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Press Releases

"Comeback? Burt Reynolds Never"
"His, Heart Belongs To Jupiter"
"Grapes Ready For Reynolds' Show"
"Museum of Actor's Memorabilia"

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Burt's back. Anyone in South Florida who doesn't know that Burt is Burt Reynolds hasn't been around here long. Known as “ South Florida 's Favorite Son,” Reynolds now has a new home in Jupiter for his treasure trove of memorabilia, memorabilia that has built up during years of fascinating living. It is called the Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum and a cadre of new and long-time fans are glad to see the hometown boy once more making good.

The museum, located on U.S. Highway One next to the Indiantown Road bridge in what used to be the First Union Bank Building , is an elegant, red-walled testimony to decades of family, friendship and fame. Nearly everyone who was anyone has met, been friends with or performed with Burt Reynolds during his 44-year career- a career which got a considerable boost a few years ago when he was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for his role in Boogie Nights.

Long known for his knee-slapping sense of humor, his chameleon-like ability to play everything from Native Americans to good ol' boys, and his loyalty to friends in the industry, Burt took on the creation of this repository of memories with gusto and pride.

“Ninety-nine percent of the things in here are Burt's idea. He and I hung a lot of the pictures, and he's a real good picture hanger,” said Kreig “Mo” Mustaine, a friend of Reynolds since they played football together in junior high school.

Reynolds spoke of the labor that went into the project.

“Once we got the wonderful help we got in putting up the columns and spent a lot of time putting 10 coats of varnish on these columns and then lit them, everyone quickly realized that you couldn't have these columns in the middle of something that was a barn,” Reynolds said. “It had to be elegant.”

“I think they thought I was crazy to have the walls red, but it's the same idea as with pictures. If there's a penny's worth of red in a picture, it jumps out,” he added.

Mike Daniel, director of the museum, has been with Reynolds since he was marine coordinator during the shooting of the B.L. Stryker series in Jupiter and its environs.

“Burt has done a lot of the coordinating,” Daniel said, “from the way the museum's laid out to the picture hanging. He was adamant that it would not only be a showcase of his career, but also those of his friends.”

Reynolds said that one goal was to make sure the museum looked less like the bank it once was, so he insisted on features like smoked glass doors that gave a sense of drama to the entry area of the building. He wanted to build something that the community would be proud of.

“It was very important to me that it not be a typical actor's showcase for himself. You know, ‘don't talk about me, let's talk about me career.' I wanted to impress on people how deeply I'm rooted in this town and this county and how much it helps me to have a place to come back to a refuel and restore myself,” he said.

“I also wanted to showcase the people I was fortunate enough to meet, probably because of Dinah Shore . The people I met were irreplaceable giants, but I was too dumb to be scared to know at the time that they were irreplaceable. I was so blessed to have known those people.”

Once Daniel was able to move Reynolds's memorabilia from storage to the new location, help came from everywhere in the community, a tribute, he ways, of the public's interest in Reynolds and their recognition of his importance of the history of the community.
“We've had support from the town, and we've had financial and in-kind support of about $300,000,” Daniel said. “Second Nature in Stuart donated about $100,000 worth of landscaping; We'll Floor You arranged for the carpet wholesaler to give us a good deal on the carpet, donated funds and laid the carpet for us. Jim Taube, who owns Jetty's, went to his suppliers who installed the Bose sound system and helped create the theatrical type of lighting in the museum. Rizzo Tile donated the tile and marble work throughout the building and J. & L. Contractors of Jupiter hand-crafted the columns that help disguise the old columns and makes a stage area. It's been incredible.”

Taube said that after meeting Reynolds at his restaurant several times, the actor asked if he would like to be involved with the museum.

“I've built several restaurants, so the best way I could assist them was to see what was needed with labor, materials and getting the job done,” Taube said. “I know a lot of suppliers, and without exception, they all helped when we asked them.”

More than 2,000 people came through the museum when it opened this spring, indicating that many people admire Burt Reynolds. Those attached to the museum hope it stay in its present location permanently. But as always, there are some twists and turns in Reynolds' life and with the museum as well. The museum was originally at the Reynolds' family ranch on Jupiter Farms Road, and then its contents were stored with the Daniel's for a time.

