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I bring this up every few months/years when a new LOGAN'S RUN thread is started so forgive me, those of you who have been reading my posts for the last ten years or so, as I repeat myself.

A great deal of LOGAN'S RUN was shot in the Fort Worth/Dallas area. For instance, the Sandman headquarters was the Zales jewelry corporation building (recreated in miniature at the opening of the film). The cavernous main hall interior "set" was the Dallas Trade Center. The end of the film, with the man-made waterfall, augmented with a matte painting, was the Fort Worth Water Gardens (and Count Gamula was there for some of that shoot). The drugged out party sequence was shot at a Dallas nightclub named Oz. The scene in the hot tub/jacuzzi was shot in the suburb of Arlington. I'm sure there were other local locations but those are the only ones I know of for sure.

I was an extra on the film and worked for three or four days. I got to dress up in the green tights, funny shoes and tunic. I had to shave my moustache because everyone had to be devoid of facial hair. The casting call was for "beautiful people." Since I made the grade... Just kidding, because there definitely were some folks there who would not be classified as beautiful. All of my scenes were in the huge crowd shots done in the Trade Center. Before we made it out onto the floor we had to go through wardrobe. You've probably seen behind-the-scenes featurettes that depict masses of people getting oufitted as crowd extras. That's exactly what it was like, everybody being divided into Sandmen (which was the sought after part) or everybody else. A very aggressive friend of mine at the time, Paul Bissbort, managed to wrangle a Sandman gig and he can be seen quite clearly walking through at least one shot in the foreground quite close to the camera. If you weren't a Sandman then they divided you into color groups. Then you lined up and received your tunic, tights and shoes. Once you were outfitted you went into another area where you waited to see where you would be placed.

Everyone was divided into smaller groups of about twenty people. There were about forty groups, each with its own assistant director. We were given an area in which to mill about and given directions as where to begin, where to walk, where to stop, etc. For the most part, we never knew what was going on in the scene. One shot with Michael York and Richard Jordan was retaken 15 times before I stopped counting. One shot I can recall occurs when York returns to tell everyone of the outside world. He's standing on a balcony overlooking the huge main lobby of the Trade Center. The shots on him were done at another time. However, there is a reverse shot from behind him that looks out over the entire assemblage of extras. Although I can't see myself, I know exactly where I was in the shot. On another day during the shoot York was late to the set and barrelled out of the costume/make-up area and ran right into me!

The pay was an incredible $40/day and included a box lunch which, on the days I was there, consisted of fried chicken, a roll, and some mashed potatoes. The only problem was that, for some reason, they couldn't tell you if they'd need you the next day. Instead, they would call on the day you were needed -- at about 6 a.m. -- and expect you to get there quickly. One night I had stayed out too late, drinking and partying, I think, and just couldn't muster up the energy or interest to go in that day when they called. That ended my association with the production. I guess if you couldn't make it in one time they dropped you from their call list in favor of other more dependable players.

The film opened at Dallas' Medallion theater on Skillman, a large, single floor 70mm house where previews for JAWS and THE TOWERING INFERNO were held. Although the Medallion was not equipped for Universal's proprietary Sensurround system, it was pretty clear that the MGM sound folks had included the same sort of inaudible bass signals in the sound mix that made everything vibrate and tingle in films like EARTHQUAKE, ROLLERCOASTER, MIDWAY, and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. In a house with a better bass system there must have been some highly effective moments during sequences featuring explosions and other types of destruction. I don't have the local box office figures but I'd imagine that LOGAN'S RUN had some of its best numbers in the country here in Fort Worth/Dallas what with all the people who worked as extras, their families, and all the friends who might be curious.