At the time, nobody knew history was being made.
In June of 1972, Nancy Packo Horvath, owner, and proprietor of Tony Packo’s was excited by the news of a stage play coming to town. The play was N. Richard Nash’s The Rainmaker, starring a handsome young actor named Burton Leon Reynolds Jr., better known as Burt Reynolds. Back then, Reynolds wasn’t quite the superstar he’d become in the following years. Though he’d won some film roles by that time, he was arguably more recognizable as a television actor, having guest-appeared on such shows as Gunsmoke, Flipper, 12 O’clock High, Twilight Zone, and even held the lead spot in Hawk and Dan August.
Nancy liked what she’d seen of the actor, though, and had an idea: Why not invite Reynolds and the play’s entourage to visit Packo’s after the production wrapped on June 25th? One hand-written invitation was delivered to the star’s hotel later, and the waiting game began. Would he appear at the restaurant? Would Nancy, her family, and her staff get to meet, wine, and dine with Burt Reynolds? Nobody knew. It would be up to fate or destiny.
Tasty hot dogs and amazing buns, but don’t take our word for it. Ask Burt Reynolds!
As fate would have it, the doors to the restaurant opened on June 25, 1972, to admit the smiling actor, some of his fellow thespians, and the stage crew. Suffice to say, Nancy, her brother Tony, and their staff were thrilled. As the hours wore on, a party atmosphere whipped up, and eyewitnesses on the scene that night recall that Packo’s had perhaps never seen a celebration of its caliber. Food and drink flowed, music and loud voices raised in song shook the rafters, and by the time it ended in the wee hours of the following day, even a conga line led by Burt and his cohorts was not such a strange thing after all.
As if all that wasn’t enough to mark that date in the restaurant’s already incredible career, after the party died down and farewells were being delivered, Nancy and Tony asked Reynolds to grace them with his autograph to hang on the wall of the eatery as proof that a rising star had really, truly been there. The Packo siblings knew they could never honestly impart the full feeling of the visit to future visitors, so they reasoned that physical evidence left behind was just the ticket.
But what to autograph? A table napkin? A menu? The wall itself?
Burt had a clever idea of his own: A hot dog bun.
An Autograph That Made History
Something remarkable happened then and there at Tony Packo’s in Toledo, Ohio. It was history in the making, all at the momentary whim of an actor. Maybe he’d done it in jest, a funny capper to his visit. Thanks to Nancy and Tony, what it became was a tradition.
To further cement his impact on Packo’s, Reynolds gave Nancy the shirt off his back. It still hangs, framed, on the wall in the restaurant for all to see and wonder at. True story. Burt Reynolds went on to even bigger fame and fortune…Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit, Semi-Tough, Sharky’s Machine, and even more television series, not to mention his infamous Cosmopolitan centerfold. But he never forgot Tony Packo’s and that evening of fun and frivolity. He and Nancy had struck a close, personal friendship on that special occasion, and anytime the actor was in the area, he’d stop in for a visit and a hot dog. Locals would not be surprised at all to see a black Trans-Am in the parking lot, knowing it was Reynolds dropping in to say hello to his favorite restaurateur.
That original bun Burt signed is long gone. It was a real roll, and it disintegrated over time. It was also the stuff that dreams are made of, so its spirit still inhabits Tony Packo’s, sharing space with hundreds of celebrity-signed buns that adorn the walls there today.
Burt also signed a few of the later artificial hot dog buns the eatery has used for over forty years. They’re a proud part of the collection. Ask to see them the next time you stop in.
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