LEXINGTON, Al.
Lexington, Al. by the Tennessee line, where the town hall proclaims this town of about 750 as a place that never meets a stranger, is a former magician who, surprise of surprises, has pulled off his most profitable act.
Francisco Guerra has turned snow from northwest Alabama into a fortune.
"It's a great story, a great American story," he announces in his company's 45,000-square-foot building on Lauderdale County 71.
He's not kidding.
How many people anywhere, much less from North Alabama, have business associations ranging from Justin Bieber and Jack Daniel's to J.K. Rowling and the family of Walt Disney?
It's the story of how Guerra, the president of Global Special Effects, has turned fake snow into a worldwide operation that is expected to generate revenue of about $10 million this year.
He projects about $20 million in revenue in 2012.
"This is the world headquarters," he says. "We're in 23 countries."
Among the countries are Lebanon, Russia, China and South Africa.
"We help the film industries" there, he said. "For instance, when China started a film industry, I'm the effects guy. They came here and asked me to go over there."
Making snow and other special effects has afforded him something of a luxurious lifestyle, certainly for someone who works in a one-caution-light town.
"The big claim was the Harry Potter ride," he says. "We designed the effects."
That's the Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios in Hollywood and Orlando.
"The writer, J.K. Rowling, comes in and says, 'Fantastic, you're bloody brilliant,' " he says. "This was in Universal in Orlando. To spend time with her and the family of Walt Disney was amazing. She had to approve everything."
'Followed a girl up here'
Like many great American stories, in this tale of a former magician who makes millions off fake snow from northwest Alabama, there is a woman involved.
That's how Francisco Guerra came to discover Lexington.
"I followed a girl up here," he says. "It didn't work out with the girl, but I liked the area."
He came here in the summer of 2002, as he recalls. At the time, he was preparing to build a new building in Florida.
"I was about to build a million-dollar facility (in Florida)," he says. "I built the same facility here for $150,000."
The first facility in Lauderdale County was a 10,000-square-foot building in Anderson, near Lexington.
Later, with operations growing, he moved into the company's current facility, a former sewing factory that he refers to as the company's manufacturing facility.
Just down Lauderdale County 71 is a second building, the "Snow Special Effects, Building 2, Laboratory," according to the sign out front.
At the manufacturing facility, there are snow machines, snow lamps and faux snow, among other things. There is also a machine known as a "snow curtain" that is "in every Macy's display window and Victoria's Secret," Guerra says.
Snow lamps - or magic lamps, as the company calls them - are among his newest creations. They are street lamps that are about 11 1/2 feet tall.
The company promotes the lamps as having "three light globes and three Snowmasters Evaporative Snow nozzles on top, which produce the snow."
Cost of the lamps is $7,500-$10,000, Guerra said.
"On Dec. 4, we shot the Walt Disney World Christmas special," Guerra says. "We made it snow on Main Street. We had the lamp."
Last month, there was snow from Global Special Effects in a Justin Bieber music video.
"We did his whole Christmas album, 'Mistletoe,' " Guerra says.
And the new Jack's Daniel's commercial?
Did that one, too, Guerra says.
"It's a matter of where we're not," he says. "We're a staple of the industry."
A magical transformation
How did all this start?
That's where the magic comes in.
"As a magician, you can levitate, penetrate, appear, disappear," Guerra says. "You transform. That's what I did."
Someone asked him if he could make it snow for a Christmas event. Sure, he could.
At the Christmas event, a movie producer was in the audience as he produced snow.
"The producer said he had a movie," Guerra recalls. "He asked if I would be interested."
Guerra did the movie. He made it snow. That was in 1995.
Today, he's still performing something akin to magic.
"Here is a cool product out of Lexington, Ala.," he says. "Follow me. I will demonstrate."
He heads into a break room and pulls out a packet of faux snow.
"This is a powder," he says. "You can put it anywhere you want. All you do is come with a five-gallon bucket (of water), and it will make a Volkswagen-size mound."
Watch, he says.
Behold.
He mixes the water and the contents of the packet. He stirs with his fingers.
In moments, there's snow.
"When you see the snowballs in the movies," he says, "this is it."
The pedestrian killed in a Friday morning Interstate 59 crash has been identified as Carlos Benavidez, 78, of Houston, Texas.
