‘WESTERN PORTRAITS’ CELEBRATION AT AUTRY TUES. 11/19, PLUS ‘IT ALL BEGINS WITH A SONG’ DOC, GETS DISTRIB., PLUS NOVEL ‘LEGENDS OF THE WEST’ REVIEWED!

WESTERN PORTRAITS – STEVE CARVER’S 23-YEAR LABOR OF LOVE IS A TRIUMPH!

At 11 a.m. on Tuesday, November 19, 2019, lovers of Western film will converge at The Autry’s Wells Fargo Theatre for Rob Word's A Word on Westerns, and an event more than two decades in the making, the publishing of Western Portraits – The Unsung Heroes & Villains of the Silver Screen. Twenty-three years ago, Steve Carver began shooting portraits of Western character actors, beginning with the legendary R. G. Armstrong, veteran of Peckinpah films and TV Westerns, and whom Steve had directed seven times. Next was L.Q. Jones (four times), then David Carradine (four times).

Steve Carver is, in fact, much better known to the general public as a director of action films like Capone (1975), An Eye For An Eye (1981), and Lone Wolf McQuade (1983), than he is as a photographer.  As a child, “Actually I was more into art, and wanted to become a cartoonist. Then my father bought for me my first camera when I was eight years old. It was a Brownie box camera. It had two lenses, the top one you look down upon the viewfinder, and the bottom lens was the shutter lens that actually took the picture. Cameras were like magic.”  He grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and in the summers would attend camp, “And they had dark rooms. So, I was able to actually process the film, and print the negatives that I shot.  So, from age eight, 10, all the way up to 12 years old when I became a counselor, I was in a dark room and I was a photographer.

Henry Silva

“My whole family encouraged the arts, and encouraged me to go to The High School of Music and Art, which was in Harlem, in the middle of CCNY (City College of New York).  I had to travel an hour and a half on subway to go to school every day, and an hour and a half back.”  He traveled for his college education. “When I went to graduate school at Washington University in St Louis, I was  (studying with) all of the Life and National Geographic photographers that were working in the Midwest. Clifton Edom, who was the father of photojournalism, was teaching at the University of Missouri.” 

His focus began to change, “When I did my graduate thesis. I did a film that incorporated a lot of my photography. I made the transition from still pictures that were telling stories, to motion pictures that told a whole story. A story that allowed me to not only earn my degree, but to put the story into perspective. And to have a greater audience than one that would come and only see my artwork and my photographs hanging on a wall. To actually enjoy a film, and to applaud, and then get reviews and have people come back, and want to see the film again and have reviewers write about it.”

Robert Forster

He applied for, and won, a fellowship to The American Film Institute.  “I had some great teachers:  Frantisek Daniel, and Tony Villani were my main teachers. I had four mentors that (A.F.I Director) George Stevens, Jr. gave me, which I was very proud of: Gregory Peck, and Charlton Heston.  And my two director mentors were George Stevens, Sr., and George Seaton. Those were the people that I had their home phone numbers, and I could call them up anytime.”

He rubbed elbows with other greats as well. “I found Alfred Hitchcock in the library at the American Film Institute after his lecture. I cornered him and asked, ‘Can you tell me how do you prepare a film?’ And he said, ‘Let me teach you. He sat down with me at the table and took a piece of paper and showed me how to do a storyboard, drew these little stick figures, and actually showed me the single, the two-shot, say the master shot. I played dumb. I knew it already, but he was really great, putting it down for me.” 

At a screening of his second AFI film, his adaptation of Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, starring Sam Jaffe and Alex Cord, Roger Corman, no stranger to Poe, “Tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘How would you like to come and work for me?’” Carver cut trailers for Corman, and got his chance to direct a feature when Corman assigned him to direct a female gladiator movie, The Arena, in Rome. “Actually, the first place he sent me was Israel, to (producer) Menahem Golan's house. I started to do a storyboard. Menahem looked at me and said, ‘Who taught you that?’ I said Alfred Hitchcock. He looked at me like, what?”

John Savage

In Rome, making The Arena at Cinecitta Studios, his neighbor at the next stage was Federico Fellini. “I would watch him shoot  Amarcord.  And Federico would come and sit next to me, watch the girls. He would speak in broken English, how he loved gladiators with big tits.”

Carver was so busy directing that he hadn’t touched a still camera in twenty years, until he was directing 1996’s The Wolves, in Russia.  “I was in Red Square and a gypsy came up to me with a very rare camera that photojournalists use. It was stolen, and he was trying to sell it to me for 50 bucks, American dollars. I wanted this camera, and my body guard, who was a KGB agent, got this camera for me in a very unusual manner. He took the guy behind a kiosk, knocked the guy out, took my money.”  Carver returned to California and, ready for a break from filmmaking, built a darkroom in Venice called, appropriately, The Darkroom.  Calling on his years of experience in labs, his knowledge skills and painstaking perfectionism – Carver often spends six hours on a single print -- he became in-demand for collectors, museums and archives, making new copies from 19^th and early 20^th century negatives, shot by master photographers.

L.Q. Jones

Fascinated by the work of great photographers like Steichen, Weston, Stieglitz, and especially Edward Sheriff Curtis, famous for his portraits of American Indians, “I decided to make my own, and to create sets. I was using homeless people that were walking by my lab at night. I would offer them food and money to sit and to mimic these old pictures.

“And I would create my own negatives and my own photographs in order to learn how to do these. Well, these people weren’t working out because they couldn't stay still. These are all time-exposures, because in the old days, the film was real slow. So everybody had to stay very still for several minutes, and they had metal gadgets that held the person very still when they were taking a picture.”  Carver’s next move was to ask actor friends to pose, and the project was born.  His pool-shooting buddy R.G. Armstrong was his first to pose, and Armstrong encouraged Carver to make it into a book.  He even gave Carver the book’s original title. “The first title was not Unsung Heroes. It was called The Dying Breed. When I started to approach some of the actors, The Dying Breed was a big turnoff.”

