Smokey and the Bandit sponsored a racer in Atlanta's Southern Classic and wants to celebrate in style when he wins. They find local legend Bo "Bandit" Darville at a roadeo at Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta and offer him $80,000 to pick up 400 cases of Coors from Texarkana (the closest place it could be legally sold at that time), and bring it back to Atlanta in 28 hours. Bandit takes the bet and recruits his partner Cledus "Snowman" Snow to drive the truck, while Bandit drives a black Pontiac Trans Am bought on an advance from the Burdettes as a "blocker" to divert attention
Hooper (film) office; it was one of the top ten films of 1978, but ultimately the film was deemed a letdown in comparison to Reynolds' "Smokey and the Bandit", second only to "Star Wars" in box office gross the year before. "Hooper" grossed $78 million domestically, nearly 40% less than the gross of "Smokey" in 1977 ($126 million). The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don MacDougall and Jack Solomon). "Hooper" was also one of the first movies to make use of the blooper reel credit crawl. The technique, originated by Needham, showed a