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HGTV filmed J.J. McAlester house
Two local residents played parts of Mr. and Mrs. McAlester, to be aired Monday on HGTV.
Ron Gragg said it felt surreal to portray J.J. McAlester for a television program to be telecast on HGTV, also known as the Home and Garden Channel.
His wife, Concetta Gragg, portrayed Rebecca Burney McAlester, who had been married to J.J. McAlester. Talking about it later, she said the producers had a special vision in mind.
“They made me look older,” she said.
“They pulled my hair straight back and told me not to wear any makeup.”
A segment about the J.J. McAlester house is set to be telecast on HGTV at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, said Eddie Gray, one of the owners of the historical structure.
Gray said the segment had been shot last January after the historic home of the man who founded McAlester had been selected for the HGTV program, “If Walls Could Talk.”
A crew from High Noon Productions traveled to McAlester in January to record the segment, said Gray. Shortly before the crew arrived in the city, Gray received a phone call.
“The producer said they thought it would be cool if we had a reenactment of J.J. McAlester and Rebecca,” he said.
Gray said he thought of Ron and Concetta Gragg. After all, Ron had a goatee like J.J. McAlester and had a similar build, and Concetta, who is of Choctaw heritage, seemed a natural for Rebecca.
Ron Gragg decided to accept the challenge of portraying the city’s founder.
“I’ve lived here all my life and am familiar with the store,” Gragg said. He also knew Jim McAlester, a descendant of J.J. McAlester.
Concetta Gragg also agreed to portray Rebecca McAlester.
When they donned the costumes, they actually bore a resemblance to the couple they were portraying.
“They found this story — I wasn’t aware of it — about him coming home from the store,” Gragg said.
For that segment, Concetta Gragg sat in a tower in the home, cradling a shotgun.
The story goes that Rebecca McAlester would watch for robbers from the tower while her husband walked home from the J.J. McAlester store each evening with that day’s earnings.
For another part of the program, the producers brought someone in with local ties to appraise some of the items found in the home — Louis Dakil.
However, with all the heavy editing that’s been done, neither the Graggs nor Gray know exactly what will make it on to the TV screen.
“They filmed for 13 hours — and condensed it down to nine minutes,” Gray said.
Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.
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