Yeager not only discovers where the Highwaymen gather to paint, but captures rare moments with artist Charles Walker,
Johnny Daniels, Jimmy Stovall and Livingston all gathered together talking about the old days, Alfred Hair, Al Black, and
the lost Freddie paintings.Yeager interviews Alfred Hairs family and many who knew Backus and Alfred personally.
The Highwaymen
were mostly self-taught painters who painted on inexpensive Upson board. They packed these paintings into the trunks of their
cars and sold them door-to-door throughout the south-eastern coast of Florida. Paintings by the Florida Highwaymen are prized
by collectors today. The name refers to African American artists, mostly from the Fort Pierce area, who painted landscapes
and made a living selling them, door to door, to businesses and individuals throughout the state from the mid-1950s through
the 1980s. They also were peddled from the trunks of their cars.Today their 100,000 plus paintings have gathered significant
interest and have become quite collectible. At auctions these particular painters works have been recognized with high prices.In
recent years there has been many forged paintings sold on eBay and at many galleries. Because there are over 26 artists and
they signed their names scratched with a nail into the paintings that were still wet makes it easy to purchase similar Florida
scene paintings and forge the artists names who only knew how to print. In 2001 Billy Yeager became the only person to become
one of the group painting alongside artist Livingston Roberts who shows Billy not only how to paint but how to recognize authentic
paintings.
Yeager shows intricate detail Livingston Roberts setting up his canvass in the morning where the 2 of them begin
to work on a painting together.
Next he finds Rodney Demps living in a empty house confined to seclusion; paranoid, and
purchases massonite boards and takes Rodney to the beach to paint for the first time in 25 years. He discovers the lost Highwaymen
“ Jimmy Stovall” and brings him to Livingston Roberts backyard both who haven’t seen each other in 25 years,
as Livingston states on tape, “there’s a real highwaymen, he was here form the beginning”.
Yeager was
also one of the only people allowed to visit Al Black in Tomoka State prison where Al tells Yeager about the forgeries and
where he drove to and where many of the paintings can be discovered. Yeager finds 1000’s of paintings locked in an abandoned
house where many Hairs, and Livingston Roberts paintings are still left intact in pristine condition.
