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Had a funny encounter with the Thompson that’s worth relating. In the 80’s when I was in my 20’s my girlfriend had back stage passes at Alpine Valley near Chicago for a local act that used, as part of an elaborate stage show scene a man dressed in a rabbit costume and during the course of this one song a man came out on the stage and shot a Thompson loaded with flash fire blanks at him. Now the guy with the machine gun was a third generation in a family of demolitions and Hollywood special effects biz people and former military in Korea. A little 5’2” sawed off Jewish guy who told some wild tales about his life; like the fact that at 14 he made a homemade torpedo from an acetylene torch tank - securing it to a board and knocking the end off with a balpeen hammer and dropping it one night into Lake Michigan and accidentally sinking the yacht of a gangster and having his dad birch him until he couldn’t sit down for a week for it.
Anyway, the show was sponsored by Budweiser, so there was all sorts of free beer throughout the day and he drank himself up pretty good and I did too. After a bit he asked if I wanted to see what he was there for and I said sure. He took me over to a Brinks armored car in the parking lot, flipped open the doors and inside. protected by two armed guards was a virtual arsenal of exotic weapons. He pulls down two Thompsons says “Let’s go have us some fun.” He hands me five human and animal targets and we lug everything down into the valley between the aspens: lawn chairs, beer, guns and targets. He sets things up and then pulls out a Thompson and starts blazing away - shredding the targets, the trees and anything in between. He pops open the second case and hands me the other Thompson and before too long I too am blazing away. We go on like that for about 45 minutes until a look out to my left and see coming thru the trees 16 blue uniforms with guns drawn. I quickly point this out to the old boy and pop that gun back into the case - but he just stands there with the gun on his hip like Sgt.Rock as the now angry police and highwway patrol bark orders at him. As I drop to the ground he chimes out: “Hey, you losers! I’ve gotta Class A firearms permit - you know what? If I wanna drive a goddamn Sherman tank over your front lawn in the middle of the night I can do it and get away with it!” That’s what he said just as a big, big cop picked him up and face planted him. We both got dropped into the back of a squad car handcuffed and were headed off to who knows who’s jurisdiction when the old boy started striking up a conversation - and the cop remembered him from the work his firm did on the Untouchables movie blowing up a fake building in Chicago and all. Next thing we’re turning around and heading back to Alpine Valley - they take us right back to the party. All we got was a wink and don’t do anymore shotting lecture and we were free.

I can’t even think about a Thompson without thinking about that day!