INTERVIEW WITH PRODUCER BARRY BARNHOLTZ

Today there are quite a few working producers who have made a Western, a very few who have made two, but none have shown the commitment to the genre that Barry Barnholtz has in the past few years.  After producing TRIGGER FAST and GUNS OF HONOR back-to-back in 1994, he came back to the form with a vengeance: since 2009 he’s produced ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE, A COLD DAY IN HELL, AMERICAN BANDITS: FRANK AND JESSE JAMES, COLE YOUNGER & THE BLACK TRAIN, and just this year two more back-to-back releases, WYATT EARP’S REVENGE, and BAD BLOOD: HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS.  We talked about his start in the entertainment business, his personal feelings about Westerns, and his five-year-plan for the future.  

Barry Barnholtz at BAD BLOOD: HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS preview

H: Let me tell you first off, how much I enjoyed BAD BLOOD: HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS.  It was really solid storytelling and entertainment.  I also watched the Kevin Costner mini-series, and they did a very nice job, but I’ve got to say, I liked yours better.  I think your decision to compress the historical events into a shorter time period, rather than drawing it out, was crucial.

BARRY:  Thank you so much. I haven’t seen the other one, but I’ve been told that it had very limited action.  You know, LIONSGATE released ours, it was very well received, and I think everyone on the crew gave it 1,500%, not 100%.  I thought that the talent went over and beyond, and gave it their very very very best.  The writer-director, Fred Olen Ray, this was close to his heart, this was a passion.  He’s from that part of our nation.  He had a personal involvement in it, and really wanted to provide more than 1500%, and I think that he certainly delivered that.

H: I think his personal involvement comes through in that, and in AMERICAN BANDITS.

B: Right; exactly.  He delivered on HATFIELDS.  And the locations were outstanding; we couldn’t have shot this on the west coast.  This had to be shot showing Kentucky locations, where it happened, you know?  To be as real to the story as possible.  It was very cold when we were shooting there.  And they put up with the cold, with the rain.   This not the most pleasant thing to shoot, so you can see how over and beyond everyone went.  The director’s like the captain of the ship.  And when it’s rainy and cold outside, and the director’s willing to stand outside, in the rain, and be a part of that scenario, the talent will follow.  And Fred really proved himself to be the great director that he is.  A lot of research was done on the story.  Fred put a lot of detail into it.  The opening scene, the (Civil War) battle scenes with almost a hundred extras, really added to the production value.  And the film really delivers.

H: Let me back up a bit.  I hear a trace of a not-California accent.  Where were you born?

B: I was actually born in the Midwest, but I spent a lot of time in Europe.  Had an apartment in Cannes, France.  Spent some time in England.  I travelled a lot.

H: When did you decide you wanted to make movies?

B: I came out of the music industry.  Been there ever since I was in high school.  I knew I wanted to be involved in the entertainment industry.  I began actually, booking fraternity parties.  And then moving up to promoting occasional dance concerts, to then promoting larger concerts, like the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara, Old Spanish Days up there, Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino and larger venues.  Then I went on to producing records.  I guess I was semi- responsible for three platinum and fifteen or sixteen gold records.  What I did, when disco was hot, was I located all of these African-American tracks down at Muscle Shoals (note: the legendary Alabama recording studio).  Put Japanese lyrics to them, French lyrics, Italian lyrics, distributed worldwide.  I had a nightclub on Sunset Boulevard that became world-renowned, called Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco.  And it was responsible for breaking MOTT THE HOOPLE and SLADE.  We were responsible for that whole glitter sensation.  David Bowie was the chairman of the board.  We made the centerfold of PEOPLE.  We were in NEWSWEEK twice in a month; about 320 different publications.  Then I went on to booking films on TV; SPOTLIGHT, HBO, SHOWTIME.  TV in greater Washington, and handling independent films.  Then I started a (video) company called VIDMARK in ‘83.  And turned it into TRIMARK in 1985, so I was co-cofounder of TRIMARK.  We took it public, and it was a real success story.  And I was there for 14 ½ years.  The company was sold to LIONSGATE, and currently I’ve had almost a sixteen year relationship with LIONSGATE, in releasing films.  They have over 200 films that I’ve been involved with.  I teamed up with a fellow named Jeff Schenck almost four years ago, and with him started a company called HYBRID.  Jeff and I have made almost twenty films in that short period of time.  Mostly things for television; LIFETIME, SYFY, HALLMARK, ABC FAMILY.

MOTT THE HOOPLE

H: As you know, my focus with the Round-up is Westerns.  Were you a western fan as a kid?

B: I think everyone is a western fan as a kid.  With the lack of Westerns in the market place, if you ask any director, or any talent, if they’d like to be involved with a western, they all jump in immediately, and are very excited about the project.  If the script is very good, it really isn’t a problem attracting talent, because it’s something they grew up with as well. 

H: I was just watching what I think is one of your first westerns, TRIGGER FAST, this afternoon.  You made that and GUNS OF HONOR in ’94.  Were they your first westerns?

B: I believe so.  They were shot in South Africa. 

H: They’re both based on ‘The Floating Outfit’ stories by English western writer J.T. Edson, and I notice they both have the same very strong cast; Martin Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Christopher Atkins.  Are they different ‘cuts’ of the same story?

B: Each one is a stand-alone.  (One is a continuation of the other) but each can stand alone. 

H: How did they come about?

B: I was at TRIMARK when I was approached by someone that I thought was very capable of producing films, in London.  And their vision was to go to South Africa, and to make these films. 

H: TRIGGER FAST is a beautiful looking picture; South Africa works very well as the west.

B: It’s amazing, because of all the horses – it was less expensive to buy the horses and then resell them than to lease the horses. 

H: For the next several years you produced a wide range of movies: thrillers, horror films, Christmas pictures, family pictures.  But it wasn’t until 2009 that you made another Western.

B: I’m always looking at opportunities; and the opportunity didn’t come about until then.  Sure, a lot of scripts are introduced to me; I read a lot of scripts every week.  But I just didn’t feel that any were well-enough written, or they could not be negotiated, or I didn’t think the idea was strong enough to turn into a film. 

H: Well, in 2009 you returned to the western with ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE, which I understand is one of the last films of David Carradine. 