R.G. Armstrong

One of the odd things that can happen with time-exposures is anomalies, or ‘ghosting’.  Some are easy to explain, and some are not. When Carver shot L.Q. Jones, “Bobby Zinner (project historian and wardrobe man) brought an 1893 Winchester lever rifle that had killed 22.  You know, and you touch the gun, and it has that vibe, a killer vibe. So L.Q. sat in a chair, and the gun was against the wall and we shot the picture.  Bobby took the gun back.” On another day, “We shot Buddy Hackett.  We used the same set, just redressed it, and we shot Buddy’s picture. In the background, off to the left, there’s a ghost image of the same rifle.  We didn't have that rifle.”

Buddy Hackett 

The first session with Denver Pyle was even more strange. “The first shooting, Denver was in horrible shape.  We dressed him up, and he had a tank of oxygen behind him and tubes running out of him. He was on chemo and we just propped him up and I shot him with 36 exposures, and he just barely got through the session. When I processed the film, his face was purely white. No eyes, no mouth, no nose. Just white. He was a ghost. I was horrified. I didn't have a shot of Denver. I called his wife Tippi and I said, Tippi, is it any way possible that I can get Denver to come back? I need to shoot him again. She said, I'll ask Denver. Denver calls me back and says, I'll be back. No problem. He comes the next day, spitting vinegar. He comes back with his tank, everything. We dress him up again, put the badge on him. I shoot him again. He’s totally different. I mean, lots of energy. The pictures are great. His face is there. His energy is all there.” Denver Pyle died a couple of weeks later.  It’s one of the best portraits in the book, and that is saying a lot. 

With this two-decade project finished, Carver is eager to leave the darkroom, and return to directing.  “What I dread is that the publisher will want a volume two. I have a lot of actors like Robert Fuller writing me and saying, when are you gonna call us?  I have a couple of film projects in mind. We’ll see. I’ve got to get out of here first. I’ve got to get another dog.”

The book begins with a forward by Roger Corman, a preface by Kim Weston, and an introduction by Steve Carver. There are eighty-two photographic subjects in the book, many of whom you’ve seen a hundred times, and each accompanied by an illuminating essay and/or interview by C. Courtney Joyner.  Joyner also wrote the closing essay, Carved on Film: Western Movies and the Faces that Made Them.  The book ends with detailed filmographies of all of the participants, and acknowledgements.  Western Portraits is published by Edition Olms Zurich. 

The list price is $50. It can be purchased at Dark Delicacies, the Autry Gift Shop, and of course, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

‘IT ALL BEGINS WITH A SONG’ RECEIVES WORLD DISTRIBUTION & U.S. JAN 2020 RELEASE DATE

The documentary, which celebrates the unsung heroes of Nashville, its songwriters. Directed by Chusy Haney-Jardine, the 82-minute film will be handled throughout the world by Tri-Coast.  Among the songwriters interviewed are Rodney Crowell, Bill Anderson, Bob DiPiero, Shane McAnally, Brett James, Caitlyn Smith, Brandy Clark, busbee, Desmond Child, and Jeffrey Steele.

It All Begins With A Song_Trailer from TriCoast Studios on Vimeo.

LEGENDS OF THE WEST – A DEPUTY MARSHAL BASS REEVES WESTERN

By Michael A. Black

Published by Five Star – Hardcover, $25.95  238 pages

In 1879, in The Indian Territory which will one day be Arkansas, and pieces of a few other states, Bass Reeves, legendary former slave turned Deputy Marshall for Judge Parker’s court at Fort Smith, has a direct assignment from the Hanging Judge: investigate the activities of a band called The Cherokeos. He agrees, and with his trusty companion, a Lighthorse Indian Policeman known David Walks as Bear, they are on the trails of one Donavan, an Irish immigrant turned criminal mastermind who has left a long and bloody string of crimes in his wake, and has an even more ambitious misdeed in mind.

Michael A. Black, a retired policeman who has written thirty novels in various genres, keeps the telling lively as he cuts back and forth between hunter and quarry, peppered with humor, some of it pretty raunchy. He even provides an alternate story-teller, a character named Stutley, fresh from the east and hoping to be the next Ned Buntline, who is bullied into turning the despicable Donavan into The Rob Roy of The West.

While author Black does not endorse the currently popular theory that The Lone Ranger was based on Bass Reeves, but turned Caucasian, he runs with the idea in this year, the 70^th anniversary of the Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels TV series. There are masks, and five ambushed Texas Rangers, and even a faithful Indian companion who keeps calling Bass “Gimoozabie.” 

‘LONE RANGER AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD’ SCREENS SAT. 11/23 AT THE AUTRY!

Celebrating the 70^th anniversary of the Lone Ranger TV series, the second Lone Ranger theatrical feature, starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, will screen at the Wells Fargo Theatre.  The film will be introduced by Native actor & writer Jason Grasl (Blackfeet).  It will be followed with an interview with Clayton Moore’s daughter, Dawn Moore, conducted by Leonard Maltin.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Material Copyright November 2019 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

‘TURQUOISE FEVER’ PREMIERE, PLUS ‘MORRICONE IN HIS OWN WORDS’, LONE RANGER 75TH ANNI., NEW FOX WESTERN SERIES, ‘OLD TOWN ROAD’, AND MORE!

TURQUOISE FEVER premiered on the INSP network this past Wednesday. The weekly reality series follows the fortunes and follies of the Nevada-based turquoise-mining Otteson clan. The first show was about trying to satisfy the blue-stone needs of a big-time buyer and jewelry designer from Japan, who is very influential in the jewelry markets throughout Asia.  If you missed this one, don’t worry, because there will be other chances. Besides, in a way, episode 2, which airs this Wednesday night, August 21^st, is just as good a place to start, as it really focuses on the family, and how the Ottesons became a ‘Blue Gold’ powerhouse.

It all started in 1958, when the family moved en masse from Colorado to Nevada, and patriarch Lynn Otteson staked his first claim. His sons Dean, Danny and Tommy worked with him, and soon there were wives and sons and in-laws in the mix.  Dean would become the patriarch, and during this show’s six-year gestation period, he would pass away, pledging his brothers not only to continue mining, but to take care of his widow, and family matriarch, Donna.

Last week I had the opportunity to discuss the show with one of the younger members of the Otteson turquoise-mining family, Danny’s 22-year-old son, and already a veteran miner, Tristan. He’s both the historian and scientist of the family, and he started out by giving me a verbal sketch of the history of turquoise mining, and the Otteson’s involvement with it.

