COWBOY FEST AT MELODY RANCH

On Saturday April 30th and Sunday May 1st thousands cowboys and cowgirls converged on Melody Ranch for the 18th Annual Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival. When it started, it was a cowboy poetry and music event, and poetry and music are still a big part of it. But the event has broadened to include western movies, history and literature, and all things western.

The festival actually began as a much smaller event held at Santa Clarita High School. But when the earthquake of January 1994 hit, the school’s auditorium was too badly damaged to house the event, and the Veluzat family, owners of both Veluzat and Melody movie ranches, stepped up and offered Melody Ranch, and the rest, as they say, is history.




When I arrived on Saturday at lunchtime, the first person I ran into was famed pistol-manipulator Joey Dillon. I asked him what he calls his line of work. “Gunslingin’. Because it sounds cool, and it covers twirls, juggles, spins, trick-shooting – the whole gamut. I got started at a young age. My dad was always watching western movies. We grew up in central California, up in the foothills, gold-rush country. I got into the history, and watched a lot of movies, playing with my toy gun. Moved onto a .22 – with my dad present, to make sure it was safe. At eighteen I started going out, doing it in front of people. Flash-forward about fourteen years, and now it’s a living.”




Joey’s trained many actors to look good handling firearms, including Josh Brolin for JONAH HEX. He’s been working on the upcoming LOOPER, starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis. “There’s a guy named Noah Segan who (plays) one of the Gatmen. It’s a slightly futuristic movie, but this guy fancies himself as a latter-day cowboy. He’s using a .45-70 Magnum revolver that weighs four and a half pounds – twice what we normally use. Had to train him to look good with that: a lot of fun.” He’s also just worked on the still-shooting DUKE, a traditional western with a modern L.A. setting. “I taught the lead how to twirl some snub-nosed .38s, even though they were double-action, which is kind of a no-no*. There’s a scene where it’ll be my hands doing the work. And I’ve got a really big fish coming up, and I’ll see if I can get my foot in the door – and that’ll be acting, and not coaching.” To learn more about Joey, and to see clips of him in action, go to his site HERE.

http://www.joeydillon.com/www.joeydillon.com/home.html




A little farther down the street I ran into the folks from the Rancho Camulos Museum. RAMONA author Helen Hunt Jackson visited the Rancho in 1882, and decided to set her novel there. Disappointed that I missed the Ramona pageant in Hemet this year, I was delighted to learn that on November 5th they celebrate ‘Ramona Days’ at the Museum, and the event includes pageant cast members performing vignettes from the show. To learn more, go HERE.

www.ranchocamulos.org



A short stroll later brought me to make-up artist and historian Michael F. Blake. He’s written several books about Lon Chaney, and two about westerns: HOLLYWOOD AND THE O.K. CORRAL, and CODE OF HONOR: THE MAKING OF THREE GREAT AMERICAN WESTERNS. He was heading out to New Orleans the next day. “Going on ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER. We’re going to do the Battle of Gettysburg. It’s going to take three days, same amount of time as the real battle, minus the vampires.”























I was checking out the wide range of food choices when I ran into a cluster of folks from the upcoming YELLOW ROCK: writer-producer Steve Doucette, writer-producer-female lead Lenore Andriel, and actors Joe Billingiere, Amy Jennings, Elaine Lockley Smith and Natasha Kaye. YELLOW ROCK was shot at nearby Veluzat Ranch (read my two-part story of that production HERE and HERE), and we were soon joined by Daniel Veluzat. To our delight, Daniel, who runs both ranches, took us on a personal tour. He told us that things are pretty busy at the ranch these days. “We did PRIEST, which is a big movie and coming out very soon. They took the western town and totally changed it all around. Recently we did a commercial for Dodge. A lot of (location) scoutings are taking place, a lot of westerns in pre-production.”

Among the sights of interest he pointed out: the saloon exterior where the Long Branch once stood; the jail interior used in dozens – maybe hundreds – of shows; the blacksmith shop – considerably remodeled since GUNSMOKE; the wires strung clothes-line-like, across the end of the street, to hold a giant ‘green-screen’, making it possible to have the town end anywhere; and the building used sometimes as a church, sometimes as a schoolhouse. One of the oldest standing structures, it really was Gene Autry’s schoolhouse as a boy, and he bought it, and moved it to his ranch. In the studio museum we saw the bar used in THE SHOOTIST; cast chairs from a variety of series, including a BONANZA guest-star chair; the Ponderosa living-room fireplace; a revolving cyclorama background, against which cowboys could walk, or ride fake horses, forever without going anywhere.