B: It was his last western anyway. 

H: Was that a project someone brought to you?

B: Yes; the project was brought to us, but we were instrumental in casting.  And I thought that David Carradine was a good choice. 

H: I’ve never seen when David Carradine was not a good choice.  I notice your company’s logo features a horse’s face. 

B: Yuh; I’ve had horses in my life now for twenty-five years.  That’s actually my first horse that I had.  I’ve retired him; he lives up in Ojai.  He was a cutting horse; grandson of Peppy San, a very famous cutting horse. (Note: Peppy San is the first National Cutting Horse Association World Champion to sire an NCHA World Champion.)   Sure made me a better rider, to get such a unique, spirited horse as my first horse.  I’ve always ridden in the past, even as a teenager.  Always had a passion to ride horses, and now I have four, right in my backyard.

H: In 2010 you and Jeffrey Schenck produced AMERICAN BANDITS: FRANK AND JESSE JAMES.  Since then, among the thrillers and Christmas movies and comedies, you’ve produced two more westerns back to-back: WYATT EARP’S REVENGE and BAD BLOOD: HATFIELDS & MCCOYS.  And that’s not even counting your other two westerns of the same period, COLD DAY IN HELL and COLE YOUNGER AND THE BLACK TRAIN.  Why have you decided that this is the right time for westerns?

B: Well, I think that there is a real lack of westerns in the marketplace.  In my library of films, I have HIGH NOON; I have STAGECOACH, THE LAST DAYS OF FRANK AND JESSE JAMES with Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash.  I had an opportunity to meet the ‘Highwaymen’ when they were around.  I also have ANOTHER PAIR OF ACES with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.  And a movie with Travis Tritt, THE LONG KILL, that we shot in Spain.  I’ve released nearly 900 films.

H: Most of your westerns of the past few years are based on historical figures: the James Brothers, Wyatt Earp, Hatfields & McCoys, Cole Younger.  Does this reflect your personal interest in Western history?

B: You know, if you make a film about an icon, people can identify it easier.  If you make a film about Billy the Kid, if you make a film about Wyatt Earp, they’re iconic, and people can relate to them.  So it’s easier to get that into the marketplace, than if you just make a western with a created character.  If you have Wyatt Earp or Billy the Kid in the title, it’s almost like having ‘A Stephen King Film,’ above the title.  It makes it a lot more desirable in the marketplace. 

H: Speaking of the marketplace, what is the worldwide market for westerns like?  What countries want to see them?

B: There’s a little bit in Canada, because of Calgary.  There’s Australia; there’s a little bit in the U.K., couple other territories.  Italy, because of the spaghetti westerns.  In Spain, somewhat.  But it’s really limited outside North America.

H: How about Germany?  I know they used to be huge,

B: It’s limited; it’s hit and miss.  And DVD has certainly changed the marketplace.  Video’s disappearing in the international marketplace.  So you have to have it in some form that people are willing and able to see. VOD and SVOD -- video on demand and subscription video on demand -- and things of that nature; it hasn’t taken off in the States yet.  It’s starting to take hold in the UK and France; slowly it’s expanding.  There’s a lot of piracy in a lot of the territories, international distribution.  Once it’s out there, it’s pretty difficult to stop it, because downloading entities are sprouting up on a daily basis.

H: I don’t think the audience has a very clear understanding of the executive producer’s role in filmmaking.  How would you explain your role?

B: I’m involved with raising or putting up the financing.   I’m involved with hiring the director, the producer, and a big part of the crew.  I make the decisions on the casting, because I have a distribution background, and that really helps in figuring out what names really mean something for all the different ancillaries, whether it be theatrical, video, VOD, television.  And of course I depend upon Jeff, who has a high degree of knowledge in the TV marketplace as well.  What we don’t know we have no shame in asking.  International sales companies, how they feel about certain talent, in order to be able to make intelligent decisions.  We’re not interested in making an art house film.  We’re not interested in making a film that has to go on a film festival circuit to find distribution.  With the contacts that we have, we’re making it with distribution in mind. 

H: How involved are you with script development?

B: Jeff has more of a handle on that than I do.  He has a better idea of what makes a good script than I do.  I’m better with the timing of the script.

H: I had an email from a woman who said she didn’t consider a movie to be a western if it didn’t have a barroom fight.  What things do you think a western must have?

B: It has to have a barroom fight.  People want to see gunshots, and they want pacing.  They don’t want to see too much before there’s a certain amount of action, to be able to keep their level of interest.  I certainly believe in starting out films with a ‘bang,’ whether it’s a western or a thriller; in most genres, except for a comedy or a romantic comedy.   It’s got to have a shootout; multiple shootouts.  They want to hear loud gunshots, they want to hear ricochets; they want to hear the guns sound real, not cap guns.  They want to see that the acting is good.  They want to see that the wardrobe is pretty authentic.  And the locations as well mean a tremendous amount.  They want to see talent that knows how to ride horses.  We had trouble with some of the people riding in a couple of the westerns, even though the actors said they were experienced riders.  We saw them bouncing on the saddle.  So we had to dress them in longer jackets so you didn’t see them bouncing.  You need people who know how to ride; audiences know the difference. 

H: It seems to me, just looking at your westerns, that there is a steady progression from AMERICAN BANDITS to WYATT EARP to THE HATFIELDS.

B: The movies have been increasing in size.  And they’re going to continue to.   And we’re stepping up, and trying to go for bigger and better talent all the time.    That’s our five-year plan.  It’s within our future, yes.

H: I had the pleasure of being on your WYATT EARP set, so I know how efficiently your sets run.  I was fascinated to see director Michael Feiffer finish a shot and, without cutting, literally pick up the camera and change the setup.  I thought, that could only be with digital; you couldn’t do that with film.  How has the move from film to digital affected your movies? 

B: Well, all the broadcasters now want HD.  And listen, it’s so much easier to shoot on HD now, where, if you made a mistake, you can see right away, instead of having to print dailies.  The future is right now, it’s here.  And the cameras are changing all the time.  You buy a new camera now, and in two years it’s outdated, because the progression of new cameras are coming out more than just yearly.

