MOVIES REWRITE HISTORY AT TCM FEST! PLUS SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FEST UPDATE, WILLIAM WELLMAN FEST AT UCLA, AND MORE!

MOVIES REWRITE HISTORY AT TCM FEST!

The theme of the sixth annual TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL was “History according to Hollywood,” and a fine time was had by all who attended.  This is the third year that I’ve attended, and nowhere else do I meet so many people so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about movies.  The center of this cinematic orgy is the fabled Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, it’s next-door multiplex, and the Roosevelt Hotel across the street, but the screenings spill out to quite a few other venues. 

The fun started at 5 pm on Thursday, March 26^th, with a Red Carpet before the Chinese Theatre, leading to the premiere of the new restoration of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, with stars Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, and several portrayers of the Von Trapp kids present.  I enjoyed covering the red carpet the first two years, but could not convince myself that THE SOUND OF MUSIC was a Western.  So I skipped it in order to attend a screening of John Ford’s THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, introduced by a son of one of its stars, and a major star in his own right, Keith Carradine.  Keith Carradine began his professional acting career with MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER, and went on to play Jim Younger in THE LONG RIDERS, Buffalo Bill Cody in WILD BILL, and many others.  He created the role of Will Rogers on Broadway in THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES, and was sorely missed by DEADWOOD fans when, as Wild Bill Hickok, he drew aces and eights after only  five episodes – dumbest mistake the series’ producers could have made!   

Keith Carradine introducing THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE

He was delighted to see the theatre entirely packed.  “I cannot tell you what it does for my heart to see this many people here to see this movie – oh my gosh!  I am a huge John Ford fan, and he only made two more feature films after this, DONOVAN’S REEF and CHEYENNE AUTUMN.  I have a particular attachment to this film for a number of reasons.  It has an amazing cast, obviously, with Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne.  Lee Marvin, who was a pal ever since we did EMPEROR OF THE NORTH together – the incomparable Lee Marvin.  And in fact I just paid homage to him.  We did a concert production, the Encore series in New York, of PAINT YOUR WAGON, in which I played Ben Rumson (note: Lee Marvin’s role in the film).  Anyhow, as Orson Welles said when he was asked who his influences were, “Well, I studied the great masters, by which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.”  This is one of his great works, and in addition to that great cast, and my friend Lee Marvin, my father is in this film.  I can’t thank you all enough for being here to support what TCM has been doing so brilliantly now for lo these many years, burnishing, maintaining; preserving the legacy of the motion picture.  Thank goodness for them, and for what they do.  This stuff is where all the movies came from.  And to give us the opportunity to see them the way they were originally meant to be seen, in a theatre, surrounded by other people, on the big screen – it’s incomparable.  So, enjoy THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, and I’ll see you down the road.” 

Andy Devine and Woody Strode in LIBERTY VALANCE

As many times as I’d already seen LIBERTY VALANCE, I’d never seen it on a big screen before, and there are a thousand little details that are invisible on a smaller image – like how many flies were on Andy Devine!  Incidentally, Andy’s son Dennis has some fascinating details on the making of this film in his book YOUR FRIEND AND MINE, ANDY DEVINE (read my review HERE), including why it was shot in black and white – to try and hide the advanced age of Wayne and Stewart in the ‘young’ sequences.

As always, the TCM Fest is an embarrassment of riches, and you cannot possibly attend all of the events you wish.  At 9:45 pm, the Australian Western-ish film BREAKER MORANT screened, introduced by its director Bruce Beresford, whose other credits include TENDER MERCIES, BLACK ROBE, and AND STARRING PANCHO VILLA AS HIMSELF.  Fifteen minutes later, Rory Flynn, daughter of Errol Flynn, was introducing one of her dad’s classics, THE SEA HAWK. 

Peter Fonda and Keith Carradine for CLEMENTINE

Friday was the big Western day, starting at 9:30 am with Ford’s MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, featuring an introduction and audience Q & A with Peter Fonda and Keith Carradine, again sons of the stars.  At 12:30 pm, THE PROUD REBEL screened, introduced by David Ladd, who co-starred with his father Alan Ladd in the film.  At 2:30 pm, while Rory Flynn discussed her father at Club TCM, Peter Fonda was introducing another Ford classic, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, starring Henry Fonda.  Two blocks to the east, at Sid Grauman’s other great Hollywood theatre, The Egyptian, Ann Margaret was introducing her Steve McQueen co-starrer, THE CINCINNATI KID, to a packed house – I know it was packed because I couldn’t get in!  

PINOCCHIO stars Dickie Jones and Cliff Edwards

study character sketches

I headed back to see what I could squeeze into, and entered another movie palace that they were using, the El Capitan, to see Walt Disney’s PINOCCHIO.  I was halfway through the movie before I recalled that Pinocchio was voiced by Dickie Jones, later to star in many Westerns, including Errol Flynn’s best, ROCKY MOUNTAIN, and the series THE RANGE RIDER and BUFFALO BILL JR.  He also had a small role in YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, showing in another theatre at the same time.  Jones just passed away a few months ago.  And Pinocchio’s sidekick, Jiminy Cricket, was portrayed by Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards, who sidekicked for Charles “Durango Kid” Starrett and Tim Holt. 

