Courtesy of Discovery+
The Coriscana-based Collin Street Bakery is one of the world's largest fruitcake distributors, making around $30 million per year from sales around the world.
If you know, you know — the sweet, chewy, pecan-laden sensation that is Collin Street Bakery's famous fruitcake, made in the little town of Corsicana and shipped around the world during Christmastime. For locals, Collin Street Bakery makes for a fun day trip to pick up sandwiches, cookies, and a few tins of the shop's claim to fame, contributing to the 125-year-old empire that estimates $30 million in sales per year.
In 2013, however, a scandal was cooking up right under bakery workers' noses — one that eventually inspired a documentary that'll begin streaming Wednesday on Discovery+.
"Fruitcake Fraud" tells the story of Collin Street Bakery's infamous embezzlement case involving Sandy Jenkins, the accountant who stole nearly $17 million from the company and squandered it on Rolex watches, vacations, and a hoard of other lavish luxuries. For years, Jenkins' actions went unbeknownst to the bakery until a newly hired accountant began discovering the truth. Jenkins was eventually sentenced to prison, where he died in 2019.
The documentary features interviews with various players in the case, from Collin Street Bakery president and CEO Bob McNutt to Jenkins' attorney, Brett Stalcup, and FBI agent Christine Edson.
Outside the news, Collin Street Bakery's story has been generally untold on screen until this year. Red Sanders, president of Fort Worth-based film company Red Productions, had been working on a dramatized adaptation of the incident — which originally had Will Ferrell starring as Jenkins and Laura Dern as his wife, Kay — before COVID-19 set back the project. That's when Celia Aniskovich, director and executive producer behind the documentary, reached out, and Sanders hopped on board as fellow executive producer. (Sanders says the "Fruitcake" film is still a go, by the way, just delayed and set to ramp up again next year.)
On the eve of the film's premiere, Aniskovich and Sanders shared what they found most intriguing about Collin Street Bakery's story — and the holiday message that transcends the small-town scandal.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Fort Worth Magazine: Y'all had a bit of Christmas in July while filming this, didn't you?
Celia Aniskovich: Yes, so we were in Corsicana in July, which is an interesting time to film a Christmas movie — 110-degree Texas summer. But it was great to be there at that time because the bakery is really a fourth-quarter business, so it was largely unoccupied. We had the run of the place, thanks to the bakery giving us access to anything we could imagine, and we were also able to spend a lot of time with the people at the bakery when it wasn't their busy season. They were able to really invest the time in getting us the resources we needed to tell this story fully and understand what it was like for them to have this impact a place that feels like family.
FWM: Red, you were working to produce a scripted version of this story, but how did you get involved with the documentary?
Red Sanders: I remember our first call that day. As soon as I heard Celia's vision for this story, I was so excited to know she would be leading the charge, directing it. It is such a wild story that's like, it seems too weird to be true — what, there's that much money and profit in fruitcakes? And it could go away, and people didn't notice, but it did happen.
We have been working on a scripted version of it, and that got put on pause when COVID hit. We were in the process of putting it back together whenever we started talking about the unscripted documentary version here, and I was really excited about that because, to have a chance to actually tell it with the real people on camera, was really special ... This is the first thing to really move it into the visual form, so we're excited about that and excited to continue that momentum in a scripted version later.
FWM: Was it easy or difficult to get everyone to talk about the scandal on camera?
CA: I am a New Yorker through and through, and things move very quickly. I was not used to like, "Yeah, just come down, we'll be here, and we'll help you make it work." But I think that was the cynical New Yorker in me thinking, "Oh no, they're not really going to help when I get down there. What's going to happen?" Then we got down there, and of course, they were wonderful and kind Texans who were willing to help and do all the things that they had promised on the phone. That was so refreshing. And honestly, the bakery — talk about a business that remains unchanged by an incredible crime and and betrayal. They are still the same open, trusting people.
I joked with Bob [McNutt] and Hayden [Crawford, Collin Street Bakery's vice president of public relations and customer service], "I could have stolen again. You're almost too trusting." But that is what makes, I think, Collin Street such a wonderful place and successful business.
People were remarkably open with me in talking about their experiences, in talking not just about what happened or how it happened, but how it made them feel. I think that's really the heart of this film. Yes, it's a crazy tagline. It's an unbelievable story that this happened in the setting of a fruitcake factory.
FWM: What were the biggest challenges working on this film?
CA: Fruitcake is really sticky. [laughs] We were constantly sticky for three weeks. I was finding pieces of cherry stuck to me.
[We used] about 60 pounds of fruitcake. We did some fun and quirky things ... We lassoed fruitcake tins. We rolled them down bowling alleys. So we were constantly getting more fruitcakes.
It was also just difficult to figure out how you tell a story about a person who cannot be in the film. Sandy Jenkins is not in our film, so we tried to figure out how we were going to do justice to the story and this human being who, while [he] committed a crime, is still a person that we wanted to respect and make sure had a full, three-dimensional story told about him. In addition to interviewing people from the bakery, we also interviewed one of his childhood best friends. That's one of my favorite interviews in the film, actually.
But yeah, then all the fruitcake — how do you go over three weeks at Collin Street and not eat everything? I think we all gained about 10 pounds, so that was hard.
FWM: What surprised you the most about Collin Street Bakery's story?
CA: I was really surprised that they haven't become jaded or cynical ... that they were able to forgive, move on, and set up the next fruitcake season and keep going. Bob McNutt is a testament, I think, to the spirit and resiliency of that place. He is the beloved leader of Collin Street and kept everybody going. And I think that was surprising to me. I'm not sure I could have kept going if something like that happened to me.
RS: When I first approached Bob about doing the film version of it, I drove down to his office ... and I was like, "So there's a story we want to possibly make as a film, but I don't know if I should say this guy's name in this office, because I don't know how the feelings are." And he slaps his desk, pulls out a drawer, and he's like, "Yeah, you mean Sandy Jenkins? We made this little documentary about it." And it was a news piece that had been done on it early on.
I was like, "Okay, cool. So you're open to talking about it." And kind of [like] Celia was saying there — they're not letting the past taint or predict the future. They're willing to learn from this. It was a big learn, expensive learn, but they've found a good way to move forward and are open to talking about it.
FWM: Why do you think this movie is important to make right now? Besides being fruitcake season, what makes Collin Street Bakery's story so relevant this time of year?
CA: There's a line at the end of the film where Sandy's best friend says, "Next time you see that fruitcake in the corner, remember he might just need a friend." It's one of the messages of the film that has always resonated for me.
I think after two years of COVID and realizing that we only get through hardships by coming together, whether it's physically or not, this is a film that shows that there are small-town businesses left in America that can do what seems impossible. There are people that put relationships over profit. There are things to be happy and excited about. While there are some really dark moments, my hope is that people finish the film and feel hopeful, feel joy, feel excitement about the people sitting next to them and the love they have in their lives, and the ability to get over our worst day.
FWM: Now that the documentary is out — Red, what's next for the dramatized version you're producing?
RS: There's no formal update right now. We are putting it back together, trying to line up actors whose schedules all went haywire when COVID hit, so we're back out, casting it right now.
Max Winkler is still on board to direct. [Growing up, his dad] Henry somehow ended up on the mailing list from the bakery, so every Christmas in LA, they would get a fruitcake delivery. They didn't know why, but he grew up with the Collin Street Bakery fruitcakes showing up each Christmas.
So Max Winkler's directing, and then Trey Selman has penned the script ... Hopefully we'll know more in the months to come, but it's been fun getting to do this as a documentary first.
"Fruitcake Fraud" is produced by Good Caper Content and Dial Tone Films. Watch the trailer below.
