Alex Karras’ Made-In-Detroit Movie—Jimmy B. and Andre (1979)

Alex Karras proves there is life after professional football.
When Alex Karras retired from the Detroit Lions in 1970, heleft town for the bright lights of Hollywood. Alex first caught the acting bugas a senior at Emerson High School in Gary, Indiana when he performed in South Pacific. When he played college football at theUniversity of Iowa, Karras wrestled professionally as villain George Browndonning a full mask and earning $50 a match. He relished playing the bad guyand acting crazy. It beat working in the steel mills.
After Karras was drafted by the Detroit Lions, he supplementedhis ridiculously low NFL salary by wrestling in the off-season to help pay thebills for his growing family. He formed a tag team called Killer Karras andKrusher Konovski that performed to boos and sneers while winning all of theirmatches in the Midwest. While still a Detroit Lion, Karras played himself inthe Hollywood film, Paper Lion. Hegarnered good reviews that led him to pursue an acting career.
Karras with Susan Clark in BABE.Karras cut his teeth on several minor roles before he landeda co-star role in The Babe DidriksonZaharias Story with actress Susan Clark, who won a best-actress Emmy forher excellent performance. They began performing regularly together and eventuallymarried. In 1979, they jointly formed a Hollywood production company named Georgian Bay Productions.
Their first full length movie project was Jimmy B. and Andre which debuted on CBSon March 19, 1980. It was based on the true story of Jimmy Butsicaris, co-ownerwith his brother Johnny of the popular Lindell AC (Athletic Club) sports bar. TheLindell AC was frequented by Detroit Lion and Tiger athletes, sports writers,and sports fans from every level of Detroit society. Alex wanted to make amade-for-TV movie about his friend Jimmy B. trying to adopt a nine-year-old,African-American street kid named Andre Reynolds.
Andre was an elementary school dropout who shined shoes atJim’s barber shop next door to the Lindel AC to pick up some extra money. But anolder, local bully named Billy began harassing Andre for his hard-earned cash. JimmyButsicaris rescued the ragged, nine-year-old Andre from a beating one afternoon, findinghim in desperate need of a bath, a meal, and some guidance. Over a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke, Jimmy learned the boy’s story. Andre’s mother was awidow who was also a heroin addict in poor health. Much of the money Andreturned over to her ended up in her arm. There was also an older sister andbrother in the household.
Jimmy took the kid under his wing and gave him work doing oddjobs and a place to stay in the basement storeroom of the bar. JohnnyButsicaris converted a photo darkroom into a safe place for Andre to stay. Helived there for nine years. After the death of Andre’s mother from an overdose,Jimmy tried to adopt Andre but ran into trouble with the boy’s aunt who wanted himand his siblings as dependents to earn extra welfare money.
Detroit Free Press - March 20, 1980.Undeterred by the court’s decision to deny him guardianship,Jimmy became Andre’s foster father and treated him like a son. As Andre grewinto manhood, he called Jimmy “Pop.” To show his appreciation, Andre had ashirt made that read “I Am a Black Greek.” Jimmy took Andre to Detroit Lion andTiger games and introduced him everywhere as his son. Jimmy helped Andre getback in public school where he earned a high school diploma from Western HighSchool when he was twenty years old.
In the meantime, Karras and Clark pitched their story idea toCBS and sold them on it. Karras portrayed his friend Jimmy Butsicaris as agruff restaurant owner with a big heart, and Susan Clark played hislong-suffering girlfriend Stevie. In the movie, Jimmy keeps finding reasons notto marry her. Karras’ son, Alex Karras Jr, played a cameo role as the bully whobeats up the young Andre, the real Andre played a restaurant employee calledBubba, and local Detroit weatherman Sonny Eliot played a drunk in the movie.
The movie project was shot entirely in Detroit at the LindellAC, Jim’s Barber Shop next door, the Greektown restaurant district downtown, BelleIsle Park, and the Renaissance Center. The film was notable because of the heart-rendingperformance of twelve-year-old Curtis Yates, a student at Country Day School inBirmingham, Michigan. The real Andre Reynolds said he cried every time he sawthe movie about his life and his foster father Jimmy Butsicaris.
Johnny Butsicaris in front of the Lindell AC sports bar.
After Andre’s high school graduation, Jimmy urged him toattend Grand Rapids Community College where he played football for onesemester, but at 5’ 9” and 185#, Andre wasn’t big enough for college ball, sohe dropped out. When Andre returned to Detroit, he left the influence of hismentor and drifted into Detroit’s drug culture. When he was busted forpossession and drug trafficking, Andre served his sentence in Marquette BranchPrison.
In a prison cell at Marquette Branch Prison in Michigan’sUpper Peninsula on November 21, 1996, thirty-six-year-old Andre learned thathis foster father and mentor Jimmy Butsicaris had died the evening before atthe age of seventy-five from a massive heart attack. Reynolds wasn’t eligiblefor parole, so he couldn’t attend the funeral, but he agreed to be interviewedby Detroit News reporter ThomasBeVier.
Andre Reynolds at Lindell AC in 1979.“(Jimmy) Butsicaris took me in when I was a nine-year-old,punk kid living in a drug infested environment. I had a few moments of famewhen the movie Jimmy B. and Andrecame out. I was nineteen and wanted to be an adult, but I didn’t know how to dothat. I was paid $15,000 for my story, and I used it to buy two cars and go to GrandRapids Community College. But along the way, I fell in with a rough crowd andwas in and out of trouble most of my twenties. I’m ashamed of the life I’velived.”
Andre served his sentence and was released. A few days beforeThanksgiving in 2000, Andre Reynolds was brutally attacked by an unknown personor persons who beat and stomped him mercilessly. Detroit Police posited thatAndre ran afoul of a local drug gang, but no charges were ever brought in hismurder. He spent his final days in a coma at Detroit’s Receiving Hospitalbefore succumbing. His body was unidentified in the Wayne County Morgue forfour days before he was buried. What seemed on screen like a promising futurefor Andre became a nightmare in real life. Access Jimmy B. and Andre by name on YouTube!
Billy Martin's fight night at the Lindell AC