Googling Ron Funk and this film I found this interesting post:
14erskiers.com/blog/2008/11/movie-of-the...ast-of-the-ski-bums/
[size=10pt]From: Ron Funk
September 17, 2011 at 6:06 pm
One of the main things I find in this “Getting Old” thing is people I know and love getting off the planet before I do. Barrymore was definitely one of the exceptional people in a life that’s been full of them. He came up with some wonderful bits of philosophy one of which was, “Never let truth stand in the way of a good story”! That was what “The Last of the Ski Bums” and it’s story line was all about. The characters he built were various pieces of truth that were mostly concocted in Dick’s genius of a mind to give the story some continuity and interest. I’d never realized that anyone could or would take it as an actual non-fictional documentary until a gentleman came up to me in a New York Ski Show and berated me for luring him into a trip to New Zealand by the footage of skiing the Tasman Glacier on Mt. Cook. The truth was days of shooting on an ice fall skiing over areas that we were too stupid do know were snow bridges over crevasses that went deep down into the glacier. Didn’t know that was the case until a guide was eventually supplied who told us what lucky fools we were to still be alive, Not bravery but shear stupidity. Quite possibly not all that different! I miss Barrymore but am only one of many who do. As to the gentleman at the Ski Show, I can only hope he had a good and adventurous trip. As for my own self, I’m alive, well, 77 years old and living in Thailand where I’ll die in the arms of one of these beautiful brown skinned women. Certainly not for everyone but just right for me. Ron ronfunk@hotmail.com
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Great to hear from the man himself!
Somehow I thought Ron Funk had died long ago. I must be confusing him with someone else in one of Barrymore's films. Or blame it on the faulty memory of a twelve-year old kid.
I always loved Dick Barrymore's combination of storytelling and beautiful ski scenes.
