had a brief renaissance. Future President Gerald Ford, after a trip to Colorado, hid it in his luggage to take it back to Washington, D.C. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a steady supply airlifted by the Air Force to Washington. Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox would bring several cases after playing on the West Coast, by stashing them in the equipment trunks on the team's plane. Frederick Amon smuggled it from Colorado to North Carolina and sold it for four times the retail price. Coors is still brewed just outside Denver, Colorado. It is now sold in all states as Coors ships it in refrigerated train cars and bottled locally and sold in different parts of the country including the eastern US states. Soundtrack The theme music "East Bound and Down" was sung and co-written by Reed (credited under his birth name, Jerry Hubbard) and Dick Feller. It became Reed's signature song and is on multiple albums, including Country Legends and his live album Jerry Reed "Live!" (Still). In 1991, it was arranged for orchestra by Crafton Beck and recorded by Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra for their album Down on the Farm. Several other groups, such as the U.S. rock band Tonic and U.K.-based country cover band We Be Ploughin' have also covered it. Reed also penned and performed the song for the opening credits, entitled "The Legend", which tells of some of the Bandit's escapades before the events of the film, and the ballad "The Bandit", which is in several versions in the movie and on the soundtrack. Bill Justis is the first name on the credits for the soundtrack, as he composed and arranged original music throughout the film. Musicians such as Beegie Adair and George Tidwell played on the soundtrack. Five-string banjo player Bobby Thompson is prominent toward the end of "East Bound and Down". The soundtrack album was released in 1977 on vinyl, cassette, and 8-track through MCA Records. Track listing Reception Box office Smokey and the Bandit was a sleeper hit. It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, where it performed badly. It then opened in just the South of the United States over the Memorial Day weekend and grossed $2,689,851 in 386 theaters. By the end of June, it had played in major Southern markets, including Charlotte, Atlanta, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Memphis, Dallas, and Oklahoma