Tristan: Turquoise in the southwestern United States has been mined since way before any white people got here. The Native American mines in the New Mexico region of Cerrillos are some of the oldest turquoise mines in the entire world. But as for the Ottesons, we got into the mining business about three generations before me. Grandpa Lynn's father, Christian Vern Otteson, had worked a little bit at the Lick Skillet Mine in, Manassa, Colorado in the very early 20th Century. He fought in World War I, and passed away when my grandpa was only three years old. With their father gone, my grandpa would work all sorts of jobs to support his family. His uncle Pete King owned Lick Skillet Mine and (Lynn), worked there. Then, when he was about 18, Pete told him to come out and mine one of his claims in Nevada, the Cloverdale, Nevada Blue Gem Mine; it's now called the Easter Blue Mine, and we mine it still. This was around the mid-1940s, and he really started to fall in love with turquoise.  So he moved his very young family from Colorado straight out to Nevada. I think it was 1958 that they moved out to Nevada permanently. They lived in Haybag Johnson's chicken coop, and from there my grandpa was able to work various mines around Cloverdale. Finally my grandpa was able to put a four-year lease on Lone Mountain Turquoise Mine, which is one of the most famous turquoise mines in the entire world today.

They barely scraped up enough money to get a little tiny mixer, that he would haul all the way out to that mine. They’d bring water in big metal milk containers, and they had this little tub that was about three-foot-wide, that the family would bathe in, and they’d run the dumps that the other miners had mined out. And when they could fill the bottom of that tub full of turquoise nuggets, they’d load everybody up, drive down to New Mexico to sell it to the Zunis. And not only for money. They would trade it for clothes, groceries, saddles, guns, blankets, anything they could get of value. My grandma would always tell my grandpa, “You can't eat a saddle. Come back with money or food.’ Sometimes they were able to sell a whole bunch of nuggets, and put $3000 or $4,000 in their pocket.  Sometimes they only came back with a saddle or two or a blanket.”

From there, my grandpa was able to build up his own operation. He got in with a whole lot of different people over the years where they would front equipment, and he had the mining knowledge. It never seemed like my grandpa got a fair shake out of those deals, but eventually he traded a silver claim he had in eastern Nevada for the Pilot Mountain Turquoise Mines.

Tristan Otteson

.

Henry: Have you ever considered a profession other than turquoise mining?

Tristan:  Personally? I really haven't. In high school, we all dream of being a different thing. But when it came down to it, I had gone out to the turquoise mines with my dad, my older brothers, since I was real little and I couldn't really imagine doing anything else.

Henry: Except for the DeBeers diamond family in South Africa, I can't think of another family that has so dominated the mining of a single mineral.

Tristan:  You can see them literally everywhere. The Royston Turquoise, that's one of the world-famous mines that we mined. Just recently there was a story on Jason Mamoa, Aquaman. He came out with a big Indian squash necklace, and said he felt like the native American, Mr. T. That was Royston Turquoise in that squash.

Fire in the hole!

Henry: I know there're many different grades and types of turquoise.  Can you give me a sense of the range of value?

Tristan:  We generally sell our turquoise by carat weight.  To put it in perspective, gold's at $1400 per ounce, right around eight or $9 a carat. Our turquoise ranges anywhere from one to $2 a carat for the not as rare stuff, all the way up to $80 to $100 per carat for really special stuff. So turquoise it can be worth 10 times its weight in gold.

Henry: Do you ever have trouble with claim jumpers?

Tristan:  Yuh. Over the years, there's been a lot of times when people come out on our claims, and try to scoop up the vein you're digging on. And with the way the turquoise is, if you don't know how to get it out of the ground, if you see a vein sticking out of the wall and try to go at it with a hammer, you're just going to destroy it. We've had it where you show up to work the next day and your vein is just a whole bunch of chips on the ground.

Henry: Of course, it's not like gold; you can't reform it. It's just gone.

Tristan:  Exactly it. They could have just destroyed a $40,000 pocket of Turquoise and not even know it.

Henry:  I was fascinated to learn how popular turquoise is in Asia. How much of the turquoise business is outside of the U.S., and what other countries are involved?

Donna shows a buyer from Japan their best stones.

Tristan:  In the United States, they want the unique stone. But in other countries, that hasn't caught on except for Japan, that romanticizes Native American jewelry. In other countries, straight blue stones is what they look for. So there's huge turquoise mines in China, over in Egypt, and in Iran. It's kind of a pattern; the high desert places around the world all have turquoise mines. They call it Persian turquoise and Egyptian turquoise; it's really beautiful stuff, along with the Chinese. And they more or less dominate the markets outside of the United States, except for those like the Japanese market that focuses on Native American jewelry.

Henry: When you're prospecting for gold, you look for quartz because they're found together. What sort of indicators do you have when you're looking for Turquoise?

Tristan:  There's two different kinds of formations. What you’re looking for is mineralized ground with iron outcroppings or a black chert (note: chert is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of quartz crystals).  And there’s a kind of a tan rock, dominated mostly by quartz, but not the kind of crystal quartz that you think of. My dad has walked literally thousands of miles, prospecting for turquoise, and tried to teach me and Lane how to read the differences in the minerals.

Henry: What is the process that makes turquoise form?

Lonely out there!

Tristan:  Well, this is still largely up for debate. Pretty much the only thing people can really agree on is it's an aluminum copper phosphate. Water goes through the ground, through the cracks, and where the right kind of phosphates are. There's debate on whether the water was going down through the rocks or up through the rocks.

Henry: Do we know how long it takes for turquoise to form?

Tristan:  They tested some turquoise down in Arizona and dated it to over 10 million years old. And other people have theories that puts it clear back to the Mesozoic era.

Henry: I get the impression that turquoise is getting harder to find. Do you have any sense of when turquoise will be mined out?

Tristan:  That's speculation, but the huge producing mines don't exist anymore. I would put a shelf life on the southwest and American turquoise to maybe 150, 200 years until it could literally be all dug up. Turquoise forms in two different ways;  it's either in veins, through the rocks, or it can get into a clay and actually make nuggets of turquoise where it formed and bubbled up.

Don't drop it!

Henry: I know your son is just a baby, but when he grows up, would you want your son to follow in your footsteps in the turquoise mining business?