H: I know that Michael Feiffer has directed more than twenty projects for you.  What keeps you coming back to him? 

B: I started out with Michael doing the serial killer films.  And he has a long history of producing and directing.  He’s someone that I have faith with.  But we are diversifying, and at this point constantly seeking new directors to work with.  And new producers as well. 

H: Do you have a group of people in front of and behind the camera, a kind of stock company that you like to use again and again? 

B: We use some of the same crew on different projects – obviously it depends upon availability.  But having the luxury of shooting many of our films in and around Southern California, there’s a huge pool to be able to pull from.

H: Are you looking to get into theatrical releases, as opposed to home video?

B: We’ve been releasing things theatrically at BARNHOLTZ ENTERTAINMENT now for a long time.  Jeff and I, through HYBRID, we’re very secure in making TV-type of movies.   But our direction, within our five year plan, and with the type of elements that we’re bringing in, will certainly command theatrical opening and theatrical success, for the amount of money that we’re spending on them.  And the talent that we’re working with.

H: Where are you within your five year plan?

B: We just made a decision within the last year to make this five year plan.  And that’s why you see the natural progression of making bigger and bigger films. 

H: Have you chosen what your next Western project is?

B: No.  Not as yet. 

H: Have you considered doing sequels or follow-ups to any of the westerns you’ve done before?

B: I haven’t really thought about it.  We’re in negotiations on one; I can’t divulge the title yet. 

H: What are your favorite western movies?

B: I love STAGECOACH; I love HIGH NOON.  I like the movies I’ve been involved with in the past.  It was such a pleasure to be able to work with the elements on FRANK AND JESSE JAMES, and very exciting to be able to work with talented actors.  I’m noticing that there are a lot of country and western singers who would love to be given the opportunity to be in westerns as well. 

WYATT EARP’S REVENGE – a film review

WYATT EARP’S REVENGE, the new Western directed by Michael Feifer from Darren Benjamin Shepherd’s script, rewinds history to the very beginning of the Wyatt Earp legend and in addition to entertaining, to a surprising degree, it gives an accurate history lesson.  In 1878, a rich, spoiled, sociopathic thug named Spike Kenedy (Daniel Booko), angry at the Dodge City mayor, Dog Kelly, fires several shots through Kelly’s door, then rides away, thinking he’s killed the mayor.  In fact, Kelly is not home, and has let a couple of actresses sleep in his house.  One of them, Dora Hand (AMERICAN IDOL finalist Diana DeGarmo), takes a bullet meant for Dog Kelly, and dies.   

To see the cast of famous lawman characters that populate the tale, you might think screenwriter Shepherd was fantasizing – everyone but Wild Bill Hickock and Hopalong Cassidy are in the posse --  but that’s the honest truth.  When Wyatt Earp (Shawn Roberts) takes off after Spike, he’s accompanied by Bat Masterson (Matt Dallas), Charlie Bassett (Scott Whyte), and they’re soon joined by expert tracker Bill Tilghman (Levi Fiehler).  Granted, they do toss in Doc Holliday (HART OF DIXIE star Wilson Bethel), but it’s an amusing cameo that doesn’t really re-write history, and brings some much-appreciated levity to a very grim story.

Earp and his men are in a race against time to catch Spike and his brother Sam Kenedy (Steven Grayhm) before they can reach the property of their influential politico-father Mifflin Kenedy (singer Trace Adkins), at which point Spike will be all but untouchable.

Shawn Roberts as Wyatt Earp - 1878

There is a second, parallel story as well, where Wyatt Earp, in a San Francisco hotel in 1907, is being interviewed by a reporter about the events of 1878.  Here, Earp is Val Kilmer, old and dignified, and his thoughtful, introspective narration, heard at intervals throughout the story, adds a welcome gravitas to the proceedings.  Kilmer’s performance as a man haunted by his life-choices is quietly powerful. His dignity is all the more effective when faced with the arrogant questions of the callow reporter (David O’Donnell). 

Val Kilmer as Wyatt Earp - 1907

Shawn Roberts as Earp gives a sincere but understated performance, understated by necessity since Kilmer is frequently voicing his thoughts, and one can easily see the younger man growing into the older one.  Dora Hand is dead before we meet her, but in a series of flashbacks we learn that she was Earp’s woman, and on the way to being his wife, and while this is all invention, it gives important impetus to Earp’s hunt for Spike. 

Trace Adkins looks like he stepped right out of a Matthew Brady photograph, and although his role is brief, his fatherly quiet fury is moving and effective, complimented by Caia Coley as his wife, the too-indulgent mother of Spike and Sam. 

Trace Adkins as Mifflin Kenedy

While the members of Wyatt's posse are all familiar characters, the script doesn't give the actors  much chance to make an impression in their individual roles. Matt Dallas as Bat Masterson comes off the best, introduced with an elaborate fist-fight at the beginning of the story, before the chase is on, and later is effective as Wyatt’s best friend. 

Matt Dallas as Bat Masterson

Interestingly, the best role, and most memorable performance is by Daniel Booko as the villain of the piece, Spike Kenedy, whose treatment of people he meets along the way is the stuff of nightmares.  Spike may have a screw loose, or he may simply be a sadist, but Booko plays him with an smooth charm that chills, because you can easily see yourself making the mistake of trusting him. 

Daniel Booko as Spike Kenedy

There’s plenty of action, between the posse’s pursuit of Spike and company, the trigger-happy lowlifes Spike travels with, and Spike’s almost arbitrary homicidal tendencies.  An extended shootout between the posse and Spike’s gang, in a field with no cover except tall grass, is particularly exciting.

Michael Feifer’s direction is effective without distracting artifice.  Working with cinematographer Roberto Schein, the lighting and shot composition is always effective and frequently striking, as in the ‘forensic’ sequence at the crime scene.  Subtle use of a crane gives some scenes a considerable power-boost.  Christian Ramirez’s art direction gives a consistent sense of time and place, and Nikki Pelley’s costumes are correct, yet unusually varied, giving each character their own style.

IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO ENTER INSP’S SADDLE-UP SATURDAY SWEEPSTAKES! 

