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Melancon's Cafe in Morganza (Easy Rider movie) Who's bright idea was it to tear it down?
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:45 pm
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:45 pm
I know there's a plaque there at the spot, but that's not the same as keeping that building and making it a profitable tourist attraction.
Remains of the cafe
Remains of the cafe
17
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:47 pm to 4x4tiger
Was this a boomer movie?
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:48 pm to 4x4tiger
quote:
and making it a profitable tourist attraction.
Not a lot of 80 something year olds making a pilgrimage to Morganza. Not sure why you want to keep a blighted building just because it was on tv 50+ years ago.
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:49 pm to 4x4tiger
quote:
Instead we learned that the building that housed the café had been torn down a few years before. It had been purchased by a local church, and the land had been cleared for future church expansion or perhaps to once and for all rid the town of what some locals thought to be a stain on its reputation.
quote:
Hess, however, has mixed feelings about it. “They asked me to do the scene in my uniform to make it more realistic,” he recalls, adding, “They promised they wouldn’t identify where I worked.” But when the movie came out a year later, Hess was shocked to see his Point Coupee Parish sheriff’s patch prominently displayed on the big screen. “The sheriff called me in and basically wanted to know why I shouldn’t be fired,” he recalls. Hess says he wasn’t fired after he explained that once he realized he and other townspeople were being portrayed as intolerant rednecks, he took no further part in the movie.
quote:
Recently found this photo I took of the interior of Melancon's cafe sometime in the mid-80's. You can see the booths off to the right. Plus another shot of the cafe once it was boarded up.
This post was edited on 10/4/24 at 12:56 pm
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:54 pm to 4x4tiger
Were these guys from Morganza, too?
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:57 pm to BugAC
You don't have to be 80. The movie was released a year before I was born. I'm a historical and geographical nerd and I've never owned a bike. Curious why it was torn down
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:57 pm to HarryBalzack
The cop was from Morganza
quote:
Hess, however, has mixed feelings about it. “They asked me to do the scene in my uniform to make it more realistic,” he recalls, adding, “They promised they wouldn’t identify where I worked.” But when the movie came out a year later, Hess was shocked to see his Point Coupee Parish sheriff’s patch prominently displayed on the big screen. “The sheriff called me in and basically wanted to know why I shouldn’t be fired,” he recalls. Hess says he wasn’t fired after he explained that once he realized he and other townspeople were being portrayed as intolerant rednecks, he took no further part in the movie.
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:57 pm to 4x4tiger
How would an empty building used in a 60 year old movie in a town no one goes to be a profitable tourist attraction?
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:57 pm to HarryBalzack
quote:
Who's bright idea was it to tear it down?
HarryBalzack
I think so.
It's weird when a quote is somehow not what i intended to respond to. I guess it's apropos for the boomer movie.
This post was edited on 10/4/24 at 1:01 pm
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:58 pm to HarryBalzack
I think the one at the passenger door was from Palmetto and the driver Krotz Springs
Posted on 10/4/24 at 12:58 pm to JusTrollin
quote:
Was this a boomer movie?
I miss cultural literacy. That was pretty cool when people used to know things. Conversation was so much better.
Posted on 10/4/24 at 1:02 pm to Lsupimp
quote:
I miss cultural literacy. That was pretty cool when people used to know things. Conversation was so much better.
My mom was from New Roads and and I believe either her cousin or a HS friend of hers is in the cafe scene. We drove by a couple years ago when passing through the area. My mom was sad to see the building gone as well.
Posted on 10/4/24 at 1:04 pm to LSUMJ
quote:
How would an empty building used in a 60 year old movie in a town no one goes to be a profitable tourist attraction?
You don't leave it empty? The movie has a cult following mostly among bikers and I've seen bikers there many times just hanging around at the empty lot. I never knew about the cafe until recently
Posted on 10/4/24 at 1:09 pm to Shexter
I always get a kick out of movies and out of place road scenes that make absolutely no sense to locals who drive in the same area.
Easy Rider was one of them. You see them going up LA 1 in Raceland by St. Mary’s Nativity and its cemetery. Then they somewhere near Amelia, downtown Franklin, and then end up River in Morganza.
Easy Rider was one of them. You see them going up LA 1 in Raceland by St. Mary’s Nativity and its cemetery. Then they somewhere near Amelia, downtown Franklin, and then end up River in Morganza.
Posted on 10/4/24 at 1:21 pm to 4x4tiger
Morganza is pretty run down. That whole stretch of LA 1 from the bridge in Simmesport to just outside New Roads is really depressing.
Posted on 10/4/24 at 1:25 pm to Tarps99
Trust me, if filmmakers followed the real path of local roads it would not be very entertaining. This is perhaps one of the most accepted creative licenses of them all to take.
I wonder why a town that has on the surface zero reasons to visit would tear down a location that is featured in the ending of one of the most iconic road movies in the world. I think people underestimate the amount of foreign visitors to the deep south ... many of them are in search of old blues, rock n roll and jazz sites of note, who i would imagine might make the effort to visit the cafe, especially if it was turned into a small museum with a coffee shop. And the bikers as previously mentioned.
I wonder why a town that has on the surface zero reasons to visit would tear down a location that is featured in the ending of one of the most iconic road movies in the world. I think people underestimate the amount of foreign visitors to the deep south ... many of them are in search of old blues, rock n roll and jazz sites of note, who i would imagine might make the effort to visit the cafe, especially if it was turned into a small museum with a coffee shop. And the bikers as previously mentioned.
Posted on 10/4/24 at 2:17 pm to S
quote:
Morganza is pretty run down. That whole stretch of LA 1 from the bridge in Simmesport to just outside New Roads is really depressing.
easy baw. that's my hometown .....lol
but you're right. there's less people there now than when I lived there in high school. A lot of the population when I was there were old timers who worked on the corps of engineer's river control structures. That work was completed loooong ago. If you're not a farmer, and if you work, you have to cross the river to the plants or paper mill.
Posted on 10/4/24 at 2:28 pm to Joe_Dirte
quote:don't speed !!!
Morganza is pretty run down
Posted on 10/4/24 at 2:29 pm to JusTrollin
quote:More of an old guard very early Boomer movie. I was too young to know squat about it.
Was this a boomer movie?
Posted on 10/4/24 at 2:32 pm to lsuCJ5
quote:
don't speed !!!
I guess. Morgana had one police officer with I lived there. Now they don't have any. At one point they were talking about un-incorporating the village. I'm sure that'll eventually happen
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