INTELLIGENCER PHOTO BY DEREK BALDWIN Bill Davis has returned home to Belleville after a spellbinding career in Hollywood. Director of more than 1,000 television shows and series, the Emmy-award winning city native is glad to see that two of his loves -- the arts and his old school of BCIVS -- are coming together into the Quinte Cultural Centre. He has offered to loan his years of Hollywood memorabilia to the centre for display. televisions then but Davis knew TV was not a fad. For the next five years he worked at CBC and ultimately directed every- thing from music and variety shows to children's specials. In the late 1960s, his interests turned south of the border when he co-created, then directed the wildly successful Hee Haw comedy show in 1967 on which he worked for five years. It was shot in Nashville, Ten- nessee. He later left for Hollywood and in 1973, after directing the musical vari- ety series, The Julie Andrews Hour, on ABC television, he was awarded an Emmy for best director. He earned a second Emmy award in 1975 for An Evening with John Denver on ABC. Once an Emmy-win- ning director, he never looked back. "It's like magic. Once I won my first Emmy, I went from one project to the next and I was always busy," Davis says. "It was a fabulous career, I can't imagine ever having a better time. I loved all parts of producing the shows. From working with the writers and setting up the set design to actu- ally shooting with lighting and the camera. My least favourite, though, was the editing. It was very tedious then but it became easier later." Of all the celebrities he worked with, he doesn't have a favourite. But Davis says three big names stand out for dif- ferent reasons. John Denver in the mid-1970s was "probably the nicest guy I ever worked with and was every- t h i n g h e appeared to be, a simple man from the Rocky Moun- ta ins in Col - orado." "I THINK 10 YEARS AFTER THE NEW (CULTURAL) CENTRE IS OPENED, PEOPLE WILL REALIZE WHAT A TRUE TREASURE THIS WILL BE."