The Bandit Run The Bandit Run The Bandit Run is a reenactment of the journey portrayed in the 1977 film, "Smokey and the Bandit". The reenactment first took place on May 15, 2007 and has become an annual event. The reenactment was the brainchild of David Hershey and Dave Hall who wanted to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of the classic film. Hall, of the website, "Restore a Muscle Car" and Hershey came up with the idea shortly after Hershey purchased his restored 1977 Pontiac Trans Am from him in 2006. Following the same route that the characters Bo "Bandit" Darville (Burt Reynolds) and
Burt Reynolds "Bogdanovich can get him to do the telephone book! Anybody else has to persuade him to do something. He's fascinated by Bogdanovich. I can't understand it." He turned down the part of Clark Gable in "Gable and Lombard". Reynolds had the biggest hit of his career with a car chase film "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977), directed by Hal Needham and co-starring Jackie Gleason and Sally Field. He followed it with a comedy about football players, "Semi-Tough" (1977), co-starring Jill Clayburgh and Kris Kristofferson and produced by David Merrick. He then made his second film as director "The End" (1978),