Another tough choice came at about 6 pm.  Legendary stunt man Terry Leonard was introducing RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, where he recreated Yakima Canutt’s famous under-the-coach whip-drag and climb-up from STAGECOACH.  Instead I attended FONDA THE ACTOR, FONDA THE MAN, with Peter discussing his father Henry with Scott Eyman, author of PRINT THE LEGEND – THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN FORD, and JOHN WAYNE – THE LIFE AND LEGEND.  Put kindly, Henry was not the best or most consistent father, but his son still had many positive memories, and shared them with startling candor; several times he had to stop when his emotions overtook him.  

Here are some of the highpoints.  The first movie he saw his father in was CHAD HANNA, made in 1940, the year Peter was born.  “I think I was five, and there was my father on-screen.  And he wasn’t in the Pacific theatre (of the war) – he’d run away with Linda Darnell to the circus!  We had home movies, but my dad was never in the home movies, because he was operating the camera.  This is the first movie I’ve seen on the big screen.  So I didn’t know about Linda Darnell.  I didn’t know about the circus.  So all these questions are building up in this little boy’s mind.  The moment I remember best is (when) Chad went into the lion’s cage to clean it out.  What Chad didn’t know, and which I could see and the rest of the audience could see – it was a small screening room at Fox – is that the lion was in the cage.  So by this time I don’t think it’s Chad, I think it’s Dad.  And my God, he’s gonna get Dad.  I got so upset I ran down to the screen yelling, ‘Daddy! Daddy!  Daddy!  The lion’s there!’  Of course they had to take me out of the theatre.”  His mother calmed him down, telling him it was not Dad, but Chad Hanna, a character in the movie.  At the time, Henry Fonda was away at war, in Naval Air Intelligence.  When he came home on leave, he went by Peter’s school to pick him up.  “I saw the family’s ’38 Buick limousine.  It opens, and out steps Chad Hanna.  I had a tremendous problem, because here was Chad with the family car, and I sure as Hell did not want to drive with someone who was so stupid that he’d get into a lion’s cage.  So I hid in a bush.  I was a skinny kid and they couldn’t get me.”  Later he gained a much better understanding of his father from watching him do theatre, particularly MR. ROBERTS, rather than in movies.    

He described his first visit to a film set.  “I actually went on the set of FORT APACHE.  I went driving on the set and it was amazing – I told this story to John Wayne, Duke, and he was amazed that I could remember the detail of the car he was driving.  It was a crème-colored Cadillac, with red leather seats, and me and my sister (Jane) sat in the back, which was a smaller seat than in front, with John Wayne driving, my dad, and Ward Bond.  This was the first time I’d gone on a set.  And it didn’t mean anything; nobody explained it.  But I remember the car, John Wayne’s lovely Cadillac, and it was beautiful – four door, convertible, top down.  Now people say, what was it like growing up as Henry Fonda’s son?  My fast remark is, did you see FORT APACHE?  Do you know who Colonel Thursday is?  Do you know what kind of a man he was?  I’m joking – but unfortunately some people think, ‘Oh, he hates his father.’  I loved my father.  I love him now.  I miss him.” 

James Stewart was a good friend of the family.  “Jimmy Stewart was my godfather, and we all called him Uncle Jimmy.  He and my father were very close friends, and before they got heavy into filming, they were flying around in airplanes.  Although politically at opposite ends, they were very tight friends.  Whenever (Dad) was off in the Pacific, Jimmy would come back from his tours in the European theatre, flying a B-17, and come and see us all.  You have to understand that in 1945, ’46, Los Angeles was very small, and the air was extraordinarily clean.  My sister and I used to climb up on the roof – it was a pretty steep roof, on a very big house, but my sister and I had a way of getting up there.  And my mother would freak out if she knew.

“ One day, it’s Christmas Eve, there’s Uncle Jimmy.  He’s at the house, having a wonderful time.  We all knew him, all loved him – he was a funny man.  We were sent up the stairs of course, because it’s Christmas Eve.  We don’t get out until they let us in the morning.  Jane’s in her room, I’m in mine, and I hear some banging around on the roof.  I went to her room, I said, ‘Santa Claus is here, I think!’ We got out the window, on the roof, and there is Santa, at the chimney, with the Santa hat, the big bag.  But on closer observation, it was Uncle Jimmy.   Ho-ho-ho-ho!  But we’re on the roof, no one else is gonna hear this, so this performance is just for us.  And that’s when I stopped believing in Santa Claus, but I kept believing in Uncle Jimmy.”   

Next Round-up I’ll have the rest of my TCM coverage, and part two of FONDA ON FONDA, including Peter’s memories of his father making ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, and directing Henry in WANDA NEVADA.  

FORD’S ‘IRON HORSE’ A ROUSING SUCCESS AT THE AUTRY!

It was quite a week for John Ford!  In addition to all of his films that were screened at the TCM Fest (and I’ve only talked about half of them), Thursday night saw The Welles Fargo Theatre at The Autry packed for the silent THE IRON HORSE, presented with an original score, a combination of live and programmed music by Emmy Award-nominated composer Tom Peters. 