After lunch, finished off with cowboy coffee and dutch-oven-cooked peach cobbler prepared by the Cowboy Cultural Committee and Chuckwagon Cooks (find them HERE),
http://www.visaliacowboys.com/

I parted with the others to see the rest of the sights. In the Book Corral I ran into western history authors Julie Reams, Robert S. Birchard and C. Courtney Joyner having a heated debate over whether Howards Hawks’s films in the 1960s were worthy of his earlier work, and whether the great action directors of the 20s, 30s and 40s were humiliated to be directing TV in the 60s with impossible time limits.

Here and there were costumed performers, folks spinning yarn and others spinning lariats, Dave Bourne on his saloon piano… But some of the most pleasing moments were later, in the near-deserted saloon and the empty streets. There is a magic to being on movie sets, especially Western sets, which a Universal Studios Tour, with its built-for-the-tour attractions, can approach but never reach. If you missed it this year, don’t repeat the mistake next year. Stroll the wooden sidewalks, swing open the bat-wing saloon doors, and feel the magic.

*You generally only want to twirl a single-action pistol because it has to be cocked to be fired. A double-action cocks and fires when you pull the trigger, so in twirling, it would be easy to accidentally fire.

TARANTINO UNMUZZLED – DJANGO UNCHAINED!




After all the claims and denials and back-and-forth talk, Quentin Tarantino has turned a draft of his Southern-fried Spaghetti Western, DJANGO UNCHAINED in to the Weinsteins. It’s unclear how closely or distantly related it will be to the original Segio Corbucci-directed DJANGO (1966), which starred Franco Nero, and was more popular and influential in Europe than the Leone/Eastwood westerns, and led to countless imitations and sequels.

One definite change is that this Django will be black, a freed slave, and the buzz is that he will become a bounty-hunter, trained by experienced tracker Christophe Waltz. According to Deadline Hollywood, he plans to start shooting before the end of the year. He script is being kept tightly under wraps, after the cover-page got leaked. And here’s something fun to think about: Fred Williamson recently told me he was getting ready to do a new spaghetti western with Franco Nero. In 1976, Fred starred in JOSHUA as a returned Civil War soldier who becomes a bounty hunter…

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY BUYS MONOGRAM STUDIOS!






Financially strapped independent public broadcasting station KCET has sold its 4.5 acre Sunset Boulevard studio to the Church of Scientology. It’s the former home of Monogram Pictures, one of the most prolific of the poverty-row studios. The location of movie facilities since 1912, it was acquired by Monogram in 1936. Among the many series of films produced on the lot were The Bowery Boys, Charlie Chan and Mr. Wong films. The Western series produced on the lot included The Cisco Kid, the Range Busters and The Rough Riders – the latter starring Buck Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton. The studio’s stars included Tex Ritter, Duncan Renaldo, Crash Corrigan, Johnny Mack Brown and, at the start of his career, John Wayne.

Although it is often said that the lot was taken over by Allied Artists, the truth is that Monogram’s owners, knowing they’d developed a reputation for cheapie productions, simply changed the company name to Allied Artists. The Church of Scientology intends to use the facility to make their own training videos. Although it’s always sad to see a studio leave the mainstream of filmmaking, there wasn’t much left on the lot to suggest its history. Scientology creator L. Ron Hubbard made his living writing for the pulps – westerns included -- before he decided to start a religion, and Monogram was surely the pulpiest of studios, so it’s not that bad a fit.

‘HELL ON WHEELS’ RELEASES FIRST TRAILER




HELL ON WHEELS, the new AMC Western series focusing on the building of the trans-continental railroad, and stars Anson Mount as a former Confederate soldier seeking revenge, has released its first trailer. Check it out HERE. The pilot is in the can; the series starts shooting in Canada this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78zEDBmHwbU

‘COWBOYS AND ALIENS’ RELEASES EXTENDED TRAILER




On a recent American Idol episode, viewers got their first look at a 2 ½ minute trailer for the sci-fi Western coming this July. See it HERE:

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2016976153/

FIRST POSTER-ART FOR ‘YELLOW ROCK’




The first poster for this summer’s YELLOW ROCK can be seen above, featuring James Russo. The film also stars Michael Biehn, Lenore Andriel and Michael Spears. To learn more, visit their site HERE, their Facebook page HERE.

www.yellowrockmovie.com

www.facebook.com/yellowrockmovie

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 HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first 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.


FREE WESTERNS ON YOUR COMPUTER AT HULU

A staggering number of western TV episodes and movies are available, entirely free, for viewing on your computer at HULU. You do have to sit through the commercials, but that seems like a small price to pay. The series available -- often several entire seasons to choose from -- include THE RIFLEMAN, THE CISCO KID, THE LONE RANGER, BAT MASTERSON, THE BIG VALLEY, ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, and one I missed from 2003 called PEACEMAKERS starring Tom Berenger. Because they are linked up with the TV LAND website, you can also see BONANZA and GUNSMOKE episodes, but only the ones that are running on the network that week.

