Video:
Still making it in America from The Roanoke Times on Vimeo.
The story behind the writing of Factory Man.
Meet John Bassett, III, the Factory Man himself.
Factory Girl Beer and the Parkway Brewing Company
The importance of being Made in America
Photos:
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- R.P. “Scotty” Scott was a longtime Bassett factory manager who died on April 25, 2014. At the end of our first interview in 2013, he said, “Don’t put in anything bad I said. But if you do, tell ’em it’s the goddamned truth!” RIP Scotty, and thanks.
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- The first known photo of Bassett Furniture — aka “Old Town.” | Photo courtesy Bassett Historical Center
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- At the Community Storehouse in Ridgeway, volunteers can divine what people used to do by their ailments: Women who’d been bent over sewing machines all day making sweatshirts had humps on their backs. The men who culled lumber were missing fingers. Photo by Jared Soares
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- Photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis | Courtesy The Roanoke Times
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- Old Town, the original Bassett Furniture Company factory, circa 1902.
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- “Factory Man” in progress, a very loose storyboard!
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- John Bassett III was born during the epic flood of 1937, a flood of near biblical proportions that had people wondering, decades later, if it might have prophesied his exit from the town.
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- For the epilogue of “Factory Man,” it took three tries for me to find Mary Hunter’s grave. I had itchy chigger bites for weeks after, but it was worth it to me to find her there, forgotten in the Blue Ridge foothills.
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- Among my most treasured sources was Mary Thomas, who passed away last November at the age of 81. She loved to dispense advice about home remedies and was reported to have the psychic ability to take away the sting out of a burn — both in person and over the telephone. RIP Mary. I miss you.
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- JBIII (right) with his cousin/uncle “Mister Ed” Bassett, who taught him such sayings as “There is no water in the swamp” and “When you see a snake’s head, hit it.”