Composer Tom Peters

Curator Jeffrey Richardson told me, “The Autry was proud and excited to host the debut of Tom Peter's score for John Ford's THE IRON HORSE. The audience, myself included, was captivated by the kaleidoscope of sound that magnified the power and intensity of the silent classic.” Senior Manager of Programs and Public Events Ben Fitzsimmons added, “Tom Peters certainly deserved his standing ovation after almost two and a half hours of playing his new score. He took folk songs of the era and combined them with other musical inspirations to create an epic piece of music to accompany an epic movie.”  

  

Although his IRON HORSE score is not yet available to hear, to give you an idea of the work Tom Peters does with silent film, here is a sample of his score from THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI.

GENE AUTRY DISCUSSION ADDED TO SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FEST!

It’s less than two weeks until the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, on Saturday and Sunday, April 18^th & 19^th, and a new conversation has been added to my schedule at the Buckaroo Book Shop.  On Saturday at 5 pm I’ll be chatting with Karla Buhlman, President of Gene Autry Entertainment, about the legacy of America's Favorite Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry.  Karla knew Gene very well, and I’m sure she’ll have a lot to tell us.  Karla will also be joining the previously announced Saturday 2 pm panel discussion, Unsung Heroes of Film: The Hollywood Stunt Horse, where I’ll also be chatting with with Karen Rosa -Senior Consultant at the American Humane Association's Film & TV Unit, and authors Petrine Day Mitchum, Audrey Pavia, and National Cowgirl Hall of Fame Honoree Shirley Lucas Jauregui.  For a complete schedule of events at the Buckaroo Book Shop, go HERE

For the official Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival site, go HERE

WILD BILL WELLMAN HONORED AT UCLA APRIL-JUNE

One of the most independent voices in the golden years of Hollywood, William Wellman will be honored at UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theatre with a 21 film retrospective, mostly double features.  While many of the ‘social commentary’ directors of the era had a tendency to preach, Wellman entertained while exposing society’s flaws, and certainly won more converts that way.  The series, entitled WILLIAM A. WELLMAN – HOLLYWOOD REBEL opens this Friday, April 10^th, at 7:30 pm with a wonderful double-bill: A STAR IS BORN and NOTHING SACRED.  They’re both in 35mm, both in color, and both from 1937 – can you imagine any director today making two such landmark films in one year?  (Of course, two years later, Victor Fleming made GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ – but with a lot of help!)  Starting at 6:30 pm, William Wellman Jr. will be selling and signing his book, Wild Bill Wellman: Hollywood Rebel. 

On Saturday it’s WINGS (1927), with a live piano score by Cliff Retallick.  Westerns included in the series are CALL OF THE WILD, THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, THE TRACK OF THE CAT, YELLOW SKY, THE GREAT MAN’S LADY and WESTWARD THE WOMEN.  Non-Westerns of particular note include NIGHT NURSE, THE PUBLIC ENEMY, BEAU GESTE and WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD.  You can get the complete schedule HERE.  

THAT’S A WRAP!

Happy Passover and Happy Easter!  Next Round-up I’ll have the rest of my TCM coverage, which will include more Peter Fonda, plus some interesting comments from Christopher Plummer on John Huston, Sean Connery, and the making of Kipling’s THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING; and insights from a pair of Oscar-winning special effects men about the filming of Kipling’s GUNGA DIN in Lone Pine’s Alabama Hills!

I’m sorry I don’t have any good Western Passover clips, but here are three nice Easter pieces from the folks at Gene Autry Entertainment.  Enjoy!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright April 2015 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

WESTERN WRITERS CON. PT. 2, PLUS COMIC COWBOY LUNCH, FREE CONCERT TICKETS!

WESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA CONVENTION Part 2

On Saturday morning, June 28^th, the last day of the Western Writers of America Convention began (if you missed my coverage of part 1, go HERE ) with three panel discussions.  Monty McCord, author of MUNDY’S LAW, moderated Steps to Successful Book Marketing.  He shared the stage with H. Alan Day, who co-wrote the best-selling memoir LAZY B. with his sister, Sandra Day O’Connor; literary agent and publicist Krista Soukup, owner of the Blue Cottage Agency; and Lynn Wiese Sneyd, author, and founder of LWS Literary Services, which handles editing and publicity as well as ghost-writing.   

Next up was Other People’s Lives: Writing Biography Right, moderated by JOHN MUIR: MAGNIFICENT TRAMP author Rod Miller.  One of the delightful admissions came from “THAT FIEND IN HELL”: SOAPY SMITH author Catherine Spude who announced that much of what she has written is riddled with lies!  She gave the example of writing her father’s obituary and, under pressure from her insistent mother, neglected to mention his previous marriage.  It’s worth remembering that when we’re fighting to get the testimony of people who were ‘there’, wherever ‘there’ happens to be, that just like all of us, primary sources have a tendency to improve stories, to skip over embarrassing elements, and to simply remember things incorrectly, even when doing their damndest to be honest.  Washington State University Press editor-in-chief Bob Clark attacked one of my personal peeves in alleged non-fiction: invented dialogue.  He also advised that in writing about the life and times of someone, to make sure it’s more of their life and less of their times.  Robert Larson, whose biographical subjects include Red Cloud and Gall, suggested starting a biography with a big event, and warned that in research, primary sources like obituaries and birth records are often wrong.  In answer to an audience question about researching, I believe it was Catherine Spude who suggested using Ancestry.com to find descendants of your subject, and make them your friends.