SADDLE-UP SATURDAY, featuring episodes of BONANZA, THE BIG VALLEY, DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN, and sometimes movies, now starts at 1 p.m. ET, 10 a.m. PT, and runs all day and all night! You can learn more about the line-up HERE. To celebrate the expansion, INSP is sponsoring a sweepstakes that will win some lucky viewer an all-expenses-paid four-day Dude Ranch getaway for two worth $5000! The second prize is a Weber Barbecue, Omaha Steaks and groceries worth more than $1300! Third prize – these are worth $300, and there are a dozen of them – are BIG VALLEY and BONANZA DVDs, plus a new pair of Levis and a Fisher Gold Mining Kit! To find out more, click under the banner below, and good luck! This contest started last Monday, and it’s only running for five more days, so quit putting it off – enter now! 

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RIDE LONESOME: THE FILMS OF BUDD BOETTICHER – THE CURATOR’S PERSPECTIVE

Paul Malcolm, who has been a programmer at the UCLA Archive since 2007, has a wide range of film interests, and describes himself as a ‘generalist.’  But as he proved with last year’s TRACKING THE CAT: ROBERT MITCHUM IN THE WEST, he has a taste for cinema-sagebrush.  “I think Robert Mitchum’s western films had been overlooked, overwhelmed by his noir and urban personality.  And I love his westerns because there’s so much of that noir element in them.  The Mitchum series did really well for us; the audience was really responsive.  I’m a huge fan of westerns, and I just wanted to do another western series.

“I met Budd Boetticher back in 2000 or 2001, when I was getting my masters degree at UCLA, and Professor Janet Bergstrom arranged a meeting with Budd and Mary at his home down in San Diego, for herself and three teaching assistants.  She was teaching a noir class, and she had screened THE KILLER IS LOOSE in the class.  I just found him to be the most gracious and engaging and amazing guy.  And he was just an incredible host to give us an afternoon.  He showed us his horses, and the ring where he did the bullfighting recreations.  I’d just always loved his films, so when I got the job here in 2007, it was always in the back of my mind, doing a Budd Boetticher series.  Because his films, both the crime films like THE KILLER IS LOOSE and THE RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND, and the Ranown Westerns, I haven’t seen play around in Los Angeles, and I think they deserve to be shown.  THE TALL T, RIDE LONESOME, I think all of these films should be part of the regular classic circulating titles out there, in the way that the Howard Hawks, the John Ford films get circulated.  He’s had these peaks of attention, but he’s never really quite gotten into the regular pantheon, and I think he deserves to be there.  His films are pretty amazing.”   

The schedule, all double features, are as follows: July 21^st  Ride Lonesome (1959);
Comanche Station (1960), July 22^nd Bullfighter and the Lady (1951);
My Kingdom for... (1985), July 29^th Seminole (1953);
The Man from the Alamo (1953), August 6^th The Killer is Loose (1956);
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), and August 12^th Escape in the Fog (1945);
Behind Locked Doors (1948).  Learn more, and order tickets, here: http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2012-07-13/ride-lonesome-films-budd-boetticher

On hand for the July 22^nd screening of BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY will be Mary Boetticher, and Robert Gitt, UCLA Preservation Officer, who did the restoration on BULLFIGHTER.

Just a side note; on Friday evening, as SEVEN MEN FROM NOW began, with applause for various credits, a man in his late teens, and his father, sitting beside me, applauded vigorously for composer Henry Vars.  After the movie, I learned that they were the grandson and great-grandson of the prolific and talented composer, far better known in his homeland of Poland, and most famous here for his music for FLIPPER.  SEVEN MEN was produced by Andrew V. McLaglen, and they told me that McLaglen used Vars frequently.  In fact, Vars composed the scores for five films that McLaglen directed: FRECKLES, THE LITTLE SHERHERD OF KINGDON COME, MAN IN THE VAULT, GUN THE MAN DOWN, and Vars’ final score, FOOL’S PARADE.  (You never know who you’ll meet at a screening in L.A.)

ANYONE KNOW THE HUDKINS BROTHERS?

This week I received a message from Kristine Sader: “I am writing a book about my uncles, the Hudkins, and also my cousin Rich Brehm, who were stuntmen, and wranglers in many westerns.  If you know anyone who knew them, I would like to talk with them.  Thanks so much.”

John ‘Bear’ Hudkins, Ace Hudkins, Clyde Hudkins, and Dick Hudkins (I think they were all brothers) were legendary stuntmen, who owned a stable and Hudkins Brothers Movie Ranch in Burbank, across the road from Warner Brothers Studios – the movie ranch is now Forest Lawn Cemetery.  They’re said to have owned both Trigger and Hi-Yo Silver when they were rental horses. 

Thanks to Boyd Mager for this image

As Neil Summers writes, “When you watch classic action filled westerns and see a ferocious wagon wreck, or turnover as they are called in the business, chances are real good you’re seeing the expertise of Bear Hudkins, one of the best wagon men ever to perform in films.”

If you have knowledge of the Hudkins, or Rich Brehm, e-mail her at SADERWWJD@AOL.COM.  And please let the Round-up know, as well.

Well, that's it for tonight.  Have a great week!

Happy trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright July 2012 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

HATFIELDS & MCCOYS: BAD BLOOD SPILLS JUNE 5TH!

Film Review: BAD BLOOD: THE HATFIELDS & MCCOYS

Starting in the midst of a nameless Civil War battle, where we meet our first McCoy, Fred Olen Ray’s BAD BLOOD: THE HATFIELDS & MCCOYS establishes a cold ‘blue’ look that could have come from Ingmar Bergman’s cinematographer, Sven Nyquist (actually it’s the work of Ray’s frequent collaborator Theo Angell).  It’s a blue, cold, sad world we enter, and when the smoke clears we see the humanity of Union soldier Asa McCoy (Scott Thomas Reynolds), who knows his friend can’t survive his wounds, but stays with him, speaking encouragement until his friend passes.  When Asa leaves the sea of battlefield corpses for home, you have some hope that he’ll make a new life. 

