PHOTO ABOVE: Robert McLeroy playing the role of moonshiner Leonard “Peachtree” Williams (all photos provided by Allegra Deneroff)
By Larry Felton Johnson
Moonshine was at one time a major industry in metro Atlanta and across the South, and it had a large impact on the creation of NASCAR. Many of the early dirt-track stock car racers and mechanics who represented the first wave in NASCAR were at one-time moonshine runners.
A short film is coming to the Strand Theatre that brings the connection between moonshine running and NASCAR to life: The Fabulous Flocks.
On Friday, August 7, at 2 p.m. there will be a showing of this historical drama about a fascinating family that included a moonshine kingpin, a family of early NASCAR drivers, one of whom rode with a monkey, and a woman who did aerial wing-walking stunts. The showing is part of the Cobb International Film Festival, which will be at the Strand Theatre on Marietta Square, August 6-9.
The Courier spoke with Allegra Deneroff, the producer and costume designer for the film, and Robert McLeroy, who played the role of moonshine kingpin Leonard “Peachtree” Williams.
Courier: Tell us a little about how this project began.
Deneroff: It started in 2019 at Thanksgiving dinner, and my husband said that his family were early NASCAR drivers and I really didn’t believe him because he’s such a prankster.
He said, “Oh yeah, I have a great-great uncle who’s in the NASCAR Hall of Fame and there were women drivers and Tim rode with a monkey.”
And I’m like, “Yeah, right.”
It just kept on getting worse. He was like, “Oh yeah, and Reo Flock was a wing walker, stunt woman.”
And so I did a quick Google search and lo and behold, everything he said was correct, including the monkey.
So I was incredibly intrigued and throughout 2020 he worked on a feature length screenplay and entered into competitions.
And it wasn’t until the strike that I decided that we had free time to do stuff and I said to him, “Let’s make The Flocks. I think we can get enough community support.”
So I immediately started a Facebook group and kind of gauged interest and it took off from there.
We raised over $60,000 for the film. My husband wrote and directed the film and I produced and was a costume designer.
And what kind of drove us to finish the film was I got pregnant and had a baby. So I was like, “Let’s finish this film before I have a baby.”
And that actually really worked. So that’s kind of us in a nutshell.
Rob (McLeroy) was a great find along the way. We cast him as Uncle Peachtree through a friend and I just discovered that he had a great talent for fundraising and for producing. So we’ve become a team, a trio. And I don’t know, I just feel really blessed how this has come about as far as our team. So that’s it.
McLeroy: The film and entertainment industry is really hard, particularly on the acting end, but every now and then a project or a really wonderful role just kind of lands in your lap.
This project was … very hand to glove to me.
The information that Allegra and Jeff had to go on in order to cast Leonard Peachtree Williams, they knew he was a big guy originally from Fort Payne, Alabama, a big personality type guy, one who made a living in unscrupulous ways, but they didn’t have a confirmed photograph of him.
We just know he was a big guy, big personality.
And in the casting process, as they put a breakdown out there to try to find the actor, part of the breakdown was that Leonard Williams was a moonshine kingpin gangster type fellow.
And so Allegra would be the first to tell you that they kept getting auditions for actors who would see that language about a gangster and would give this kind of stereotypical Italian mobster sort of feel to their auditions.
Well, I knew that it was plenty obvious to me that Leonard Williams was from the Deep South. So I didn’t have to change a lot about myself is what I’m trying to say. I have a natural Southern accent. I too am a big guy with a big personality. It was just kind of a hand to glove thing and he was really fun to play, just a fun, fun character really.
And also they kept getting submissions from actors who were quite a bit older. Well, Leonard Williams died just weeks before his 44th birthday. So that was another deal they ran into, but I was really glad the stars had aligned in such a way that Allegra and Jeff and myself, that we found each other.
Courier: Could you tell us a little bit about the story line?
Deneroff: It’s in 1920s, Alabama, a teenager runs moonshine in order to feed his family.
That’s basically the story.
It’s centered around Carl Flock who has to make the heart-wrenching decision to run moonshine with his uncle Peachtree.
And the family is basically scrambling to survive. I mean, it’s in the Bible Belt. So what people don’t realize, we think now it’s like, oh moonshine, cool. Ha ha. But what people don’t realize is it’s like back a hundred years ago, it’s still the Bible belt. It’s still really frowned upon. So it was tough. It was a really tough decision and the family was really struggling.
And it’s important to note too that Peachtree Williams himself was at a bit of a crossroads. The FBI was already all over him and he needed a more effective way to move his product.
And him being the savvy guy that he obviously was, him knowing that his nephew Carl Flock was a good driver, decided that a great driver can not only win races, he can probably move moonshine very effectively.
It was a serendipitous time for both sides of the family. Carl Flock really needed a better, more lucrative way to provide for his family and Peachtree needed a better, more effective way to move his product.
Courier: Talk about the NASCAR connection.
Deneroff: Many people don’t know this, but Peachtree Williams was the first to employ a mechanic named Red Vogt who operated out of Atlanta.
He most famously teamed up with a man named Raymond Parks and Raymond actually had him alter his moonshine cars. And eventually Red Vogt became the mechanic for NASCAR. And also the Flock brothers, so Carl’s younger sibling and his sister became NASCAR drivers with Tim being in the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the rest are champions. So that’s the NASCAR connection.
McLeroy: And to this day, it’s the only time in history that four siblings have run in the same NASCAR race, between four Flocks. And yeah, like Allegra said, Tim Flock is in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. In 1997, he was named one of NASCAR’s 50 best drivers of all time. So you have a lot of notoriety there in the NASCAR circles and yet this entire story is a bit of a well kept secret. We’re hoping to make it less so.
Courier: Is there anything else you think our readers should know?
Just that Peachtree’s house still exists and you can drive by it. Uncle Peachtree had a mansion in Inman Park that was built by Asa Candler and it’s still standing. We actually had a fundraising party there a couple of years ago for the film.
The Fabulous Flocks will be shown at the Cobb International Film Festival at the Strand Theatre in Marietta on Friday August 7 at 2 p.m.