“Currently, the museum pays a dollar a year, and has a month-to-month lease,” explains Andy Lukasik, the town's assistant manager. “DOT still owns the building until the improvements are completed on U.S. 1. Once they are done, then ownership reverts to the town. We had a request for proposal for the building. The RFP was intended to determine the marketability of the property in the private sector. The question that the council will have to answer about is the intent to sell the building.”

Daniel says that he hopes the Town of Jupiter and the residents get behind the museum to keep it in its present location and make it a popular attraction along the Riverwalk area. He adds that Reynolds chose Jupiter for his museum, despite the fact that other cities, such as Atlanta , wanted it.

“It is our personal hope that the town and the town council will realize what a treasure they have here, and the value of this facility, and keep the museum here,” said Daniel. “This community had Burt Reynolds here once and they lost him, and now they have him again. We're not asking that the town give us the facility; we're just asking that they not sell it to a developer. This museum could be a cornerstone of the cultural development in this area of Riverwalk that is accessible, beautiful and of great value to the town. We want the whole community to realize what a treasure they have here.”

“Mike and I knew that if we created the museum like we thought we're going to move, it would look like that,” Reynolds said.” So, we created something elegant that didn't look like a former bank. I'll give everything that isn't nailed down in my house to this community and they'll either welcome and treasure it or they'll send me off to Atlanta .”

Reynolds, who encouraged acting talent years ago with the Burt Reynolds Institute of Theater Training (BRITT), is once again becoming actively involved with local actors through a series of three-week “master classes” that began this spring.

“I've been doing this for 44 year, and making a living at it,” Reynolds said of his professional career. “That in itself is something I'm more proud of than anything. I've survived in a business that's amazingly hard, a business built on rejection.

“I want to show young people, actors who are starting out, where the mine fields are, and let them know that when you are bounced down, you reinvent yourself and bounce back up again.”

“Some very good actors would be fired if they read a script in rehearsal like they read it the first day. I want to stress in the class how to pick up a piece of material and give it life and texture and glamour at a glance.”

“My dream would be to bring in many gifted people, not just actors, but those in the industry like Charles Nelson Reilly, who is a gifted director and brilliant teacher, to work with these young actors,” Reynolds said.

This desire to help young actors isn't unusual for Reynolds. His reputation as an honest, generous and loyal person began with his early days, growing up with his mother Fern, dad Burt Sr. and sister Nancy Ann in Riviera Beach , where his father was the Chief of Police.

His entrance into the inner circle in junior high and high school really began with a foot race, as he tells in his autobiography, Burt Reynolds, My Life. When he outran Vernon Rollison, the school's best sprinter, he was given the nickname ‘Buddy' by popular athlete Dick “Peanut” Howser, who was to go on to be the Kansas City Royals' manager when they won the World Series. He also captured the attention of the football coach when he used his natural athletic ability to earn a spot on the junior high team.

The trio- Reynolds, Howser, and Mustaine (Whom Reynolds called “one of the coolest guys on the team”)—went on to lead Central Junior High School to victory in the first game against Riviera Junior High School .
This was the beginning of a long-time friendship among the three football players. In fact, every Friday when Burt Reynolds is back at his estate in Jupiter, he has breakfast with Mo Mustaine.

“We hit it off right away 53 years ago, when we were just 14, and we've been friends ever since,” Mustaine said. “And Buddy is just as neat a person today as he was then, a real nice man, generous to a fault. In all these years, I've never argued with him or him with me.”

Reynolds has admitted that he didn't think much beyond high school football while attending Palm Beach High School . Luckily, Bobby Riggs, one of the team's assistant coaches, was thinking of college and knew that Reynolds needed a swift kick if he were to qualify scholastically. Encouraged by Riggs, Reynolds buckled down. By the end of his senior year, his grades were good enough for him to get an athletic scholarship to Florida State University .

Because of FSU football, he met Vic Prinzi, who was to become one of his closest friends. Unfortunately in the first game against Georgia Tech during Reynolds' sophomore year, he severely injured his knee. This was followed by a car accident that nearly ended his life. For Reynolds, the door of college football was closing. But the window of the rest of his life was opening.

