Transcript The Bayou: …and the ghost played on

Metro Teleproductions and
the Potomac River Jazz Club
present
The Bayou…and the Ghost Played On
A documentary
For more information contact:
Dave Lilling
(301) 608-9077
[email protected]
mtitv.com/bayou/bayou.html
More Than Just a Music Documentary…
The Bayou…and the Ghost Played On depicts the life and times of Georgetown’s
distinctive musical landmark. From 1953 to 1998, the nation’s most artful musicians
dressed The Bayou first in Dixieland Jazz notes, later rock and roll. Dixieland Jazz icons
Wild Bill Whelan and Joe Rinaldi provided the Bayou its musical seed; rock heroes
Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Foreigner, Kiss and Dire Straits helped the club blossom
amid the raucous, anything-goes social landscape of the 1970s.
On New Year’s Eve 1998, the last drunk was bounced, the last beer poured and the last
note played at The Bayou. Metro Teleproductions captured the final performances, the
parting shots and the vivid, waning breaths of a Washington, DC, music legend.
Through painstaking research and dozens of interviews with musicians, employees and
Bayou patrons, we’ve fashioned a compelling visual narrative – a story that captures all
the club’s rhythms: its development as a unique showplace, its dalliances with Ted
Kennedy, Errol Flynn and Mickey Mantle, its debauchery, its dance with death.
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“The Bayou”…a Set List
(potential clips, interviews, etc. with…)

Bruce Springsteen

U2’s 1st American Club Date

The Nighthawks – “Blue Monday”

Nils Lofgren

Joan Jett

Foreigner – 1st Club Concert

The Police

Dire Straits

The Stray Cats

B.B. King

Todd Rundgren

Kiss

The Slickee Boys

Southside Johnny

Catfish Hodge

Sam Kinison

Stephen King (author)

The Ramones

Joe Perry of Aerosmith

Coleman Hawkins & Lester Young

Tom Principato

Everything

Meatloaf

New Potato Caboose

Eddie Murphy

Chuck Brown

Little Feat

The Pretenders

Facedancer

The Fabulous Thunderbirds

Hootie & the Blowfish

Bill Kirchen & Commander Cody

The Telstars – 1st Bayou House Band

NRBQ

Eva Cassidy’s Final Performance
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The Bayou… a Preview
“My GOD, you just
kicked out Mickey
Mantle!” Mike Tramonte
“I fell in love with The
Bayou the first time”
Chuck Brown
“I caught people having
SEX in here!” Bartender
Ann Koza
“We DID set the stage on
fire – that’s a good story!”
Face Dancer
“Kicked out for drinking
‘Milwaukee’s Best’”
Hootie & the Blowfish
“Isn’t there ANOTHER
place in DC to play?”
Todd Rundgren
“Cigarette butts, dark
old wood and the
wonderful smell of old
beer”
“There was no more
significant club in DC”
Mike O’Harro
“Some of the Kennedys
would show up”
Terry Gorka, The
Telstars
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The Bayou… a Preview
“Rock ‘N Roll at its
raunchiest” - Tommy
“The Matchmaker”
“All the great places are
closing”
Author Stephen King
Kevin Costner leaps
from Bayou roof -“No
Way Out” – 1985
“Everybody was really
nervous” - Foreigner’s
first club date -1977
“They served drinks,
they had a band – they
had topless dancers”
“My first club gig in DC, I
was 15 years old”
Tom Principato
“It’s closing? We’re bad
luck. We played Pompeii
just before the volcano”
Humorist Dave Barry
“GHOST? That was all
the damn DRINKING!”
Wild Bill Whelan
“Dixieland Jazz and Italian
Cuisine”
Washington Post, 1961
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“The Bayou”…The Box Office Opens
What do baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle and Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant have in
common? Both were thrown out of The Bayou. A guy who became an orthopedic surgeon
got booted too.
Iggy Pop, in a stage-swept moment, spat on the head of an eventual USA
Today editor. The impish young lady who paid a roadie to smuggle her into a Kiss show on a
covered dolly? She's a social worker. For its 46 years, The Bayou transcended a rollicking
music hall; it was a roadhouse through which lives traveled. How the memories rev.
Here's your chance to drive that dazzling lane once more. Metro Teleproductions, through
the non-profit Potomac River Jazz Club (a 501 (c)(3) organization), seeks tax-deductible
contributions to complete post-production on The Bayou . . . and the Ghost Played On, a
documentary on Georgetown's unorthodox, bygone music hall. Production costs for this 80to 90-minute documentary are estimated to exceed $300,000. MTI hopes to elicit the
support of production and underwriting partners, and any cultural archeologists keen to
unearth musical treasure. Contributions may be made to:
Potomac River Jazz Club
c/o Metro Teleproductions
1400 East West Highway
Suite 628
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Donations may be made online at: http://prjc.org/onlineapp.html
Maryland Public Television has agreed in principle to act as regional broadcaster
for The Bayou…and the Ghost Played On .
MPT reaches nearly 1 million viewers a week across its broadcast market, which includes all of Maryland, the District of
Columbia and Delaware, as well as northern Virginia, southern Pennsylvania and parts of West Virginia. As presenting
station, MPT also seeks to distribute the program to other public television stations through PBS or other mutually approved
public television distribution entities. Available in 98 percent of all U.S. homes, public television reaches more than 65 million
people each week and invites them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature, public affairs and art.
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“The Bayou”…The Stage Is Set
You can be an essential part of keeping culture, however dimly lit and loudly played, alive in
the memories of those who experienced The Bayou. And for those who were never there,
The Bayou…and the Ghost Played On brings the club to life forever, like the ghost himself.
As music legends fade away, landmarks crumble, social scenes disintegrate, documentaries
like this become more than just entertainment…they become essential electronic history
books.
We are seeking financial support from producer/underwriter partners. The estimated total
production cost for The Bayou project is $315,600.
Producer Level: $50,000+
Underwriter Level: $25,000-$50,000
Bayou Booster Level: $10,000-$25,000
Stagehand Level: $5,000-$10,000
Grip Level: $500-$5,000
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“The Bayou”…Production Style, Content & Budget
Production Style
Traditional documentary format driven by a compelling narrative, never-seen video and rare audio
recordings. Use of hand-held, Steadicam and jib videography. The documentary will appeal to jazz
and rock fans, Washington, DC, area natives, history buffs and “party animals.”
Content
The documentary will include the following topics & items:
* Famous performers and performances at The Bayou
* Local “legends”
* On-camera interviews with performers, fans, employees and music critics
* Georgetown history
* Video of The Bayou’s demolition
* Rare photos, newspaper ads, ticket stubs
* Celebrity interviews and stories
* Archival film and footage
Estimated Production Budget - $315,600 (See separate sheet for specific category items)
* Administrative, Legal & Accounting - $32,000
* Pre-Production - $30,000
* Script Development - $24,000
* Producer & Associate Producer - $50,000
* Location Video & Sound - $15,900
* Post-production - $136,000
* Title Search & Transcription - $2,700
* PBS Station Relations Marketing - $20,000
* Website Promotional - $5,000
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“The Bayou”…Production Team