Tristan:   If he wants to mine turquoise, he should. The thing is, it's hard. It's not easy if you weren't brought up in mining turquoise. Honestly, the biggest future in our business are the children that we have that come out to the mines with us, that are constantly learning from us. So I would kind of expect them to mine turquoise. But if they don't want to, that's cool too.

Henry: What is the most important thing to know about turquoise mining?

Tristan: The most important thing about a turquoise mining is appreciating the stones that you're digging up, and appreciating the ground that they come from, and having a good reason to dig them up, which is for your family.

A BOOK REVIEW:

ENNIO MORRICONE IN HIS OWN WORDS – IN CONVERSATION WITH ALESSANDRO DE ROSA, Translated from the Italian by MAURIZIO CORBELLA

Oxford University Press – Hardcover -- $34.95

First let me go on record as saying that I am not a musician, and I have three years of guitar lessons to prove it.  But I love music, and I love movie soundtracks. The first soundtrack I ever owned was Monty Norman’s score to DR. NO. I was eight years old, and I begged for it, not because of the music, but because there was a photo of a nearly nude Ursula Andress on the back of the cover. But I listened to the music while I stared at the picture, and I became fascinated.

At NYU Film School I got turned on to Ennio Morricone by fellow student and later screenwriter, the late Ric Menello (TWO LOVERS, THE IMMIGRANT). He made me buy an Italian import album, I, WESTERN, a collection of music from a fistful of Morricone Westerns, and I was hooked.

So, I love film music, I know a fair bit about it, but like the guy who doesn’t want the magic trick ruined by being told how it was done, I am an audience member, not an insider.  All of this is my roundabout way of saying that I absolutely loved reading ENNIO MORRICONE IN HIS OWN WORDS, and I probably understood about 10% of it.

The book represents a year of discussions between fellow-composers De Rosa and Morricone, and De Rosa’s encyclopedic knowledge of the maestro’s work makes him a perfect interviewer. If you aren’t signed up for Spotify yet, you’ll want to be, because there is an official cut list, and there are frequent music cues throughout the book, to give voice to the music they are discussing.

You’ll learn about the start of Morricone’s musical career, as a trumpet sideman filling in for his father during World War II.  You’ll learn about his classical education, ‘paying his dues’ in radio, and his early scores, including a pair of Spaghetti Westerns he scored before being approached by Sergio Leone for THE MAGNIFICENT STRANGER (later FISTFUL OF DOLLARS).  Much space is appropriately devoted to the Morricone/Leone collaborations, and Morricone describes both the inspirations and the frustrations – as when Leone used a piece from Dimitri Tiomkin’s RIO BRAVO score on a temporary music track, then fell in love with it and didn’t want to part with it. He did eventually – he had to part with the recording, or with Ennio.  

His other Euro-Western collaborations are not dealt with in similar depth – directors Sergio Sollima (three Westerns together) and Sergio Corbucci (seven Westerns together), each receive just a single reference, but as Corbucci’s was in a list of directors who did not get involved with the scoring, that may be why.

Morricone has much more to say about his work with Brian De Palma, Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, John Carpenter, Terence Malick, and many others. As an audience member, I was thrilled at the insights, and surprised at how much I learned. I can only imagine how much more I would have learned, had I been a musician.

‘LONE RANGER’ 70^TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION SEPT. 17 – WORD ON WESTERNS AT THE AUTRY!

It was on September 15^th, 1949, that Clayton Moore first tied on the black mask, mounted the great horse Silver, and thundered into TV history as THE LONE RANGER!  On Tuesday, September 17^th, join us at 11 a.m. at the Wells Fargo Theatre at The Autry to celebrate the 70^th anniversary of television’s first Western series, and one of the most beloved.  It’s too early to post a guest attendee list just yet, but Clayton’s daughter, Dawn Moore, is taking part, and Rob Word always gets wonderful guests for his events.  I’ll have more details as the event gets closer.  In the meantime, here’s a link to my interview with Dawn Moore: http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2014/09/daughter-remembers-clayton-lone-ranger.html

Dawn and Clayton Moore

FOX BUYS ‘GO WEST’ FROM ‘WESTWORLD’ PRODUCER BRIDGET CARPENTER

GO WEST, a pre-Civil War Western that follows the trek of a diverse group of adventurers heading to California for gold and freedom, has been given a script commitment, as a co-production of Fox Entertainment and CBS.  Writer/Producer Bridget Carpenter shared an Emmy nomination for her work on FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, as well as WGA nominations for her work on LIGHTS, and for season one of WESTWORLD. She was also Exec Producer on 2014’s dark contempo American Indian series RED ROAD.

ACTOR/SCREENWRITER/DIRECTOR PETER FONDA DIES AT 79

“Westerns are our way of exploring our own mythology.”

                                                                                    Peter Fonda

The movies’ counter-culture Captain America has died of lung cancer at age 79.  Nominated for an Oscar for ULEE’S GOLD, the son of Oscar-winning screen legend Henry Fonda, and kid brother of double Oscar-winner Jane Fonda, Peter charted his own path. Not always pleased with his mainstream Hollywood films – in a Playboy interview he referred to his 1963 film TAMMY AND THE DOCTOR as TAMMY AND THE SHMUCKFACE – he starred for edgier independent filmmakers like Roger Corman in films like THE WILD ANGELS. Working both in front of and behind the camera, he not only co-starred in 1969’s earth-shaking EASY RIDER, he also wrote and produced it.

Although he didn’t star in a lot of Westerns – his earliest appearances include a WAGON TRAIN and an unsold HIGH NOON pilot where he played Will Kane Jr. – two of the three films he directed were Westerns.  In 1971’s poetic tragedy, THE HIRED HAND, Fonda and frequent collaborator Warren Oates play cowboy drifters who split up when Fonda goes back to abandoned wife Verna Bloom. But obligations force them back together. With strong performances, a wise script by Alan Sharp, stunning photography by Vilmos Zsigmond, and very creative visuals, editing and score, HIRED HAND was an artistic triumph for Fonda.