Reynolds decided to stay home and attend what was then Palm Beach Junior College . With a dearth of easy courses available, he signed up for English literature. In those days, English literature meant Professor Watson B. Duncan III, who not only introduced Reynolds to books and literature but also saw the spark of talent in the young college student and gave him the lead in “Outward Bound.” This eventually led to a scholarship to Hyde Park Playhouse in New York , and then to Hollywood .

Monte Markham, an actor who recently purchased a home in the Jupiter area, was also part of the cadre of talented young people who were guided by Duncan .

“Burt and I went to the same high school,” Markham said, “but Burt was a year behind me, so I didn't know him that well. We both, however, eventually ended up under the guidance of Prof. Duncan, who was a mentor to both of us. For Prof. Duncan, I think we were like two of his sons.”

Of course, a large part of the Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum is filled with photos and mementoes from his days in Hollywood , as well as hundreds of awards and citations for both his acting and his philanthropy.

Reynolds divided the museum into different areas. Part of one area is devoted to his movies- Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit, 100 Rifles, Cannonball Run, and Boogie Nights among them. He has a “western corner” with artifacts from the Hollywood version of the old west, including his saddle and pictures of him as a member of the cast of the long-running Gunsmoke television series.

There are also sections devoted to athletes- one display station has an autographed football from the undefeated 1972 Dolphins team—photos of Reynolds with politicians and a myriad of actors. There's also a corner devoted to his family.

In some cases during his career, Burt turned down roles that went on to win awards for the actor who played them, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Terms of Endearment , both of which starred Jack Nicholson.

To many, Reynolds is known not only for Deliverance and Smokey and the Bandit, but for his television series, such as Dan August and B.L. Stryker. In Stryker, Reynolds' on-site houseboat was perhaps as big a star locally as the actor, since it was shot in the Palm Beach County area and everyone who saw the show could spot the settings. Reynolds said when he found his crew mulling over the need for a particular locale during Stryker , he could drive them to exactly where they needed to be.

Despite the sentimental ties to Palm Beach County , Reynolds most famous show, Evening Shade with long-time friends like Charles Durning and Ossie Davis, was the one that snagged him the Emmy now proudly displayed in its own special case at the museum.

“I called Charles Durning the day after he had won the Tony for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and I told him that I realized he had a lot of offers, but I wanted him for this new television series. His response was, ‘I'm not getting any offers. When do you need me?' Evening Shade was so special because of all the actors in it and because of the fact that it was written by this incredible lady. If there was a series offered that was character driven and a good family show, I'd be very interested in doing another television series. Only if—and I doubt that it would be possible—I was able to get such a special group of actors together again,” he said.

It was his performance in Boogie Nights that won him almost every film award that year, including an Oscar nomination.

“I'm not Jimmy Stewart,” he said, “but I have had a following of people for a long time. I didn't want them to think I had betrayed them. I knew when I took this part that it was either going to be the last time I worked or it would change everything. It was too big a change. But the first day of rehearsal, I saw what I wanted to see, what wasn't on the pages of the script. Actors get paid, not for what is on the printed page, but for the white spaces. What I brought to the part was the white spaces. I could play this guy, who in spite of what he did, he gave it everything he had and he loved the people in it.”

Boogie Nights helped to bring Reynolds back into the spotlight once again, and in 2000, he made five movies. Recently, he completed a television movie, a western shot in the Arizona desert with Bruce Dern.

Perhaps nothing is so evident in the museum as the number of photographs of stars from all eras, and it is noteworthy that so many of these stars—like Johnny Carson who hosted Reynolds' Friar's Club roast, Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth Taylor, Dolly Parton, Sally Field and Dinah Shore—have called him friend.

“With people like Johnny Carson and Clint Eastwood, if you are honest and candid with them, they know you just want to be their friend. Johnny has a sensitive, vulnerable spot in him, and he showed that to me and I never analyzed it. I was just grateful for it.”

“And with Clint, well, he only says about four or five words a year, and when he does, he's funny and wonderfully warm and everyone now realizes how intelligent he is. Elizabeth Taylor is a phenomenal friend. Again, she's been worked over pretty good, so when she is with someone who has also been in quicksand, there isn't anything held back. And I liked Dolly from the beginning because I was raised in the south and always have had a great passion for it. I told her after an interview I did with several of the Grand Old Spry stars that she was going to be a major star. I just didn't know which medium it would be in. She looked at me, and Dolly being Dolly, said ‘When?'”

