Monitor Photo/Russell Slaton
A photo at Cedar Creek Brewery in Seven Points shows the 1980s occupant of the building, Cedar Creek Plowboys Club, closed for filming “Tender Mercies.”

Monitor Photo/Russell Slaton
Actor Robert Duvall (from left) greets Cedar Creek Plowboys Club owner Reba Anderson during the filming of “Tender Mercies” in Seven Points, as shown in a photo hanging on the wall of the current occupant, Cedar Creek Brewery.

Monitor Photo/Russell Slaton
Film crews set up shop in the second-story saloon of the former Cedar Creek Plowboys Club in Seven Points (now Cedar Creek Brewery) for the 1983 movie “Tender Mercies,” depicted in a photo displayed at the current establishment.

Monitor Photo/Russell Slaton
Cedar Creek Brewery owner Jim Elliott shows a Cedar Creek Plowboys Club jacket worn and donated by a former bouncer at the honky-tonk that preceded the brewery, where “Tender Mercies” was filmed.

SEVEN POINTS–Did you know there was an Academy Award-winning performance in Seven Points?
That would be by Robert Duvall, who portrayed washed-up alcoholic country singer Mac Sledge’s road to redemption in the 1983 movie, “Tender Mercies,” for which Duvall won the Best Actor Oscar at the 56th Academy Awards held April 9, 1984.
That redemption road led Sledge back to the stage. The stage stand-in was filmed at what was then called the Cedar Creek Plowboys Club and which is now Cedar Creek Brewery. The brewery harkens back to its famous film connection by housing the Plowboys Café inside its taproom.
“This building has some definite history,” says the brewery’s owner, Jim Elliott. “It’s really cool.”
Elliott says Cedar Creek Brewery puts an informational board outside the entrance, telling customers about the movie. “Most people don’t know that,” Elliott says about the movie being shot inside.
Elliott says at the time, Seven Points was known for its bar scene and its honky-tonks, “and this building was a honky-tonk back then. In the movie, there’s maybe a 3-5 second flash of the front of the building. The front of the building hasn’t changed. It’s a similar color, we’ve kind of repainted it.”
The parking lot is the same but the inside “is way different,” Elliott explains. The interior changes stem from fitting in the brewery’s beer tanks, he says. “It was a two-story building and a huge staircase out in the middle of the brewery that went up in the second floor. The second floor had a big bar and stage and dance area.” And that’s where the scene from the movie was filmed, he states. “Robert Duvall, when he was singing, that was upstairs. When he was dancing, that was upstairs,” according to Elliott.
Several people have told Elliott that they were extras during filming, Cedar Creek Brewery’s owner says. “They got paid, what was it, $10 a day or something to stand there 14 hours to maybe be in a scene. We invite Robert Duvall every year to our anniversary and come check out the building, but I haven’t gotten a response yet.” Newspaper accounts of the filming hanging on the brewery’s wall state that about 150 locals “came face-to-face with the film industry” as extras.
June 22 was the brewery’s 12th anniversary. “We invite him (Duvall) every year. We have shown the movie out in the beer garden so everyone can see some of the history. It’s fun but a lot of people have grown up and moved on from back then, but there’s a few who remain.” Elliott jokes that he still hopes to see a limo roll up and Duvall coming inside to visit.
Elliott continues, “When we bought this building, it was empty. I knew the history of the building, so I contacted the owner (of the Cedar Creek Plowboys Club, Reba Anderson). She was so thrilled that someone was going to do something fun with the building and it wouldn’t go to waste. She said she had some old pictures and some shoeboxes up in my attic somewhere, and if I can find them, I’ll send them to you. And a couple of months later, she sent them to me, then we put them in a collage of picture frames in the hallway by the restaurant so everybody can see them when they pass by and kind of see the history.”
The original tin roof remains, as do the redwood rafters removed during demolition of the second story (they are now repurposed as wood paneling inside the brewery). Elliott also found the floor safe from the Plowboys Club office, with faint hopes of cracking the code.
Other portions of the film were shot in Palmer and Waxahachie, with the Palmer Hardware Store and “Beat Red Oak” painted on a sidewalk window as characters pass giving clues to its real locale.
“We’ve had several people come in and say, ‘that was my truck in the parking lot,’,” Elliott shares about the Seven Points filming. Back in the 80s, Cedar Creek Plowboys Club also hosted bear wrestling upstairs, Elliott says. “You could actually get in the ring with a bear. No one ever beat her.”