But the territories of the Hatfields and the McCoys flank Tug Fork, part of Big Sandy River, with the McCoys on the Kentucky side and the Hatfields in West Virginia.  When Asa McCoy cuts through the West Virginia side in a hurry to get home, he runs into a group of Hatfields.  They’re members of the Logan Wildcats, a Confederate splinter group lead by Uncle Jim Vance (Tim Abell), and they hate both the Union and the McCoys.  Asa’s fate is sealed.

From there the story unfolds, with aspects of both Shakespearean tragedy and an impending car crash you can’t steer away from.  As the patriarchs who dread what is coming but can see no other way, Perry King as Ran’l McCoy and Jeff Fahey as Devil Anse Hatfield posses the gravitas to hold the screen with a quiet, unblinking stare.  As the deadly feud accelerates, their wives, Lisa Rotondi as Sarah McCoy and Priscilla Barnes as Vicey Hatfield, in a world where women have respect but not power, must look on helplessly as their menfolk dwindle.  The pain in Priscilla Barnes’ face is so deep and raw that it hurts to see it. 

And because it wouldn’t be a truly Shakespearean tragedy without star-crossed lovers, there is the forbidden romance of Johnse Hatfield and Rosanna McCoy, played by Errol Flynn’s grandson Sean Flynn, and Australian beauty Kassandra Clementi. 

BAD BLOOD: THE HATFIELDS & MCCOYS draws you in with a fascinating, largely true story, solid direction, and plenty of realistic, motivated gunplay. 

While the almost gothic feud captured world attention, and has frequently been portrayed on film, incredibly, it has usually been played for laughs, by Abbott and Costello, the Bowery Boys, or in cartoons, with barefoot, bearded hillbillies taking potshots at each other.  Writer-director Fred Olen Ray’s script treats them as rural folks, but not as backwoods trash.  They are people of humanity and dignity, and you care what happens to them.  It would be easy to make Uncle Jim Vance a goggle-eyed caricature of a homicidal redneck, but though he is the instigator and catalyst for all of the trouble, Tim Abell, in one of my favorite performances, plays with a restraint that makes you believe otherwise reasonable men would follow him.  

Perry King

Also turning in strong performances are Christian Slater as Kentucky Governor Thomas Bramlette who is trying settle the feud; Ted Monte as the tremendously undersupplied and outgunned government agent whom Bramlette sends into the field; and Jerry Lacy as Union General Burbridge, who would like nothing better than to use the feud as an excuse to declare martial law and take control of the state.  It’s a particular treat to watch Lacy, who first made his mark on Broadway in 1969, playing the spirit of Humphrey Bogart in Woody Allen’s PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM.  He reprised the role in the film, and in the 1970s was the priest on DARK SHADOWS.  He makes a perfect Civil War general, and is soon to be starring in the title role of the sinister DOCTOR MABUSE. 

Finding no convincing California locations, director Ray took his cast and crew to the place where the events took place, Kentucky, in the dead of winter, and the authenticity is as palpable as the cold.  Among the period structures used in the film were the Stephen Foster house, and the childhood home of Abraham Lincoln.  It’s not a surprise that Ray would go to that trouble, in spite of the limited budget, because this is clearly a heartfelt project, first to Ray, then to the cast and crew.  Ray’s script and direction drew poignant and moving performances from a cast made up of fine actors who have turned in many fine performances before, but who have, in many cases, not had such powerful material to work with in a long time.  They did the Hatfields and the McCoys, and themselves, proud.

INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR FRED OLEN RAY

Fred Olen Ray

When I’d last interviewed prolific genre director Fred Olen Ray in June of 2010, it had been just before the release of his western, AMERICAN BANDITS: FRANK AND JESSE JAMES.  (You can read that interview here: http://www.henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-apologies-for-delay.html )

In the interim, Fred has directed sixteen more movies (!).  Among them are SUPER SHARK, toplining John Schneider, and TURBULENT SKIES, starring Casper Van Dien, Brad Dourif and Nicole Eggert.  Many of the rest have the word ‘bikini’ somewhere in their title – BIKINI FRANKENSTEIN, BIKINI JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF EROS – and are made for late-night screenings on Showtime.  He’s also produced JERSEY SHORE SHARK ATTACK (the trailer looks hysterical), which will be premiering on Syfy this summer.  I spoke to him the Monday after the BAD BLOOD: THE HATFIELDS & MCCOYS screening, and he was deep into a rewrite of a Christmas movie for TV.  It’s not his first Christmas movie; “I like Christmas as much as the next guy.”  I asked him if he was aware of the Hatfield & McCoy feud as a kid.

FRED: Oh, sure.  They were the basis of so many cartoons and gags.  Abbott and Costello did SHE’LL BE COMIN’ ‘ROUND THE MOUNTAIN.  And the Bowery Boys did FEUDIN’ FOOLS, which laid into that territory for comic relief.  And I’m from West Virginia; I looked really hard to see if I was in that Hatfield McCoy family tree, but I did not fall into that territory. 

HENRY:  How did this project come about?

FRED:  They came to me.  I’d made AMERICAN BANDITS for the same company, Aro Entertainment, and they came to me and said there was a lot of interest right now in the Hatfields and McCoys, and could I write and make a picture, for a price, that dealt with that subject matter.  And that’s kind of all they said.  I went back and I looked up the history, and what surprised me was how many years this feud went on, and how years would go by between incidents.  There would be years, sometimes between any troubles between these people.   So I looked at it, and all of the incidents were different, so the trick was to see if I could squeeze (the timeline) down to where one of them triggered the next one and triggered the next one.  And make a story out of it.  And that’s what I did.

HENRY: This film seems to carry a sense of urgency.  How long was it from the beginning of the project to rolling camera?

FRED: I can’t exactly remember.  I wrote the script while we were preparing to shoot JERSEY SHORE SHARK ATTACK.  The production was going on, and I was sitting in the room where all the people were making telephone calls, and all these meetings were going on all around me, and I’m standing there, trying to write.  I kind of wondered if anybody realized that I was trying to do creative writing.  Not that they didn’t have their own jobs to do; they did.  My problem is that I don’t work well on a laptop, and I had to use the bigger computer that was in that room.  But it was funny that that script came out of a room where just all kinds of noise and racket were going on all the time.  That was probably back in September last year.

HENRY:  You’ve assembled a very impressive cast.  How did you go about casting this picture?

