REMEMBERING BURT REYNOLDS (FIVE YEARS AFTER)

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Today marks 5 years since the untimely death of actor, director, producer and icon Burt Reynolds. He was born February 11, 1936 in Lansing, Michigan, to parents Harriet Fernette "Fern" (née Miller) and Burton Milo Reynolds. When he was 10 his Family moved to Riviera Beach, Florida, where his Father would eventually become Chief Of Police. He college he played football at  Florida State University until his athletic career was cut short by multiple injuries both on and off the field. He then took up theater and the rest is how they say, is history. He landed early television jobs on shows like M Squad, Pony Express, Riverboat, and Gunsmoke. TV gave way to feature films such as Deliverance,  White Lightning, The Longest Yard, Gator, three Smokey and the Bandits movies, The Cannonball Run and it's sequel, the Cannonball Run II, and the lists go on and on. 

We were so fortunate to meet him at car show right on November 14, 2015 at an Auto Show here in Lakeland. We won the tickets from our local AM radio morning show, them called Mayhem In The AM, now known as Polk County Live. We stood in line for 6-7 hours and got our copy of Jerry Reed's East Bound And Down album on vinyl signed. It was worth every second an an honor to meet him. There's a video presentation of that meeting and our day that I put together and will share below in the pictures section. 

The picture section consists mostly of of Burt Reynolds collection including vinyl soundtracks, his autobiography, a couple of DVDs, VHS copies of movies as well as CED copies of films.  CEDs are Capacitance Electronic Discs, an analog video disc invented by RCA in the 60s but not really marketed until the 80s. We have a hefty collection of them, but they became all but obsolete when the Laser Disc was invented, which was a larger record sized precursor to the DVD. We also have a collection of those and working players for both. 

Burt Reynolds passed away September 6, 2018, age 82, from a heart attack. We miss him.