CRAZY HEART and WITH BLOOD IN THEIR EYES author Thomas Cobb chaired the last discussion, Truth and Fiction.  On the panel were Matthew P. Mayo, who last year won the Best Western Short Novel Spur for TUCKER’S RECKONING; two-time Spur Award winner Lucia St. Clair Robinson; and Ann Weisgarber, a Spur finalist this year for her historical novel THE PROMISE.   

After a break for lunch, the writers piled into a convoy of buses and headed to the Barnes & Noble store in nearby Citrus Heights for a massive book-signing event.   Spread throughout the massive emporium, clusters of authors sat with their books, signing them for the large contingent  of readers who strolled through the store. 

Among the authors I spoke to was Anne Hillerman.  With her first western novel, SPIDERWOMAN’S DAUGHTER, which won this year’s Spur Award for Best First Novel, she’s continuing the beloved novels that her father, the late and great Tony Hillerman, wrote.  I asked her what it was like to be stepping into those shoes.

ANNE HILLERMAN:  It was wonderful; it was a little bit intimidating, at least at first.  Because I was thinking of all the people who had loved my dad’s books for thirty years.  But then, once I started writing it, I really enjoyed it.  And I thought that all those people who had the potential to intimidate me also had the potential to love this book.  And it made me happy.  SPIDERWOMAN’S DAUGHTER is continuing the Jim Chee, Joe Leaphorn series, with Bernadette Manolito as the main crime-solver.  My contract with Harper-Collins was for two books, so I’m finishing up the second novel now; it’s due August 1^st.  And I’m hoping they’ll have it out some time between April and August of 2015.”

HENRY:  You also have a strikingly beautiful book called TONY HILLERMAN’S LANDSCAPE.

ANNE HILLERMAN:  My husband, Don Strell, took the photos, and I wrote the text; the book is about places my dad loved.  (There are) descriptions of what those places are, and there are quotes from my dad’s books. And the last chapter is a piece that my dad wrote about why he loved living in Los Ranches, New Mexico.   

Bill Hill writes mostly about trails, and his books have covered the Pony Express, Oregon, Santa Fe, Lewis and Clark, California and Morman trails.   “Mainly the immigrant trails, the historic trails out west.  Yesterday and today I worked with them, so I could find old photos, drawings,  sketches.  Things that were made by the immigrants or the military, when they did their surveys, and go back and photograph the same places today. It’s a lot of fun.”  I asked him what audience his books are aimed at.  “Some are for the general audience, adults ordinarily.  Then we have introductory books about the trails, that have a little bit of everything in them.  So they have information about the early maps, diaries, guidebooks that were available to the travelers.  And a lot of ‘yesterday and today’ quotes that are related to those sites.  I like to pick two or three artists or immigrants who made sketches, and then follow them all along the west.  I’ve used people like Bruff, Tappin, Jackson, Simmons.  The last one, on the Pony Express, I used a lot of Jackson photos in addition to his sketches and paintings.” 

Bill Markley, author of DEADWOOD DEAD MEN, and WWA new member chairman, has written non-fiction, both for books and for magazines like TRUE WEST, but he’s branched out into fiction, and finds it liberating.  “For the past twelve years I’ve written non-fiction, and when you write non-fiction, you stick to the facts.  And in any story there’s always holes in the facts, and you think, ‘If I only had this one more piece of information it would make my story complete.’  With my new book, DEADWOOD DEAD MEN, it’s historical fiction, and I started thinking about this one story: why did this actually happen the way it did?  Why don’t I just create the scene in the barroom as it happened?  One thing grew into another, and I had the first chapter done.  And the editor of this publication said, ‘Write the story.’  So that’s how I got into writing historical fiction.  It’s Deadwood, August 1876, couple weeks after Wild Bill gets shot, and there was a series of murders.  And there were always rumors that there was a gang behind the scenes pulling the strings.”  Interestingly, Bill’s career with the west started onscreen.  “I got my start in the film DANCES WITH WOLVES.  I kept a journal during the filming, and then self-published.  I was in the opening Civil War scene, when they were going to cut Kevin Costner’s foot off.   Then I switched to Confederates, and I’m one of the guys who tries to shoot him off his horse.   I wasn’t a reenactor then, but I am now.  I was also in the films SON OF THE MORNING STAR, FAR AND AWAY with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, in the big land-rush scene at the end.  That was a crazy deal – 250 wagons, a thousand riders.  The insurance actuaries predicted that there would be one death, and a lot of injuries, but no one died.  Then I was in GETTYSBURG and CRAZY HORSE.”  

