road onto a dirt one, the path led to the remote Avalon, originally part of the Welaunee cotton plantation. A white Colonial Revival home stood on a rise, so I drove through the gate and, as Tom Waits sang, went on up to the house. I shut off my engine and was about to get out to go knock on the front door with form in hand when a foreman approached my Isuzu Trooper. I introduced myself and told him why I was at Avalon.
He studied the form, broke a small grin, and then looked at me, “Does this Trooper have a reverse gear?”
“Yes, sir, it does.”
“I suggest you find it and leave the way you came in.”
I backed up and left. Drove back to the newspaper and wrote an article about being politely booted out of Avalon. Tongue firmly in cheek. The story ran on the front page. Above the fold, as they say in the journalism biz. December is traditionally a slow month in the news trade, especially during the Christmas season. Not so much that Yuletide.
An international scene
The next day, a media circus gathered outside the gates of Avalon along the dirt road. Tabloid reporters from England and Australia, who all drove large American Cadillacs from the 1970s, were impressed by the way I gained entrance into “the compound” for my story.
“That was a smart move, mate,” one Fleet Street scribbler said.
“It was my editor’s idea,” I said.
“I’d leave that part out,” the Fleet Streeter said.
A helicopter circled in low loops as we spoke. Peter Fonda, the co-star of “Easy Rider” (1969) and brother of Jane Fonda, stepped out of the house after the nuptials to moon the photographer in the chopper. He literally showed his backside to the world press. I laughed.
When I arrived at my computer at the newspaper to write about the media circus, the desktop phone rang. Reuters News international from London, England, where news sources are paid, wanted to know what happened at the wedding. I got $100 to tell them what I did. The easiest money I’ve ever made.
Thanks Ted and Jane.
Ted is dead
Earlier this month, Turner passed away at Avalon. He was 87.
Turner and Jane Fonda divorced in 2001 but while they spent time in this part of the world, the two were a regular feature around Tallahassee. Catch a film at the Capitol Cinemas and they may be in the next seats. Hit a sports bar on West Tennessee Street for some chicken wings with cold beer and there they sat at the bar.
Gosh, that’s them at Mom and Dad’s original Italian restaurant on Apalachee Parkway where Jonathan Demme’s film “Something Wild” (1986) also took place. I shamelessly eavesdropped on a Turner-Fonda family dinner on Thanksgiving Eve 1994 at the Wharf when the king-sized seafood restaurant was housed on the southeast part of town.
Hey, I can’t help where the hostess seated me.
Got to admit it was nice watching famous folks act normally for a change. There was a time when the uber-rich didn’t roll around the streets in blacked-out SUVs like Pablo Escobar’s entourage. No bodyguards. No barriers. No falderal.
Thanks for letting me politely barge in on the wedding, Ted and Jane. What a hoot.
Mark Hinson is a former senior writer for The Tallahassee Democrat. He can be reached at mark.hinson59@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: RIP, Ted Turner. Wedding to Jane Fonda still lingers in these parts
Reporting by Mark Hinson, Guest columnist / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
