Posted on 9/27/2005, 3:04:04 PM by girlangler
'A River Runs Through It' fishing, period adviser dies By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian
George Croonenberghs, right, illustrates a point to actor Brad Pitt during the filming of the 1992 movie "A River Runs Through It." Croonenberghs, who died Thursday, tied flies for Norman and Paul Maclean. Pitt played Paul Maclean in the film. Photo courtesy of Sandra Eisinger
It was, his son-in-law says, a ridiculous-looking thing. George Croonenberghs called it the Santa Claus fly, and he swore by it.
It had a bright red body wrapped in golden tinsel, with polar bear hair for wings, and it wound perfectly around Croonenberghs' preferred fly-fishing technique.
"When he fished, he liked to put the fly between the sun and the fish so it was more radiant," says Karlheinz Eisinger, who is married to Croonenberghs' only child, Sandra. "He liked to cast into the sun so the fly would light up. It seemed to excite the fish."
Croonenberghs, who died Thursday in his native Missoula at the age of 87, was best known for his work as the fishing and period adviser on Robert Redford's 1992 film, "A River Runs Through It."
This is the man who taught Brad Pitt how to fish.
Croonenberghs wasn't just hired for the movie - based on Norman Maclean's famed novella about his family, fly fishing and the murder of his brother Paul - because he knew fly fishing inside and out.
No, Croonenberghs knew the Macleans inside and out, too. It was the Rev. John Maclean himself who taught Croonenberghs to tie flies at the young age of 6, and the two families built two of the first cabins on Seeley Lake back in the 1920s, sharing the same beach, ice house and water tower.
"He tied for Paul and Norman, and if they didn't like the flies, they'd give him the old one-two-three off the dock," Sandra says. "He learned the hard way early."
Norman Maclean, mostly ambivalent about whether "River" was ever made into a movie, was adamant that, if it was, it be accurate.
Croonenberghs, a retired railroad engineer, was the key to helping Redford keep his promise that it would be. Croonenberghs could not only tie the same flies for the movie the Macleans had once used in real life.
"There was a train scene, and Dad was able to research schedules and even get the right number for the locomotive," Sandra says.
Aside from actor Tom Skerritt, who played the Rev. Maclean and could fly fish, Croonenberghs had his work cut out for him. Neither Pitt, who played Paul, nor Craig Scheffer (Norman) were fishermen in real life.
"The actors would try to hold fish by the tail," Karlheinz says. "Which of course you never do - especially a live one."
One day on the set Croonenberghs noticed that Pitt, standing in the river between takes, was shivering, his teeth chattering.
"Dad recognized the early signs of hypothermia and told him to get out," Sandra says.
"I can't leave the set," Pitt told him.
"I don't care what they told you, you get out right now, get in the sun and dry off," Croonenberghs told the actor.
"He always liked to tell people he saved Brad Pitt's life," Sandra says.
Fishing was a lifelong passion for Croonenberghs, who went so far as to fill a glass-bottomed basin with water, set his freshly tied flies on the water, then crawl underneath to get a fish-eye view of what his designs would look like to his intended prey.
Just four days before his death, Croonenberghs was invited to join a group of Chicago fishermen at the E Bar L Ranch in the Blackfoot Valley for dinner.
Arranged by Chicago businessman Jay Proops, who owns a ranch in the area, the 36 members of the Anglers Club of Chicago were thrilled to listen to Croonenberghs' stories.
His daughter says he loved to tell stories about his dog, Duffy, who was always getting into trouble on fishing trips.
Usually the trouble involved chipmunks and squirrels, but on one particular trip, Duffy spied a moose calf and took off after it.
"Duffy was after the calf, the cow came after Duffy and they all came after my dad," Sandra says.
"They ate it up," says Proops, who was on a long-planned fishing trip in Alaska and couldn't attend the dinner. "The guys told me they just loved George."
Croonenberghs watched "A River Runs Through It" the night before, and tied a box of flies to auction off to the Chicago anglers, the proceeds going to the Big Blackfoot Chapter of Trout Unlimited (donations to which, the family says, it prefers in lieu of flowers).
The flies sold for $1,200.
It's how Proops first came to know Croonenberghs seven or eight years ago.