Today, there is petite and lovely Pamela Seals, Burt's fiancé of 10 years, who helps to run the museum. On any given day, Pam can be seen greeting visitors and warmly conversing with old friends of Burt's. For a select few, she agrees to have her picture taken with them.

Reynolds said that there have been high spots and there have been regrets.

“One of the things I wish I hadn't done was move the BRITT from Tequesta to West Palm Beach to Clematis Street, but at the time I thought it was better for the kids, the young actors, who were involved with BRITT. A lot of people were hurt, and they had a good case to be. It was a dumb move, and they probably would have had their own building by now. I've always regretted this a great deal.”

Despite a career with its ups and downs, and a personal life that has had its rough patches, for the past 14 years there has been one constant in Reynolds' life—his son, Quinton, a handsome, dark-haired young man.

In his autobiography, Reynolds wrote, “Gazing into my son Quinton's three-day-old eyes, I experienced something beautiful, timeless, wondrous and profound in the depths of my soul. Quinton didn't care if I was once a movie star. To him, I was Dad. I looked at him and saw the reason for my being.”

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COMEBACK? BURT REYNOLDS NEVER
10/20/2002 Fort Pierce Tribune
By Louis Hillary Park staff writer

"For an actor there are three stages in life - actor, leading man and 'Geez! You look good.' I'm at 'Geez! You look good.' Partly just because I'm alive."

Framed in a window of sunlight from a tropical courtyard, 66-year-old actor Burt Reynolds stiffly rises from his desk at his Tequesta home and office complex on the Intracoastal Waterway.

A voracious reader, Reynolds picks his way around stacks of books too numerous even for the shelves that cover the two walls almost to the 12-foot ceiling.

He no longer moves with the athletic grace of quarterback Paul Crewe in "The Longest Yard" or of his real-life role as starting tailback for the 1955 Florida State Seminoles, but then he extends his hand, firmly grips yours, and conjures his marquee smile.

Instantly, the years of stunts and tackles and good-time bruises fall away, and it's easy to understand the magic that during the 1970s and '80s made Reynolds one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

The magic lives on.

On Nov. 10, 12 and 14, Reynolds brings his one-man stage show, "An Evening With Burt Reynolds," to the Lyric Theatre in Stuart. All three performances quickly sold out.

"I always say that for an actor there are three stages in life - actor, leading man and 'Geez! You look good,' " Reynolds says, flashing his self-deprecating wit as easily as his smile. "I'm at 'Geez! You look good.' Partly just because I'm alive."

Alive, after a tumultuous decade that saw the end of his marriage to actress Loni Anderson and his successful TV comedy "Evening Shade," a steep downturn in his career, and financial problems that cost him the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre, the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre Training (BRITT) and his beloved Jupiter Farms ranch.

But since his Academy Award-nominated turn in 1997's "Boogie Nights," Reynolds has been steadily working in television and films.

Now, surrounded by his books, his art collection, keepsakes from his upbringing in Riviera Beach and mementos from almost half a century in show business, this one-time box office lion and Emmy-winning television actor seems at ease in the busy autumn of his life and career.

"So much of this is for other people," Reynolds says, propped on a bar stool in a game room that connects his office with the private theater where he and friends screen movies and watch FSU football games. The room is almost wallpapered with photographs and awards.

"It's kind of like watching your kid at Christmas. People come in and say, 'Oh, look at that.' They've been here 10 times and see things they haven't seen."

The philosophy of sharing his life with his friends and his fans is integral to his home and his one-man show; it's also behind the Burt Reynolds and Friends Museum, scheduled to open in early December on the first floor of the old First Union Bank building at the corner of Indiantown Road and U.S. 1 in Jupiter.

"The museum isn't for Burt Reynolds. It's about Burt Reynolds and his friends," says Jupiter resident and museum director Mike Daniel. "The museum is for the community.

"I think sometimes, because he lives here, people forget that Burt Reynolds is one of the most famous men in the world."

The museum, which was formed as a nonprofit corporation, will include everything from movie posters to personal items.

