'YELLOW ROCK' ROLLS NEXT MONTH







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(Updated 7/29/2010 - See Screenings)
I haven’t learned anything about the story yet, but it’s a western! It will begin lensing in Southern California on August 25th, toplining Michael Biehn, Lenore Andriel, James Russo and Peter Sherayko. Ms. Andriel is also writer and producer. Director Jay Miracle is a documentary filmmaker. Biehn, who made a splash in the TERMINATOR and ALIEN movies, starred in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN television series, THE LEGEND OF BUTCH AND SUNDANCE, and the legendary TOMBSTONE. Russo, whose credits include ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA for Sergio Leone, has demonstrated his brand of western villainy in BAD GIRLS and the excellent BROKEN TRAIL. Peter Sherayko’s extensive western career was profiled in this space last week. More details are coming very soon.

AUTRY RECEIVES ACADEMY GRANT -- ‘SANTA FE’ SCREENING HERALDS AUTRY/U.C.L.A. COLLABORATION

The Saturday, July 10th screening of ‘SANTA FE’ at the Autry was preceded by a brief introduction by a representative of the Autry and Shannon Kelly, head of programming for U.C.L.A.’s Film and Television Archive. It was announced that, last year, the Autry received a financial grant from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to underwrite more screenings at the Wells Fargo Theatre. The Autry is using that money to partner with the extensive U.C.L.A. Archive, to present a series of films under the heading The Imagined West. As the Autry representative put it, “We’re working in 35mm now, which is a whole different animal.” And to prove it, they screened a flawless 35mm Technicolor print of ‘SANTA FE’, starring Randolph Scott, directed by Irving Pichel, and photographed by the great western cinematographer Charles Lawton Jr. It’s easy to forget how beautiful real Technicolor is until you see it on the big screen. The program began with Edwin S. Porter’s THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, acknowledged to be not only the first western, but the first movie to tell a story. It was, I believe, a digital copy, but a high quality one, with orange hand-tinting on the gun-shots. If you, like I, haven’t sat down to watch it in twenty or thirty years, it’s quite incredible for the fluid editing, use of convincing rear-projection in the train office, and actually includes bad-guys shooting at a dude’s feet, to make him dance. And if memory serves, the dude became better known as Bronco Billy Anderson, the first western star.

JARROD BARKLEY FALLS OFF HORSE!

Now don’t panic! But Stephen Moyer, of the vampire TV series TRUE BLOOD, set to play the most cool-headed Barkley in the big-screen version of THE BIG VALLEY, while filming a scene, fell off of his horse and hurt his wrist. The weird thing is, it was during the filming of the blood-sucker show, not the western. Weirder still, though the story just went out this week, the accident occurred in January – I guess his press agent just wanted to make him look good before he starts his western. Hell, it coulda been worse: if it’d been his leg instead of his arm, they’d have to destroy him! (With a wooden stake?)

JULY 24TH IS FIFTH 'NATIONAL DAY OF THE COWBOY AND COWGIRL'

This is the first I've heard of this movement, probably because it's he first time the Autry has taken part, but the point is, obviously, to celebrate the contributions of the American cowboy to our culture and way of life. In 2005, then-president George W. Bush, sent a letter of support, and since then, people have erroneously thought this was a national holiday, but it isn't yet, and the folks at the National Day Of The Cowboy organization are working hard to make it a reality, state by state. So far they've succeeded in New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Arizona, so there are forty-five states to go. There were celebrations all over the country, including Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Wyoming, Idaho, Ohio, Virgina, Florida, Pennsylvania, and at the El Paso Saloon in Pantigliate, Italy! Incidentally, of all of those places, only Los Angeles is so politically correct that they felt it necessary to make it the Day of the Cowboy and Cowgirl.

At the Autry, it was a huge and happy affair, involving music, food, crafts, screenings of Gene's TV series, book signings, clothes and art sales,trick roping and gunslinging demonstrations. If you'd like to find out more about the National Day of the Cowboy, CLICK HERE.

MORE ON COWPOKES WHO SERVED

This topic has brought me more feedback than any other (just beating out Kurt Russell’s behavior on the set of TOMBSTONE), and I’ll happily add any information you readers can send me about cowboy actors and western writers who served in the military. Here are my most recent updates: James Garner dropped out of school at 16 and joined the Merchant Marines. He was wounded in the Korean War, and received a Purple Heart. Clint Eastwood was a G.I. in the Korean War, serving as a boot camp swimming instructor. Paul Newman served in the Navy in World War II. Elvis Presley, at the height of his popularity, was drafted into the Army in 1958. Gene Hackman joined the Marines at age 16 in 1946. Robert Duvall, son of an admiral, surprisingly joined the Army for a two-year hitch in 1953. And here’s perhaps the most unexpected entry: Pat Brady, Roy Rogers’ comical sidekick, served with Patton’s Third Army in Europe, where he won citations for valor and two Purple Hearts. Fellow Sons of the Pioneers member Karl Farr recalled, “The top of his tank was blown off at close range just as he was bending over to pick up a shell.”