There were a lot of writers of western fact and fiction present, but Harlan Hague, whose book THE PEOPLE will be published by Five Star in August, was my first interview with a writer of western speculative fiction.   “The People are a confederation of plains tribes that have put aside ancient enmities and formed a joint opposition to the United States.  They decided that they had an enemy worse than the next tribe over the hill.  I rearranged time and place so outrageously that I don’t mention places or places in the story, but I would guess it was in the 1840s.  The tribe on which I focus is a tribe which supposedly went extinct in the 1820s.  They had lived on Newfoundland.  But in my book I rescue the Beothuk and have them migrate westward and settle on the western plains.” 

James E. Meuller’s third book, SHOOTING ARROWS AND SLINGING MUD – CUSTER, THE PRESS, AND THE LITTLE BIGHORN, has been in the works for about twenty years, ever since the author was working towards his PhD at the University of Texas, Austin.  “Custer was stationed there on reconstruction duty after the Civil War, and there’s actually a picture of a U.T. building with Custer sitting on the steps.  At that point I wrote a paper for a class about Custer and the press coverage.  Then I wrote a series of academic articles.  It took about two and a half years to write the book after I got the contract, but I’ve actually been working on it for about twenty years.  It’s a study of how the Little Bighorn was covered in newspapers of the day, and talks about various aspects of the coverage, including humor.  For example, within a week or less of the battle, newspapers were telling jokes about it.  One newspaper in Kentucky had on its front page that Custer’s death was ‘Siouxicide!’  There are chapters discussing how accurate and inaccurate the coverage was. There’s a chapter on the impact on the 1876 presidential campaign, because it was an election year.  Surprisingly, it didn’t have that much impact.  The battle was front-page news from July through August.  But relatively quickly, the Hamburg Massacre, which was a race riot in South Carolina, between a black militia unit and ex-Confederate soldiers, knocked the Little Bighorn off the front page.  ”         

I was eager to talk to Paul Colt, author of BOOTS AND SADDLES – A CALL TO GLORY, because I overheard that it was about Blackjack Pershing’s pursuit of Pancho Villa.  My grandfather, Henry Charles Parke, whom I am named after, rode in Pershing’s cavalry in that adventure.  “It’s a historical dramatization.  I like to do what I call unexpected history, where it focuses on some little known or overlooked aspect of a famous character of event.  Everybody knows George Patton because of George C. Scott’s dramatic portrayal.  But most people don’t know that early in his career he was a cavalry officer; he was the Army’s first saber master.  And on the cusp of the twentieth century, just before World War One, he could already see that the cavalry was on its last days.  He was very frustrated; he was 32 years old, still a 2^nd lieutenant and he was thinking of resigning his commission.  Then Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico, Woodrow Wilson sent Pershing into Mexico to get him.  Patton talks his way onto Pershing’s staff; during that nine month campaign, Pershing puts his arm around Patton and saves his career.”   

Fiction writer Thom Nicholson’s inspiration for REVENGE OF THE STOLEN DOVE came from life.  I asked if the dove of the title was of the soiled variety.  “When I was eighteen, I met a 95-year-old woman who, when she was sixteen, working in her father’s field in Nebraska, two men came by in a wagon and scooped her up.  Took her to Denver, addicted her to opium, turned her into a prostitute and sold her to a brothel.  And it took her ten years to get away; she went back to Nebraska, and her family was gone.  She never saw them again, ever.  She didn’t have any skill other than what she’d been doing.  So she went back to doing that, and was a prostitute, and became a madam.  She bought property, and when I met her at 95 she was a genteel woman of leisure living off her investments.  She told me part of the story.  I told her I had to hear the rest.  She told me to come back later; when I did, she had died.  So I had to make up the (rest of the) story for her.  So this is written in her honor.”  

I knew that evening I’d be watching Clu Gulager -- famous for his role as Sheriff Ryker in THE VIRGINIAN, and as Billy the Kid in THE TALL MAN, and movies as disparate as THE KILLERS and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW -- emcee the Spur Awards that night.   But when I spotted him at Barnes & Noble, I thought it would be a better time to get an interview.  I was right.  To say the talk was wide-ranging is an understatement, but even if I got few direct answers to my questions, the responses were always informative and entertaining.  I asked him why he was attending the convention. 

Clu channeling Jack Benny

CLU GULAGER:  Sex.  Pure sex.  It’s a sexual reasoning I have.  Most people here are not spring chickens – certainly I am not.  And I am drawn to women who are not spring chickens; and there are quite a few here.   

HENRY:  It is the Western Writers of America convention.  Have you done any writing yourself?

CLU GULAGER:  I write scenes for my film-acting workshop, for the actors.  Other than that, I am very, very intimidated by you guys, and your editors.  Because wordsmiths, to me, are the supreme art.  And I know that Picasso wouldn’t enjoy me saying it, but I’ve said it, and I’ll say it again.  Tonight I’ve got to say a couple of words; and I’m very frightened.  Because I know the cynicism that goes into writing.  I’ve written enough to know that you have to be somewhat skeptical of all of your sources, of your subject, and of your wording – and especially your syntax. I have written a western that I like, a screenplay, and my son, who is a filmmaker (writer/director John Gulager), likes a lot, called MISTER.  And I’ve written about fifteen screenplays, none of which have been done.  We’ve gotten some of them partially made, and then run out of money all the time.  I should probably know your films --

HENRY:  It depends how late you stay up, and what strange channels you watch.

