Smiley Bates prompted other recording ventures. When the Instrumental hit "Duelling Banjos" from the film "Deliverance" was popular, Smiley, on Flat-Top Guitar, was teamed with Eddie Poirier on 5-String Banjo. Though he had not seen the film, it only took a couple of tries to arrive at an arrangement, which, while not representative of Smiley's recording output, was nevertheless a commercial success. A further album was issued with Eddie and Smiley, and based upon its success, the two teamed up with Rose (Eddie's wife) to record another big-selling Bluegrass album, titled "The Best of Bluegrass". To illustrate how successful Smiley's recordings were,
The Night Stalker (1972 film) The Night Stalker (1972 film) The Night Stalker is a television film which aired on ABC on January 11, 1972. In it an investigative reporter, played by Darren McGavin, comes to suspect that a serial killer in the Las Vegas area is in fact a vampire. It was based on the then-unpublished novel by Jeff Rice titled "The Kolchak Papers". Rice said he wrote the novel because, "I'd always wanted to write a vampire story, but more because I wanted to write something that involved Las Vegas." Rice had difficulty finding a publisher willing to buy the manuscript until agent