The features include a dozen Zane Grey adaptations, and many or most of the others are public domain features. To visit HULU on their western page, CLICK HERE.

TV LAND - BONANZA and GUNSMOKE

Every weekday, TV LAND airs a three-hour block of BONANZA episodes from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They run a GUNSMOKE Monday through Thursday at 10:00 a.m., and on Friday they show two, from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m.. They're not currently running either series on weekends, but that could change at any time.

NEED YOUR BLACK & WHITE TV FIX?

Check out your cable system for WHT, which stands for World Harvest Television. It's a religious network that runs a lot of good western programming. Your times may vary, depending on where you live, but weekdays in Los Angeles they run DANIEL BOONE at 1:00 p.m., and two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.. On Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. it's THE RIFLEMAN again, followed at 2:30 by BAT MASTERSON. And unlike many stations in the re-run business, they run the shows in the original airing order. There's an afternoon movie on weekdays at noon, often a western, and they show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

Also, AMC has started showing two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN on Saturday mornings.

That's all for tonight, pardners!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Contents Copyright May 2011 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

RIDING WITH ROOSTER COGBURN & COWBOYS & ALIENS

(Updated Wednesday 12/8/2010 -- see SCREENING: RED AND WHITE)
Soon you’ll be seeing Cody Jones in TRUE GRIT and COWBOYS & ALIENS, but he jokes that you may have to look real quick. The stuntman and actor is an Eastern Shoshone tribal member of the Wind River Indian Reservation. He first rode across the TV screen in The History Channel’s CARSON AND CODY: THE HUNTER HEROES. Many American Indians have strong feelings about Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill. When I asked Cody if he did, he laughed. “Well, actually I’m named after Buffalo Bill Cody. I think it’s pretty cool. Buffalo Bill first incorporated Indians into the Wild West Show, and I think overall it was a good opportunity for those Indian guys back then. I know at one point he was considered an Indian fighter, when he was a scout. But from what I know, Buffalo Bill tried to be a friend of the Indian. I look on it as an honor to be named after him.

“Originally I’m from Wyoming, Fort Laramie Wyoming. And I also grew up in Texas, once my folks divorced. My dad went back to Texas, and my mom stayed in Wyoming. I ended up graduating from high school in Texas. I used to rodeo. I was down in Weatherford College, riding bulls for a little stretch of time. It’s something that I wanted to try when I was in high school, but I was playing a lot of other sports, and my parents were kind of discouraging me from doing it. I’d ridden a few bulls in high school, got real serious about it afterwards. I did that for a while, went pretty good at the start, then I went through a stretch when I wasn’t covering my bulls, wasn’t making a full ride, and then ended up being hurt. Got sort of banged up. So I took some time off, went back up to my grandpa’s place in Wyoming, stayed at the ranch.

“I was training horses on our family ranch, breaking them for other people to ride. It’s what we call ‘starting colts,’ getting the horse started. When they’re three, three and a half, you’re getting on them, riding them for the first time. Normally you put on sixty to ninety days, depending on who it’s for. If it’s for someone who’s pretty experienced I might only put thirty to sixty days on a horse, and they’ll take them from that point. If it’s somebody living in town who’s not very experienced, I might keep them ninety days, or even longer than that, get them really lined out and going good. At that point they can get on and usually handle the horse pretty well. And while I was working on our family ranch I did some college, at Eastern Wyoming College.”

(Photos - from top, Cody Jones, Cody Jones on horseback, DEADLIEST WARRIORS break for lunch, Will Rogers, William S. Hart, Red and White poster)

His work with horses is what eventually led him to the screen. “I was at home in Wyoming, in the summer of ’02, and I got a call from my cousin, Nobby Brown, who’d done stunts in a lot of movies – he’d done DANCES WITH WOLVES, GERONIMO – and he said, ‘Come down to Oklahoma to do this thing for The History Channel.’ It was CARSON AND CODY: THE HUNTER HEROES. They had a wagon we chased. They had us riding across a big wide-open prairie. They’d just tell us to ride from one point to another. I was just one of the guys in there, riding. I did that, and the next summer I toured in some Wild West shows. It was patterned after how Buffalo Bill did his show. They had their Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill. That took us into the Midwest. The biggest one we did was a ten day show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Lot of fun – two performances a day, and on the tenth day we road through downtown Milwaukee in a big parade. They wanted to keep it going every summer. But it was that time when oil prices were steadily rising. The cost of getting the horses and all of the guys to each location was too much, and the show folded.

“The next year, Steven Speilberg was doing a miniseries for TNT called INTO THE WEST, so I worked stunts in that. They hired a bunch of Indian guys to do stunt riding, especially episodes 4 and 5. Episode 4 was the one where they had the most riding – it was called HELL ON WHEELS.”