Producer Dave Lilling is an Emmy Award winner who formed Metro Teleproductions in 1989. He began his
broadcasting career after graduating from the University of Maryland. He started as a radio network freelance
news and sports reporter. Dave was responsible for breaking some big stories - including the piece that forced
Secretary of Interior James Watt's resignation - before making the full-time move to television. He travels
extensively throughout the United States and internationally, working in the news, sports, entertainment and
political fields. For years, clients such as Court TV, Johnson & Johnson, ESPN, MTV, ABC Sports, Retirement
Living TV, Discovery Health and the Department of Justice have relied on Dave's expertise. He regularly lends
his services to ABC News in Washington and to Showtime Sports.

Producer and writer Bill Scanlan is a Producer/Announcer for C-SPAN. He is a weekly host of “Washington
Journal.” Bill was born in Washington, DC. He earned his BA in Communications at the University of
Maryland. Bill worked for DC101 & WWDC in Washington, DC, as an announcer, producer and program director.
In 1992, he was hired by Infinity Broadcasting to produce the nationally syndicated “Greaseman” radio show
from Los Angeles. He later worked for WARW in Rockville, where he won the Washington Achievement in Radio
Award in 1999. Bill was a contributing announcer for C-SPAN's Peabody Award-winning “American Presidents”
series. He has worked in a variety of roles on video projects and freelance assignments, including as an
Associate Director for ABC News. A guitar player, Bill has followed DC-area music since the days of the Psyche
Delly in the early 1970s.

Writer Vinnie Perrone, a freelance writer based in Burtonsville, MD, spent 18 years as a staff writer for The
Washington Post. Since resigning in 1997, he has written various works of fiction and nonfiction. He received
the 2009 Federico Tesio Award for journalistic contributions to the Maryland horse-racing industry, the 2008
Eclipse Award for the year's outstanding magazine article in the sport and the 1998 Old Hilltop Award for
lifetime achievement in the coverage of thoroughbred racing. He earned a BS degree in journalism from the
University of Maryland in 1980.

Editor Helene Gross brings a wide variety of experience to The Bayou documentary, spanning the spectrum
from music videos to advertising…working with Volvo and Sony Ericsson and many others. She is a Final Cut
Pro (FCP) Studio Editor and NLE editor since 1994. Helene recently edited a project for MTI which is now
featured on the DARPA website. She has worked with various government agencies as well as private and
independent film projects.
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The Bayou… the Ghost Lives On in the Demolition Dust
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