In his second, 1979’s much more light-hearted WANDA NEVADA, Fonda is a modern-day gold prospector who wins 13-year-old Brooke Shields in a poker game.  For Fonda, who described his relationship with his father as, “fraught,” one of the great thrills of that production was the chance to direct Henry Fonda, and to afterwards receive a letter from him about the experience. “It was a five-page letter.  And at the end, ‘In my forty-one years of making motion pictures, I have never seen a crew so devoted to the director.  You are a very good director.  And please remember me for your company.’  Now a company is a word we normally use in stage.  But in John Ford’s time, he carried a (stock) company of actors with him from one film to the next.  Ward Bond was one of them.  John Carradine was another.  Great characters that he would have as his company.  And the fact that my dad wanted to be part of my company… How cool is that?”

Fonda’s later acting career would get a considerable boost after his strong supporting role in 2007’s 3:10 TO YUMA. Fred Olen Ray, who was making AMERICAN BANDITS: FRANK AND JESSE JAMES, told me, “He was somebody we were really looking forward to having, because he’s very iconic. We had made the deal, I had spoken to him in France, and coming back on the plane, he fell on the jet-way. He busted his jaw open, and he had to have stitches. And (his people) were saying, he can’t be there on this day, and he could probably be ready in a week.

And that’s a week after the movie shoot had ended. So we thought, let’s not get ourselves caught in a tough spot here. Let’s go ahead and film these scenes anyway with a different actor. And a few days later, after the movie had wrapped, we heard, ‘Okay, Peter Fonda’s ready!’ So we shot the scenes over again with (Peter Fonda), and those are what we used in the movie.” 

Ron Maxwell enjoyed directing Fonda in the Civil War home-front drama COPPERHEAD. “Oh, he’s a lot of fun; he’s an icon.  There’s one scene where he meets Abner, and they speak about the issues that are dividing the town.  And that first shot, when you first see him, is an exact replica, to every detail, to his father playing YOUNG MISTER LINCOLN in John Ford’s 1939 film.   The only difference is that film was in black and white, and ours is color.  After we finished filming that scene, Peter looked up in the sky and said, ‘Dad, I hope you’re proud of me.’”  There is little doubt about that.

OLD TOWN ROAD BOOSTS WRANGLER JEANS SALES!

When, in the song-of-the-summer, OLD TOWN ROAD, Lil Nas X intoned that timeless lyric, “Wrangler on my booty,” the sales of the long-time denim favorite sky-rocketed. It’s kind of the reverse of when the 1934 equivalent of Lil Nas X, Clark Gable, in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, removed his shirt to reveal no undershirt: sales of the undergarment plummeted. Scott Baxter, honcho of Wrangler’s parent company, Kontoor Brands, says they didn’t see it coming.  "We knew nothing about it, and then it just took off.  It's introduced Wrangler to a more diverse group of folks, and that's where we want to be as a brand." Which is why Wrangler is partnering with Lil Nas X on a line of t-shirts (apparently not learning the Clark Gable lesson).

I don’t quite get the popularity of OLD TOWN ROAD myself. I have nothing against it – I love the opening western stuff, I love Chris Rock in anything, and the contemporary stuff is at worst innocuous, and sometimes amusing, but the song just seems repetitive; it doesn’t grow after the first few bars, and just peters out.

Actually, the big fashion-effect I was expecting this summer is related to ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, and the swoon heard ‘round the world when Brad Pitt took off his shirt. If only they could sell that like they can sell a pair of Wranglers. But then, they couldn’t figure out how to sell it in Gable’s day either.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Please check out the September TRUE WEST MAGAZINE, on newsstands now, featuring my article, STAGECOACH – THE LEGEND AT 80!

Speaking of which, I was amazed recently to look at Henry’s Western Round-up – I write it, but I don’t read it that often – and realize that I hadn’t put up links to any of my True West articles in about a year! There are about twenty new ones now, and I’ll update the links to my movie reviews very soon.  I don’t understand why the size of the type on these links keeps changing – the Rifleman one is huge, and others are tiny – but at least they work!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright August 2019 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

DAUGHTER REMEMBERS CLAYTON ‘LONE RANGER’ MOORE, PLUS ‘COWBOY LUNCH’, ‘SILVER SPURS’, ALMERIA FEST!

DAUGHTER DAWN REMEMBERS CLAYTON MOORE ON HIS 100^TH BIRTHDAY

Dawn and Clayton at the Cowboy Hall of Fame 1990

The first time I saw Clayton Moore in person was the day he got his star at 6914 Hollywood Boulevard, on the Walk of Fame.  His is the only star of the more than 2000 which also names the character that brought him fame. 

In 1996, my wife and I actually got to shake his hand.  It was at a book-signing for his autobiography, I WAS THAT MASKED MAN, written with Frank Thompson.  It was at the biggest bookstore in the San Fernando Valley, Bookstar.  Once a movie theatre,  the line stretched from Moore, seated at a table in front of what had been the screen, all the way through the orchestra, across the lobby, past the box-office and onto Ventura Boulevard.  (Incidentally, if you’d turned right on Ventura, then left at the next corner, Laurel Canyon, you’d be at the entrance to Republic Studios, where Clayton had been ‘King of the Serials.’) 

While we waited for our turn to meet the man we’d both grown up watching portray history’s greatest champion of justice, we were struck by the number of men in line, in military and police uniforms – in front of us was a CHP officer with his helmet dangling from his arm.  The atmosphere was electric – voices all around us announced that watching Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger had inspired them to go into the Army or the police department.  I spotted a friend in line, an attorney who happens to be one of Tex Ritter’s sons.  When we got to the head of the line, we got our book signed, a chance to say ‘thanks’, a big grin, a strong hand-shake, and strong eye contact – through the mask! Who could ask for more?

I am indebted to my friend Maxine Hansen at Gene Autry Entertainment, who thought that Clayton’s daughter Dawn and I should meet.

Clayton (r) in Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Country

HENRY:  Your father is so associated in the public mind with the Lone Ranger that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it’s not the 100^th birthday of the character; it’s the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the man who portrayed him.  Tell me something about your father that we fans of the Lone Ranger wouldn’t guess. 

DAWN MOORE:  What most people don’t know about Dad is that he had an incredible sense of humor.  He was really a big kid; he was irreverent, and kind of whacky, and liked to have a good time.

HENRY: Besides playing the Lone Ranger, your dad played a wide range of roles – I particularly liked his villains.  How did he like playing a bad guy?  Did he have any favorite non Lone Ranger roles?