CLU GULAGER:  Well, I don’t watch TV.  I don’t have any machines in my house, except a refrigerator, and a stove that’s broken.  And of course, my head.  That machine doesn’t function well at this time, but it’s there; I sleep with it.

HENRY:  Okay, this will come out of left field: what was it like doing THE TALL MAN, with Barry Sullivan as Pat Garrett?

CLU GULAGER:  He looked like a turtle, when he was looking good.  Otherwise he looked to me like he was about to crumple, most of the time.  Alcoholics tend to feel badly when they get up in the mornings, and we started shooting early.  So by noon he was about ready to go home.  That’s showbiz talk. 

HENRY:  Was he drinking while you were doing the show?

CLU GULAGER:  Oh yes.  We sat down from time to time.  I was a young actor, and did not like that.  I knew everything then.  And what I know now you could put on the head of a needle. 

HENRY:  What is your favorite role among your screen performances?

CLU GULAGER:  Oh, I enjoyed mounting Cybil Shepherd on a pool table in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW.  That was fun.

HENRY:  That sounds fun.

CLU GULAGER:  Thank you.  I enjoyed shooting Alan Alda in the belly with a double-barreled shotgun in THE GLASS HOUSE.  He deserved it.

HENRY:  For a long time.

CLU GULAGER:  Mm-hm – yup.  I got him at the end of the movie.  And I enjoyed it when Randolph Scott’s pony fell with me while I was doing Billy the Kid.  Fell with me in a gully in the back lot of Universal and almost killed me.  I enjoyed that a lot because I felt it would be a good story to tell.  I never tell it, but I’m telling you.

HENRY:  Randolph Scott was not in the show with you, was he? 

CLU GULAGER:  No, he’d gone, but he left his pony, and that’s what they gave me to ride.  It was 19, and I rode it for a while.  Then it gave out, and they gave me another horse that was so high that I could hardly mount it.  This one time Ronald Reagan came on the set; his wife was in it with me – very good actor, Nancy.   He came on.  I had a hard time getting on that damn horse.  So about the eighth time, I just fell flat and just lay there.  He said, “Clu.  Clu.”  I said, “Yeah, Ron?”  He said, “I’ll tell you how I did it.  I started mounting the horse, and just as I started to get up, I said, ‘Cut.’  And so they cut, and then they showed me on top of the horse, already mounted.”  I said, “Thank you.”  I wanted to tell him to shove it, you know, but I couldn’t, because he was the future governor and president.  Good guy; real good guy.  He’s the one that closed all the Indian schools.  And the Indians wouldn’t go to the white schools, so they just stopped going to school.  I’m an Indian.  So all my friends who taught in Indian schools said, “Look, could you help us, could you talk with Ron and ask him not to do it?  Tell him that the kids won’t go to the white schools?”  And I said, “Yeah.”  But I never did.  I didn’t feel – not my place.  He was not going to listen to me. 

HENRY:  Was that when he was Governor of California?

CLU GULAGER:  President.  They were economizing.  They were conservatives from Illinois.  And he believed in saving moola, no matter the consequences.  But he was a kind gentle man to me.  I did a movie called THE KILLERS with him.  He played a villain.  He was very good; very good.  He hated it.

HENRY:  Wasn’t that his last movie?

CLU GULAGER:  Yeah.  But he was really good in it.  You see, his agent ran Universal, Lew Wasserman.  So Lew prevailed upon him: “Look, I’ve helped you all these years.  We need you in this picture.”  It was a TV movie, not worth two cents.  He didn’t want to do the movie, but he had to do it, because Lew got him elected Governor, and eventually President, and he knew which side his bread was buttered on, and he took it seriously, this political activity he was engaged in.  He loved it.  Nancy said, “He doesn’t like show business any more.  He likes politics; he’s very interested in politics, Clu.”  And I knew what she was talking about, because of my whole family; I come from a political background.  You do get involved with different things.  I don’t know what you’re involved in other than your writing, but you do become obsessed with things.  And look what happened.  He could fall asleep in an instant, in a meeting of Congress.  Brilliant, brilliant mind – you try falling asleep when you’re President, in the middle of Congress.  He could nap, and not even be drunk.  I don’t think he drank to excess.

HENRY:  Now in THE KILLERS, you were with Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson.

CLU GULAGER:  Yes, and I hit Angie Dickinson in the face as hard as I could, and I enjoyed it.

HENRY:  So you’re really fond of her, I take it.

CLU GULAGER:  I like her, except for one time I asked her to come down to The New Beverly.  (Note: The New Beverly is a revival house in L.A. owned and operated by Quentin Tarantino; very funky and very chic.)  We were showing THE KILLERS, and I’d talk with her.  And she said she couldn’t make it.  And I wanted to say…but I didn’t; I’m a gentleman.

HENRY:  THE KILLERS was directed by Don Siegal.  What was he like? 

CLU GULAGER:  I loved him as a person, very much.  Very kind and gentle.  We bonded, we were very good friends.  And his boy, Kristopher Tabori was a good friend of mine.  I must say that one of his films was one of my favorite horror films for decades.  And that was INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, with Kevin McCarthy, in black and white.  And then other things took over.  I loved ALIEN a lot, that Don O’Bannon wrote.  And Dan O’Bannon wrote a piece one time for me, called RETURN OF THE LIVNG DEAD.  And I did it.  And I said, how come you cast me in this thing, because I was a cowboy actor, kind of a legitimate actor.   And this was nonsense.  And he said, well, who would you put in it?  And I thought and thought, and I couldn’t think of anyone that would accept that role, it was so ridiculous.  I said, I can’t think of anyone.  He said, there you go.   

THE SPUR AWARDS DINNER

Jim Beaver

The convention was capped that night with the banquet, and the bestowing of the Spur Awards.  The main course was salmon, the desert was tiramisu, and the entertainment began with a bit of time-travel.  We were brought back to a mid-80s western film festival.  Actor and film historian Jim Beaver, known for his roles in DEADWOOD, SUPERNATURAL and JUSTIFIED, was hard to recognize within a wreath of crusty whiskers, as he played the festival’s special guest, an amalgam of all the great and near-great and not-that-great sidekicks of yesteryear.  To the delight of we hard-core cowboy-movie nerds, peppered among the jokes were frequent references to the most obscure of B-western productions. 

The program continued with a series of special awards.  The first, The Owen Wister Award for Lifetime Achievement, went to Robert J. Conley.  As a Cherokee, he wrote about the west from a not too common perspective, writing short stories, novels and non-fiction, including THE CHEROKEE ENCYCLOPEDIA. 

A beloved and much honored member, described as ‘the face and heart of the WWA,’ he died this February, at the age of 73.  But fortunately, this was not a posthumous presentation; Candy Moulton, executive director of the WWA, aware of his health problems, travelled to his home in Sylva, North Carolina, and made the presentation a week before his death.  Along with all the remembrances of him, his leather-braided cane was placed across the top of the lectern.    

Clu Gulager, a close friend of Conley, and part Cherokee himself, told the audience of the time he asked Conley to play a lawman in a film, and Conley eagerly agreed, even though he had to shave his head for the part.  And then, to Gulager’s chagrin, that scene ended up on the cutting-room floor!

Johnny Boggs and Ollie Reed

The Stirrup Award was presented to Ollie Reed Jr., by Roundup Magazine editor Johnny D. Boggs, for his article on the LONGMIRE TV series. 

Diane & John Gulager, C. Courtney Joyner, Clu Gulager, Kirk Ellis

The Lariat Award for exceptional support to the WWA and literature of the West, went to Tucson radio host Emil Franzi.  The Branding Iron Award for support to the WWA and its goals went to writer and, until recently, chair of the membership committee, Rod Miller. 

Anne Hillerman & Sherry Monahan

Clu and new WWA President Sherry Monahan handed out the Spurs.   The Spur for Best Western Contemporary novel went to James Lee Burke for LIGHT OF THE WORLD.  Best Western Historical Novel was SILENT WE STOOD, by Henry Chappell.  Best Western Traditional Novel was CROSSING PURGATORY, by Gary Schanbacher.  Anne Hillerman’s SPIDER WOMAN’S DAUGHTER was the Best First Novel.  Mark Lee Garner’s SHOT ALL TO HELL: JESSE JAMES, THE NORTHFIELD RAID, AND THE WILD WEST’S GREATEST ESCAPE, was Best Western Non-Fiction – Historical.  Best Western Nonfiction – Contemporary, was William Philpott’s VACATIONLAND. 

Earle Labor and his family of researchers

Best Western Nonfiction - Biography was JACK LONDON: AN AMERICAN LIFE, a book sixty years in the making, by Earle Labor.  Just a personal note here:  I was delighted that Labor, who brought on-stage his family of researchers, credited his interest in the subject with a book he read as a kid, JACK LONDON’S STORIES FOR BOYS.  It was also my father’s favorite book as a kid, and the one he gave to me when I was bored with what they were having me to read in school.

Juni Fisher

Best Western Juvenile Fiction was PAPA’S GOLD by Ellen Gray Massey.  Best Western Juvenile Nonfiction was Jean A. Lukesh’s EAGLE OF DELIGHT.  STORYTELLER (Best Illustrated Children’s Book) was YOSEMITE’S SONGSTER: ONE COYOTE’S STORY, by Ginger Wadsworth, illustrated by Daniel San Souci.  Best Western Short Fiction Story went to CABIN FEVER by Brett Cogburn.  Best Western Poem, by Amy Glynn, was CHAMISE.  Best Western Song was STILL THERE, by Waddie Mitchell and Juni Fisher, and Juni was there to perform it.  Best Western Documentary was INDIAN RELAY by M.L. Smoker.  Best Western Short Nonfiction was THE OTHER JAMES BROTHER by Mark Lee Gardner in Wild West Magazine.

Me & Clu bid a fond farewell to the WWA Convention!

WEDNESDAY LUNCH @ THE AUTRY: COWBOYS AND COMICS: FAST ON THE DRAW!

Wednesday, July 16, at High Noon, Rob Word’s ‘A Word On Westerns’ Cowboy Lunch will take place, as it does on the third Wednesday of every month.  The focus this time will be on western-themed comic books.  As Rob points out, “The boom years for television westerns were in the 1950's and 1960's.  It was the same with comic books. The shelves of dime and drug stores were filled with comics featuring glossy covers of practically every TV and movie western.  And new western heroes like Ghost Rider, The Rawhide Kid, The Trigger Twins and Tomahawk were being offered in glorious Four Color stories.  Westerns were outselling superheroes and you'll discover some things you didn't know about the reasons why!”

Guests will include legendary MAD MAGAZINE artist and ‘Bat Lash’ creator Sergio Aragones; ComicCon’s Mark Evianer; actor and would-be ‘Lieutenant Blueberry’ (a French Western strip) Martin Kove; Will Ryan on sidekicks who got their own comics; music by the lovely Saguaro Sisters; and Olympic Gold Medalist and stuntman Dean Smith, talking about his adventures with John Wayne.  You buy your lunch, but the entertainment is free!

DEAN SMITH SIGNS AUTOBIO ‘COWBOY STUNTMAN’ WEDNESDAY AT THE AUTRY!

If you needed another reason to go to the Autry on Wednesday, track & field Olympian-turned-stuntman Dean Smith will be signing his autobiography at the Autry!  Starting in 1957 on WAGON TRAIN and continuing through ROUGH RIDERS in 1997, Dean has stunted and stunt-coordinated in nearly a hundred movies and series, doubling for stars like Roy Rogers, James Garner (in 1994!), Doug McClure, Dale Robertson, and worked with John Wayne on THE ALAMO and MCCLINTOCK!    

WIN TWO TICKETS TO SEE G.T. HURLEY THURSDAY NIGHT!

I’ve got two free tickets to the first person who emails me at swansongmail@sbcglobal.net, and asks for them!  Part of the OutWest Concert series at the Repertory Playhouse (a.k.a. The Rep) at 24266 Main Street, Newhall, CA 91321, it is sponsored by the charming folks at OutWest Boutique – click their link on the upper left-hand corner of the Round-up to learn more.  Hurley comes from Montana, and he sings about his life as a rancher and hard-rock miner.  He’s opened for Baxter Black and Jon Chandler.  To buy tickets (in case you’re not the first with the email), which are $20, call 661-255-7087.

INSP COMING BACK TO DIREC-TV!

If you, like me, have been missing Saddle-up Saturday, and your required weekly doses of THE VIRGINIAN and HIGH CHAPARRAL, I have great news!  While no official announcement is being made, my sources at INSP have confirmed that folks who have continued to call DirecTV and complain about INSP being dropped are now being told that the station will be back on July 21^st! 

DICK JONES, ‘BUFFALO BILL JR.’, DIES

Dick Jones at the 2012 Silver Spurs

Last Monday, actor Dick Jones died at the age of 87.  Born in Snyder, Texas, he was a fine horseman by the age of four (no, that’s not a typo), and was quickly hired by Hoot Gibson to perform in his rodeo as the world’s youngest trick-rider and trick-roper. “Hoot told my mother the famous words: 'That kid ought to be in pictures.' She said, 'Whoopee!' and away we went to Hollywood.”

After a few years playing dozens of often uncredited bits in major features, Bs and OUR GANG shorts – he’s great as the pesky neighbor kid in NANCY DREW…REPORTER – he became famous as the voice of the wooden puppet who wanted to be a boy in Walt Disney’s PINOCCHIO.  Appreciated by western filmmakers for his saddle-skills, he was not only cast in the excellent ROCKY MOUNTAIN, with Errol Flynn; he was put on the film early, to see which actors could actually perform the various ‘mounts’ that were required.

Gene Autry was among the filmmakers who appreciated Dick’s talent and potential, and used him in five of his movies, most dramatically in LAST OF THE PONY RIDERS (1953), where Dick goes gunning for Gene.  Counting TV episodes, Dick and Gene shared the screen nineteen times.  And Autry produced the two series Dick is best remembered for, THE RANGE RIDER, where he played Jock Mahoney’s sidekick, Dick West; and BUFFALO BILL JR., where Dick was the title character.   Mahoney and Jones never used stuntmen, because no one could do the demanding stunt-work any better than the stars. 

In 1965, after REQUIUM FOR A GUNFIGHTER, he retired from the screen, and went into business.  But he never lost his fondness for the genre, sometimes attended film festivals, and over the past few years I met him several times at Silver Spur dinners and events at The Autry.  He was about the nicest man you’d want to meet.  I’m linking an episode of THE RANGE RIDER, so you can see Dick at work.  Enjoy!

THAT’S A WRAP!

That’s all for this Round-up!  Have a great week!

Happy Trails,

Henry

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