"You know the old joke about actors, 'I don't want to talk about me; let's talk about my career,' " Reynolds says. "It isn't about my career. It's [mementos from] a whole bunch of irreplaceable giants - from Jackie Gleason to Robert Mitchum."

But mainly, Reynolds says, "Because the space is so warm, and the museum has such a nice feeling to it, I'll probably be doing some teaching there. And Jupiter is such a wonderful spot for other people to come and teach and learn. What I'm hoping the building will be is a conduit to have book readings and teaching events."

Sharing his international success with what was once the very small town of Jupiter has been part of Reynolds' life for most of the past 25 years.

In 1978, he founded the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre and BRITT, which brought major stars to what was then little more than a crossroads at the edge of Martin County.

"We called it, "The Miracle at the Truck Stop,'" actor-director Charles Nelson Reilly says of the theater's early years. "You went down there after getting off at Palm Beach airport, and there wasn't a single light. Then suddenly there was this wonderful theater where these very famous people are coming.

"Burt basically opened it up as a school. Then he brought in the best actors he could, so that the young people could learn from them - like Julie Harris and Charles Durning and Martin Sheen," said Reilly, who has known Reynolds since their days on the New York stage in the late 1950s. "I can't tell you enough about how he loves to help young people. It takes my breath away. He is a superb teacher."

One of those young people was Jim Lewis, a Vietnam veteran looking for a way to shake off the hangover of the war. He found it at the BRITT.

"I'd be in jail or dead if it wasn't for Burt Reynolds," says Lewis, who went on to work as an actor and stuntman in more than 20 films. After injuring his neck during a stunt, he became a cameraman and has worked on such shows as "Cybill," "Seinfeld" and Reynolds' "Evening Shade."

Lewis, a Jupiter resident who splits his time between Hollywood and Florida, has spent much of the past several months building a hardwood stage, preparing the lighting and otherwise helping out at the museum.

"When I've tried to thank Burt for all he's brought to my life, he just says, "Pass it on, Jimmy. Pass it on.' And I want to. I want to teach."

Reynolds, who acted, directed and taught during BRITT's heyday, says, "The theater was everything to me. I put all my money into it, and whether it failed [financially] or not, I didn't care. Because I was doing three movies a year, I wasn't concerned about that. What I was concerned about was the quality of the productions and the kids."

But when Reynolds ran into personal financial problems in the early '90s, he was forced to sell the theater, and the BRITT eventually fell away as well.

In October 2001, theatrical producer Todd Alan Price purchased the theater as a non-profit corporation, renaming it Palm Beach Playhouse at Jupiter Theatre. He hopes to reopen it as a 600-seat theater but needs about $10 million to complete necessary renovations and get performances moving.

Price says he would like involve Reynolds in the theater at whatever level he is comfortable.

"We owe everything to Burt Reynolds," Price said. "There would be no theater to save if it were not for his vision. We've talked about offering him a set of keys to the theater. We'd like to honor him."

The demise of his beloved theater, however, still haunts Reynolds.

"The passion that I had for the theater was so great that I can't even drive by," he says. "It just rips my heart out."

Publicly, Reynolds continues to give his heart to his acting - particularly his one-man show - and to his quiet, mostly behind-the-scenes work with children's charities.

"What I live for in my work is for [Anthony] Hopkins to say, 'You made me cry,' " Reynolds says of the respect he seeks from those whom he considers great actors. "And he came to see the one-man show, and he cried. I'll take that to the bank."

Privately, Reynolds gives his heart to his son Quinton, 14, whom he adopted in 1988 with then-wife Loni Anderson, and to his longtime companion and now fiancée, Pam Seals.

Quinton lives primarily in California with Anderson, but spends the summers and every other holiday with Reynolds.

"I couldn't be happier," Reynolds says. "Well, the only way I could be happier is if I had Quinton to share it with all the time with Pam, and we'd all be here together."

"Quinton and I have a wonderful relationship," says Seals, who has shared Reynolds' home for nine years. "He's Burt's whole life."

Reynolds, who threw out the first ball at Jupiter Christian School's inaugural football game in September, says he hopes Quinton will attend high school in Florida and someday wear an Eagles' uniform.

"I always wanted to be a father. Quinton just makes me a better person," Reynolds says. "He's such a good kid. And he's into so many sports, he doesn't have a lot of time to get into trouble."

