How Jimmy Carter helped create 'The Hollywood of the South'

ATLANTA - The film industry in Georgia generates billions of dollars for the state every year, and this success can be traced back to President Jimmy Carter. 

Georgia was ranked the number one state for film and television for the last two years, with 273 movies and TV shows shot in the state last year, and the Georgia Film Office said it all began with Jimmy Carter’s vision to help small towns.

The 1972 movie "Deliverance" was one of the first movies shot in Georgia, and the story of a harrowing river journey sparked an idea from then-Governor Jimmy Carter.

"He created an office which was visionary at the time. Nobody had these kind of offices to market the state to try to get more and more film production in," said Lee Thomas, the Director of the Georgia Film Office.

In 1973, Carter saw the economic boom in Rabun County after ‘Deliverance’ was filmed—and opened the Georgia Film Office.

"I think it resonated with him that these were very there were poor, hard-working people. This is an industry that doesn't require you to build, you know, factories or roads, and they came into Rabun County and put people to work immediately," said Thomas.

Governor Carter encouraged cutting red tape for film crews, and today, Georgia's Camera Ready program connects filmmakers with neighborhoods permitted and ready to shoot—speeding up production and cutting costs. 

"Then when incentives came into play, we were already way ahead of the game because even though people had maybe better incentives at some point, we had a leg up because we had created this infrastructure, we had become a production center," said Thomas.

A production center that is also bringing in millions of dollars in tourism spending.

"We started with ‘Deliverance’ starting a whole whitewater rafting industry in Georgia and it just blossomed from that," said Rep. Ron Stephens, who is Chairman of the Economic Development and Tourism Committee. "This is an economic development tool that has worked; it has created thousands of jobs and well-paying jobs."

State Representative Stephens said Carter had an authenticity that captivated those around him to listen to Carter’s vision. "In Jimmy Carter’s own eyes, tourism is economic development. There’s no other way to look at it. People come here, they spend their money and go back home, and they’re coming here to see what unique about Georgia. We have everything from the mountains to the sea, and everything in between. To capture that on film allows the world to see it, and you can do it with your remote control right in front of your TV set."

In the past several years, the city of Covington reported 75% of its tourism has come from fans wanting to see locations from shows like "Vampire Diaries" and movies like ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’.

Senoia had five open storefronts before "The Walking Dead" premiered. Now, the city has 150 open businesses.

"It went from, you know, where it may have been six or seven projects a year to, you know, maybe more than 400, and in our high point, we did $4.4 billion in direct spend last year," said Thomas.

Prosperity started by the man hoping to help humble communities thrive: President Jimmy Carter.

"We don’t need New York or California for anything," said Stephens. "It’s all right here, and it’s all right at home, and Jimmy Carter is smiling down right now, you can bet."

Thomas said other states have sent groups of legislators to Georgia to try and replicate film offices like Georgia’s—all across the country.