Steve Reevis, from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, an actor with a long string of credits, is a good friend and mentor to Cody, and convinced him to move to Los Angeles. His first job in L.A. was a film called THE HIRED GUN, which sounds like a Western, but isn’t. “It was a modern-day crime movie. That was fun; that was the first thing I worked on. I knew a stunt guy by the name of Kerry Wallum, down in Texas, and he was coming here around the same time that I was, to work on that movie. He got me on that, maybe two weeks after I came out to California, so I thought, ‘Alright – two weeks and I’m already on a film set.’ (laughs) I spent the rest of the year working at Home Depot in Burbank.

“Mostly on HIRED GUN I was doing a lot of driving. It was my first chance to do something besides riding horses – they had a lot of hard driving scenes in there. I had a scene where I had a fight with a couple of cops. They ended up giving me some lines, but they got cut from the movie: when I went to the premiere, they weren’t in there.” He’s also done some modeling. “I was in the Native American Men’s Calendar for 2009.” I asked him what month. “It was actually May and December. (laughs) Yeah, I got two months out of that one. They called me for this year’s, but I’ve been gone so much I missed out on being in the 2011 one.

“When I came out here I just wanted to be a stuntman, that was my big thing, but you know they’re just not making enough westerns these days. And being labeled an ‘Indian stuntman’ can make it even tougher, because then you’re afraid they’re only going to call you if they need Indian guys who can ride or whatever. I’ve done six different things this year, and every one has been Indian-related. I realize that’s my look, how people see me. I can change my hair, but I can’t grow much facial hair. I came out looking just to be a stuntman, but Steve pointed out, you can act a lot longer than you can be a stuntman, so I’ve been giving acting a try. I started acting classes about a year ago, and I’ve really switched my focus to acting. It’s kind of half and half right now.”

I asked him about TRUE GRIT. “I was actually working on another set when I got the phone call, on a show called DEADLIEST WARRIOR: AZTEC JAGUAR VS. ZANDE WARRIOR, for Spike TV. I played the main Aztec warrior in that episode. I was supposed to work background stunts that day, but I got there, and they ended up making me the main guy, so that was pretty cool. So I was on the set, and I got the call, the lady said the Coen Brothers were down in Austin, going through (pictures) picking out people they’re going to use in Texas. And they like me, and a friend of mine, Picarni Reevis, Steve’s son. They were picking six Indian men and six Indian women. I was told there’d be horse riding, a scene in a Wild West show. When we got there, they had changed their minds, and we wouldn’t be riding. So we’re just standing around in this area where they do the Wild West show. That’s the scene. The other four guys were hired local, from the Austin area. They were going to just use Texans, but the Coen brothers like our looks, so they brought us in from California. At one point they had us six guys and the six women lined up, and the camera goes by us. Then there were shots of us mixed in with the cowboys and Annie Oakley. So now I don’t know what you’re going to see in that scene – and if you see any of us, it’s going to be kind of quick, I’m afraid. But Pikuni and I were there, and we got introduced to the Coen brothers. They were asking, ‘How’s your father, Steve?’ Because they’d used Steve in FARGO back in ’93.”

I asked him if he’d seen the original TRUE GRIT, with John Wayne. “Yeah, I actually saw it for the first time in May, when we were in Texas. My mother is living in Texas now, and when I was visiting with her, we watched it. I liked it. I didn’t know I was going to see a young Robert Duvall – I didn’t know he was in the original. And Dennis Hopper – he got killed early.” Did he like westerns before he started working in them?

“Yeah, I really did. For me, growing up, I really remember YOUNG GUNS. GERONIMO, of course DANCES WITH WOLVES. I’ve always loved those movies. I want to eventually make my own western, and I hope to do it on my grandpa’s place. He ranches on a little over ten thousand acres, so he’s got some pretty scenic-looking areas, places where you could have a camera and not see any modern stuff. I’ve got one I’m writing right now, and I’d like to take a shot at directing it. But if I could find someone who’s experienced, and saw my same vision, I’d be willing to let them direct it, as long as we could get the thing made.”

I asked him about COWBOYS & ALIENS. “That’s one that a guy named Rod Rondeau brought me on. He’s from the Crow Reservation in Montana. He knew me from when we did INTO THE WEST. He did a lot of stunts in it, and he had a big acting role, as Roman Nose. In episode four we had horses, we’re laying down, then we jump up, ride them up next to this wagon, and a guy jumps from his horse to the wagon, throws a couple of guys off, and then he jumps from the seat to some of the horses – that was Rod. Rod called me back in April, said he was putting together a group of guys to go to New Mexico. I rode with him most of the summer, and he said, ‘You’re going to be one of my guys I go to New Mexico with.’