"I was at a fundraiser for the Blackfoot River, and George had tied some flies to be auctioned off," Proops says. "I was bidding, but it got to be a pretty high price, and I dropped out."
Afterward, Proops' wife told him he should have stayed in.
"This was a guy who was taught to tie flies by Rev. Maclean," Proops says. "He's auctioning off the same flies he'd tied for Norman and Paul Maclean. So after, I went over to George and introduced myself, and told him if he'd tie another dozen for me, I'd match the contribution. A week later, I had a dozen flies tied by George."
A week or two later, Croonenberghs called Proops.
"How are those flies working?" he asked.
"I told him, 'Gosh, George, I don't use them. I framed them,' " Proops says. "A week later, I got another dozen flies in the mail with a note."
"These are for using," the note said.
Her father used to tell Sandra how, back in the 1920s, his teachers at the old Central School would scold him because George brought his fly rod to school every day, waiting for the final bell so he could race down to the Clark Fork River and fish until dark.
Even at Hunters Glen, the retirement community Croonenberghs moved to last year after his wife of 64 years, Jeanne, passed away, Croonenberghs gave fly-tying and fly-fishing lessons to residents and staff alike.
He was still tying flies in the hours before he collapsed at Hunters Glen.
His fourth great-grandchild, Athanasius Tucker Eisinger, entered the world during the same hour that George Tucker Croonenberghs left it.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 523-5260 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com
In memory
A memorial service for George Tucker Croonenberghs is 10 a.m. Friday at Garden City Funeral Home, 1705 W. Broadway in Missoula. Interment is at 2 p.m. at the Seeley Lake cemetery.
do you have a link for this?
You mean this? Sorry, I should have added it.
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/09/27/news/local/news02.txt
What a job eh?
This article was not very well written, but I did think some of the information was interesting.
Nice, thank you.
Thank you, it was a brilliant read.
I am seriously in need of a trip to the stream, but am waiting for my fishing buddy to return from Iraq next month.
Can't wait. What better way to come home than to wade into the river and cast after a trophy.
I'd like to read that book. I saw the movie but reading a good story is much better.
I have a friend who mailed me a book yesterday about the history of Mepps Bait Company. It is interesting. There is a short blurb in the October 2005 issue of Bassmasters about the Mepps history.
During WWII American GIs discovered the little inline spinners in Europe and sent them home to the U.S. by the crateloads, they were so impressed with the bait's ability to fool fish.
Also, another little bit of fishing history here. Did you know the popping bug was invented by a guy in Tennessee? He was fishing a stream near Nashville and pouring himself a drink of coffee from a thermos bottle when a piece of the cork fell into the stream.
A trout responded and, as they say, the rest is history.
From Norman Maclean's novella, A River Runs Through It:
"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time . . . I am haunted by waters."
Deut28,
I work for a regional outdoor magazine and the publisher is sending free subscriptions to our guys in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His son was in Iraq.
Also I know a lot of fishing guides and am planning to approach them about starting a program where they can offer free guided trips for our guys returning from there.
This particular magazine received a letter from a guy in Iraq who had been fishing in some of Saddam and sons private lakes. He said the fishing was good.
Freepmail me and let me know what state your fishing buddy lives in and when he will be coming home and I'll check to see of we can get him a trip lined up.
Thanks....printing it for my husband....whose Pick Up license plate is "WULIBGR"
"No fish were harmed in the making of this movie."
It was a movie about fishing that was against fishing! I guess they brought in the trained "stunt fish" when necessary. Freaking Redford.
BallyBill,
I was bass fishing this past weekend in west Tennessee and caught myself a nice little bass on a buzzbait. I hadn't used buzzbaits for years because the water I fish near my home doesn't have the structure for them.
I love topwater fishing, and bass in grass. I am going to be practicing on Lake Guntersville next weekend fishing in millfoil and lilly pads, to prepare for a trip to Sam Rayburn in late October. Guntersville is the closest lake to me with the kind of structure I'll be fishing in Texas in October.
I can find millions of reasons to go fishing.
dead,
HeHe. I remember that too. It was a stunt pulled by the HSUS, and I thought it was so silly.
Sort of like the movie "Bridges of Madison County," when the photographer (supposedly had been all over Africa photographing lions and all for National Geographic) enjoyed the meal the lady actor made because no animals were used to prepare it.
Give me a break.
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