FRED:  Well, we knew we were going to go to Kentucky.  Initially it was meant to be here (in Southern California), but I just could not see how we could do that and want to put my name on it.  So I convinced them to let me go to Kentucky, which was a stretch, because we normally don’t do things like that.  And one of the things we agreed we would do is fill out the cast with people we already knew.  People we knew that could go there in the middle of December, in the freezing cold, that could stand there and not lose it.  Who wouldn’t pull the old, ‘I’m not coming out.’  We grabbed a handful of the actors that we liked, that we knew were good horsemen.  Dylan Vox and Scott Reynolds, Tim Abell, Ted Monte.  And Ted’s married to Priscilla (Barnes), so we approached Priscilla, figured we could put them both in the same hotel room.  (laughs)  And Perry King came to mind for McCoy.  I hadn’t worked with Perry before, but I knew him because he was a friend of Ted and Priscilla, and we’d had dinners together.  So I sent him the script; when I sent people the script, I got a lot of good responses.  Actors liked the script.  Perry really loved it, and he was an excellent horseman as well.  So that all worked out pretty good.  Jeff Fahey was brought in by (producers) Jeff Schenck and Barry Barnholtz – they’re normally involved in casting at the very top tier.  They basically tell me who the leads are going to be;  it’s not something that I normally have a lot to say in.  He was an excellent choice, to my mind.  I thought he was just great.  There was so much going on, with him seemingly doing so little.  He could just sit in a scene and not say anything, and it would just speak volumes.  

HENRY:  I thought Jeff Fahey and Perry King as the two patriarchs brought the film such gravitas.

FRED:  Each one of them approached their role so differently.  That’s what I liked, is that the two families were not cookie-cutter copies of each other.  We didn’t play them off as ignorant, slouching hillbillies.  And we were lucky.  We landed a wardrobe lady in Kentucky who specialized in that period, and we were able to get the wardrobe together that was very authentic.  Because a lot of times I would look at a color or a pattern of a paisley vest, and I would say, are you sure this is authentic?  And she would say yes, this is just right.  And we found a guy there for the art department.  These were not really film people, they were re-enactor type people,  but they had everything we needed, and we had to work with them, so they could understand how films were made, and what was expected of people on a day-to-day basis.  They weren’t really knowledgeable about that, but they knew everything else, they knew historically what should be there and what shouldn’t be there. 

Ted Monte

HENRY:  Speaking of re-enactors, you open with a Civil War sequence, which was very exciting.  How did you like filming a Civil War battle?

FRED:  Well, I’ve always wanted to do that.  I’m a member of Sons of Confederate Veterans, and I’m a member of Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.  So I had a lot of family involved, mostly Confederate, though.  My great, great grandfather was a Reb, and three of my uncles, one of them’s buried in Arlington National Cemetery; he was killed in the Battle of Williamsburg.  So I’ve always been very interested in that, and I went to re-enactments.  And there is (re-enactment) footage available, but the problem with that is the cameras are where the audience is, and that’s a long, long way away. 

HENRY:  I go to re-enactments, and you’re mostly facing the soldiers’ backs.

FRED:  Yeah.  You can’t get close to them; you can’t control the background, the telephone lines and all that stuff.  So I said, you know, we need to do a sequence where we actually get right in the middle, right up front, and have them stop.  And that was the thing we had to do, we had to tell these kids, listen, when this starts, you’ve got to be ready to move, and when I yell ‘Cut’, you’ve got to stop.  You can’t just go at it for twenty or thirty minutes; we have to get it.  So we worked with those guys, and a fellow named Doug Key.  He was the King of the Re-enactors, organizing them, and he had a big farm, with no telephone poles, no power lines – no nothing.  They had horses, they had cannons, they had everything you could possibly imagine.  And it couldn’t have been done without those people.  And a lot of the re-enactors, that was their clothes that the re-enactors were wearing.    Our woman rented the re-enactors clothes and organized them to the different actors.  It was a fun thing to do; it was a fun sequence.  I know when they first open the script and it says, ‘bodies fly and men die, they thought, ‘What are you thinking?’  (laughs) Well, I got a plan.

Jeff Fahey

HENRY:  Is it a lot better to do that kind of scene with re-enactors, rather than regular extras, where you give them a gun and tell them what to do?

FRED:  I would think so, because I didn’t have to say too much.  I’d say, what’s going to happen here?  And they’d say, we all march up in line, we stop, this guy calls it out, and we fire.  Then they all reload – and we just said okay, great!  And we just kind of filmed everybody.  And then we said we’ve got to get people off the horses, get them on the ground.  Get the horses circling around, have hand-to-hand (fighting) here, and Scott, of course, had to take a shot to the head.  And of course we did the scenes where everybody’s kind of laying around the battlefield; had to keep moving them around to keep the bodies in the shot.  I was like a kid in a candy-store, a candy-store that just happened to be 14 degrees! (laughs) 

HENRY:  You picked a mighty cold time to do it, and I’ve got to say it was very effective, just seeing the soldiers on the battlefield, talking, and just seeing the steam from their breath. 

FRED:  That’s how I kind of sold it to the actors, that we knew it was going to be pretty miserable, but just think what it’s going to look like.  And in real life, the big shoot-out house-burning came on New Years Eve.  So it really worked out great, beyond the fact that we didn’t acknowledge Christmas at any point in the story.  It worked out great that we actually did film it at about the same time (of year) that, all of these events happened. 

HENRY:  It must have felt very real to people.

FRED: It did, and it was very cold.  And unfortunately I was wearing a lot more than the actors could at times, but then again I had to stand out there at five a.m., before they had to.  The other thing that should be noted here.  All those guns were black-powder guns.  There were no blanks used in this movie.  Every one of those guns was loaded just the way it was, (laughs) in the same timely fashion – and it wasn’t easy in 1865.  That’s why, when the fight happened, Perry King got one rifle shot, and the other kid got one rifle shot, and then they had to go to their sidearms because there was no time for anyone to reload.  That’s why they had so many guns on them, because all of these guns had to be loaded by hand, one chamber at a time.  They’ve got them modified now, for blanks, for movies, but none of these were modified.  These were the real deal, and you had to load each one of them with black powder by hand.  And there were a lot of misfires.  There’s one in the film; I don’t think anybody sees it, but the kid, after he throws the torch at the roof, he fires one shot, and as he steps back, the other cylinders in the gun ignite, and it just becomes a Roman candle in his hand, shoots out flames and sparks as he runs out of the scene – the whole gun exploded in his hand.  Nobody got hurt.  