DAWN:  You know, he did actually, because when he got the role of the Lone Ranger he was told in no uncertain terms, that he was to mimic (radio’s Lone Ranger) Brace Beemer’s performance, and mimic his voice.  And the Lone Ranger was stoic, and was not to laugh or smile or be light-hearted in any way.  That was challenging, and several seasons into it, he actually said, ‘I’d like to smile.’  And if you watch the progression of it, not only does his horse-back riding improve,  which he also readily admitted, but he actually smiles towards the end of the series run, which he wasn’t allowed to do at the beginning.  He very much enjoyed playing heavies, because that’s when he’d kind of break loose.  (When the Lone Ranger would be in disguise in an episode) he enjoyed playing the prospector, he enjoyed doing the Mexican bandito, he enjoyed the padre; this was much more fun for him than just sticking to the one role consistently.   And that role, let’s face it, was an unemotional man. 

Clayton as the Old Prospector

HENRY:  Yes, nothing upset him, and nothing made him particularly happy, as you say, until a few seasons in.  It’s funny, because you really see that with George Reeves playing SUPERMAN too, that he was stoic and humorless for the first few seasons.

DAWN:  And you can see what that did for Reeves.

HENRY: Didn’t do him any good.  I loved when your dad did The Old Prospector and other characters.  Those roles were so much fun and he did a lovely job of them.

DAWN:  Well he, in fact, had The Old Prospector voice on the answering machine at our house.  And often he would, if he didn’t know who was calling, or depending on the kind of mood he was in, often answer in the Old Prospector voice.

HENRY: How old were you when you realized that your dad was a hero to millions of kids?  How did you find out?

DAWN:  I didn’t watch the show; the show was off the air by the time I showed up.  It would have been in re-runs in the 1960s, and in any case, I wasn’t interested – I was watching the MICKEY MOUSE CLUB.  And because he was in a costume and because he was in a mask, he was rarely recognized in public, so I had a normal childhood; he had quite a bit on anonymity.   So therefore I didn’t know he was famous for a very long time.  I was probably almost nine when we were shopping for a television, and the saleswoman stopped him and said, “I recognize your voice.  Are you The Lone Ranger?” 

HENRY:  As you said, the series was already in re-runs when you came along.  Were your friends aware of who your father was?  Did your parents have many friends in the business? 

DAWN:  Kids in school; you know, mostly I got teased.  I remember being teased quite a bit.  The fun thing was, when I had a birthday party, Dad would be Dad when the kids arrived, and at some point in the middle of the party, he would make a personal appearance as The Lone Ranger.  And then he would disappear again, and come back as Clayton Moore.  And the kids never were the wiser, because they were too young to get the voice thing.  That was fun – that was very fun.  But at school it was more about kids looking for things to tease you about.  About my father’s friends; he didn’t really hang out with other actors.  He hung out with the grips and the stuntmen, and the behind-the-scenes guys.  Because he was a guy’s guy, a man’s man.  And he really wasn’t interested in hanging out with the stars.  My mother would always kind of ride him about that.  ‘Why should I hang out with actors?’  He was not interested.

Clayton is a villain in Gene Autry's 'Night Train to Galveston'

HENRY: Did you ever watch the show with your dad?

DAWN: I didn’t ever watch it with him, and I didn’t watch pretty much anything that he was in with him until we started working on his book, so this was not until the ‘90s. And when we did start working on his book, I did make a point of going through every one of the serials even, and I have both audio and video of the two of us watching that together, and his comments.

HENRY:  I loved him in THE PERILS OF NYOKA.

DAWN:  That was his first one, 1942.  And that in fact was the inspiration for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. 

HENRY:  Oh yes, when you watch it, it becomes very obvious.

DAWN:  I’m thrilled that you know that.  It’s almost identical, including the characters.  The only thing that’s different is that in PERILS OF NYOKA, the star is Nyoka.  But the doctor, and all the other characters – it’s all there.  I don’t think Speilberg ever copped to it, but I know Lucas did.  Do you know if Speilberg ever did?

Kay Aldridge, Clayton, Billy Benedict in

'Perils of Nyoka'

HENRY:  I don’t remember him doing so, but he certainly said he did a great study of the Republic serials before making it.  He was certainly copping to owing a huge debt to the genre.

DAWN:  Dad actually brought that to my attention.  I don’t know who brought it to his attention.

HENRY:  In his autobiography, your father describes adopting you as, “…the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”  How close were you and your dad? 

DAWN:  Dad was a big kid, and because of that he really was a fun father.  He was not a disciplinarian.  That fell to my mother.  So naturally, what does that do to any kid?  The parent who was not the disciplinarian becomes your friend.  So in hindsight I realize my poor mother really got the short end of the stick on that deal.  Somebody’s always the bad guy, and it was never my father.  He enjoyed those roles, but he would never take the bad-guy position in real life.  I would also say he was encouraging.  He was not judgmental, which in a parent is an extraordinary thing.  He thought I walked on water.  He always praised anything, any stupid little thing I did got tremendous praise.  Buuuut… and here’s kind of a fun flipside of that.  Because he was such a good athlete, and I’m sure he learned what I am about to share with you from his own father, he didn’t ‘let’ me win anything that we did together.  If I won fair and square, that was great, but he would not just give it to me.  We played tennis together, and I‘d be running from one side of the court to the other, and he’d be standing still.  And I got so frustrated I can remember one time saying to him, “Why don’t you just let me win one?”  And he said, “Because you’re not going to learn anything by me letting you win.”  He taught me how to dive.  He was an excellent swimmer – he used to swim with Johnny Weissmuller at the Hollywood Athletic Club.  And obviously he knew, from being a trapeze artist, how to be graceful in a dive. So he taught me how to dive, and he would rate me.  “That’s a 7, that’s an 8, that’s an 8 and a half – try again.”  He was encouraging without being judgmental, and that’s a good thing when you’re young, and still living at home, and you come home drunk.  (laughs)  That’s another sign of great parents; I knew when they were disappointed in me.  They didn’t have to go into a long verbal dissertation about it; it was very clear.  He gave direction and encouragement and 

guidance when needed.  He was a buddy; he was a friend.

HENRY:  Were there any other things you two liked to do together?

DAWN:  He used to take me fishing.  He had two brothers; there were three boys in his family, and he was very close to his father, so he did all the same things with me.  We went fishing.  When he would practice using the bullwhip, I would be the one standing there with the cigarette in my mouth.  Now of course, the cigarette was a rolled up piece of paper.  And my mother was mortified – and sure that he was going to hurt me in some way, accidentally of course.  But I was having great fun.  When he was home, he engaged me in everything he was doing.  Some people’s parents come home from work, and they need some downtime.  But because Dad was home all the time, there wasn’t that separation.

Clayton and Dawn at Pat Buttram's 1959

HENRY:  Were there any particular friends from the Lone Ranger days – actors, directors, writers, that stayed friends after the series had finished?

DAWN:  You know, if they didn’t have children, then I wouldn’t remember.  My father remained very close to his Army buddies.  And they were not actors.  He remained close with them until they all started dying off in the 1970s and 1980s.  There were four of them, Dad was one of the four, and they would get together with their wives.  That I remember very distinctly.  But that is another good example of my father being down to Earth, and being more interested in befriending people who were not in the industry. 

HENRY:  Somewhere I have in the back of my head that your father and Rand Brooks were good friends.  Is that right?  (Note: Rand Brooks and Clayton Moore worked together in 1940’s THE SON OF MONTE CRISTO, and seven Lone Ranger episodes)

DAWN:  That’s absolutely right.  I never associate Rand with THE LONE RANGER because Rand, having been in GONE WITH THE WIND in 1939 (note: he played Scarlet O’Hara’s first husband) was already doing very well before my Father arrived.  They were best friends; they were very very close friends.  Rand spoke at Dad’s memorial service, and was very moving.

HENRY: What were your father’s interests or hobbies outside of acting?

DAWN:  For the most part, his hobbies all involved athletics.  He swam almost every day.  He would be out for very long walks.  He would go for camping trips on weekends – he always had some kind of motor-home or camper.  Some kind of vehicle that allowed him to get away.   To this day – why I continue to save it I don’t know – I have all his camping equipment, his fishing gear, and sleeping bag and Coleman stove, and I’m never going to use it as long as I live.  But somehow, that is more who my father was.  It was more important to me even than saving a lot of his Lone Ranger memorabilia.  People ask me, when I’ve had these various auctions, “How can you part with these things?”  And that is not who my father was to me.  My father is in the fishing reel and the tackle box, and I remember him showing me how to get a worm on a hook.  Those things are my father.  The Bohlen gun rig is a character, and part of my father’s job, but that’s not him to me.  So the difference in what I choose to keep, and what’s not as important to me, and should go out for fans to enjoy and be stewards of – the mind-set is a little different.

HENRY:  What triggered your father’s decision to ‘become’ the Lone Ranger, and never appear in public without the mask?

DAWN:  He never appeared, working at any kind of a performance where he would be the Lone Ranger – he didn’t show up or leave without being in the costume – so-as not to dispel the mystery and ruin the mystique.  But he’d really found something that made him feel good about himself.  That’s really what it drove down to: he fell in love with the character, and he said many times that it made him a better person.  And when you look at the Lone Ranger Creed, you can pick out any one of the tenants, and see that it is still completely relevant eighty years later.  And very powerful stuff.  He read it; he took it to heart.  He thought, this is a way to live a better life.  It meant something to him, and he made choices every day based on the creed.  It’s hard to be perfect (laughs).  He certainly didn’t achieve perfection by any means, but the fact that he made the effort to is certainly more than most of us would ever try to do.

HENRY:  Yes, to have a code to live up to every day is taking on an awful lot.

DAWN:  It is taking on a whole lot, and I think my father wasn’t particularly religious, but in lieu of that, that was his religion. 

HENRY:  Much of your father’s later Lone Ranger work, like the Aqua-Velva and Pizza-Roll commercials, was tongue-in-cheek, and he had to play it stoic for the joke to work.  What was your father’s sense of humor like?

DAWN:  He loved doing those commercials because they were so tongue-in-cheek – he was totally in on the joke; he absolutely ‘got it.’  If you came to the house you would have been encouraged to put the mask on, you would have been encouraged to put the hat on or the gun-belt on.  It was a lot of fun for him – he never really got out of being ten years old himself.  There he was playing a character that any kid would want to be, so why wouldn’t he want to do this for the rest of his life.  Dad’s sense of humor -- he thought it was hilarious that they had just bought two plots at Forest Lawn, and how beautiful it was up there.  So when we had guests visiting from Minneapolis, and they wanted to tour around and see all the sights, we went there of course, and he thought it was just hysterical to lay down where his plot was, and make them take a picture.  And they wanted to play along, and my mother was mortified – “Clayton, get up out of there!”

HENRY:  By the 1980s, most active actors of your father’s era were making the rounds of LOVE 

BOAT, FANTASY ISLAND and MURDER SHE WROTE.  Was he approached for this sort of show?  Did he consider them, though it would have gone against his intention to only appear as The Lone Ranger?  

DAWN:  You know, I don’t know exactly where the line got drawn with him.  Garry Marshall approached him to come on HAPPY DAYS, because The Lone Ranger was Fonzie’s hero, and Dad turned that down.  I was surprised at that because it perfectly fit in with who he was, and his portrayal of the character.  I mean, he appeared as The Lone Ranger on LASSIE, and other shows, so it was interesting to me that he turned that down, and another actor had to do that.

HENRY:  It was John Hart. (Note: When, after a few years, Clayton Moore wanted a raise, he was fired and replaced by John Hart.  After one season the producers rehired Moore for more money.)

DAWN:  It was John Hart?  I didn’t realize that.  What did make sense for me was to turn down Johnny Carson.  Johnny Carson asked him a record three times.  Dad’s position was, ‘I’m not going to sit there, on that kind of a format on that kind of a show, in a costume and a mask, and a gun-belt – it’d look absolutely silly for a full-grown man.  And I’m not going to appear as Clayton Moore, because that will destroy the mystique.’  Carson asked him again and he said no, same reason.  Jay Silverheels did appear, and I believe he was in costume, and I think that reinforced Dad to say ‘I won’t do it.’  That makes perfect sense, because he wanted to continue to maintain the mystery.  So that’s why he only took the commercials, which allowed him to continue the mystery.  He did ED SULLIVAN, and my Dad never said a bad word about anyone except Ed Sullivan.  Ed did not go along with the program, meaning he didn’t go along with the joke, he couldn’t interact with him the way he needed to.  My guess is he didn’t want a repeat of the Ed Sullivan experience with Johnny Carson.  He was smart in how he crafted the balance of his career that way, and what he chose to do and what he chose not to do.  In hindsight he did a good job.