Although there is no wedding date set, Seals, a 46-year-old Tampa native, says Reynolds "makes me feel very secure. He treats me like a princess."

"She's terrific," Reynolds says. "And she has no interest whatsoever in starring in a movie, which is refreshing and nice."

What does interest Seals is creating for Reynolds the sort of uncomplicated, down-to-earth home life he desires, she says.

"Being a Southern girl, I was raised to take care of my man," she says. "I do all the cooking, [and] we've done some redecorating in the house as a team."

They also work out together in the gym whenever possible, although Reynolds' bad knee and stiff back do not allow him to join Seals on her daily five-mile runs.

"I think that makes me stronger," Reynolds says of Seals' training regimen. "She goes off and runs five miles a day at 5 a.m. She comes back and I say, 'I feel better.' "

"That's one of the things I love about Burt. He's so funny and so real. He's always making me laugh," Seals says. "I like that with him, there's no ego. His heart is as big as he is."

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GRAPES READY FOR REYNOLDS' SHOW
ACTOR HAD FEW DEMANDS FOR LYRIC PERFORMANCES
11/10/2002 Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News
By Louis Hillary Park staff writer

When Burt Reynolds leaves his Tequesta home for the short drive north on U.S. 1 for this week's trio of performances at Stuart's Lyric Theatre, it will be very much like trading in one comfortable easy chair for another.

That's how the Emmy-winning actor wants it, Lyric Executive Director John Loesser said of stage preparations for "An Evening With Burt Reynolds," at 4 p.m. today and 8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday.

All shows are sold out, and there is a waiting list for unclaimed tickets.

"Mr. Reynolds wants it to be comfortable - like a living room," Loesser said. "There are no big set pieces being shipped in. Basically, he simply gave us some notes on what he'd like the set to look like, and we're following those."

A sofa here, a chair there, a bookcase for background.

It will all come together this afternoon, said Loesser, who still had to accommodate Saturday night's Hea- ther MacRae performance and services this morning by the Treasure Coast Presbyterian Church before turning his full attention to Reynolds' show.

Late in the week, the Lyric crew was working out the only technical aspect of the show, synchronizing and focusing DVD and video clips provided by Reynolds, whose film credits include "Deliverance," "The Longest Yard," "Smokey and the Bandit," "Sharky's Machine," "Boogie Nights" and 2001's "Driven."

"Essentially, our crew will have their cues for when to roll the clips, and that's about it," Loesser said. "It doesn't get much simpler. But, you know, sometimes the simplest things are the best things."

The simplicity of Reynolds' set requests reflects his down-to-earth personality, Loesser said.

"It seems like a very practical man . . .," he said. "He's been very generous with us."

Generous as in not demanding the paycheck or perks that would make one performance by an actor of Reynolds' caliber prohibitively expensive, let alone three, he said.

For instance, Loesser said singer Diana Ross has a 17-page rider on her contracts listing, among other things, items she requires in her dressing room, including $7,500 worth of food.

"The only thing Mr. Reynolds requested was that we please have some grapes on stage," Loesser said.

For Floridians, the Lyric Theatre stint will be the only opportunity to see Reynolds, who grew up in Palm Beach County and was a starting tailback for Florida State University in the mid-1950s.

Five other shows have been canceled - in Melbourne, Coral Springs, Clearwater, Naples and Sarasota.

"We were told it was a conflict with a movie deal," said Nance Borroughs, marketing director for the King Center in Melbourne, where Reynolds was to appear Nov. 16.

The deal that brought Reynolds to the Lyric came about after the actor attended a November 2001 performance there by 81-year- old screen legend Mickey Rooney and his wife, Jan Chamberlin Rooney.

"I think he liked the space," Loesser said of the 500-seat, 76-year-old theater, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. "I think he liked the idea of doing the show in practically his hometown."

Although the Lyric has had many well-known acts and individuals, Loesser said Reynolds, who also has an Oscar nomination, is one of the biggest names to play the newly renovated theater.

"He's an artist of international stature," he said.

And all he asked for was grapes.

"No, he didn't specify what kind," Loesser said. "But he's going to be on stage. I've been in the business long enough to know better than to give him the kind with seeds."

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