Henry's Western Round-up: January 2013

LUKE PERRY INTERVIEW

Just about a year ago I first interviewed Luke Perry on the eve of the release of his second outing as Wyoming circuit Judge John Goodnight in GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE: THE MEASURE OF A MAN. Perry is not just the star of the films; he created the character, and writes the movies with Tippi and Neal Dobrofsky, and is one of the executive producers. (If you’d like to read that interview, where we discuss not just the GOODNIGHT films, but Luke’s entire Western career, please go HERE)

On Saturday, January 26^th, GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE: QUEEN OF HEARTS will have its world premiere on the Hallmark Movie Channel. Last week we spoke about the new film, the future of the film series, and other projects he’s been pursuing over the past year.

HENRY: Well first off, you know I enjoyed your first two GOODNIGHT films, but I think the QUEEN OF HEARTS is the best yet.

LUKE: Well, I think it all came together on this one. We had a lot of practice on the other two and on this one it all came together in a way that I sort of agree with you. It’s the most fully-realized version of the character yet.

H: That must feel awfully good.

L: It does. I was able to get a director, friend of mine, Martin Wood, who I’d worked with a number of times, on a show I used to do called JERIMIAH, and Martin always had such great visual sensibilities. He’d sort of been tagged as this guy who just directed sci-fi shows. But I knew that he wanted to make a Western; if he ever had a shot I thought he would do well, and I’m very happy with his efforts. He was able photographically to put more on the table than other people; because he was willing to do it, and he had the technical knowhow -- he can always be a third camera. And when I jumped off the cliff, into the water, I almost landed on him – he was right down there, in the water, with his flippers on.

H: So you guys actually did jump into water – that wasn’t CGI’d in.

L: No, no; I did that jump. That was the best part of the movie, for me, was getting to do the jump up there at Pitt Lake. I’d say it was about 35 feet.

H: I loved the business with the bear early in the story – how was that to do?

L: (Laughs) Oh shit! That was my first bear, but I always wanted to do it. First of all, there were two bears, and we switched them on and off. And I got really close; I could smell their breath. They give them treats to make them perform, and a few times it’ll be bags of cookies, and sometimes they’ll throw some chicken. And depending on which bear, I could smell it on their breath. Pretty close, and one of the boys touched me on the chin during one of the scenes. He’d sort of been looking right past me the whole time, and then after he touched me on the chin he looked me right in the eye, like he knew I was there all of a sudden.

H: It was very impressive. You’re back with your same team again, except for director and DP; you’ve got Neal and Tippi Dobrofsky again.

L: Yuh, same guys, and I really like that. Because then it doesn’t take long to get everybody up to speed; and we made these two (MEASURE OF A MAN and QUEEN OF HEARTS) back-to-back. Just took off a couple of days in between, and it worked out really well that way. I think this one’s got a lot of neat elements, with the boat, and the cliff and the bear and the stagecoach, and that’s hard to do on a small movie like this, but they were really great about pulling it all off for me.

H: You’ve got a lot of solid action in this one. And it seems to me that your portrayal of Goodnight is not so consistently dark as in the previous films. I thought there was a lot more humor in this one. I kept thinking of MAVERICK.

L: You know, I’ve always said that westerns can be a lot of different types of stories. At the Hallmark Movie Channel they were saying to me that Goodnight was consistently on the dark side; could you throw us one that’s a little more ‘run-and-jump’? Sure, happy to do it. I like those kinds of movies myself, you know. I mean they don’t all have to be about death and justice and somebody swinging at the end of a rope. Though a lot of them do have to be. I thought, we can run, we can jump, add a pretty girl – you don’t have to twist my arm.

H: Speaking of a pretty girl, I’d never seen Katherine Isabelle before; I thought she was just terrific with you. Real chemistry.

L: Yeah, I like Katherine. She stayed on her horse; she never fell off. That’s what I need this time, I needed someone who could ride this time, and she’s awful pretty.

H: Yes she is, and she’s very expressive. You can read every thought her character is going through on her face.

L: And again that comes back to Mark, because he’ll let the actors do that kind of work. That’s the kind of stuff I like. Just because a movie is made for a low budget and for the Hallmark Movie Channel doesn’t mean there can’t be subtlety in the performance, and nuance to the kind of work that the lady can do. That’s a credit to Mark.

H: Now Ricky Schroder is an unusual choice, but very effective, as the sinister and conniving Col. Cyril Knox. How did he come to be cast?

L: My producing partner Ira Pincus had worked with him before, on a project. So that was Ira’s contribution to the film, to bring Ricky along.

H: Of course you and Ricky have something in common, in that you both made your names on TV series when you were quite young. And it’s interesting that you both gravitate towards Westerns now. How did you two get along?

L: It all went pretty well. Like you said, he’s been doing it a long time, and knows what he’s up to. It all went pretty smoothly.

H: Now I’m not going to give it away, but there’s a great moment, a great stunt that you do on the paddle-wheel boat.

L: Well, this whole movie was based on me wanting to do that gag. I’ve been wanting to do that gag since I was a six-year-old kid, probably. And when I started pitching ‘em stories about what I wanted to do, I said, “There’s this one on a paddle-wheel boat,” and I worked backward from there. I reverse-engineered that story to get me on that boat.

H: Was this a more physically demanding film than the last two?

L: Well, that was the trade I made with them. If I don’t get to do the darker, heavier story, and you want it to be more run-and-jump, well you really better let me run and really better let me jump, because I like to do that. So let’s really give them something they haven’t seen. Traditionally the Westerns on this channel just don’t have all the elements in one picture that we were able to deliver in this one. You’ve seen a lot of the other Hallmark Westerns, and I’ve made a few of them, and I know, basically there’re always horses and covered wagons. But there’s a whole lot more going on in the period, and I really love to open up the story, where you get to see things like a river-boat and other modes of transit, why people took them, and the role that women played back then. We sort of see them as wives and daughters, and saloon girls. But they were complicated women that had a lot on their minds, and with this character, I thought in particular, this is a great time that we can show that; bring a little diversity to the woman.

H: Now David Pelletier was your cinematographer, and I thought the picture just looked beautiful. Great exteriors; great interior compositions. Had you worked with him before?

L: Well, I’ll tell you, Dave’s my man for these movies from here on out. I wish I’d had him on the first one. I really do. He had such a great eye for it. The crew loved him. He knew exactly – when I was explaining to Dave how I wanted it to look, and what I wanted to have happen, he was so accommodating. You don’t tell Dave how to do his job. You tell him what you want, and he really helps to enrich the process for me. And at the end, he’s just a dude I can hang out with. Great guy.

H: What’s next for Judge Goodnight?

L: Well, it’s funny; we’re waiting to see if he gets a reprieve. I think these guys have been a little timid in pulling the trigger on any more of them, I know not why. But (the films) seem to be working pretty good to me. I’m hoping, when I see them in a couple of days, they’ll tell me they liked it and they’ll get some more. But my guess is they’ll wait and see how it does when it airs. That’s why with this one I’m just throwing in everything but the kitchen sink, because you never know when it’s going to be the last one that you get to do with a character. But I’ve got other ideas for this guy, so I’m hoping they can figure their way out to do some more.

H: I certainly want to see more.

L: Sweet! Make sure you let them know.

H: Don’t worry, that goes in the review. Now since we last spoke you’ve been doing a tremendous amount of work. You guested on BODY OF EVIDENCE, a two-parter, you’ve got four movies in post-production, DRAGON WARRIORS, K-9 ADVENTURE – A CHRISTMAS TALE, RED WING, FLAT CHESTED. Wow! How do you fit ‘em all in?

L: Well, when a movie like FLAT-CHESTED comes along, you make time. This is a movie that I am so proud of the process. I’ll tell you, I haven’t seen the film yet, but just the process of making it, going to Chicago and working with those kids, and having Kristyn Benedyk tell her story like this, it was great. It was one of those things that really made me glad to be an actor. It’s been the longest time since something made me feel like that movie did.

H: I don’t know too much about it, except that it’s about a woman whose going to have a double-mastectomy.

L: Yes! And the script is only twenty pages long, and in those twenty pages I laughed out loud, and I cried. And that’s what you look for as an actor. You just look for that one that takes you all over the place. This woman, Kristyn, is so talented and so able to really get to the heart of that situation with so much humanity and humor and grace. And I was fortunate to work with the lovely and talented Alicia Witt, who really gives just a tour de force, I think. But I can’t wait till it’s done and it comes out. That’s the one I’m most excited about. Some movies are fun, jump, pretend, playing the judge, and other movies have something to say, and it’s said so eloquently, and photographed so beautifully. You think, God, that’s what movies can do.

H: Anything else in particular we should be looking for?

L: Got to see how the judge does. Going to hang back until the end of January, see how the judge does, see how many cards we have on the table. I’ve never been a big prognosticator, and I try not to line up two in a row any more; I learned that. It just gets your life weird. I’m fortunate to be in a position where I can hang out for a minute and see what I want to do next.

RICKY SCHRODER INTERVIEW

For many Western fans like myself, the name of actor Ricky Schroder immediately conjures up the image of him, at 18, as Newt, the unacknowledged son of Woodrow Call (Tommy Lee Jones) in the unforgettable LONESOME DOVE. Ricky has grown up, and acted in a wide variety of movie and TV roles, notably on NYPD BLUE and 24, and has become a writer and director as well. While he’s worked in every genre imaginable, he keeps coming back to Westerns. On Saturday, January 26^th, in a major switch on his image, he’ll be the villain to Luke Perry’s hero in GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE: QUEEN OF HEARTS, and he turns in a seriously chilling performance as Col. Cyril Knox.

In March he will also be seen on the Hallmark Movie Channel in the premiere movie WILD HEARTS, a modern-day Western. The movie co-stars Ricky and his daughter Cambrie Schroder, and it’s a Schroder family collaboration. “My wife and I got to write it, I got to direct it, we produced it. My sons were in it; my other little daughter was in it. The first All-Schroder Production. And it comes out March 9^th.” In the next month or so, I’ll have another interview with Ricky and Cambrie, when we’ll talk more about WILD HEARTS, as well LONESOME DOVE and Ricky’s other Western films.

Last week we spoke about Ricky’s work in GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE: QUEEN OF HEARTS, and his twenty goats, who disappeared from his Topanga Canyon ranch while he was off in Vancouver making the movie.

RICKY: The firemen every year come through the Santa Monica Mountains and put up notices on peoples’ homes that you’d better clear your brush, and you’ve got a deadline, before April 15^th. So, I’ve tried various methods of brush clearing over the years I’ve lived in Topanga. And I even had a herd of twenty goats.

HENRY: Why did you get rid of them?

R: I didn’t get rid of them; my wife did. Because they kept getting out and eating all of her flowers. And then the straw that broke the camel’s back was, they got out and they used a friend of mine’s car as a rock. They climbed on top, and all over it, and totaled it. And once that happened, my wife got rid of the goats. I was off working on GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE. I came home and they were gone: she’d given them to a petting zoo. So I lost my goats. My new strategy was to get three miniature donkeys. And I deploy them to various areas of the property. I stake one to about a forty foot rope, and the other two will stay by, with the mother, the Jenny, and graze away. And they’re really good on the grassy areas on the property; but the brush, the goats were great on. Donkeys are more of a grazer, and they just want to eat grass. That’s the joys of living in a fire zone.

H: This isn’t exactly what you came from. Aren’t you a Brooklyn boy like myself?

R: I was born in Brooklyn, in Bay Ridge Hospital. I was several days old when they drove me over the recently completed Verrazano Bridge, and raised me and reared me in Staten Island. Which was when, believe it or not, there were still dairy farms on the Island. My poor clan, back in Staten Island, with (Hurricane) Sandy, was just devastated. Anyway, I’m a long way from Brooklyn and Long Island. LONESOME DOVE seems kind of what set me on this life choice, of moving to Colorado and buying a ranch. I was 20 and getting into horses and the outdoors, and writing movies about it, and stuff. That’s how I ended up loving the West. I grew up watching John Wayne movies. I watched his war movies, I watched his westerns – I watched everything. It wasn’t until I did LONESOME DOVE that I knew I wanted to live that kind of lifestyle.

H: Backing up a little – actually I’ll back up a lot and start at the beginning. I know you did THE CHAMP and THE LAST FLIGHT OF NOAH’S ARK first, but the first movie I remember seeing you in was THE EARTHLING, with the great William Holden. Now you were only about ten years old then. Do you remember much about the movie, or Bill Holden?

R: I remember some things, yuh. I named my first son Holden, after Bill. And he left an impression on me as a young boy, about what a classy man he was. He was the kind of actor that, at the end of the day, would hang up his wardrobe. A lot of actors today just drop their wardrobe all over their trailer. It’s a mess, and they expect people to do that for them. Well Bill was the kind of actor that taught me that you hang up your own wardrobe. We were shooting in

Australia

, and he gave up his home so my mother and I could live in a ranch house with my sister. And he lived in our crummy little trailer for three months. We were in the middle of nowhere; there were no hotels. You know, that’s a big movie star doing that kind of thing. So yes, I remember a few things about Bill. I remember he loved maps. He’d sit and look at maps for hours and hours on the set. Maps of Africa specifically; he loved Africa.

H: Starting at age twelve you became – forgive me – a teen heart-throb on the hugely popular SILVER SPOONS. After six seasons, and 116 episodes, did you have trouble getting considered seriously for very different roles?

R: Well, fortunately, after SILVER SPOONS ended, I was seventeen. And I turned eighteen making LONESOME DOVE. LONESOME DOVE was a career-changing role. It helped me grow from a teenaged whatever-you-want-to-call-me – heartthrob was your word –

H: Sorry!

R: (laughs) – into part of a Western iconic piece of history, LONESOME DOVE. So thank you to those producers for giving me that opportunity. It helped me immensely, and other times in my career, the same things have happened. With NYPD BLUE, Steven Bochco gave me an opportunity to make another leap forward in my career.

H: How did you get the part of Newt?

R: Well, the President of CBS, Jeff Sagansky called me up, said, “I think you’d be great in this project we’re doing,” and I said to him, “You know, I don’t know horses very well, and I’m allergic to them as well. I don’t think I’m the right guy.” And I actually turned it down. And he called me back and he said, “Are you crazy? You know how famous this book is, right? You know this is the amazing Robert Duvall, and the cast.”

I said, “I’m just afraid I’m going to get sick.”

He said, “We’ll clean the horse every day for you. It’ll be allergy-proof.”

So I reconsidered it, and I got the proper medicine so I didn’t have to deal with any allergies, and I did. Thank goodness!

H: Do you still have allergy problems with horses?

R: It’s weird; it only happens in summer, when it’s hot and dusty. It’s climate-related. So if it’s a spring or a fall or a winter day, cold and damp, I’m great. But when there’s a great dust storm, and it’s hot, and the horses are sweaty – the dust is probably worse than the horses. But they’ve got such good medications now that I can pretty-well function at any time. I just have to make sure I take the right stuff.

H: Obviously you’re aware of the high esteem that LONESOME DOVE is held in. I personally consider it one of the very best Westerns done in any medium. Did you have a sense of how big it would be while you were doing it?

R: None of us did. . We all knew that it was great production value, we all new that it was great actors, we all knew it was a great script. We all knew it had all these possibilities to become something. But none of us knew it would become what it became. It is in my opinion one of the best five westerns ever made.

H: In GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE: QUEEN OF HEARTS, you play a western villain for a change. How did you like not being nice?

R: Oh man, I loved every day, showing up, being the villain, and wearing the scars I wore; the psychotic demeanor, that I could play and relish with every day on set. He really is a colorful character, this Cyril Knox. A lot of that stuff we created for him was on the spot and kind of spontaneous. It was very organic – it wasn’t necessarily scripted as such. When you have the trust of the people around you; Luke and the producers and they trusted me and the director to really go all out as Cyril Knox, to not play safe. Whenever anyone was afraid that I was going too big or broad, I said listen guys, the bigger the badder the villain, the bigger the better the hero. So I’m really glad they let me push the envelope a little.

H: I particularly like that poker scene you have with Luke; there’s no violence in it, but lots of menace.

R: I wish I had more scenes with Luke in the movie. I liked that character so much, I asked the producers if they could bring Cyril Knox back. But I loved playing the villain. It was so much fun playing that guy, getting fancied up into that Southern gentleman attire I wore and slapping on those Colt six-shooters. It was a lot of fun.

H: What did you think of your femme fatale, Katherine Isabelle? I had not seen her before.

R: Nor had I. She did fine; she looked the part, like she fit in the era; she did a good job. I did it for Luke, though. I just wanted to work with Luke. It’s funny, Luke wanted me for that role; and I didn’t know why. And when I finally got to Vancouver to work, he said, “You know, Ricky, the first job I ever got in Hollywood was a job you passed on. It’s my way of saying thank you.”

H: Really? What was that?

R: I don’t remember what movie it was! I forgot, but you can ask him.

H: How did you like filming in

Canada

? Have you shot there before?

R: Oh yeah, I’ve shot in Vancouver tons. Great place to work when it’s not drizzling and grey, which is about nine months out of the year.

H: I wrote a film noir that was shot there, and it was perfect for the

United States

ten years earlier.

R: I love

Canada

. I married a Canadian. My wife’s from Alberta, the next province over. So I’ve spent quite a bit of time there, and my wife’s family’s all there. So I’m a big fan of

Canada

. I also like to see American stories shot here. So I’m hoping that we’ll get more domestic business too.

H: In QUEEN OF HEARTS there’s a lot of brawling involved, especially on that riverboat. And it looked like you were doing your own fighting.

R: Oh yuh, I was. It’s just more authentic. I didn’t have any real dangerous, dangerous stunts to do. You know, as long as actors keep control of their punches and their elbows and things, you’re fine. But I’ve got to give props to Luke; Luke did (the big) stunt himself, and if he had fallen, he could have got really hurt. I realized, wow, this guy’s a helluvan athlete. You know he rode a couple of those bulls in EIGHT SECONDS. Doing westerns and stunts, it’s all a lot of fun.

H: You’ve now directed two movies. Does that change your perspective as an actor?

R: Oh yuh. I’ve directed three movies and a bunch of music videos – I did one for Brad Paisley and Allison Krause called Whiskey Lullaby. The three movies I did were BLACK CLOUD, WILD HEARTS, and a film I did in

Romania

called HELL HOUNDS, and yes, it does change your perspective. Because you understand that time is your most valuable commodity. And actors delay, dragging their feet, getting out of make-up and hair and wardrobe. They’re slow to get to set, meanwhile the crew is waiting. Time is just so valuable – you’re constantly fighting time as a producer/director. And so because I’m aware of that, because I’ve been behind the camera, I just make sure I show up on time, I know my lines, I’m prepared. I don’t dilly-dally. I get my work done. It’s important. A lot of actors want to be in the boots that I’m in, and I never forget that.

H: You write, you act and direct. Do you see yourself doing all three twenty years from now, or do you lean towards one over the others?

R: Oh no, all three, all three to the end. I’m writing something now, I’ve written a couple of things I’m trying to put financing together for, to direct. I’m constantly looking for good acting roles, which are pretty hard to come by. Reality TV has taken so much of the time and the content on TV. And a lot of actors who wouldn’t have considered TV ten years ago, now they work in TV, and so it’s become a much more competitive place, the acting field.

H: If you were asked to do LONESOME DOVE 3, would you be interested?

R: I died!

H: That would be a problem, wouldn’t it.

R: I died in STREETS OF LAREDO. Newt was killed off camera. I was killed by the Hellbitch in a horse accident off-camera. So it’d be a little hard.

H: Of course, it’s television. We could always say there was a misunderstanding. Like DALLAS.

R: (Laughs) You’re right. We did a good job on QUEEN OF HEARTS. I’m awful proud of all the work we did, based on the realities of the marketplace, and the time and the money they give you to make the film. I think we did a wonderful job, and the producers got great production value, I’m proud of everybody’s work on it.

GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE: QUEEN OF HEARTS – Film Review

While the first two movies were enjoyable, Luke Perry’s third stanza as Judge John Goodnight in GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE: QUEEN OF HEARTS, is the best yet, and may be Hallmark’s best western to date. It premieres on Saturday night, January 26^th on the Hallmark Movie Channel.

Luke Perry, who created the character, and writes the movies with Neal and Tippi Dobrofsky, plays a circuit judge in frontier Wyoming, whose endless travels and tremendous caseload brings him into contact with the good, the bad, and sometimes the beautiful, and from those contacts arise the stories.

Goodnight did not go into this career-path willingly. As a child, he was riding in a stagecoach with his parents, and a judge and his wife, when the stage was attacked by outlaws. His parents, and the judge, were killed. John and the judge’s widow survived, and she raised John as her own. He grew to be lawyer with no love of the law or of lawyers, and little ambition beyond drinking and carousing. His adoptive mother, a woman with political connections, in an unorthodox but effect use of ‘tough love,’ arranged to have him appointed a circuit judge in frontier Wyoming.

At this point in his story, he has had his revenge, but it hasn’t brought him the comfort he had hoped for. He’s still a loner, with very mixed feelings about passing judgment on many of the people he comes into contact with in his duties.

He’s traveling his circuit, between towns, when he sees a stagecoach chased by bandits, and rides to the rescue, shooting a pair of the bad men in the process. The only survivor of the attack is a lady passenger, Lucy Truffaut, played by the lovely Katharine Isabelle, the daughter of a wealthy mine owner in the East Coast. The fun of this is that the audience knows a great deal more about who Lucy really is than Goodnight does, and while I do not wish to give away too much, it lends the often quite serious proceedings a ‘MAVERICK’ sort of tone.

The damsel in question is being pursued by Col. Cyril Knox, in the person of Ricky Schroder, who in a role diametrically opposed to his ‘Newt’ character from LONESOME DOVE, plays a conceited, vain, ruthless, deadly and despicable villain – and plays him with chilling precision.

The movie is an elegant mixture of action, adventure, menace, humor and romance. As far as the romance goes, the chemistry between Luke Perry and Katharine Isabelle is so good you can’t help hoping for a rematch. Not only is Ms. Isabelle easy on the orbs, she also has a wonderfully expressive face which reveals ever thought and emotion as it occurs – a perfect contrast to Perry, whose poker face reveals only what he wants you to know.

There is considerable action, between hard-riding, running gun-battles, runaway stagecoaches, the occasional bear, and brawl on a riverboat that has a wonderful payoff. Cinematographer David Pelletier takes full advantage of his Canadian exterior locations, and his interior compositions are often unusual and interesting. Director Martin Wood, whose usual bailiwick is sci-fi, does a fine job of keeping the right balance of tone throughout.

I’ll make just two criticisms, because the purists would never forgive me otherwise: facial scars have a lot to do with one character’s motivations, but those scars can hardly be seen. Also, much is made of one character’s skill with a longrifle. But the weapon shown is (a) not a longrifle, and (b) used in such a manner – on horseback – that would made accuracy impossible.

That said, GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE: QUEEN OF HEARTS is a pleasure. Enjoy!

COX CABLE WATCHERS – IF YOU DON’T WANT TO LOSE RFD-TV, SPEAK UP NOW!

Patrick Gottsch is sort of a hero of mine. Not only does he run RFD-TV, Rural America’s Most Important Network, as well as Rural-TV and FamilyNet, he is also the man who bought Trigger and Bullet when they were being auctioned off, and has put them on tour around the country! Last year they rode the RFD-TV float at the Tournament of Roses, and won a prize, and this year’s tractor-themed float won a prize again!

As I do every Sunday morning at 9:30, I was watching the Roy Rogers Show this morning when Patrick Gottsch came on during an ad break, and announced that, without any warning, Cox was threatening to drop all of the RFD-TV networks from their cable system on February 1^st! The reason? Huge conglomerate networks want their spots on the dial! If you are a Cox customer, and want to keep seeing the RFD networks, Patrick is asking you to write an e-mail of complaint to Cox, but to send it directly to Patrick at Patrick@rfdtv.com, so he can present them all to Cox Communications. He further asks you to call your local Cox Cable System and voice your concerns. Don’t feel you can’t make a difference: we helped pressure Dish Network to pick up AMC, the home of HELL ON WHEELS, after they’d been dropped, and we can do the same here!

PANCHO VILLA RECRUITING POSTER AMONG

‘HIGH NOON’ JANUARY 26^TH AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS

Crow rifle case

On Saturday, January 26^th, High Noon Auctions will hold their 23^rd Annual Western Americana Auction in Mesa, Arizona. Always a fascinating and eclectic mix of history, show-biz and art, the over three-hundred lots feature items that are sure to delight anyone with a Western frame of mind, no matter their specific interest.

Frank Tenney painting

Among the most interesting pieces is a Pancho Villa recruitment poster looking for American enlistees. The text reads: Atencion Gringo. For gold and glory, come South of the border and ride with Pancho Villa, El Liberator of Mexico! Weekly payments in gold to: dynamiters, machine gunners, railroaders. Enlistments taken in Juarez, Mexico January 1915. VIVA VILLA! VIVA Revolucion!

101 Ranch guestbook

Also up for bids, a saddle owned by Simon Bolivar, The George Washington of South America. Born to a wealthy Venezuelan family in 1783, he vowed to liberate South America from

Spain

, and succeeded. He would be instrumental in the liberation of Columbia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, and the country they named after him,

Bolivia

There is also a photo of William S. Hart, inscribed to Nancy Russell, wife of painter Charlie Russell. There are Cattle Brand books, Tim McCoy and Tom Tyler posters, Wells Fargo items, a Duncan Renaldo ‘Cisco Kid’ sombrero, and a James Coburn Stetson with a Nudie’s Rodeo Tailor sweatband. To learn more, order a catalog or, more importantly, to bid, go HERE .

Prison wagon

‘HIGH CHAPARRAL’ REUNION REGISTRATION DEADLINE FEB 1^ST!

From March 22^nd through March 24^th, fans of the venerable and excellent HIGH CHAPARRAL will be gathering in Tucson, Arizona, or more correctly at Old Tucson Studios, home of the series, to celebrate, swap memories, and to meet the people who made the show happen. Among the attendees will be Henry Darrow, ‘Manolito Montoya’, whose interview was in last week’s Round-up (if you missed it, the link is HERE. http://www.henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-man-who-is-manolito.html ) Also Don Collier, who played ranch foreman Sam Butler; Rudy Ramos, who played Wind, Producer Kent McCray, and casting director Susan McCray. Penny McQueen, the trail boss of this event, tells me the full three-day weekend package is $350, and includes transfer, entrance and lunch at Old Tucson, Sunday brunch, Friday venue events, Director's Cut of the pilot episode showing, photo & autograph session, episode viewing, courtesy transport to Old Tucson, Q&A sessions and more. You can learn more at the official website HERE http://thehighchaparralreunion.com/ , and email your inquiries here: info@thehighchaparralreunion.com

On Saturday at a collector show I picked up the two Swedish candy cards below, which are actually about 1 by 2 inches. The first shows Mark Slade and Henry Darrow from the show. The other, from the movie COMANCHE (1956) features HIGH CHAPARRAL star Linda Cristal and Dana Andrews clowning around.

TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!

And speaking of TCM (okay, nobody was), have I mentioned that the segment I was interviewed for is now viewable here?

THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepreneur Gene Autry, and designed by the Disney Imagineering team, the Autry is a world-class museum housing a fascinating collection of items related to the fact, fiction, film, history and art of the American West. In addition to their permanent galleries (to which new items are frequently added), they have temporary shows. The Autry has many special programs every week -- sometimes several in a day. To check their daily calendar, CLICK HERE. And they always have gold panning for kids every weekend. For directions, hours, admission prices, and all other information, CLICK HERE.

HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first Hollywoodwestern, The Squaw Man. They have a permanent display of movie props, documents and other items related to early, especially silent, film production. They also have occasional special programs. 2100 Highland Ave., L.A. CA 323-874-2276. Thursday – Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for adults, $3 for senior, $1 for children.

WELLSFARGO HISTORY MUSEUM

This small but entertaining museum gives a detailed history of Wells Fargo when the name suggested stage-coaches rather than ATMS. There’s a historically accurate reproduction of an agent’s office, an original Concord Coach, and other historical displays. Open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Admission is free. 213-253-7166. 333 S. Grand Street, L.A. CA.

WESTERN ALL OVER THE DIAL

INSP’s SADDLE-UP SATURDAY features a block of rarely-seen classics THE VIRGINIAN and HIGH CHAPARRAL, along with BONANZA and THE BIG VALLEY. On weekdays they’re showing LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, BIG VALLEY, HIGH CHAPARRAL and DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN.

ME-TV’s Saturday line-up includes BRANDED, THE REBEL and THE GUNS OF WILL SONNETT. On weekdays it’s DANIEL BOONE, GUNSMOKE, BONANZA, BIG VALLEY, WILD WILD WEST, and THE RIFLEMAN.

RFD-TV, the channel whose president bought Trigger and Bullet at auction, have a special love for Roy Rogers. They show an episode of The Roy Rogers Show on Sunday mornings, a Roy Rogers movie on Tuesday mornings, and repeat them during the week.

WHT-TV has a weekday afternoon line-up that’s perfect for kids, featuring LASSIE, THE ROY ROGERS SHOW and THE LONE RANGER.

TV-LAND angered viewers by dropping GUNSMOKE, but now it’s back every weekday, along with BONANZA.

That’s all for now! Enjoy the Inauguration, and have a great Martin Luther King Day! And sleep late!

Happy trails,

Henry

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