Filming kicked off in May 1978, and the town’s locals stepped in as factory workers for the scenes. The Opelika Manufacturing Corp. was transformed into the textile mill for the movie, while The Golden Cherry Motel, which has been around since the 1940s, was used for the motel scenes.
Although the Opelika textile mill, which had been the first in town since 1900, closed down in 2004, it wasn’t demolished until 2016. During filming, one tricky detail was the constant hum of the machines at the mill, which made it hard to catch the actors’ lines on camera.
A huge event
When Hollywood came to the small town of Opelika, Alabama, it was a huge event. During the filming, Field had a meeting with then-Gov. George Wallace, while many locals eagerly awaited the possibility of megastar Burt Reynolds visiting his girlfriend on set. The excitement in the air was palpable.
Burt did make a few visits to the filming locations, but it was Sally Field, the film’s leading star, who truly left a lasting impression on the local community.
“She was a lovely lady,” says Warner Williams, who was active with the Opelika Chamber of Commerce during the filming of Norma Rae. “Days before filming, she wore old ragged clothes and hung around the mill, psyching up for her character.”
The real Norma Rae – Crystal Lee Sutton
Crystal Lee Sutton was born on December 31, 1940.
She grew up in Roanoke Rapids, a town that, as she remembers, was sharply divided between workers and managers.
”All my life, textile workers were looked down on. The doctors and lawyers and managers didn’t want their children to associate with us. They always had new clothes, they were the smartest. They were the cheerleaders, and the majorettes — anything outstanding, it came from your higher class of people,” Crystal told Washington Post in 1980.
Crystal Lee started working when she was just 16. By 17, she was already working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift at a textile plant, filling batteries. At 19, she became a mother for the first time, and by 20, she faced the heartache of losing her husband.
At 21, she had her second child, and in 1965, her third arrived.
Known for her courageous stand as a union organizer, Crystal Lee Sutton made headlines in 1973 when she was fired from her job at the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, for her pro-union activism.
At that time, Sutton was a 33-year-old mother of three, working at a wage of $2.65 per hour, folding towels. Her battle for workers’ rights was immortalized in the 1979 film, which was inspired by the 1975 book Crystal Lee: A Woman of Inheritance by New York Times reporter Henry “Hank” Leifermann.
Director Martin Ritt once said of Crystal Lee Sutton, ”I’ve known a lot of women in my life, most of them much more educated and sophisticated, who would not have had the balls that she had.”
Crystal Lee Sutton’s honest take on the movie
Crystal Lee Sutton, the woman behind the story of Norma Rae, was not pleased with how the film turned out.
She believed it should have been a docu-drama. Sutton found the movie ”funny” and admitted, ”It made me cry in parts and it made me laugh… I just thought if they’re going to spend millions of dollars making a movie, I wanted it to be a good educational union movie, not a soap-opera love story like you can see every day on TV.”
Sally Field also cried after watching the movie. She admitted that the overwhelming reaction from the audience at the Norma Rae premiere at the Cannes Film Festival brought her to tears.
Sued the creators of the movie
Norma Rae grossed $12.5 million, yet Sutton received no profits from the movie.
The same was true for the book Crystal Lee — she received nothing from it either.
After the film’s success, Crystal Lee Sutton had to sue 20th Century-Fox to receive a small settlement, eventually getting $52,000 — half of which went to taxes. After paying off some of her loans, Crystal used the remaining money to buy her third husband a secondhand Pontiac Trans-Am. ”He helped me and supported me through all this, and he deserved something,” she told Washington Post.
Her husband, Preston Sutton, expressed his deep admiration for her courage:
”I told my wife I don’t give a damn if we have to live in a car, I’m proud of what she done and what she stood for,” Preston Sutton said. ”You better damn well believe there’s a lot of people that would like to have the guts to do what she did.”
Sally Field and Crystal Lee Sutton met once
One of the highlights of Crystal Lee Sutton’s life came in California in 1980 when she met Sally Field, who played her in Norma Rae. The meeting between the real-life inspiration and the actress, set up to promote the film, was a memorable moment.
Sutton recalled meeting Field at a reception, with cameras flashing as they posed together, their hands raised in a shared moment of triumph.
”We talked about children,” Sutton said. ”She told me if ever there was anything she could do for me let her know.”