WEBVTT - Episode 7: Homecoming 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:20.599 This is an I Heart original. Yeah, it's June nineteen 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:25.480 sixty nine. And the town, actually it's a borough of 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:34.280 Penn's Grove, New Jersey, is quiet. It's always quiet. Penns 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.920 Grove sits on the Delaware River, looking out across the 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:44.279 water to Wilmington. The sunsets are beautiful here, but it's 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.640 in contrast to the shoreline, which is covered in debris, 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.800 and to the businesses, many of which are boarded up. 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.880 Times are not prosperous. The local economy is in an 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:02.520 extended slump. The DuPont Chemical plant is one of the 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:07.319 few bright spots in a largely abandoned industrial town of 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.800 roughly six thousand people less than one square mile in size. 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:17.960 Only two things give Penn's Grove its identity. One, it's 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:22.039 Bruce Willis's hometown, though that won't really be notable for 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:26.200 another fifteen years or so. Today Bruce is just fourteen 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:31.360 and doing poorly in math class. The second notable thing 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:34.680 about Penn's Grove is that it's about to blow up. 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.760 A series of explosions rock the DuPont plant in nearby 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:47.480 Carneys Point. It's an explosives factory, and when catastrophe strikes. 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:53.840 It's seismic. Three storage areas filled with seventy five thousand 0:01:53.840 --> 0:02:05.920 pounds of explosives are accidentally ignited, creating an inferno. Glass 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:12.079 shatters up to ten miles away. Kids at a nearby 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:16.080 school cower as windows are blown out of their classrooms. 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:21.200 The explosion ripples across the Delaware River, jolting people as 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:26.760 far as Wilmington's. A total of seven men died, with 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:32.720 many more injured. Investigators will be combing through the rubble 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:39.399 for days. Downtown PEngs Grove resembles a war zone. Debris everywhere, 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:45.800 doors ripped off their hinges. It was a scene reminiscent 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:50.440 of a disaster movie. It would probably be the climactic ending. 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:57.960 Actually it felt like armageddon. Despite the incident, DuPont remained 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:02.000 the biggest employer in town, one of the few job 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:06.239 opportunities in the area. In fact, even after the disaster, 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:10.480 Bruce Willis will graduate high school and work for DuPont, 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.160 just like his father had. That's just what you did 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.160 in Penn's Grove. Life didn't allow for a lot of dreaming. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.840 Of course, Willis got out, made it big, you know 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.680 all that. But there will come in time when Willis 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.440 will be able to return to Penn's Grove, wealthy beyond 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:34.160 imagination and try to rescue it from oblivion. To sweep 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.240 up the glass and put the doors back on their hinges. 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:41.600 The adult Bruce Willis will breathe new life into his 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:46.320 hometown with plans that are as ambitious as anything he's 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.200 ever cooked up. Even though he's been busy doing just 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:54.960 that with his adopted hometown of Hailey, Idaho. Willis believes 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:59.400 there's room in his life for two Willisvilles, two towns 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:03.920 where his money and vision can create jobs and raise spirits. 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.280 After all, he did it with Haley, injecting a nightlife 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:13.360 and vibrancy to the sleepy and snowbound hamlet. Why couldn't 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:17.640 he do the same to his actual hometown, And why 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:24.599 couldn't those plans be much much bigger. Some thirty years 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:29.320 after Penn's Grove exploded, Bruce Willis came back, armed with 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:33.320 an audacious, fifty million dollar plan to take it from 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:40.040 the brink of insolvency, and for better and worse, another 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:52.800 shock wave was coming for I Heart Radio. This is 0:04:52.839 --> 0:05:02.240 Haleywood and I Heart original podcast. I'm your host. Danish 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:14.120 sports and this is episode seven Homecoming. Penn's Grove did 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.159 have a heyday of sorts, and he used to be 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:21.520 capital Caviare of the world. That's Eric Myers, Penn's Grove 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:26.080 resident well um born and raised from Penn's Grove. I'm 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:30.200 the youngest of six six boys. Pen Grove was a 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.880 great place as I was a kid. You know, wasn't 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.360 a whole lot to do, but we made the best 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.719 of it. Eric wasn't around for the town's best days. 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.039 Those were during World War One when munitions became the 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:49.400 area's big industry, but he knows the story. The town's 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.520 population went from two thousand to six thousand in a blink. 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:57.640 Chemical plants like DuPont began to line the Delaware River. 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:02.719 It also brought a little bit of write Headenism, gambling, drinking. 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:06.440 Bordello's main Street in Penns Group at one time was 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.520 a happening the spot. You know, people come from all 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.200 over and you know, and that's what made the town 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:19.000 thrive at the time. Then progress hit and hit hard. 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.520 Someone went and built two bridges that allowed for easy 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:33.320 passage across the Delaware River. The Delaware Memorial Bridge was 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:39.479 finished in the nineteen fifties, so was interstate. But you know, 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:43.920 once the bridge was put in and no one came 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:45.960 through it no more, they bypassed it. And that's what 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:50.960 really made the town struggle, uh, financially, with stores and 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.400 stuff like that. Suddenly people could head to Wilmington's for 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.000 cheap goods in a state free of sales tax, Fewer 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:01.680 people had reason to pass through Penn's Grove. The chemical 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:06.400 plants began closing up, jobs were lost, Penn's Grove was 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:11.400 slowly being forgotten. I remember as a kid President Carter 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.920 came to Pen's Grove across from the library, and I 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:20.640 remember seeing him. He brought low income housing to the area, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:25.680 and since then there was a lot of different stores 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:31.920 and stuff that none of them are there today. That's 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:36.200 the Penns Grove of Bruce Willis's childhood, a post boom 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:40.120 industrial town that had seen most of its industry leave. 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.040 Willis grew up in a house right next to his 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.400 grandfather's welding shop in Carney's Point, which isn't exactly the 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.160 same place, but close. Pen Grove is like one square 0:07:54.280 --> 0:08:00.400 mile as about five thousand people. Corney's Point surrounds Penns 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:05.640 Grove and it's like a brother sister type community. Willis's 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:12.240 family were primarily blue collar workers. Willis's father, David, was 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:16.120 a mechanic and welder and worked at DuPont. Well, just 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:20.360 about everyone worked at DuPont. His father's relatives were also 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:26.280 mechanics and wilders. Willis worked in his grandfather's shop. After school, 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.480 he'd wander the halls of Penn's Grove, high humming on 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.120 his harmonica, being a class cut up, giving people the 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:38.880 idea he was destined for something. What well, who could 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:44.440 say but something? Willis knew it too. He'd tell teachers 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.320 who are upset over bad math tests that Penn's Grove 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.959 could never hold him. He had a freedom of spirit 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:56.640 that manifested in certain ways. He got busted for marijuana 0:08:56.679 --> 0:09:01.160 back when that was scandalous, and he liked creaking, running 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:05.600 up and down Main Street wearing just sunglasses and sneakers. 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:13.199 As he grew he kept running. After working briefly at DuPont, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.679 Willis left to attend Montclair State College, and you can 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:22.000 fill in the blanks. From there, he pursued acting, landed Moonlighting, 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:27.239 then die Hard, then superstardom. In one episode of Moonlighting, 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:32.000 David Addison finds himself in the slammer. His prison uniform 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:36.079 number was zero eight zero six nine, the zip code 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.880 of Penn's Grove. A little nod to his buddies back home, 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.240 but not the kind of thing that would change the 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:50.760 town's fortune. Hen's Grove was once recognized as the most 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:55.600 distressed town in New Jersey after new work. That's not 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.040 the kind of thing you put up at your visitor center. 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.400 Not that Pen's Grove had the visitor center in Penn's Grove. 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:07.200 It had been in the decline now for probably thirty 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:13.440 five years. And to see stores and businesses and the 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:18.439 community go downhill and have to get transitional aid from 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:23.760 the state and no jobs, and the people struggling, it 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.480 was it was deflating. It was depressing, and Willis knew it, 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:32.559 knew about its troubles. He had never lost his hometown connection. 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.040 His parents still lived there, and Willis would make return 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.920 trips back whenever his busy schedule allowed. He'd stop in 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.199 for a sub sandwich by locals, a few drinks, visit relatives, 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:50.360 cause a little bit of a stir, and then slip away. 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.719 Willis got a little closer for a longer period of 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.800 time he was shooting the science fiction movie Twelve Monkeys 0:10:57.840 --> 0:11:02.120 in Philadelphia, just to shore ride from Penn's Grove. You know, 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:05.600 you would hear, you know, stories about, you know, this 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.520 guy from Penn's Grove who's trying to make it big 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:12.240 in Hollywood. And I knew one of his good friends, 0:11:12.360 --> 0:11:17.200 Mark Murphy, that I had worked for doing carpentry, roofing 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.480 and stuff like that, and he was always, you know, 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.280 proud of Bruce's accomplishments and would talk about him, being like, hey, 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:29.679 he's my good buddy. Pretty soon Eric and Bruce crossed paths. 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:33.679 So I started a small landscaping company, me and my 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.840 best friend Billy Vanam and clean it up yards and 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:42.440 leave removal, gutter cleaning. And my buddy Mark Murphy said, hey, 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:44.439 I want you to stop by up to the waterfront. 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.680 Want to introduce you to someone and see if you 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:52.240 want to clean up the property. Willis bought his father 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.320 the nicest house on Main Street and it was going 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.400 to need some care, and so Mark introduced me and 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.920 it really didn't register it for and then Mark was like, yeah, 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:06.120 this is Bruce Willis in Moonlighting, the TV series, And 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:09.520 I was like, oh, Eric, helped out around the property, 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.920 getting to know the Willis family and becoming friendly with 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.960 Bruce's father, David. I became really close to David. He 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.440 was just, you know, a great guy to talk to, Uh, 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.120 like a mentor. That the house looked beautiful. I mean, 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.680 people rode by it all the time, and the area 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:33.360 was just coming alive. Around the same time he was 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:37.600 shooting twelve monkeys, Willis started telling a real estate agent, 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:41.079 a friend of his named Maggie Dietrich, about what he 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.720 was doing at thousands of miles away in Hayley, Idaho, 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.800 how he had bought the mint and a movie theater 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:52.359 and more. He'd given this tiny town a jolt of excitement. 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.719 Maybe he said there were opportunities in Penn's Grove to 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:00.800 do the same. But before he explained himself, he did 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.520 what Bruce Willis was in the habit of doing. He 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:08.360 swore Maggie Dietrich to secrecy. He told Dietrich that if 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:12.320 she breathed a word of this to anyone, he'd disappear. 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:17.400 Maggie agreed, and so Bruce Willis told her he was 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:22.359 very interested in some other property in Penns Grove, property 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.560 like the Penn's Grove National Bank and Trust Building, which 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:30.200 was notable for allegedly having once been robbed by gangster 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.199 pretty boy Floyd, though that might be more urban legend 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.280 than fact. It was also where Willis's mother used to 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.120 work and where he had opened his first ever savings account. 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.120 He also wanted to buy another building, this one a 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:50.720 former library, and another building a one time Masonic lodge, 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.840 and he had ideas to bring like a like a restaurant, 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.840 like a steakhouse where the bank would be. I guess 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.320 it was something similar like he did out Hailey, Idaho, 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:06.160 and I thought his ideas were brilliant and would would 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:14.720 make a big impact in the town. After Maggie took 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:19.600 her vow of silence, Willis disclosed something else. He was 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:24.000 looking at twelve acres of riverfront property sitting along the 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:29.840 Delaware River. It was all unoccupied. A crumbling pier stretched 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:33.280 out into the oil slicked water and reached clear into 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:40.360 Wilmington's On the surface, it looked well unspectacular, but Penn's 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:44.880 Grove is centrally located. There are roughly four million people 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.280 who are less than thirty miles away. Even though Penn's 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:52.520 Grove only had six thousand people. It had an amazing 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.240 view of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. When you stood near 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.280 the river as the sunset overlooking Wilmington's you could feel 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:06.120 the possibilities, untapped potential, and the land was reasonable for 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:10.040 less than a million dollars. Willis bought the twelve acres, 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:13.600 and just like he had in Haley, he did it 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.080 under a company name. In Haley it was x NAY. 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:22.800 In Penn's Grove it was Screwball Incorporated. Slowly the town 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.880 began to understand what Willis and Screwball inc. Were planning. 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:34.560 It was about much more than a few buildings. Willis 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.720 didn't want to merely revitalize Penn's Grove with a facelift. 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.400 He wanted to draw in all the people who had 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.880 deserted it when the bridge and highway opened. He was 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.720 going to put Penn's Grove back on everyone's map by 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:55.520 opening a massive entertainment complex and marina. And soon the 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:59.920 town that had been mostly forgotten suddenly noticed something unusual. 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:05.280 Won't Tourists began pulling up to the barren waterfront, getting 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:08.800 out of their cars and taking pictures of an empty 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:13.000 plot of land strewn with trash, maybe it was just 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.120 so someday they could tell people this is what it 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:20.720 looked like before Bruce Willis came and saved the day. 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:24.760 I kinda was excited. I was like, you know, blessed 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.560 Bruce might come back to town and do something. And 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.480 when I heard and saw what was going on, yeah 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.360 it was. It was a good feeling, not just for me, 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:38.400 but for the entire community. Sometimes people would stop by 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.520 a place called Willis Hardware, thinking there had to be 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.800 some kind of a connection. Maybe it was the first 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:49.440 Bruce Willis storefront. Maybe Bruce Willis would sell you a hammer. 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:54.360 It wasn't, but people took pictures of it anyway. Amidst 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.160 all this excitement, words spread that Bruce Willis had even 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:03.200 grander ambitions than water front development. There was news reporters 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:07.359 and just seeing it building, everything getting cleaned up, and 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.520 the momentum, and now people from all over wanted to 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.960 know what was going on. The marina and entertainment complex 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.600 were one thing, A big thing, sure, but just one thing. 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:24.480 If everything went well, Penn's Grove wouldn't just be resurrected. 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:41.159 It might become another Atlantic city. The town's leaders began 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:46.040 buzzing Willis was back. A town councilman named Rick Cowles 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:50.400 started a website named Bruno Watch. It was a kind 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.359 of parody of a tabloid, with rumors and innuendo about 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.440 Willis mixed with actual fact. Not too many people in 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.920 Penn's Grove read brew No Watch, though, to be fair, 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:06.280 most of them didn't have Internet access, but Cowles persisted. 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:09.639 He lived on Main Street and watched as cars with 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.400 strange license plates drove by, hoping to catch a glimpse 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:18.080 of something. He reported on the fact that Willis's representatives 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.320 had appeared at a city council meeting to unveil his 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:27.520 master plan, a massive fifty million dollar riverfront entertainment complex 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:32.680 that would host a ninety room hotel, restaurants, movie theaters, shops, 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:38.080 fresh fish obviously, maybe a return of Caviare and Marina, 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:43.280 big enough for a hundred boats. Already, local real estate 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:47.560 prices were rising ten to fifteen percent. The plan would 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.480 create hundreds and hundreds of jobs for an area that 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:55.520 was suffering from a fifteen percent unemployment rate, three times 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:58.280 that of the national average at the time. This was 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.560 a big deal, and fifty million, well, that wasn't a 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:06.840 number Penn's Grove, ever, expected to see. The town's annual 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:10.159 budget was just a tenth of that. One of the 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.320 anchors of the riverfront complex was thought to be something 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.480 that harkened back to the earliest days of Penn's Grove. 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.400 From all appearances, it seemed like Willis wanted to get 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:29.119 into the business of riverboat gambling. Like Bruce we you know, 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.480 I knew the idea was to try to bring riverboat gambling. 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.640 It was like a fifty million dollar project to bring 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:40.480 riverboat gambling to the Penn's Grove waterfront. Riverboat casinos were 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.320 and are a kind of legal sleight of hand dot 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.600 do on water. They can circumvent certain laws related to 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:51.919 gambling on land. At the time, Delaware, New Jersey, and 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:58.040 Pennsylvania we're all considering legalizing riverboat gambling. The property Willis 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:02.040 was eying already contained appear. There were ideas for a 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.720 ferry across the Delaware River and back, making it easy 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.879 for pleasure seekers to make their way into Penn's Grove 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.919 from towns like Newcastle, Delaware City, or Pennsville. While on 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.760 the water, people could try their hand at games of 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.000 skill and chance. This was vegas by way of Willis 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:27.760 Bruno backerat maybe Bruno Slot Machines. It would all take time, 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:32.360 but the people of Penn's Grove weren't just sitting idly by. 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.600 Not long after Willis made his plans public, sixteen small 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:43.080 businesses materialized in Penn's Grove, all of them hoping to 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:48.000 capitalize on the people Willis's plans would be attracting. There 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:52.520 was Marshall's Clothing, a trendy apparel shop. There was Bobby's Place, 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.400 a small supermarket just across the way, where a shopkeeper 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.720 and her son swept the floors and patiently waited for 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:03.840 can instruction workers to start dropping by. A pizza place 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:08.000 called Italian Kitchen, where Willis sometimes phone for pizza, opened 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.280 its first ever dining room area to host the expected 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:16.919 overflow of customers. Penn's Grove was suddenly home to a 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:21.440 lot of entrepreneurs. Eric Myers was one of them. A 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:23.560 couple of times I had to go to the airport 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:27.320 to pick up some of Bruce's people. I would go 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:30.200 in my pickup truck or you know, whatever I could get, 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.520 and that gave me the idea, like, you know, how 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:35.720 can you get like a car service or limo, and 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:40.600 there was nothing in the area. This was long before Uber. 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.560 With the influx of tourists, gamblers and v I p 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:48.680 s they'd need wheels. I put a business plan together 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:53.520 and and I'd saved some money, and so I saw 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.520 these limos for sale, and a gold stretch Limo which 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.280 was a six passenger and a white one, and I 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.960 ended up started Riverfront Limousine Service with the Golden Touch, 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:08.520 and I started with them two vehicles, And that's how 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.240 it started out. As he might expect, one of Eric's 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:15.520 customers was Bruce Willis, who was dropping in and out 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:19.199 of town regularly. I did pick up Bruce from the 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.000 Newcastle County Airport and brought him over to the house. 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:26.200 I would pick up some of his people, take him 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.679 to local meetings over the d R B A and 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:35.560 the Della Memorial Bridge and different stuff like that. Eric 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:38.560 knew it would be poor form to pepper Bruce Willis 0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:42.680 with questions about the development from the driver's seat. Instead, 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:46.760 bits and pieces of information would come from Bruce's father, David. 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:50.760 David was just as excited as anyone to see development 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:53.680 come to penns Grove. His father would just tell me 0:22:53.760 --> 0:22:56.800 a Bruce really busy, He's doing this, doing that, And 0:22:57.080 --> 0:22:59.680 I'd ask a few questions and he would only tell 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:02.960 me what needed to know. I really went pry into 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:05.320 is he going to do this? Is he going to 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:08.080 do that? Because I just figured I I would see 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:15.600 it happen at some point, you know or not. But 0:23:15.760 --> 0:23:19.399 Penn's Grove didn't dwell on the or not part. The 0:23:19.480 --> 0:23:22.840 penns Grove National Bank and Trust Company building was being gutted. 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:26.159 Willis had all but locked up most of the desirable 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:31.240 riverfront property. Small businesses were popping up. Against all odds. 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:37.400 The town was coming back to life. Willis had even 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:42.760 taken political steps to realize his ambitions. In Willis drove 0:23:42.800 --> 0:23:46.840 to the governor's residence of Christine Todd Whitman. Their women 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.640 committed to offering whatever state resources she could to make 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:54.760 sure Willis's plans move forward. Now the state of New 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:59.159 Jersey was backing Willis's efforts. Penn's Grove also agreed to 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:02.159 help screwball and get some grant money for the development. 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:05.720 The only thing the borough balked at was a Willis 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:09.120 plan for housing. He wanted to put up fifty homes 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:12.040 in the area right on the waterfront, a kind of 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:17.560 Lovett Town or Willis Town. But Penn's Grove didn't need housing. 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:22.040 They had a glood of that. Their sewers were at capacity. 0:24:22.080 --> 0:24:25.439 They wanted people, people to spend their money by day 0:24:25.480 --> 0:24:27.480 and go back home at the end of the night. 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:32.200 They wanted activity, action. They wanted Bruce Willis to build 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:37.560 his vast riverboat gambling empire like yesterday. But just as 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:41.520 in Haley, Willis wasn't a full time developer. He was 0:24:41.560 --> 0:24:44.800 a movie star, and the movie star was needed on set. 0:24:46.920 --> 0:24:51.159 In early Willis chose a film project that made the 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:56.040 people in his hometown even more enthusiastic. He started shooting 0:24:56.040 --> 0:24:59.840 a movie titled Broadway Brawler, about a broken down hockey 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:03.399 layer who gets romantically involved with a single mom played 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:10.160 by more Tyranny. It was said to be a sports 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:12.760 comedy in the vein of Jerry McGuire, which had come 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:16.439 out the previous year. The plot isn't what got penns 0:25:16.440 --> 0:25:21.280 Grove excited, though. What got penns Grove excited was that 0:25:21.359 --> 0:25:26.360 Willis was shooting Broadway Brawler in Wilmington, Delaware, right across 0:25:26.400 --> 0:25:29.040 the river. It was another move that would aid in 0:25:29.080 --> 0:25:32.879 about the local economy, bringing jobs and money thanks to 0:25:32.920 --> 0:25:36.440 the cast and crew. Willis even took what was for 0:25:36.520 --> 0:25:41.000 him a pay cut. He made only seven point five 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:44.720 million dollars, rather than the twenty million A Starring World 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:49.000 typically brought him. He reportedly liked the script the story 0:25:49.240 --> 0:25:53.200 enough to make some concessions, and shooting in Wilmington's kept 0:25:53.280 --> 0:25:56.600 him close to Penn's Grove, close enough to keep tabs 0:25:56.680 --> 0:26:00.720 on its evolution. The Bruno Watch website kept a close 0:26:00.760 --> 0:26:05.240 eye on things. Progress was slow but steady. The town 0:26:05.400 --> 0:26:09.719 was in a state of anticipation, waiting for Bruce Willis 0:26:09.760 --> 0:26:13.000 to unveil one of those tiny tabletop models of the 0:26:13.000 --> 0:26:16.720 Marina project, waiting for ground to be broken and for 0:26:16.960 --> 0:26:20.000 cars to start crossing the bridge back to Penn's Grove, 0:26:21.400 --> 0:26:25.600 waiting for Bruce Willis to save the day, just like 0:26:25.680 --> 0:26:36.600 in the movies. Eric Myers opened up a newspaper one 0:26:36.680 --> 0:26:41.280 day in and flinched a little bit. It was about 0:26:41.359 --> 0:26:45.040 Bruce Willis and his plans for Penn's Grove. There is 0:26:45.119 --> 0:26:50.960 a an article that was written and my name was 0:26:51.000 --> 0:26:55.000 in it, and it was kind of crappy, said, you know, 0:26:55.160 --> 0:26:58.240 as I ride down main street of Pen's Grove, and 0:26:58.280 --> 0:27:02.280 I see the pigeons and the seagulls crapping on the buildings, 0:27:02.320 --> 0:27:06.000 and the beer cans and diapers flowing down the gutters. 0:27:06.840 --> 0:27:09.520 One young man by the name of Eric Myers started 0:27:09.560 --> 0:27:14.840 a limousine business, the idea of transforming the town. It 0:27:14.920 --> 0:27:18.080 was met with a kind of hostility. Penn's Grove had 0:27:18.119 --> 0:27:22.680 spent too long in dire straits, and even optimists had issues. 0:27:23.640 --> 0:27:27.280 Criticism was starting to bubble up that things weren't happening 0:27:27.359 --> 0:27:31.000 fast enough, that Penn's Grove might be too small for 0:27:31.040 --> 0:27:35.640 a movie stars big ambitions. It was everything Bruce Willis 0:27:35.680 --> 0:27:38.919 didn't want. What he had warned real estate agent Maggie 0:27:39.000 --> 0:27:43.040 Dietrich about every detail put under a microscope. And then 0:27:43.080 --> 0:27:47.080 I realized that, you know, all this negative publicity, why 0:27:47.080 --> 0:27:50.280 would Bruce continue giving him trouble trying to do the 0:27:50.359 --> 0:27:54.639 riverboat gambling? Just all there was many things that I 0:27:54.680 --> 0:28:01.520 could tell that he was getting frustrated, And Willis was frustrated, 0:28:01.640 --> 0:28:07.040 not just about Penn's Grove. In February, after twenty days 0:28:07.040 --> 0:28:10.960 of shooting and seventeen million dollars spent on Broadway Brawler, 0:28:11.080 --> 0:28:15.680 the Bruce Willis Hockey romance movie. Willis decided he wasn't 0:28:15.680 --> 0:28:18.760 happy with the way things were going, and he was 0:28:18.880 --> 0:28:25.240 Bruce Willis, so he made his feelings known. He clashed 0:28:25.280 --> 0:28:28.560 with the female director, Lee Grant, and did something he 0:28:28.600 --> 0:28:31.919 could do as a producer on the film. He fired her. 0:28:32.840 --> 0:28:36.639 He also fired her husband, Joe Fury, who was also producing, 0:28:37.160 --> 0:28:41.120 And he fired the cinematographer, William Franker, and he fired 0:28:41.160 --> 0:28:45.520 the wardrobe designer, Carol Oditz. Bruce Willis was on a 0:28:45.640 --> 0:28:50.360 firing spree. Then he brought on a man named Dennis Dugan, 0:28:50.720 --> 0:28:55.000 who had directed Willis during his moonlighting days. Dennis Dugan 0:28:55.160 --> 0:28:57.960 lasted one day before he was told to go home. 0:28:59.000 --> 0:29:02.560 This Poe Willis and a tight spot. He had, after all, 0:29:02.600 --> 0:29:06.040 agreed to star in Broadway Brawler, and now he seemed 0:29:06.080 --> 0:29:08.640 to be opposed to showing up unless the movie could 0:29:08.640 --> 0:29:11.520 be made exactly the way you wanted it to be made. 0:29:13.160 --> 0:29:18.080 Bruce Willis was having a movie star sized tantrum. Synergy, 0:29:18.200 --> 0:29:21.280 the studio behind the movie, had no idea what to do. 0:29:21.800 --> 0:29:28.560 No one was sure what to do next. It just 0:29:28.640 --> 0:29:31.520 so happened that Disney was in the process of buying 0:29:31.520 --> 0:29:35.120 out Synergy, and they saw the spat between Willis and 0:29:35.240 --> 0:29:41.840 the studio as an opportunity, Yeah, Disney told Willis they'd 0:29:41.880 --> 0:29:45.840 reimburse Synergy for the seventeen million dollars they had lost 0:29:45.920 --> 0:29:50.520 on the unfinished movie if Willis agreed to star in 0:29:50.600 --> 0:29:53.240 two or three movies for Disney at a cut rate. 0:29:54.120 --> 0:29:58.400 For Willis, that meant a cool fourteen million dollars instead 0:29:58.440 --> 0:30:02.600