“In COWBOYS & ALIENS I was one of the Apaches riding in the group, where the Apaches and the cowboys get together to fight off the alien invasion, in the town of Absolution. It’s supposed to be set in Arizona, but they shot it in New Mexico. A lot of hard horse-riding. They had us shooting down arrows at aliens that weren’t there, that they’ll add later. There was also some wiring going on, where someone would be pulled back out of their saddle or up into the air, supposedly by aliens. I’d see Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig or director Jon Favreau in passing. I got to meet Olivia Wilde, our female lead, and she was very nice. But a lot of the stuff we were doing was stunts, was 2nd unit. Terry Leonard was 2nd unit director, and I did get to meet and talk with him several times, which is very cool because he’s kind of a legend, because he started out doing stunts in Westerns, and now he’s 2nd unit director. He doubled for a lot of the western stars – he’s our Yakima Canutt.”

What else is in the works? “WUSS is a film we made in Dallas, Texas this summer, and we’re supposed to hear pretty soon if it’s accepted into SUNDANCE. The director already had one of his films shown there last year, so SUNDANCE is expecting him to come back with this one. It was cool because I did get a real acting role, and if it does get accepted into Sundance it would be some good exposure. And WARRIOR’S HEART is a modern film that I got to do some stunt-work in as a lacrosse player. They were looking for native guys who had played lacrosse in the past. Adam Beach is the main native guy in that one, mentoring a kid who lost his father. He also plays Nat Colorado in COWBOYS & ALIENS.”

And there’s one more Western. “DAWN OF CONVICTION is supposed to come out after the first of the year – it’s just going to go film festivals first. It’s made by a production company called Companion Pictures, in association with The University of Fairfield, in Connecticut. A couple of guys graduated from the university, and then went back there with this Western they’d written. And the film program director liked it so much that they got the University, and some more money, behind it. It’s kind of a student film/independent film. And the crew was students working for credit for their class. We filmed it in June of 2009, in and around the Black Hills of South Dakota, kind of close to Mt. Rushmore. That’s one I’m kind of excited about, it’s the one that I call my first acting role. It’s a small role, but I was on set for a couple of weeks, and it was a great experience, with a lot of other young actors. I’ve been on some really big sets, really grateful for that, but this had to be my funnest shoot ever. We shot with really nice Sony HD cameras from the university. We’re out on a 70,000 acre ranch, just a sea of grass. At base-camp they had cabins and trailers for us to stay in. A lot of the actors and crew were from New York and Connecticut, who’d never done any camping. The night we wrapped filming, a bunch of them didn’t stay in their cabins – they got around a big campfire and slept out there – they just wanted to sleep under the stars. It was a real experience for a lot of them. I don’t know if it’s going to be as good as TRUE GRIT, but it’s going to be a good one.” CLICK HERE to see a trailer for DAWN OF CONVICTION and visit the official website.

WILL ROGERS TRIBUTE AT LASKY-DEMILLE BARN WEDNESDAY 12/8

Cowboy Will Rogers became a vaudeville star with an astonishing rope-tossing routine that was billed as a ‘dumb act’, that is, one performed silently. Eddie Cantor said it was Ziegfeld Follies co-star W.C. Fields who convinced him that he was funny enough to talk on stage, and the rest is history. On Wednesday, at 7:30 p.m., the Hollywood Heritage Museum will present An Evening With Will Rogers, featuring his great-granddaughter, Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry, who will discuss her predecessor’s legacy in film, print and radio. Also on hand will be Todd Vradenburg, Executive Director of the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation and Board President of the Will Rogers Foundation.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will premiere several documentaries produced for their Will Rogers DVD Collection, including ‘Back To The Ranch’, with family interviews, and ‘Jane Withers Remembers’, with reminiscences from Withers about their friendship when they were both making movies at Fox. Additionally, film historian Stan Taffel will screen rare film clips from his collection. The event costs $10 for the public, $5 for Hollywood Heritage members, and is, delightfully, located in Hollywood’s original studio, right across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, at 2100 Highland Avenue. For more information, CLICK HERE.

FREE THURSDAY LUNCHTIME SCREENING OF 'RED AND WHITE: GONE WITH THE WEST' DOWNTOWN

The Jules Verne Adventures folks -- the ones who brought you last year's WILD BUNCH 40TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING, and last month's Steve McQueen event, are presenting the documentary film narrated by Ernest Borgnine. They describe the movie as, "A journey unto the American Wild West, between past and present, from Buffalo Bill's last gleaming hopes to the Native Americans ressurection." It's at the Jules Verne Pocket Theatre at 7th and Figueroa. For details, CLICK HERE.

WILLIAM S. HART’S ‘THE DARKENING TRAIL’ AT THE EGYPTIAN SATURDAY 12/11

Hart, the first great actor of the Western screen, starred and made his directorial debut in this 1915 story of unrequited love, infidelity and revenge in frontier Alaska. Showing at 7:30 in the Speilberg Theatre (which I think is the smaller one in back), it is part of the Egyptian’s Retroformat Series, screening movies in obsolete formats, because that’s often the only way they are available. They’ll be showing an 8mm film print. Also in the program, a 1915 Pacific Electric film on trolley safety, and D. W. Griffith’s OIL AND WATER (1913) starring Blanche Sweet. For more information, CLICK HERE.


It's almost two a.m., Monday morning, so I'm not going to get the rest of this week's report up until later in the day. But please check back, there's more interesting stuff!

Adios,

Henry

All Contents Copyright December 2010 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

OLD TUCSON GAINS MUCH-NEEDED 'STARDUST'

Stardust and The Bandit, the western-themed comedy pilot recently shot at the historic Old Tucson Studios, was co-written and co-directed by Dick Fisher and Sarah Sher. Its broad comedy and western background is quite a departure from the very Eastern movie Fisher made his reputation with: he produced, photographed and edited The Brothers McMullen. That film, about three Irish brothers in New York, won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and was a career-maker for both Fisher and writer/director/star Edward Burns. “It was actually Fox Searchlight’s first release, when they started that specialty division at Fox. They’ve just done a magnificent job in marketing it (over the years). I’m hoping they’ll be having a Blu-Ray re-release of it.”

But Fisher started out not in independent features, but on local news in Utica, New York. “Upstate was beautiful. I went to visit my sister, who went to Hamilton College, in Clinton, and I just fell in love with the area. I was an undergraduate, working in construction, building the world’s largest brewery. One day, driving along, I just pulled off the highway at the Newhouse School and said, ‘What do I have to do here to get a Masters degree, because I’m on the wrong track, and I really want to be a filmmaker.’ I got a Masters Degree there, and through connections I had in Syracuse, I got a job at the local television station in Utica in 1978, shooting newsreels. You’d come to work, they’d give you a 400’ can of 16mm film (about ten minutes worth), you’d shoot a few stories, and they had a (film) processor in a garage by the television station. And I got to process my own film, edit my own film, and put it on the air. It was a fantastic experience with the full range of work in film.”

After several years there, he moved to New York City, started his own production company, Technical Services, and began working in the burgeoning tabloid TV field as a location cameraman. Over the next several years, his many clients included HARD COPY, CURRENT AFFAIR, LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS, P.M. MAGAZINE, and ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT. “Entertainment Tonight was one of my early clients, and Ed Burns was my production assistant -- that’s how we got to know each other. And we discovered that we both had a love for film, and an ambition to make film. He engaged me to shoot an earlier film he’d written, called Brandy, and we had a great time, but we couldn’t sell it. So we decided to do it again – we had a very specific idea of why we couldn’t sell it, and how go make a film that we could sell.”

The result was The Brothers McMullen. Unless it’s a one-man movie, it’s unusual for one person to be both cinematographer and editor on a feature. And it’s just about unheard of for someone to be producer as well – generally producers are not at all technical. “Photography is my first love, cinematography, but the fact that I understand editing has certainly made me a very effective cinematographer. Because no matter how beautiful a shot is, if it doesn’t cut into your sequence, you’re just spinning your wheels.

“Working on those (tabloid) shows -- shooting every day, for years and years -- gives you a level of professionalism, gives you the chops to be able to shoot something that’s going to be acceptable to distributers. And it gave me the level of success that allowed me to work on independent films, because I was prepared to finance them. Steven Spielberg, working with his parents’ 8MM camera probably did a great job, but you couldn’t sell them. (It’s not like) now, when you have films like Paranormal Activity – with equipment like the DSLR cameras -- where you can create high definition, high quality images (for so little money). Blair Witch is another example – until Blair Witch, The Brothers McMullen was the most profitable independent – not highest gross, but most profitable. Our delivery cost was between four hundred and five hundred thousand, and they made fourteen or fifteen million in domestic gross. But the Blair Witch people don’t have the same happy story that Eddy and I do. We own The Brothers McMullen and share the profits with Fox Searchlight, and it’s still making money. Blair Witch grossed over a hundred million at the box office, but the guy who made it certainly didn’t get any fraction of that.”

What brought him from New York to Arizona in the mid-90s was an ailing relative, and the conviction that, with his track record as a writer and producer, he could live and work anywhere. And he was looking forward to working there, “…because I was aware of the incredibly rich history of filming in Tucson.” Built in 1939 for Arizona, Old Tucson Studios had been the location of over 300 movie and TV shoots, including Broken Arrow (1950), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), Gunfight At The O.K. Corral (1957), Peckinpah’s first -- The Deadly Companions (1961), Joe Kidd (1972), Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Tom Horn (1980), Tombstone (1993), and a slew of John Waynes – Rio Bravo (1959), McClintock (1963), El Dorado (1966) and Rio Lobo (1970). What Fisher could not anticipate was that in 1995, an arson fire would devastate the studio, destroying sets, the soundstage, and all of the costumes and props for Little House on the Prairie. Most of the destroyed sets were re-built, but, “…they decided not to rebuild their soundstage. At the same time, the American dollar was strong and the Canadian dollar was weak, and Canada came up with the brilliant plan of tax rebates, which moved so much of the work to Canada.