HENRY:  I understand you used some historical locations.

FRED:  Yes, that was the big thing in going to Kentucky.  We location scouted, and we found the Lincoln Homestead, which was several cabins, and Mordecai Lincoln’s house was just down the road from it.  The park was closed for the winter months, and they were so friendly, they really just kind of handed us the keys to the door and said, here you go.  We said we would leave it in better condition than we found it, which I believe we did.  And right across from the hotel where we were staying was the Stephen Foster home, which was a big mansion that was completely tricked out with all the furnishings.  We went over there, and same thing: they actually came up to us during the shoot and thanked us for filming there; no, we’d like to thank you!  It was great, and they had two ladies who lead tours, who were dressed (in period), and we said, would you like to be in the movie?  They said sure, so we had them open the door and let Ted in.  We shot between 4^th grade elementary school tours.  That was our last day in Kentucky. 

HENRY:  I noticed there were credits for a Los Angeles crew, so you shot something in L.A.  Was that the Christian Slater scenes?

FRED:  The Christian Slater – Jerry Lacy scenes were all shot here.  We were going to shoot at Stephen Foster, for the Governor, but at that point, no one had been cast.  So we’re right across from the hotel, we’ve got the equipment, I said guys, we’ve got this place, we’ve got to shoot it.  We can’t leave here and not shoot this.  So we shot the exteriors, we shot Ted coming up the walk and inside.  And then everything where Ted walks in with Jerry Lacy and Christian Slater, was shot in Newbury Park. 

HENRY:  I hadn’t seen Jerry Lacy in a few years.

FRED:  He was in SUPERSHARK for me.  I had met him years ago, back in the 80s, but we’d never worked together.  Then I saw his picture when we were casting, and I said call that guy up; see if he’ll take this part.   And he did, and we sort of became friendly.  I loved Jerry Lacy on DARK SHADOWS; he was a star.   Having him in my show was very exciting.  He was perfect, too.  That first scene where he comes in to Christian Slater and tells him that he’s taking over the military operations of the state; that could have been in GETTYSBURG.  I don’t know of any of those big Civil War movies that would have shot that any differently.  I mean, not to be talking about our own work, but when I look at that scene, it really looks like it could have been from anybody’s movie.  And his face is great – he almost looked like Robert E. Lee.  He could probably play Lee.

HENRY:  I particularly liked Tim Abell in this.

Tim Abell

FRED:  Yes, Tim was in my head all the time when I wrote it.  I was always thinking that he would play that role.

HENRY:  What kind of cameras did you shoot it with?

FRED:  I shot it with the SONY CineAlta.  That’s the same camera I used on AMERICAN BANDITS and SUPER SHARK, TURBULENT SKY and a bunch of the others. 

HENRY:  Do you miss 35mm film?

FRED:  You know, on and off we still shoot in 35 occasionally.  It depends on the delivery requirements of the show.  But to me, the 35 cameras have gotten so sharp anyway, mastering them to HD tape; they were starting to pick up that sharp-sharp-sharpness that people talk about with HD.  So I’m really not sure if HD has come up to the level of film, or film is up to the level of HD.  I can hardly tell them apart now, when I watch something on television.  The HD certainly makes the project go faster, gives you more time and more takes, and you don’t have to call ‘cut!’ so quickly.  The whole process, I think, is improved, and I like the picture quality.  We’re way ahead of where we were in film.  If you want to make something look colder or warmer, it’s instantaneous now.  Color-timing that 35mm negative used to be a real chore.  Now you can just sit there and adjust it while you watch it.  You can sign off in minutes now, instead of months. 

Lisa Rotondi

HENRY:  Speaking of cool and warm images, it’s a really cold looking film; you’ve got a chill through the whole thing. 

FRED:    Theo Angell, and I have been working together for a long time.  That whole business where Tim Abell is chasing the kids, and they’re hiding behind the old, abandoned fireplace.  There was a lack of color, and Theo, the D.P. said, you know, if you’re not wearing red or yellow, it’s almost monochromatic out here.  Everything is grey; it’s almost like a black and white movie.  And I went with the cool look because it was so cold, and I wanted to try to transmit that. 

HENRY:  What’s next for you?

FRED:  Well, I just finished another airplane-crash type movie with Tia Carrere.  And I’m doing the Christmas show for television.  It’s kind of like a Christmas movie mixed with GROUNDHOG DAY, where a girl has to keep reliving her girlfriend’s wedding over and over and over again until she works out some personal problems.  I’m re-writing it right now.

HENRY:  Are there any other Westerns on the horizon?

FRED:  I had mapped out another one for somebody, but then everyone moved on to another project, but there’s a good chance that may come back.  Perry King tells me he has this incredible spread up north near Donner Pass, they have all these horses; everything’s as it was in the 1800s.  Maybe I’ll fly up there and take a look.  There doesn’t appear to be a huge market overseas for Westerns; I don’t know why.  So you have really to be able to make your money here domestically. 

HENRY:  Does the proliferation of Redbox machines at supermarkets make much of a difference in the home video market?

FRED:  Well, with the brick and mortar type stores like Blockbuster and Tower Records going by the by, I think it’s very difficult other than Netflix for people to actually rent a DVD.  So anything that makes renting a DVD more accessible to the average guy is probably a good thing for the business.  What’s eventually going to happen – what’s happening now – is the same day that the DVD comes out, you can also go on Amazon.com and pay a lesser price, and download and watch it on your television that very day.  I think that’s going to continue to grow. 

HENRY:  Anything I should have known to ask but didn’t?

