The settlement of a lawsuit filed against WB allowed Tom Laughlin to direct the re-release of ‘Billy Jack’ in 1973, and WB would do the work and pickup the tab. Tom and his team of number-crunchers had come up with a strategy that told them exactly how much money to spend on advertising, which theaters to ‘buy’ (four-wall), and how much profit they would make. The formula was incredibly accurate on all fronts. The re-release took almost 18 months to work its way across the country, region by region. During this time, Tom and Delores were filming ‘The Trial of Billy Jack’ in Arizona (the telegram is address to Tom at the Holiday Inn in Kayenta, AZ, but is redirected to the Thunderbird Lodge in Chenle, AZ). Email would have made life SO much easier, and saved a lot of money on telegrams.
Telegram from NYC to Tom on location in Arizona shooting 'Trial of Billy Jack'
