MINERAL WELLS — Austin producer and director and Mineral Wells native Kevin Pruitt recently announced plans for a 60-minute documentary telling the story of the Baker Hotel and the history of Mineral Wells.
“I’ve yet to see anything out there that really tells the story,” Pruitt said.
Born and raised in Mineral Wells, Pruitt said has always been interested in the history of Mineral Wells and the story and architecture of the town’s famous landmark.
“I’m obsessed,” Pruitt said.
He hopes to create a documentary that uses historic photos and other archival resources, stories from former employees, patrons and historians, and interviews with current Mineral Wells citizens and leaders and the restoration team to tell the entertaining “Ballad of the Baker.”
Pruitt said they are funding the project with donors rather than investors and will be seeking television distribution on regional and national PBS affiliates and appropriate cable networks.
“I’d like to start shooting in [this] spring,” Pruitt said. “I’d like to get started in the next two months.”
Pruitt, a 1992 graduate of Mineral Wells High School, said his junior prom was held in the historic hotel and he went inside the building in high school, before much of the vandalism and furniture and other items were stripped from the building.
Though he didn’t know much about filming at the time, Pruitt said he thought the building was ripe for the camera.
His parents bought him a camera when he was a teenager and he occupied himself with making movies that included throwing mannequins from the Crazy Water Hotel and Welcome Mountain.
While on a trip with his father visiting a Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C., Pruitt said he saw a little bottle of Crazy Water crystals on display and realized how important the healing resort town of Mineral Wells had been.
After graduating from The University of Texas in Austin film school and working for Columbia Pictures marketing home videos, Pruitt settled in Austin and began independently producing documentaries, corporate videos and commercials for his clients.
Pruitt received a Lone Star Emmy last year for producing and directing a popular Austin-area PBS series called “Downtown.”
When he heard about the current plans to renovate the Baker Hotel, Pruitt said he contacted the development group in Southlake out of curiosity and has started a relationship with them.
A friend of his, Oliver Franklin, the director of the American Genre Film Archive in Austin, was also interested in doing a documentary and help produce it.
Over the past several months they have been trying to get their ducks in a row and do lots of research, Pruitt said.
“Franklin and I just sit and talk and talk about the Baker Hotel,” Pruitt said. “He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do anything I can.’”
Franklin brings his connections to archives, libraries and researchers to the project, Pruitt said.
“You can’t tell the story of the Baker without telling the story of Mineral Wells,” Pruitt said.
The rest of the team are professionals, Pruitt said.
“We’re small and intimate and that’s the way we want to keep it,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt brought his small camera to Mineral Wells in November and tagged along on a tour of the building with the development group and Texas Historical Commission.
“That hotel is a beast,” Pruitt said. Despite the vandalism and the plaster falling off, the building is still as structurally sound as a rock, according to Pruitt.
“Our project doesn’t hinge on the restoration,” Pruitt said, though if financing for the currently proposed project does come through, he does hope to be able to document some of the restoration.
“If the restoration doesn’t happen, I’m still going to document that,” Pruitt said.
He also wants to explore why other restoration attempts have failed.
Pruitt said he is working with a hydrologist and geologist at the University of Texas to explain the land around Mineral Wells and talk about whether the lithium-rich mineral water is unique to the area.
“That’s where I’m starting,” Pruitt said.
He wants to go from the dirt, through the history of the town to what is going with the hotel and the area.
“The town was built on water, not oil, not gas,” Pruitt said. “That freaked me out.”
Another surprise to Pruitt as he began investigating the history of the building was that the architect, Wyatt C. Hedrick, also designed other well-known buildings in the area, including Fort Worth’s Will Rogers Memorial Center, the Texas and Pacific Terminal and the building formerly known as the Fort Worth City Hall.
Pruitt said the story seems to go nearly full circle, with the hotel opening soon after the economic crash, much like what is planned today.
The difficult part of the project is that they are attempting to cover so much.
The oral history alone is priceless, Pruitt said.
“It is a TV show,” Pruitt said, adding that many interesting stories will end up on the cutting floor.
They have partnered with the Austin Film Society as a fiscal sponsor and are also seeking to partner with a local Mineral Wells nonprofit, as well.
Pruitt said he budgeted for roughly 26 days of shooting in Mineral Wells, the Metroplex and Austin.
For months, Pruitt and Franklin have been researching the history, looking for old pictures, and tracking down people with the stories.
“At this point, we’re all volunteering our time,” Pruitt said.
They have been fitting research and planning for the project around jobs that pay the rent, Pruitt said.
“I”m invested in this up to my eyeballs,” Pruitt said, describing the project as very personal to him.
“I want it to be beautiful, shot very well,” Pruitt said. He also hopes to set the record straight historically and make it engaging.
They are still looking for interesting, unpublished photographs of the building and old film footage, particularly during the construction of the building, Pruitt said.
“Some of the greatest stuff is in people’s attics,” Pruitt said.
“I’m hoping that the local response will be very kind,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt said he believes others not from the area or from Texas will be interested simply because of the fascinating story.
Pruitt thinks Mineral Wells has a unique chance to change its destiny as a small town with the Baker Hotel.
“It would be nice to see it happen again,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt said he also hopes to keep those interested in the project up to date through the Baker Hotel fan page Facebook he started earlier last year and has attracted nearly 4,000 members to Pruitt’s surprise.
“I’m trying to be transparent about what we’re going,” Pruitt said.
Contact Kevin Pruitt at 5704 Lakemoore Drive, Austin, TX 78731, by phone at (512) 750-4235 or by e-mail at kpruitt@austin.rr.com. If you are a member of Facebook, you can search for and find his Baker Hotel page.
Staff writer Christin Coyne can be reached at (940) 325-4465, ext. 3428, or ccoyne@mineralwellsindex.com.
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Mineral Wells native turned Austin producer and director Kevin Pruitt. Courtesy
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The Baker story
Kevin Pruitt progressing with plans for documentary on hotel and city as both stand on brink of renaissance
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