“Losing the soundstage really killed the film business in Tucson, and Arizona in general. New Mexico started giving no-interest loans to stimulate the film business, but Arizona never got their act together about joining that party. Old Tucson’s (situation) is unusual. It’s inside a County Park, which is good, because it means that the vistas in all directions are protected from development: when you’re in the town square, you point the camera in any direction and you see mountains and deserts, you don’t seen houses and buildings. The downside of that for investors is you cannot buy the land – you can only lease it for however many years. So people were reluctant to make a large investment in a new soundstage. The people that own it now have not developed it as an active studio. It’s sort of a roadside attraction.

“A little over a year ago, Sarah Sher said to me, ‘I’m sick of complaining that we don’t have work. Let’s do something. Let’s make a television pilot that has several purposes, one of which is to demonstrate to the world what a great motion picture location this is. To show people that we have the talent here in Tucson to make motion pictures and television. And maybe inspire somebody to spend some money and make another soundstage here and get some work.’”

“If nothing else, I’m pragmatic, so we decided to get the most out of what already exists at Old Tucson. (We wrote) a fish out of water story: an accountant for the mob (Scott Thomas) is put into the Witness Protection Program, and the job that they give him is bookkeeper at Old Tucson, as it exists now – a roadside attraction. He’s a ‘Mr. Bean’ sort of character, in a suit with glasses and a briefcase, supposed to work in a back room, keep his head down. Then, when a performer in their stunt show gets dragged away by a horse, a beautiful chorus line dancer (Shanna Brock) pulls him up on stage; they put him into a cowboy outfit – he ends up being in the show. And of course the mobster he’s supposed to testify against shows up with his family on vacation.

“We wrote the script, and Pete Mangelsdorf, CEO at Old Tucson, liked it, and he signed on as executive producer, and Old Tucson Studios itself as a co-producer. Everyone in the film community jumped on, worked for deferred pay, and we were able to use everything they have at Old Tucson – the stunt performers, the locations. They fed us and picked up the insurance, and did all of the technical things you need even if you’re making a no-budget production. I have the credentials, if you will, for making a successful no-budget production.

“We shot for two weeks and this was just the most fun I’ve had on a set. When we got to the last shot of the last day, I called ‘cut! Any problems?’ And the crew said, ‘Let’s not stop! Let’s do more!’ They all wanted to keep working. Even working deferred it was a joy, just so much fun to be out there, working at Old Tucson – to be directing a Western at Old Tucson – the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck at times just thinking, now I’m part of the history. I’m an Eastern guy, I was born in Brooklyn. But what American boy is not in some way affected by the cowboys? Being an American, for better or worse, there’s the poetry of being a cowboy. If it’s not in our DNA, it’s in our rearing: we’re all cowboys.

“We’re just finishing the rough-cut now, and we have a few technical sound issues, and I want to get some music written. And we’re looking to get it into the marketplace and have people get interested in it.

“And of course, what we would like -- the genesis of the whole idea -- would be to have this create something like HIGH CHAPARRAL, one of the shows that was really part of the fabric of Tucson before. We want to weave ourselves back into the fabric of filmmaking in Southern Arizona, and hopefully that’s what we’ll be able to do.”

Meanwhile, Dick’s next assignment is very different. “I was just engaged to be director of photography on a project that’s being financed and filmed up on the Gila River Indian Community. It’s written and directed by a Native American up there. It’s a contemporary coming-of-age (story) called Second Circle, about a young Indian who has to deal with the gang-bangers and the taggers and drug dealers, and whether he can live more to the traditional ideals of his community, or whether he’ll get drawn to that dark side of American society. It’s a very interesting script. The Gila River tribe runs one of the casinos up there, and the producer, Tony Estrada, who is a Navajo, pitched to them the idea that they would create and own this film, but at the same time have this training (program) for the film industry, for their community members.”

To learn more about Stardust and The Bandit, visit their Facebook page HERE.

FIRST TRAILER FOR ‘COWBOYS AND ALIENS’ RELEASED

CLICK HERE to check it out! The Jon Favreau - directed Sci-Fi Western, starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde is set for a July 29th, 2011 release.


REEL INJUN WINS THREE GEMINI AWARDS

At the star-studded 25th Annual Gemini Awards, the Canadian Oscars, the documentary Reel Injun, see my review HERE, won three awards. The entertaining and informative look at the Indian’s image in Hollywood westerns won Best Direction For a Documentary, Best Visual Research, and the prestigious Canada Award, which recognizes work that explores racial and cultural diversity in Canada. To learn when and where you can see this film, visit the official website HERE.


