Summer 1972

Aspen is known for a lot of things both good and bad; but, a little known fact is that Aspen is a favorite locale to film movies and commercials.  In the 1970’s a number of television commercials were filmed in the valley.  Many of them included both kids and adults from the valley as the main characters.   These included McDonalds, Esso (later Exxon), Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Lipton Soup and others.  When the advertisements eventually showed up on television they were usually in nationwide distribution.  Aside from Aspen’s beauty I think the filming crews loved the fact that they could come to Aspen for weeks on end, all expenses paid, and enjoy their time out of the Los Angeles rate race.

In the spring of 1973 a film crew came to Aspen to film a Pepsi advertisement.  Try-outs were held at the old restaurant and club house for the Aspen Golf Course.  Kids and adults of all ages showed up, and over a two-day period the cast was narrowed down to about 20 people. 

I, along with one of my classmates, was selected as one of the few young children for the commercial.  A few days before filming began my parents received a phone call from the production company inquiring about our Winnebago.  It turns out that the theme of this commercial was going to be a big “Family Reunion and Picnic” and they needed to use our RV as a changing room for the females.  The boys and men would have to use the trees as their changing room.  I am not sure how the discussion with my parents went, but in the end we would be getting a new set of tires for the camper.

Day one of filming arrived a week later and we were bussed off to a clearing along the Roaring Fork River just below Gerbazdale and on the south side of the river.  Throughout the first day we were filmed in all manner of activities including tug-of-war games, volleyball, sack races and other relay events.  The next and last day of shooting included more games but also eating, lots of eating.  I remember the bottles we drank out of were all silk screened to perfection.  We never drank any of them down more than a few inches from the top before a fresh one was handed to us.  One of the tricks they used to make the drinks look refreshing even though it was a pretty hot that day was to spray liquid nitrogen on them to give them that cool, dripping with ice cold water look.

After two long days of filming our part of the project was over and we all went back to our normal lives, at least until the next casting call was announced.  I did manage to convince the crew to let me keep one of the bottles which I held onto for years, but eventually its whereabouts was lost.

A few months later we were notified by Pepsi that the commercials would be airing soon but no specifics beyond that were provided.  Sure enough, the following Fall we began to see the advertisements on television.  They had made two versions – one 30-second spot and the other 60 seconds.  Of all the activities they had caught me on film doing the only scene of me in the ads was of me eating a big corn on the cob.  None-the-less, you are paid by the amount of time you are visible in the ad and for me it was enough time to buy some pretty cool toys over the next few years.

This was not my first brush with fame.  Years earlier I had been photographed for a Neiman-Marcus catalog as well as part of my junior hockey team was in an Esso ad that had been filmed up on the ponds of The Elk Mountain Lodge; but, this was by far the most fun.

Years later, I ended up working with a former president of PepsiCo and asked if he knew how to get a copy of that old advertisement.  He did some checking on my behalf but came up empty handed.