The Wards made a donation to the Black Panther Party’s Breakfast Program, and that is how they were allowed to make “The Mack” without any problems. The Black Panthers were also the security on the set. My father and the Ward brothers were best friends. Ted was the biggest pimp in the state. I would perform my one man show in prisons and the inmates would ask me to teach them how to pimp because I was a Gardner. It amazed me that after decades so many people still remembered the Gardners and the Wards. As if they were folk heroes.