There was a special kind of hubbub taking place in Jim Thorpe 48 years ago.

The downtown area of Broadway was getting a face-lift intended to resurrect the appearance of the 1860s.Paramount Studios was in our area filming "The Molly Maguires" movie with big names from Hollywood - Sean Connery, Samantha Eggar and Richard Harris.Connery had just finished his action-packed James Bond series and was at the peak of his career.Jim Thorpe and Eckley became Hollywood movie sets for the summer, and there was a call for locals to appear as extras.Many of us wanted to be on board for a chance to be part of history.I remember taking part in the audition process with my friends. We wanted to portray breaker boys in the film. We went to the Hazleton Bureau of Employment Security in early 1968 and talked briefly with casting folks.Despite plenty of ambition, none of us kids made the cut.Others were more fortunate, selected to be among 600 extras paid $15 a day, along with free lunch for two months.The movie was perhaps the last of the big-budget films. In addition to featuring a star-studded cast, it included a soundtrack composed by Henry Mancini.The movie scenes featured plenty of coal, dirt and grit, but the production had touches of showbiz glamour owing to the major stars on hand.Surprisingly, the film was a box-office failure. Go figure.For my part, I regretted the missed opportunity to be cast as a breaker boy.But as they say, if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. And so I did.Ten years later, Jim Thorpe hosted another media production. CBS-TV came to town to film "You Can't Go Home Again," a made-for-TV movie based on a Thomas Wolfe novel.I auditioned for that project, too. This time I made the cut.I was chosen to appear on film as a 1929 college student in the days before the Depression. I wasn't lucky enough to grab a speaking role, but that was OK. I was simply grateful to make up for the lost opportunity 10 years earlier.The first thing I had to do was see a barber. In the 1970s all of us wore long hair; it was a Beatles thing.The director ordered me to get my locks cut short and report to a makeshift CBS wardrobe department on Sunday morning. There, I was fitted with a 1920s tweed jacket, vest, shirt and bow tie.When I walked out of the dressing room, journalist Joe Boyle of the Times News took my picture for the paper.I remember a lot of delays and down time. I sat for hours in front of the courthouse on Broadway awaiting my cue.I also remember holding on to some kind of ID or pass. It identified me as member of the CBS cast. I saved it for years but finally lost it when moving.Needless to say, the Jim Thorpe movie experience was memorable.At the time, I worked in the public relations department of Hess's of Allentown. The staff there was supportive of my TV debut, even if a very minor one. In fact, when the show aired on network prime time, someone at Hess's set up a camera and grabbed a screen shot, presenting the photo to me as a memento. I still have it.Shortly later, I became more involved with TV production. I took a job as director of corporate communications at Blue Cross and Blue Shield. I was responsible for television advertising. For 18 years, I commuted on and off to Manhattan and the West Coast to work with ad agencies.It was a busy career.As I look back I realize that even after the passing of nearly half a century, I still regret missing out on a chance to be a breaker boy in "The Molly Maguires." What a thrill it would've been to meet James Bond, everyone's hero back in those days.Still, I'm grateful to have taken part in the 1978 TV movie. After all, it entitles me to say I debuted on Broadway.And that's no lie.