Sometime in March, 1981, Richard Anderson, Steve Flick and I found ourselves on the Ryder Sound Foley stage attempting to record wild-track of fire sound effects for the Raven Bar sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark. There’s a particular scene where Indy is pinned to the bar and a goon spills whiskey and lights it on fire hoping it will travel up the bar and ignite him.

    So blissfully ignorant of fire codes or even common sense, Richard and I plopped ourselves in the sand pit armed with Sterno and benzine (and a highly flammable Stewart film screen only feet away!!), and began making sounds.

    As I stirred the mix together, Richard squirted a little more benzene on an already sizzling flame, which travelled up the stream and the can caught fire, in his hands. Instinctually, Richard dropped it on the ground (not wanting to burn his hands, duh!) which caused the cap to pop off and create and even bigger ball of flame. Richard’s reflex response was to “stamp it out”, which he did, causing quantities of fuel and fire to travel up his leg: The Incredible Burning Man!

    The recording above captures this mayhem gloriously especially Joan Rowe’s panicked screams and exhortations. Steve Flick saves the day with the fire extinguisher but not before Richard, not exactly an athlete, jumped into the water pit hoping to extinguish himself. It was empty!

    It is important to note that at no time, while he was engulfed in flames, did Richard Anderson utter a single sound to ruin the recording.

    Fearless and focused. Always the professional…..Richard had his eye on the ball and did what it took to get the job done. I wish I could have peered into his brain while he was on fire. I bet I would have heard something like this while he was engulfed in flames “If I just keep my mouth shut maybe we can use some of this in the library…..Hey, wait a minute…I’m on fire.