FRED:  Well, the main thing for me is I was glad to be able to write my own script, because I keep getting scripts, like this Christmas one I’m rewriting.  People keep telling me, I want to do this, I want to make this kind of film, and at the end of the day I understand what you’re selling.  But it has to be about something.  And most of the scripts that we work with, with our budgets, we’re really not able to invest a lot of money into huge action pieces.  The stories have to be about people and their problems, and what they want.  I think people gets more involved in a story, because it’s about people, than they do in a film where there’s just gigantic eruptions in the street, things are bursting from the ground…  You get these big actions scenes, and they’re very impressive, but at the same time you start to hear people talking during the movie.  You know, you could hear a pin drop in that theater yesterday.  And I think it’s because people were really following what was going on.  It wasn’t just gigantic visual stimulus, where you sit there and you’re in awe of how much is exploding.  Not that those aren’t the big blockbuster movies – they are.  But when you have a limited budget, I think you’d better have a good story. 

TO SAVE ‘NATIONAL DAY OF THE COWBOY’ ACT TONIGHT!

The California State Assembly will be voting on SCR 70, the bill to make the National Day of the Cowboy a permanent day of celebration in California, on Thursday morning, May 17^th.  To the great surprise of everyone involved, there is an organized assault against the bill by one Eric Mills, an anti-rodeo activist.  He has proposed re-writing the language of the bill to remove all references to the word ‘cowboy’, equating the meaning of the word ‘cowboy’ with cruelty to animals.  He actually suggested changing it to ‘The National Day of the Rancher.’ 

Certainly Mr. Mills has the right to oppose rodeos if he thinks they are cruel, but rodeos are not what the National Day of the Cowboy is about.  In Executive Director Bethany Braley’s words, “This resolution has always been about ALL who are part of heritage preservation and cowboy culture. It's about the music, the art, the artisans, the literature, the cowboys, the cowgirls, poetry, ranching, land and animal stewardship, historic events, cowboy organizations, the cowboy's horse, landmarks, family stories, ferriers, saddlemakers, those who simply 'love' cowboys, and our mythical cowboy too.”

“What we need is for folks to write to the Assembly Rules committee chair and copy all the Rules Committee members. Their letters should state that they want the NDOC Resolution passed and why they support the NDOC resolution as it stands and just as it passed in the CA Senate in March. They should say they do not support any of Mr. Mills changes.” 

The hearing on Mr. Mills’ proposals will be Tuesday, tomorrow morning.  If you’d like to voice your support for preserving SCR 70 as-is, please fax or email Assembly Rules Committee Chair Nancy Skinner and cc the other members of the committee, Jim Silva -- Vice Chair, Luis A. Alejo, Betsy Butler, Mike Davis, Tom Donnelly, Curt Hagman, Ben Huseo, Steve Knight, Das Williams, Tony Mendoza – Democrat Alternate, Jim Neilson – Republican Alternate.  As Anna McCabe will be doing the analysis, she said you can send the letters directly to her at anna.mccabe@asm.ca.gov, or fax: 916-319-2800.   

To learn more about the National Day of the Cowboy campaign, visit their website here: http://nationaldayofthecowboy.com/wordpress/

'YELLOW ROCK' TO BE DISTRIBUTED BY SCREEN MEDIA FILMS!

The Michael Biehn, James Russo, Lenore Andriel starrer the Round-up has been championing since they day they rolled camera, has been acquired for distribution by SCREEN MEDIA for an August release.  Suzanne Blech, president of Screen Media Films said, “We are thrilled to work with Director Nick Vallelonga, and Producers Lenore Andriel and Steve Doucette, to bring this prestigious independent Western to the marketplace. Winning the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Theatrical Motion Picture, Screenplay, Director, and Lead Actors is a wonderful endorsement telling the world what a fantastic film this is.”

Screen Media acquires the rights to high quality, independent feature films for the US and Canada. Recent releases include “La Mission,” starring Benjamin Bratt; “The City of Your Final Destination,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney; “Lymelife,” starring Alec Baldwin, Emma Roberts and Cynthia Nixon and “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” starring Robin Wright and Keanu Reeves.

DIRECTV ADDS ME-TV TO SCHEDULE!

Until recently only available by antenna, ME-TV, at CH. 20, features a great TV western line-up, including THE REBEL; BRANDED; GUNS OF WILL SONNET; GUNSMOKE, BONANZA; BIG VALLEY; WILD, WILD WEST and THE RIFLEMAN!

Having recently interviewed A.J. Fenady (part one HERE , part two HERE), who created and produced THE REBEL, and produced BRANDED, I called him and asked how he felt about his series running again, and back-to-back.  He was happy to have them on, but, “Those (insert expletive) took the REBEL theme off and play some generic music over the credits!  The words in the song tell the story, but they don’t want to pay for the rights to use it!” 

TV WESTERNS ALL OVER THE DIAL!



More and more, classic TV Westerns are available all over the TV universe, but they tend to be on small networks that are easy to miss. Of course, ENCORE WESTERNS is the best continuous source of such programming, and has been for years. Currently they run LAWMAN, WAGON TRAIN, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, LAREDO, RAWHIDE, GUNSMOKE, THE REBEL, and MARSHALL DILLON, which is the syndication title for the original half-hour GUNSMOKE.







RFD-TV is currently showing THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, first at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Pacific Time, then repeated several times a week. They show a Roy feature every Tuesday as well, with repeats -- check your local listings.



INSP-TVshows THE BIG VALLEY Monday through Saturday,LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE seven days a week, DR. QUINN: MEDICINE WOMANon weekdays, and BONANZA on Saturdays.



WHT runs DANIEL BOONE on weekdays from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., Pacific Time, but they’ve just stopped showing BAT MASTERSON. They often show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.



TVLAND has dropped GUNSMOKE after all these years, but still shows four episodes of BONANZA every weekday.



For those of you who watch TV with an antenna, there are at least a couple of channels that exist between the standard numbers – largely unavailable on cable or satellite systems – that provide Western fare. ANTENNA TV is currently running RIN TIN TIN, HERE COME THE BRIDES, and IRON HORSE.







THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER



Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepeneur 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 permenant 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 HERITAGEMUSEUM



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 Hollywood western, 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.







WELLS FARGO 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.


That's all for now, folks.  There's some trouble about the National Day of the Cowboy bill in the California Legislature, and if I find out more on Monday, I'll update the Round-up.

For now, Happy Trails!

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright May 2012 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved