More bits....

Speed 2 cast and crew
In the late Summer and Fall of 1996 parts of the movie Speed II were filmed on the Island, both sides. There were several hundred
people working and playing hard. Some locals and resident expats were also put to work on the film. There was a lot money
being spent.
I spent several days wandering around the "set" on the waterfront in Marigot. They had constructed a small village on the recently
expanded area between the Cemetery and Le Bar De La Mer. This was the set used in the "final" crash scene of the movie.
We had printed business cards good for a free "tequila shooter". I passed them about liberally. And the cast and crew started to
patronized the recently opened Sunset Beach Bar.
It was interesting to see the combination of people who came from the cast and crew. Who traveled and drank with who.
The medics and stunt personnel always seemed to travel together. The sign painters and carpenters. The stars had their
body guards. They came in cars, trucks, vans and even on rental Harley Davidson's. One of our first "regulars" from the
crew was the location manager Stanley Pierce. He was very out going and could not be called shy. He took a liking to the
bar and staff and brought more and more of the cast & crew. Thank you Stanley.
At last the stars came. Willem Dafoe was first. Glenn Plummer was second. Then Sandra Bullock arrived with her body
guard Michael. Sandra and Glen were there on a regular basis. Around the time of the films holiday break in December
1996 we had another Hollywood actor visit us, Matthew MacCaughney. He was in the proper frame of mind and spent
some time one Monday evening acting as our DJ and even doing his "Chicken Man" dance for a while behind the bar.
Some of the cast and crew stayed on Island for the December holidays while the bulk went home. I seriously under estimated
the amount of Champagne that we would need for our first New Year's Eve. Another couple of cases of Cristal and Veuve Clicquot
on hand would have been nice to have. People were buying bottles at an amazing rate that I had not thought possible.
Their presence at the bar didn't hurt our small but growing business. Sandra even had a small birthday party at the bar one
night in January 1997 for her assistant Susan.
When filming on the Island had finished we said our goodbyes to the folks who had become regulars at the bar. To my surprise
Stanley Pierce and Steve Perry invited me to join them in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I readily accepted their invitation and made plane
reservations. Stanley took care of the hotel reservations as he was from New Orleans. When I arrived in New Orleans there was
Stanley at the airport with a new black Ford Expedition to give me a ride to the Dauphine Orleans Hotel, including a motorcycle
cop escort.
While there I had to rent a tuxedo as we were attending the Endymion Ball at the New Orleans Super Dome. The entertainment
that night was Little Richard and then The Doobie Brothers. We had a table second row, center stage. That night Steve Perry,
who had been one of the Producers for Speed II, invited me to join him and Stanley Pierce the next day for the Endymion Parade.
We were in the parade all right. We were in a purple Rent-A-Wreck pickup truck. Along with us in the truck were the Hughes Brothers,
Allen and Albert, who were filming a documentary about pimps and prostitutes who travel across America from event to event.

Topless Women Drink 4 Free
This "concept" happen accidentally. That is, we didn't sit around drinking beer and dream up this promotion. In the spring of 1997
we had a group four Dutch people operating a tandem sky diving operation from the Dutch side airport. Their problem was the weather.
There was a week where it was too rainy or too windy or too overcast to safely operate their business. So what did the crew do?
What else? Drink. They ran up such a large tab that it was "traded" for sky dives for the entire staff for Christmas 1997.
One day there was a group of 4 or 5 girls laying out on the beach sunbathing, sans tops. (topless). Every time they needed a round of
drinks they put their tops on and walked up to the bar, This didn't endear them to the drinking sky dive crew. On about the third
trip to the bar one of the sky divers, J.R., jumped over the bar and erased the "Cocktail Of D Day" Sign and wrote "Topless Women Drink
4 Free". J.R. said to put the drinks on the sky divers tab. And we just left the changed sign there. That's the story.
About a year later we did have t-shirts made advertising this, using nautical flags to "spell" the slogan "Topless Women Drink 4 Free".
Jets Landing Lights
One morning in the Spring of 1997 I was opening the bar for business. It was about 10:00AM. A morning jogger approached
the bar and began giving me some light hearted ribbing. He was an American Airlines pilot who had arrived the previous
evening. He told me that because they were late out of the gate in San Juan, they arrive a little late in Sint Maarten and
missed getting a nightcap at Sunset Beach Bar. We had closed promptly at 11:00PM. I responded by telling him
that if we had known that we would have had some late arrivals we would have remained open. He said that he'd be back
in a week and would let us "know" if they were coming for a beer or not.
The week passed and Gabe, one of our bartenders, and I waited for "word" from the pilot. Nada. But, as the plane came
in on it's final approach the landing lights started blinking off and on. So we waited. Some twenty minutes later the two
pilots came bounding into the bar with ear to ear grins.
This flashing of the lights became a regular thing as word spread among the pilots on this Dallas, San Juan, Sint Maarten
flight. It was also entertaining for both our regular local clients and tourists alike. We also had on occasion a phone
call from the airport tower letting us know that the flight was late and that the pilots would be on their way to the bar
shortly after landing. Only in the Islands.
Jell-O Shooters
We've all heard of Jell-O shooters and we usually associate them with an event like Spring Break. We started giving away Jell-O
shooters on Sunday afternoons in our second or third year of operations at Sunset. I made them at my house on Saturday afternoons
and brought them to the bar on Sunday mornings.
Here's how to make Jell-O shooters which are firm enough to scoop out of a squat plastic souffle dish. First boil the amount of
water as directed to on the package, times the numbers of boxes which you're making in one large batch. Second, empty the
powered Jell-O into a large mixing bowl. Third, pour the boiling water into the mixing bowl with the powered Jell-O. Fourth, add
the alcohol to the mixture but use only half of the volume of the prescribed amount of water. Now pour the hot mixture into the
squat plastic souffle cups. I used several trays, or half sheet pans, to stack the filled cups in my freezer. A refrigerator is not
cold enough to congeal the mixture to a firm enough consistency.
We used different flavors of Jell-O with different types of liquor. Tequila was used with Lime Jell-O. Vodka was used with
cranberry Jell-O. Rum was mixed with Lemon Jell-O. Some of the other mixtures were successes and some were pretty
awful tasting, trial and error