HENRY:  I recently met Michael Horse, who played Tonto in the 1981 THE LEGEND OF THE 

LONE RANGER.  And when I re-watched the film, there was a role in it, of a newspaper publisher, that I thought would have made an excellent cameo for your father.  And when I saw the credits, I was stunned: it was played by John Hart.  Was that ever offered to your father?

DAWN: He was not offered any part, but in any case, had he been offered that, he would not have accepted it.  His take on (the story for the movie) would have been totally genius.  He understood that the Lone Ranger was a young man in his late teens or early twenties.  And the way to have transitioned from the fan stand-point, and it would have made a fantastic story-line, is to have him hand the mask down to the next generation onscreen.  Literally, shooting from behind, have him take the mask off and hand it to the next Lone Ranger.   That would have been fantastic, and the story is a great conceit.  They did a fantastic job when Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster did MAVERICK.  It was smart and funny and irreverent, and there was that great wink, how they folded in James Garner.  And they didn’t take the role away from Garner, he was Maverick, but the father.   But no, (my father) was not offered anything, and he would not have taken the bartender had he been offered it. 

HENRY:  What is your father’s legacy?

DAWN:  As I continue to hear from fans, his legacy lies in what the fan-letters say.  This was during his lifetime, in addition to the letters I continue to receive, and what you can find on-line on chat-boards and tribute sites.  The letters are from policemen, and firemen, and teachers, all of whom say they chose a career in service because of him, because of his portrayal.  Not just because of the Lone Ranger, but because of Clayton Moore, and how he chose to live his life.  That is pretty powerful stuff.  This is not just an actor portraying a role for entertainment’s sake.  This is how someone who has been able to transcend the entertainment value, and influence young peoples’ lives at a time that they are sponges, and they absorb something positive and carry it forward into their adult lives.  And they are serving other people, protecting other people.  I think that’s very powerful, and it’s important to me to share that on my father’s birthday. 

Next week I’ll have my coverage of Cinecon’s tribute to Clayton Moore.  Below is a video of Clayton Moore receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

‘LONE PINE’ CELEBRATED AT WEDNESDAY’S ‘COWBOY LUNCH @ THE AUTRY’!

On Wednesday, September 17^th, Rob Word’s third-Wednesday-of-the-month Cowboy Lunch at the Autry will celebrate the legendary Western movie location, Lone Pine, located several hours north of Los Angeles on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada.  The sun-scorched desert, eerie rock formations and Alabama Hills have made it a favorite film location since the silent days, much used by Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy and hundreds of others – it even stood in for India in GUNGA DIN! 

Among the guests expected are Mariette Hartley, who starred in Sam Peckinpah’s RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY; William Wellman, Jr.; Robert Sigman of the Lone Pine History Museum;  and author Dick Bann.  Incidentally, October 10 – 12 is the 25^th Annual Lone Pine Film Festival – I’ll have details in the Round-up next week.   As always, Wednesday’s is free, tho’ you have to buy your lunch.  Lunch starts at noon, the talk starts about one, but if you want to be sure to get a seat inside, gets there early!

To whet your appetite for the luncheon, here’s a look at the WILD BUNCH LUNCH, where stuntman Gary Combs describes working for Sam Peckinpah:

‘SILVER SPURS’ FRIDAY AT SPORTMEN’S LODGE!

2012 finale, featuring Wilford Brimley, Anne Jeffreys, 

Delores Taylor, Bo Svenson, Louis Gossett Jr., 

Tom Laughlin and Ben Murphy

There are still tickets available for the  17^th Annual ‘SILVER SPUR AWARDS’ banquet this Friday night, presented by The Reel Cowboys.  Reel Cowboys President Robert Lanthier gave me an update on presenters and honorees.  Master of Ceremonies will be Israel Boone from the DANIEL BOONE series, Darby Hinton, who will soon be seen in the Western mini-series TEXAS RISING!  The first Lifetime Achievement Award will be represented to Clayton ‘The Lone Ranger’ Moore, represented by his daughter Dawn Moore.  The Jack Iverson Founder Award will be presented in honor of Cactus Mack by former child star Tommy Ivo.  Dan Haggerty will present an award honoring John Payne.  Wyatt McCrea, son of Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, will present an award honoring director William Wellman.  Roger E. Mosley will present to stun-man Bob Minor.  Patrick Wayne will present to Stephanie Powers.  Rich Little will present to Ruta Lee.  Among the folks expected to attend are Hugh O’Brien, Trini Lopez and Tab Hunter. 

A portion of the proceeds will go to the John Tracy Clinic, which helps young children with hearing loss.  For the best seating, VIP tickets are $175 on-line and $195 at the door.  General seating is $125 on-line and $145 at the door.  To learn more, and to buy tickets, visit the official website HERE.

ALMERIA FEST NAMES WINNERS!

The Almeria International Western Film Festival was held this week, and here are the winners:

  

Best Film – 6 BULLETS TO HELL

6 BULLETS cast and crew take to the Apollo Stage

Public’s Choice – LA FLOR DE LIS

Best Short – THE GUNFIGHTER

LIE ABOUT YOUR AGE!

As the attached WSJ article explains, LONGMIRE, one of the best and smartest series in years, and an unqualified hit, was cancelled because (a) A&E doesn’t own it, and they want to own more of what they air (understandable) and (b) because polling has shown that the median age for the show’s viewers is 60!  Our geezer-bucks aren’t good enuf for ‘em, even though we have more of ‘em than the young farts they’re coveting!  I’M SHAVING 20 YEARS OFF MY AGE FROM NOW ON, WHENEVER I’M POLLED ABOUT ANYTHING!  PLEASE JOIN ME IN THE BIG LIE!  Jack Benny was right all along!  Signed, Henry C. Parke, age 39.  http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/why-a-hit-tv-show-got-canceled-its-fans-were-too-old-1410451057?mobile=y

THAT’S A WRAP! 

Have a great week, and I’ll see you here next Sunday!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright September 2014 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved