‘UNDERGROUND’ GOES
UNDER – NO 3RD SEASON FOR WGNA DRAMA
Amid all of the good
TV-Western news – second seasons of HBO’s WESTWORLD and AMC’s THE SON – comes
disappointing news for fans of the excellent pre-Civil War historical adventure
series, UNDERGROUND. Despite strong
ratings and Emmy buzz, WGNA has announced cancellation of the Underground
Railroad drama.
WGNA is owned by
Tribune Media, and it was announced in May that Tribune was being acquired by local-TV
giant Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns 54 local Fox affiliates across the
country. Sinclair execs have gone on
record saying that despite their respect for the quality and popularity of
UNDERGROUND, they are looking for less expensive original programming. Also cancelled was WGNA’s other high-profile
drama OUTSIDERS, about generations of war-like hill people living off the grid in
the Appalachians.
UNDERGROUND Exec
Producer John Legend and series stars Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Aldis Hodge have
reached out to fans via social media, asking them to campaign for a move to
another network. Oprah Winfrey’s OWN has
been approached, and it looked like the show might have a chance with BET, the
Black Entertainment Television Network, but the deal didn’t happen. HULU streams UNDERGROUND and they, too, have
been approached without success. Not
that anyone’s asked, but to me, the most logical home for the show would be
NETFLIX, who had great success when they acquired the A&E-cancelled
contemporary Western LONGMIRE; my second suggestion would be AMAZON, which is
in a frantic competition with NETFLIX for market share.
PARAMOUNT RANCH
CELEBRATES 90TH ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY 6/4!
The Paramount Movie Ranch in Agoura will
mark its 90th anniversary this Sunday. The
fun starts at 6 pm with a tour, and there will be displays, presentations, and
a panel discussion featuring Hollywood historians Marc Wanamaker, Donald Bitz
and Mike Malone.
In 1927, Paramount Pictures bought 2,700 acres of
the original Rancho Los Virgenes to build their movie ranch. While they filmed there for decades, the sets
eventually crumbled, and the buildings we think of as Paramount Ranch actually started out with a different studio. Mark Wanamaker explains, “The RKO Ranch was at Louise and Burbank Boulevard, in Encino.
The CIMARRON street was built there in 1931, which was a major western town if
you remember the film. It became the nucleus of the ranch, and later they built
other buildings, residential neighborhoods… In 1953 Howard Hughes owned RKO, and he liquidated the ranch – he
didn’t need it anymore. The Hertzs were a family that came from back east that
always wanted to own and run a movie ranch. The Hertz family purchased the
Paramount Ranch, purchased pieces of
the RKO Ranch and brought them to the
Paramount Ranch. The current western
town at the Paramount Ranch was the RKO western town.” You can read the rest of my interview with
Marc HERE.
SAN FERNANDO VALLEY
RELICS CELEBRATES ‘IVERSON MOVIE RANCH’, MOVES TO SAVE ‘CASABLANCA’
FAÇADE!
IVERSON
Iverson's Garden of the Gods
On Tuesday, May 23rd,
The Valley Relics Museum, final resting place for hundreds of mementoes of San
Fernando Valley restaurants, theatres and other fun spots – their collection of
classic neon signs is unequalled – honored the memory of the Iverson Movie
Ranch with a Power-point presentation by Iverson Ranch historian Dennis R.
Liff, and Ray Vincent of the Chatsworth Historical Society.
Original sign on display at Valley Relics
The place was packed
with Western-movie aficionados, many of whom had grown up near Iverson; in
their enthusiasm it was sometimes a race to see whether audience members could blurt
out a location or identify a movie still before the speakers could. A popular location since the silents,
including Buster Keaton’s THREE AGES and Curtiz’ NOAH’S ARK, hundreds of A and
B Westerns have been shot there. The
burned-out relay station from STAGECOACH was filmed there, as were TV series like
THE LONE RANGER – it’s the home of the famed ‘Lone Ranger Rock’, HAVE GUN WILL
TRAVEL, BONANZA, THE VIRGINIAN, and dozens more.
Julie Ann Ream meets a cigar-store Indian
she purchased at the recent Knott's Berry Farm auction
Dennis Liff
Sadly, in the late 1960s, the Simi Valley
Freeway cut through the ranch, its visual incongruity and associated noise
making it increasingly difficult to make any kind of movies, and record
sound. Condominiums have popped up among
the iconic movie rocks that were the ranch’s greatest attraction; others have
been dynamited, and still others have been buried. But happily, the most famous rock area, the
Garden of the Gods, is part of a park that is open to the public, as is the
Lone Ranger Rock.
Find your way to the Garden of the Gods
Lone Ranger Rock
CASABLANCA
Just as I was putting
this story to bed, I learned that Valley Relics and its founder, Tommy Gelinas,
were in the news again. It began a
decade earlier, Christmastime in 2007, when it was announced that the original
airplane hangar #1 at Van Nuys Airport, formerly Metropolitan Airport, was
about to be demolished. The reason this
was big news was that it was the hangar around which so much of the action in Warner Brothers’ CASABLANCA (1942) had
taken place. It’s where Victor (Paul
Henried) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) Laszlo arrive early on, and it’s where at
the end someone leaves and someone stays and someone gets shot and it’s the
beginning of a beautiful friendship (I’m not going to spoil it for anyone who
hasn’t seen it).
The owners of the Van
Nuys hotel The Airtel, Jim and Christine Dunn, read the story, rushed over, and
bought the front façade of the hangar.
It’s been stored in pieces at the Airtel ever since. Christine Dunn announced in The Daily News
that she is turning the job of reassembling the façade to Tommy Gelinas. It’s not yet clear where its new location
will be – Tommy thinks it would be too large for his museum. It may well become the façade for a Moroccan
restaurant in Van Nuys. I know this isn’t
strictly Western-related, but Humphrey Bogart starred in THE OKLAHOMA KID, and
Paul Henreid directed nine episodes of THE BIG VALLEY, so I’ll continue to
follow this story.
KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN
FOR ‘LEGEND OF NED KELLY’!
Matthew Holmes, whose
THE LEGEND OF BEN HALL was named True West Magazine’s Best Foreign Western of
the Year, has announced his next film, THE LEGEND OF NED KELLY. Played previously by Mick Jagger and Heath Ledger,
Kelly is an even bigger folk-hero in Australia then Ben Hall. The most famous of the Aussie Bushrangers or
highwaymen, he’s the one who made himself a suit of armor. Matthew has just begun a Kickstarter campaign
to finance the film. He financed the short subject version of BEN HALL that
way, which lead to the feature. I’ve
never gotten involved with crowdfunding before, but I’m going to kick in a few
bucks on this one. If you’d like to
learn more about the project, or possibly invest in it, click the link below:
FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE, 'GUNFIGHTER' BY THE MIDNIGHT LARKS!
Here's a brand-new video, directed by Mike Malloy, producer of the fascinating Western THE SCARLET WORM (2011) and director of the excellent documentary EUROCRIME (2012). Midnight Larks in a new band with roots from the band Spindrift, who contributed to the soundtrack of the Scott Eastwood Western DIABLO. The Gunfighter in the clips is the very talented and scary Aaron Stielstra, in scenes from SCARLET WORM and 6 BULLETS TO HELL (2014). Enjoy!
HEAR ‘GUNSMOKE’ RADIO
STARS COURTESY OF S.P.E.R.D.V.A.C.!
Jon Dehner is on the air!
Thirty-five
years ago, in August of 1982, at a meeting of SPERDVAC, the Society to Preserve
and Encourage Radio Drama, Variety and Comedy, some of the greatest
voice-talents in the history of radio gathered to discuss their work. All had performed on GUNSMOKE, most on HAVE
GUN WILL TRAVEL, and all had other impressive credits. Parley Baer was the original Chester
Proudfoot; John Dehner played Paladin on HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and starred in
FRONTIER GENTLEMAN; Virginia Gregg; Harry Bartell; Peggy Webber; and Vic Perrin
played countless characters on dozens of series. Barbara Watkins of SPERDVAC has begun posting
one remarkable program a month, and this is a wonderful beginning. Click HERE to listen.
Georgia Ellis & Parley Baer
The link will also take
you to the SPERDVAC page, where you can learn more about this fine
organization, and even join up!
AND THAT’S A WRAP!
In the coming Round-ups
I’ll be catching up with the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, the TCM Festival,
book and video reviews, and the new documentary SPIRIT GAME – PRIDE OF A
NATION. And the nation is the Iroquois
Confederacy. It’s the true story of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team, and how for the first time the
Championship Games were held on an Indian Reservation.
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents
Copyright June 2017 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved
As usual, a stellar array of topical and semi-topical Western entertainment tid-bits, so interesting and written with aplomb. Thank you Henry for keeping alive the bullet-hole-ly spirit by massaging the hearts of us true Western fans and original participants!
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