posted
Comment: I once heard that the "A-Team" star Mr. T moved to a ritzy area outside of Chicago famous for its beautifully wooded lots. When he attempted to put up some giant T monograms on his garage door, the local zoning board told him to take them down. Seems they didn't like an angry, big black man putting up T's on the house he purchased.
Thinking that the locals were trying to give him a hard time, Mr. T invited a bunch of friends and relatives to his house and gave them all chain saws. They then proceeded to cut down every tree on his property just to show the neighbors who was boss.
I told this story tonight and my co-workers said it was an Urban Legend. I told them about your site and how I would check as soon as I got home. I searched, but didn't find anything.
Posts: 36029 | From: Admin | Registered: Feb 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
IMDB says that he cut all the trees on his property and that a new law was enacted afterwards saying that no one can cut down any trees with out first getting a permit. It says nothing about the reason behind his deforestation or any tree cutting party.
Posts: 89 | From: Alabama | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
It's mentioned in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, but as with so much relating to that book, I'm not sure if it's true (or even supposed to be true) or not.
-------------------- I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from "Now We Are Six" through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So there! Posts: 802 | From: London, UK | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
I grew up a stones throw from T's house as a kid and remember this like it was yesterday.
The only part of the story that's true is that Mr. T did deforest much of his estate.
He didn't do it out of spite for not being able to display his bling on his front gates. And he did not have a tree cutting house party with drunken south side relatives.
Basically, he started cutting down the tree's with an axe as part of some self devised workout regime. Nothing really became of the situation until enough time had past where it became a noticeable eyesore. Imagine a beautiful area with huge estates, one every 250 yards or so. Its a heavily forested area so each home is flanked by about 100 yards or more of trees on each side of the home, gates surrounding the entire property. After enough time had past there became a noticeable gap in the trees, and it really looked wierd.
Trees, Trees, House, Trees, Trees, House, Trees, Trees, Stumps. Hundreds of stumps. People started freaking out because he lived on pretty much the main drag of the most ritzy area of the north side, Lake Forest. As far as I remember, as soon as it became gossip, it stopped. The general sentiment around town was "pity", ironically enough, because even though there were a lot of wealthy old money residents, everyone was pretty psyched that Mr. T lived in the town. People made a stink, he ceased immediately, I think he actually had no idea that what he was doing would be frowned upon.
I live in LA now, celebrities are a dime a dozen. When people come to town I show them the usual sites, always making sure to take them by the Osbournes house for fun. Back then, Mr. T's house was the Osbournes house. People would gasp when they heard the story then saw his property, it really looked messed up. A law was passed shortly after, and probably rightly so.
I would like to believe that Mr. T, in his homespun wisdom, pitied those trees. He cut them down out of empathy for their aching souls and sent them back to where they came from. I could be wrong, but I'll believe it anyway....
Posts: 13 | From: Los Angeles, CA | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I thought he cut down the trees, according to him, because they gave him allergic reactions, or so he says.
Posts: 95 | From: Gurnee, Illinois | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