INDIAN CHIEF CIGARETTE INSERT CARDS

Doing some much-needed office cleaning I came upon a set of cards which my father gave me more than thirty years ago. These are cigarette insert cards, the forerunner of bubble-gum cards, and measure 1 ½” by 2 ¾ ”. They are the ‘Celebrated American Indian Chiefs’ collection, from Allen & Ginter of Richmond, Virginia, and if my on-line research is correct, they date from 1888. The cards are so beautiful that I’ve decided to share the fifty-card set with the Round-up readers, two at a time. I hope you enjoy them.

‘DEATH VALLEY DAYS’ CREATOR’S BIRTHDAY

Sources disagree by ten days, but either last Tuesday the 16th or next Friday the 26th would be the birthday of Ruth Woodman. Born in New York State in 1894, the Vassar graduate, mother of two and wife of an investment banker, was a copywriter for an advertising agency when, in 1930, she was asked to create a radio show for the Pacific Coast Borax Company. The result was the fact-and-folklore-based anthology series, DEATH VALLEY DAYS, which ran on radio from 1930 until 1945. It then moved to television, and ran from 1952 to 1975, producing 558 TV episodes. Woodman wrote the entire first five TV seasons herself, adapting her radio scripts.

Woodman frequently visited Death Valley for inspiration, and on her first trip there ran into Death Valley Scotty. She contributed to other TV series as well, and wrote one feature, Last of The Pony Riders (1953) for Gene Autry. She served as story editor her retirement in 1959, but still contributed scripts until her death in 1970, at the age of 75. You can find every single episode of the TV series for sale if you search on-line. I suspect they’re bootlegs, but I’m no lawman. If you’d like to listen to a couple of the radio shows, CLICK HERE.

D. W. GRIFFITH UPDATE

I was happy to receive some positive feedback about my criticism last week of the Directors Guild of America’s decision, a decade ago, to strip Griffith’s name from an award because of the racially offensive Birth of a Nation – for details, see last week’s entry. To my surprise, I learned there is an on-line petition to get his name put back on. I don’t know anything about who is running the campaign, but if you’re interested in learning more, and signing the petition, CLICK HERE. For those who would like to see some of Griffith’s work, on Monday, November 29th, the Academy will present GRIFFITH IN CALIFORNIA – HOLLYWOOD’S EARLIEST FILMS FROM A CENTURY AGO at the Linwood Dunn Theatre. The bad news is that the show is sold out, but the good news is that there are always some no-shows, and people who show up early usually get in. For more details, CLICK HERE.

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.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21ST LOS ENCINOS LIVING HISTORY DAY

On this day, and the third Sunday of every month, Los Encinos State Historic Park, located at 16756 Moorpark St. in Encino,91436, has a Living History Day. From one to three p.m. enjoy music, period crafts, a blacksmith, docents in 1870s attire, tours of the historic buildings, and traditional children’s games.

HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first 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.


FREE WESTERNS ON YOUR COMPUTER AT HULU

A staggering number of western TV episodes and movies are available, entirely free, for viewing on your computer at HULU. You do have to sit through the commercials, but that seems like a small price to pay. The series available -- often several entire seasons to choose from -- include THE RIFLEMAN, THE CISCO KID, THE LONE RANGER, BAT MASTERSON, THE BIG VALLEY, ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, and one I missed from 2003 called PEACEMAKERS starring Tom Berenger. Because they are linked up with the TV LAND website, you can also see BONANZA and GUNSMOKE episodes, but only the ones that are running on the network that week.

The features include a dozen Zane Grey adaptations, and many or most of the others are public domain features. To visit HULU on their western page, CLICK HERE.

TV LAND - BONANZA and GUNSMOKE

Every weekday, TV LAND airs a three-hour block of BONANZA episodes from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They run a GUNSMOKE Monday through Thursday at 10:00 a.m., and on Friday they show two, from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m.. They're not currently running either series on weekends, but that could change at any time.

NEED YOUR BLACK & WHITE TV FIX?

Check out your cable system for WHT, which stands for World Harvest Television. It's a religious network that runs a lot of good western programming. Your times may vary, depending on where you live, but weekdays in Los Angeles they run DANIEL BOONE at 1:00 p.m., and two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.. On Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. it's THE RIFLEMAN again, followed at 2:30 by BAT MASTERSON. And unlike many stations in the re-run business, they run the shows in the original airing order. There's an afternoon movie on weekdays at noon, often a western, and they show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

Keep those e-mails and cimments comin', and have a great Thanksgiving!

Adios, Pilgrim

Henry

All Contents Copyright November 2010 by Henry C Parke -- All Rights Reserved