WEBVTT - Episode 5: Citizen Willis 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:17.920 Originals. This is an I Heart original. It's one fine 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:23.000 winter's day in the late ninety nineties and prominent Hailey lawyer, 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:27.400 Lee Slender, is busy working from home, like a lot 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.280 of his out there in heavy snow country. I had 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:36.360 my house upstairs, in my office is downstairs. You build 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.760 on two layers because our our winners are so long 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.960 and so much as snow and cold, that it made sense. 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:48.120 That's Lee. Lee is deposing a client of his, Jim Lovey, 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.240 whose heating and ventilation firm is alleging their owed fifty 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:57.279 four thousand dollars over an unpaid invoice. Lovey says that 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:01.520 their client, Valley Entertainment, has refused to settle the bill. 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:07.679 We were downstairs taking the deposition and Bruce came charging 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:11.160 in and like, you know, boy, the lone rangers here. 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.600 And he sat down and listen for a bit and was, 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.399 you know, just kind of I don't know, what would 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:25.040 you say, puffing and puffing and being a little ledger. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:30.480 According to Lee, Bruce Willis starts making faces and emitting 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.520 strange noises. He's like a student acting out in class, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.560 like he can't believe Jim Lovey has the audacity to 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.560 tell his side of the story. Now, to be clear, 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.360 Lovey is not alleging Bruce Willis owes him money. He's 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:49.560 alleging Valley Entertainment owes him money. And Bruce Willis is 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.840 never a named party in the suit. But Willis does 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:58.120 own Valley Entertainment. Who does allegedly, Oh, Lovey the money? 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:04.760 And clearly he's taking this a little personally. And he 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.200 jumped up out of his chair and ran up the 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.880 stair He didn't know where it was. I don't think 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:16.080 he didn't know the building again, this is a home office. Well, 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.960 my wife was upstairs in the kitchen cooking, and he 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:27.560 ran right into her. She said something like, well, hi, 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:34.639 Mr Willis, how are you. He didn't realize it was 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:38.519 all I don't know where he thought that stairway went. 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:43.560 But boy, if you could hear everything crashing bang as 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:48.359 you tried to find the door out and he finally did, 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.320 it was clear Willis didn't think much of the allegations, 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:57.600 or of any kind of descent in Haley. The fuss 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.920 over an unpaid bill was a kind of objection. Willis had, 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:06.960 after all, employed countless skilled tradespeople for his projects. He 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:11.560 had injected millions into Haley's economy, and in doing so, 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.640 he had become possibly the strongest force in the community. 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:21.160 He had what he had long enjoyed in Hollywood, power influence. 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.160 The days of being a quiet resident were over. There 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:29.639 were battles to fight now, legal ones, political ones. Because 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.360 Bruce Willis had a platform. Sometimes he'd use it to 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.520 interrupt a deposition, other times he'd use it on bigger issues. 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.840 But even movie stars have limits, and while Bruce Willis 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.640 might have been able to rattle the people of Haley, 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:49.040 influencing the entire state of Idaho would be a different story, 0:03:49.480 --> 0:04:04.760 and quite possibly a disaster of nuclear proportions. For I 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:09.240 Heart Radio, This is Hayleywood, an I Heart original podcast. 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:14.000 I'm your host Danis Schwartz, and this is episode five. 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:25.279 Citizen Willis. In spending years and millions of dollars in 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:30.120 constructing the Mint bar renovating the Liberty, erecting the E. G. 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:34.960 Willis Building, and more. Willis had employed dozens, perhaps hundreds 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:39.719 of skilled laborers, and the vast majority didn't seem to 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:44.479 have any issue. When someone did well. They took his 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:50.640 Valley Entertainment to court. While Bruce Willis's deposition interruption may 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:53.440 not have been his finest moment. It may have been 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:57.719 born out of real frustration. The lawsuit brought by Jim 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:01.440 loves Eagle Company was a result of heating and ventilation 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:07.440 work done on the E. G. Willis Building. Jim Lovey 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.160 and his brother Jack sued for fifty four thousand dollars, 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:15.440 then raised that number to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.640 But the case had problems. A computer failure had wiped 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.880 out the company's detailed financial records. The judge ruled that 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:30.520 mistakes had been made by Eagle Company during installation. Ultimately, 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.520 the court ruled in Willis's favor. By the time everything 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.880 was accounted for, Eagle Company was ordered to pay a 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:47.839 total of fifty nine dollars and seventy four cents. The 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.200 two story E. G. Willis Building was the source of 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:56.159 other issues. It was a symbol of Haley's evolution. Willis 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.000 had torn down one of the oldest buildings in Haley 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:04.080 to build it. Here's former Blaine County Commissioner and Idaho 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:09.080 historian Tom Blanchard. When they tore that building down, it 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.200 turns out the building next door to it had an 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:16.240 incredible mural on it. It was just beautiful. It was 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:20.359 an old Henry George cigar advertisement. The cigar was just 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.040 five cents and according to the ad, just for men. 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.719 When he tore that down and exposed that mural, he 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:28.440 left it up for a couple of weeks just so 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.440 people could enjoy it. And then eventually that building had 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.240 to go and he got torn down. Also, Old Haley 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.200 was slowly disappearing. When Willis put up his new building, 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:43.080 he pictured a retail complex, a Haley sized shopping center 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.039 with his fifty Styles diner. Shorty is one of the 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:53.080 flagship attractions. It was going to be retail. Let's see, 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.240 you're a jewelist or a flower store owner or a 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:57.640 coffee shop guy, and it's like, oh my god, I 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:01.000 can get in and be in. You know, Willis's this 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.680 building and it's like the only building that's going to 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:07.719 be like that in town. That's Nancy Romelman. Nancy was 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.600 a writer for l a weekly who was dispatched to 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:14.920 Haley to see about Bruce Willis's investments. And you know, 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:16.720 that's kind of a big deal, and you're gonna get 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.160 tourists that are gonna want to come in and you know, 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.440 you're you're writing on the fact that this is a 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:25.320 building that Bruce Willis built and built as Fair's grandfather. 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:29.480 But Romelman says Willis's plans looked more like an office park. 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.080 So you sink your money and it's you know, thirty 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:36.360 sixty whatever it is. You build your floors and lighting 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.920 and you know, plans and insurance, and you do all 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:43.000 this stuff and then oh, oh, actually it's not going 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:46.120 to be retail. We're just gonna for whatever reason, maybe 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:48.360 they couldn't find tenants or they just changed their minds, 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.040 who knows. But now it's going to be offices. So 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:54.880 now you're this lonely dude on the second floor with 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.720 let's say a jewelry store. You're screwed. You're absolutely screwed. 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.360 You are definitely not going to get you know, the 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.240 tens of thousands of tourists coming in to walk into 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:06.400 an office building and maybe go to your jewelry store. 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.600 It's it's never going to happen. Romeolman spoke to Francois Parrie, 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.680 the owner of a furniture store in the building. He 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.720 insisted on meeting her in front of a hardware store 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.480 on the outskirts of town as though he were being 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:24.040 watched in a car. We sat in the car and yeah, 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.800 that was a little strange. But obviously some people in 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.800 Haley felt like Willis was too powerful to go up against. 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.280 It made them a little paranoid. I recall him as 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.800 being definitely still pretty head up about the whole thing. 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.000 Francois told Rommelman he had moved into the E. G. 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:47.880 Willis Building in his business was called primitive design, and 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.839 he was eager to bask in the sunshine supplied by 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:54.800 a Willis funded enterprise. And it was built as a 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.719 retail mall, but instead of clothing stores or ice cream parlors, 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.520 for SUA's neighbors were suits and business casual. The E. G. 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:09.160 Willis Building wasn't he felt as advertised? Who wants to 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:13.680 go furniture shopping in an office building? Francois suit Willis 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.800 and Valley Entertainment to get back the thirty thousand dollars 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.840 he had invested. Willis was off shooting another movie at 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:28.160 the time Francois filed his claim, Willis couldn't possibly fail 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:30.720 to show up on set. In order to appear in court. 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.760 They said it would cost over one hundred and twenty 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:40.120 eight thousand dollars in misproduction per day. Willis's attorney then 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:44.000 filed a counterclaim. Francois was also told that if he 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:48.520 lost the lawsuit, he would be responsible for Willis's travel costs. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.920 For Bruce Willis that meant paying the fuel charges for 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:59.480 his private airplane. In the end, a jury rejected both claims. 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.920 Each party would be responsible for their own legal expenses. 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.280 So that was one of the guys that tried to 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:09.840 get his money back. He didn't want anything else. He 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:12.320 just wanted to get what he'd invested in. And Willis's 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:13.840 crew fought him to the nail did and win it. 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.960 And I gotta tell you, you you gotta feel for these people. Now, 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.560 were they, you know, counting their chickens before they hatched 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.320 well shore? But that's what you know, hopeful business people do. 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.840 And they, you know, they didn't count on the fact 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.240 that Willis could get out of whatever he wanted to 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.600 do a lot more easily than they could. He had 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:37.839 a lot of options, they had. One Francois declared a 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:47.880 personal bankruptcy. Another small business owner, Tony Lanning, told Rammelman 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:50.400 that Willis had made her an offer to buy her 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:55.760 antique store. Willis wasn't interested in selling antiques. He wanted 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.960 the land for a planned entertainment complex. A set of 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:04.000 blueprints had been going around town detailing the plans, and 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.840 Landing was surprised to find they showed Willis as the 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.439 owner of her store. At the time the plans were made. 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:15.480 It was just assumed she would sell. Anything else was unthinkable, 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:20.800 but Landing wasn't interested in selling. It was another hiccup 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.080 in Haley, a sign that not everyone was over the 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.680 moon about Willis being there, especially if you like to 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:35.680 get a good night's sleep. The biggest issue that I 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:40.199 had with Willis um was associated with the airport, and 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:45.079 the airport was a problem. The major part of the 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:50.440 population is centered around that airport, within three miles of 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:54.440 it in the direct flight line. Tom Blanchard again, he 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:59.719 was flying a G two and he was m arm 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.480 and arm with Arnold Fortunegger who was also flying a 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.880 G two, and the G twos were the noisiest aircraft, large, 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:08.960 you know, large private aircraft that you did get other 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.400 than a layer jet. And he would fly on at 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:14.560 two o'clock in the morning with this G two or 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:19.800 Jake off that woke you up in Bellevue. Sometimes it 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.640 seemed as though Willis didn't know his own strength, what 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.200 his buying sprey was doing to disrupt the economic ecosystem 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.600 of Haley, to say nothing of the noise pollution. If 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.920 Bruce Willis wanted something, no one was going to outbid 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.560 him for it. If you wanted to develop the town, 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.280 he expected people would follow along. If you wanted to 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.600 land a plane in the middle of the night, he 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.719 was going to land that plane, So what if there 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:50.040 was a little collateral damage. Besides, Willis didn't often have 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:55.800 to deal with the consequences of his decisions personally. That 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:59.880 job was left up to his Valley Entertainment. The head 0:12:59.880 --> 0:13:03.559 of Valley was Joe McAllister, a childhood friend from New 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.160 Jersey who Willis had imported to be his right hand man. 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:15.240 McAllister was a big guy, brash, not a bad guy, 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:20.600 just assured. Here's Nancy Ramelman, the guy who had been 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.000 sort of boost his money. Guy was someone that people 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.480 were intimidated by. He was apparently like a big dude, 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.200 and he was still around on the streets of Haley 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:33.920 sometimes and people were, I don't think, like physically afraid 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:39.760 of the guy, but they were intimidated by him. McAllister 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:45.880 had a lot of crap to deal with. Literally. One 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:49.000 of the problems facing the E. G. Willis Building was 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:54.920 the town's iron grip on sewer permits. There weren't any 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.160 to go around with the city's engineers, fearful of the 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:02.240 town had reached its capacity city the sewell was discharging 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:06.640 too much waste into Bigwood River, and the Environmental Protection 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:11.800 Agency was on their back. The following year, the town 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:17.360 finally relented, releasing one hundred and ten permits for sewer hookups, 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:21.840 but that was for everyone homeowners, business owners, anyone who 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.720 needed to use a bathroom in a town that was growing. 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.840 The E. G. Willis Building wanted ten permits to add 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:33.960 a salon, bakery, and other businesses, but the permits were 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:37.080 too hard to come by. When the city released them, 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:41.600 people grabbed lawn chairs and camped outside of Haley's city hall. 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:47.640 McAllister criticized the limits in the local press. He even 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:51.280 tried to shame Haley's decision makers by saying that Willis 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:55.160 planned to build a six hundred thousand dollar industrial light 0:14:55.280 --> 0:15:00.360 manufacturing building in nearby Bellevue. Willis would have built it 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:04.560 in Haley. McAllister said if only the business climate had 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:10.320 been friendlier. He said Bellevue had a quote cooperative spirit, 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.600 and he added Bellevue also had a sewer. Haley was 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:20.680 being potty shamed. The sewer capacity issue also stopped Demi 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.920 Moore's plans to turn an old drug store into a 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:28.040 fitness center. She also wanted to build a doll museum, 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:32.840 relying on her extensive two thousand dollar collection housed at 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:38.480 Freedman Mansion. Haley's gatekeepers wouldn't allow that either. Time and 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.240 time again, Willis wanted to grow Haley, and he kept 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:46.600 running into red tape and lawsuits. It was enough to 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.720 make some in Bruce's orbit want to get out of Idaho. 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:58.120 In McAllister announced he was resigning as president of Valley Entertainment. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.680 He was going back to nutr Z. One of Willis's 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:05.600 top employees at Valley Entertainment took over, but the regime 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.200 change didn't get off to a good start. Just a 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:13.040 few months into the new president's tenure, Haley police and 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:18.000 state officials executed a search warrant and found fifteen marijuana 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:22.480 plants on her private property. According to Idaho law, that 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:27.160 was considered manufacturing. She was taken into custody and faced 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.840 five years in prison or fine a fifteen thousand dollars 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:35.280 if convicted. She argued the weed was for her personal use. 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:41.560 The charges were eventually dropped, but the feeling that Willis 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:47.680 and his crew were beyond reproach was wearing off. For Willis. 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:51.880 It had been a frustrating eighteen months. His main operator, 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:55.720 Joe McAllister, had left, only to be replaced with someone 0:16:55.920 --> 0:17:00.720 upon felony charges. Haley was getting stingy with were hookups 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:05.960 cramping his business expansion. His plan to improve the sidewalks 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.639 outside of the E. G. Willis Building was getting the 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.400 run around too, As he had with the mint Willis 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.680 wanted them. Heated to battle the snow of Haley's harsh 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.320 winters and keep his patrons from sliding, but first through 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.200 his front door justice. Haley had counted on him to 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:27.120 give their economy a boost and raise their profile. Willis 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:32.040 was becoming more and more ensnared in local politics. A 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.720 man who could command ten to twenty million to do 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.160 a movie was arguing with a town over where people 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.119 could go to take a dome. His political involvement would 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:47.040 soon grow into something that concerned the entire state of Idaho, and, 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:51.280 unlike Francois Parrie the sewer and the heated sidewalks, if 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:56.080 this one didn't go his way, Willis issued a stunning ultimatum. 0:17:56.119 --> 0:18:11.280 He said he'd leave for good. Bruce Willis became an astronaut. Well, 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:16.240 his character became an astronaut. In Armageddon, Willis plays Harry Stamper, 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.400 a deep sea oil driller. Stamper gets recruited by NASA 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:24.560 to help stop a humanity ending asteroid hurtling toward Earth. 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.760 The plan is Willis's character lands on the asteroid, drills 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.359 to its center, and plants a nuclear bomb inside, and 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.720 then he high tails it off the asteroid and blows 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:38.760 it up before it strikes her. Of course, things don't 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:44.040 go exactly as planned. The silliness of the plot wasn't 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:48.880 lost on Willis's co stars. Ben Affleck once asked director 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.640 Michael Bay why NASA couldn't simply train astronauts to become 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.879 oil drillers, which would probably be easier than doing it 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:59.680 the other way around. Michael Bay told Affleck to shut 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:03.760 the up. The movie would make half a billion dollars 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:14.000 at almost the exact same time Bruce Willis was dealing 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:18.800 with a real life nuclear catastrophe. This one was at home. 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:24.679 Idaho's Nuclear Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, now known as the 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:29.800 Idaho National Laboratory, opened during World War Two. It generated 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:32.960 nuclear power and researched ways to deal with the waste 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:36.480 it created, so there was a lot of depleted uranium 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:40.359 just sitting around, among other things. It was near the 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:44.480 state's largest freshwater aquifer, sure, but at least it was 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:48.560 in the middle of nowhere, well sixty miles east of 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.520 Haley to be exact. In the mid nineties, the state 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:55.240 of Idaho made a deal with the Department of Energy. 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.639 They'd allow the federal government to dump more than a 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.480 thousand shipments of new clear waste from out of state. 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:05.560 In return, the federal government promised to remove existing nuclear 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:10.439 waste from the state over a forty year period. Basically, 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:12.879 Idaho would get a lot of dump trucks full of 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.160 nuclear waste in the short term in exchange for having 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.760 a lot of it removed in the long term. It 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.520 wasn't a great deal, but the alternative was bleak. The 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.080 government could just dump nuclear waste there anyway, and Idaho 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:30.400 could get nothing at all in return. But not all 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.600 of Idaho's residents trusted the government word. If you had 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.080 lived in Idaho long enough, you knew the government had 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:43.000 first promised to remove the existing waste back in. Some 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:48.000 compared the whole situation to Chernobyl. Here's Wendy Jake what, 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:52.360 former executive director of the Catchum Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce. 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:56.320 There was a situation with regard to nuclear waste coming 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:00.800 into our state, and there was a campaign, a lot 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:05.800 of it was from here against that. The campaign was 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:10.760 called Stopped the Shipments, and he was a fender for 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:14.959 that group. He saw himself as a Republican, but he 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:18.320 was angry at the Republican governor because he felt the 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:22.639 governor that was violating the agreement the prior governor had made. 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:26.600 He donated ten grand to raise awareness for the cause, 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:30.080 a number that eventually grew to over one hundred and 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:35.000 twenty thousand dollars. Even though he hated talking to the press, 0:21:35.359 --> 0:21:37.879 Willis gritted his teeth and made his way through the 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:41.560 interviews to get the message across. And he framed it 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:44.920 as a kind of ultimatum. If I know didn't pass 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:48.439 the referendum, Willis said he would leave Haley and the 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:53.200 state altogether. If everyone votes yeah, we want it, I'll stop, 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:55.840 I'll shut up, and I'll start looking for another place 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.720 to live. He said. To some it was like a 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:03.040 Titian was being circulated to run Willis out of town. 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:05.760 After all, if you signed it was a vote for 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.720 him to stay. If you didn't, it was a vote 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:13.159 for him to leave. One newspaper editorial said some residents 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.919 might just take that deal. Maybe Francois Parrie would have 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:20.480 signed it. There was something about the threat that Willis 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:24.160 leaving was supposed to rattle the population that came off 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.600 as self aggrandizing, as if his absence would be a 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:32.000 massive blow to the state. Some even seemed to resent 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:35.560 Willis for having an opinion at all. To them, he 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:39.560 was an outsider who was positioning himself as an expert 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:45.159 on nuclear waste, not normally the purview of actors. Bruce 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.480 Willis wasn't just deciding what was best for Haley. He 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:51.720 was deciding what was best for Idaho. Calls to the 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:55.359 governor's office came in, telling him to quote, go back 0:22:55.400 --> 0:23:00.160 to California, but Willis didn't back down. He doubled own, 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:02.920 holding a press conference on the steps of the state 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:06.480 capitol to criticize the state for allowing the deal to 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:10.280 go through. We want zero nuclear waste in the state 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:13.720 of Idaho, he said, and if Idaho couldn't provide that, 0:23:14.119 --> 0:23:18.440 then Willis said they needed a new governor. He predicted 0:23:18.520 --> 0:23:21.919 politicians backing the deal would be working at a seven 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:33.199 eleven in the next four years. Still, a lot of 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:38.879 people appreciated Willis's activism. It was a demonstration of his 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:42.680 commitment to Haley. Someone even came up with a slogan 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:47.080 stick with Bruce Willis for a better Idaho. He cared 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:49.520 about the well being of where he lived, and he 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:53.879 had the celebrity and money to support a just cause 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:57.560 when he saw one. But in the course of the drama, 0:23:57.640 --> 0:24:01.720 a newspaper columnist named Dan Popkey discovered that Willis, who 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:04.840 had rarely been outspoken about local politics in the past, 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:09.960 was not registered to vote. He published that fact, much 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:14.680 to Bruce's chagrin. It reinforced the idea of the classic 0:24:14.760 --> 0:24:20.080 Hollywood stereotype, a strongly opinionated actor who didn't even bother 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:23.160 to vote in the nine years he'd been living in Idaho, 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:28.280 and because Willis wasn't registered to vote, he wasn't legally 0:24:28.359 --> 0:24:32.680 able to sign the petition he had been promoting. Willis 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:38.200 quickly ran to register. Fifty two thousand people signed the petition. 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:42.679 The people Willis, being the most vocal, had spoken and 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:46.000 it seemed like victory was in sight, that no mutant 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:49.639 offspring would be arriving in Haley decades from now. But 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:54.000 the referendum was defeated by voters. The nuclear waste was 0:24:54.040 --> 0:25:00.560 allowed in. Willis had failed to stop the asteroid, and 0:25:00.880 --> 0:25:05.280 unlike the ending of Armageddon, where spoiler alert Willis sacrifices 0:25:05.359 --> 0:25:09.400 his own life to save the planet, Willis remained in Haley. 0:25:11.119 --> 0:25:14.520 Maybe the threat to leave was insincere, a bit of showmanship, 0:25:15.119 --> 0:25:18.359 or maybe Willis was too financially entrenched in Haley to 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:21.679 pull out, but either way, his bluff had been called. 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:26.160 At first, Willis was unavailable for comment, with his publicist 0:25:26.280 --> 0:25:30.240 saying he was busy shooting a movie. Later, Willis insisted 0:25:30.320 --> 0:25:33.520 he had been misquoted about leaving Idaho, that it was 0:25:33.560 --> 0:25:37.480 a misunderstanding, that both the question and answer were all 0:25:37.520 --> 0:25:42.400 tongue in cheek. He also called Dan Popkey an Popkey 0:25:42.480 --> 0:25:46.840 said the quote was accurate. Bruce Willis reminded himself why 0:25:46.920 --> 0:25:59.000 he hated talking to journalists. Even though Willis couldn't influence 0:25:59.040 --> 0:26:02.040 state policy, he still had a territory of his own 0:26:02.080 --> 0:26:06.240 to survey Haley, where things could be shaped to his liking. 0:26:06.560 --> 0:26:09.359 And while some in town thought Willis had too much power, 0:26:09.880 --> 0:26:12.200 some felt like he was doing the right things with it. 0:26:12.880 --> 0:26:16.359 The E. G. Willis Building, Francois Parie wasn't happy, but 0:26:16.480 --> 0:26:20.439 others were. Well. I started my business in June of 0:26:22.000 --> 0:26:25.680 and I actually rented a space a retail's face about 0:26:26.640 --> 0:26:30.680 square feet from the B. G. Willis Building, right next 0:26:30.720 --> 0:26:33.800 to short E's, a little diner that they started. That's 0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:37.880 Christopher Roebuck, a jeweler and owner of Christopher and Company, 0:26:37.920 --> 0:26:40.840 a jewelry store that's still in Haley today. So we 0:26:40.880 --> 0:26:45.560 had customers like Arnald and Maria and imperson to me, 0:26:46.400 --> 0:26:50.280 it was a great venue to be in for him. 0:26:50.520 --> 0:26:55.080 The E. G. Willis Building represented Willis's commitment to Haley, 0:26:55.119 --> 0:26:58.320 its ability to piggyback on his fame to raise the 0:26:58.359 --> 0:27:02.399 profile of Willis's related businesses and the entire town of Hailey. 0:27:02.920 --> 0:27:06.760 So what if Christopher's retail business was in an office building. 0:27:07.240 --> 0:27:11.880 Downtown Haley was still the place to be. Definitely, there 0:27:11.920 --> 0:27:15.320 was a business they were They were investing in the 0:27:15.400 --> 0:27:19.600 community by rebuilding old buildings and refurbishing the Liberty Theater 0:27:19.840 --> 0:27:23.200 and the Ment Building and the Willis Building, the E. 0:27:23.480 --> 0:27:26.560 Willis Building. It brought people to town and got people 0:27:26.600 --> 0:27:29.280 excited about going out, even people that were local here. 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:31.199 You know, they want to go out and be a 0:27:31.240 --> 0:27:33.959 part of the community and part of the changes and 0:27:34.560 --> 0:27:38.080 exciting new things that were happening. That also meant Christopher 0:27:38.160 --> 0:27:41.160 and other tenants of the E. G. Willis Building could 0:27:41.200 --> 0:27:45.480 become inadvertent tour guides. There's people that are star struck, 0:27:45.600 --> 0:27:48.480 really want to see him, get his autograph, and people 0:27:48.480 --> 0:27:51.680 would come into my business and and say, have you 0:27:51.720 --> 0:27:54.679 seen him today? Or is have you seen any of 0:27:54.720 --> 0:27:57.840 the family, And you know, we we do. But we 0:27:58.160 --> 0:28:02.320 didn't want to exploit their experience here because they were 0:28:02.359 --> 0:28:04.240 they wanted to raise a family in a small town. 0:28:04.600 --> 0:28:06.440 We didn't want to push people toward them that we're 0:28:06.440 --> 0:28:09.879 gonna pest around like paparazzi. And we had plenty of 0:28:09.880 --> 0:28:13.640 people that were coming in town with microphones and cameras 0:28:13.640 --> 0:28:16.760 that wanted to take a picture of their life here, 0:28:16.800 --> 0:28:22.280