(Photos, top left to bottom: Michael Biehn, Lenore Andriel, James Russo. At Autry, Tumbling Tumbleweeds perform in courtyard,Julie Ann Ream signs books, silversmith Miguel Davalos Jr. does filigree work for belt buckle, details of the Nudie car.)

SCREENINGS

‘THE HARVEY GIRLS’ SCREENS AT THE AUTRY SATURDAY JULY 31ST

The delightful George Sidney-directed Technicolor musical tells the story of the building of the Fred Harvey Restaurants, and stars Judy Garland, Angela Lansbury, John Hodiak and Preston Foster, based on the novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams. This is part of the Imagined West series, in collaboration with UCLA. The Autry has confirmed that tickets are $9 for general admission, $5 for Autry members.

'REEL INJUN' AT TRAVERSE CITY FILM FESTIVAL

My favorite documentary of the year, REEL INJUN, is screening Saturday, July 30th at 9:00 a.m. at the Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse, Michigan. To read my review, CLICK HERE. For more information about the screening, CLICK HERE.

AROUND LOS ANGELES

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. Currently they have HOMELANDS: HOW WOMEN MADE THE WEST through August 22nd, and THE ART OF NATIVE AMERICAN BASKETRY: A LIVING TRADITION, through November 7th. I've seen the basketry show three times, and am continually astonished at the beauty and variety of the work of the various tribes. 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.

ON TV

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 THE LONE RANGER at 1:30 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.

Later today I'll have the story that goes with the pictures of the National Day of the Cowboy and Cowgirl celebration at the Autry.

Until then, Adios!

Henry

All contents copyright July 25th, 2010 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

Breakfast #32: Bacon Pancakes

title
Have you let bacon pancakes into your life yet? They are great friends I promise. They are easy to throw together (especially if you get your pancake batter sorted the night before) and can make even the most bleary-eyed mornings seem promising. They can even make a Monday morning seem like a Friday morning – and that’s saying a lot especially if you, like me, is a person for whom Mondays loom ominous at every Sunday’s end!

I know I am certainly not alone in my dread of Mondays. It’s a day many are not particularly fond of. For me in particular, Mondays are when most all of my work reports are due. Pair that with the mountain of mails that always seem to sneakily pile up during the weekend, and you’ve set yourself up for a hectic chase every beginning of the week. This aside from the fact that Mondays, in and of themselves, are already frenetic and moody-bluesy and goodbye-lovely-weekend-feeling.

I have tried working later Fridays, as well as throughout the weekend, but nothing can quite prepare oneself for the advent of a mad and merciless Monday.

Except maybe for these.

Delicious, gut-sticking, unrepentantly indulgent, slightly tacky. Bacon Pancakes…I submit myself to you.

I stumbled onto these dubious beauties here – resplendent in their defiant retro-ness. I had to have them. Not just for Mondays either – they likewise work a treat when you are down with one of those untraceable, painful-throat, scratchy-cough, runny nosed, mystery illnesses. And no, I don’t listen to those types that claim that sweet and sticky things will only make your throat worse. Depressing food will make you worse I say!

I'm not ashamed to adsmit I've used boxed pancake mix here (I’m all for making things from scratch but Mondays, and illness, bring out the deviant in me), but if you have an easy, Monday-morning-friendly pancake recipe then by all means use that! Just fry some bacon in a hot skillet, leaving space in between each strip for the pancake batter. Then pour your batter of choice directly on the sizzling bacon when it is cooked but not too crisp. Once the underside is done, and lots of little bubbles appear on the surface, flip your bacon pancake and cook it the rest of the way through. I wish mine had turned out as perfectly shaped as those in this photo but it appears I am sadly lacking in 1950’s pizzazz. Or maybe I’m just messy.

Anyway…

The next time you are battling a miserable Monday, or an even more miserable flu-like bug, throw together some pancake batter, set the bacon on the griddle, and prepare for redemption.

***Another lovely thing to cheer me up when I’m ill…this little blog was mentioned in the online version of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine! Thanks to Travels with a Gourmet for the mention! :)

Still hard at work gearing up for the new web launch... fingers crossed that it'll be live in a couple weeks. Here's a sneak peek at an image from a photo shoot that'll be featured in the new gallery. In the mean time please enjoy a summer special in the shop... free shipping plus markdowns until September 1st! http://www.papertreasure.net

Frustrations And Solutions


I have been doing a lot of behind the scenes designing and sewing. I wanted to put this one out there because I have had so many things going on that I need to give myself some pressure to wrap it up. This is one new project that I will be teaching on-line at CraftEdu. It's called Chirp! and I hope that you like it as much as I loved designing it.


We all love beautiful quilts and seeing the end result, right? I think that we should share our little boo-boos too. We need to learn from each other. I thought that you'd love to hear about my experience with quilting this little baby. Before I begin though, I need to tell you that I am a "paid" supporter of Aurifil Threads.  Having said that, I can tell you how much I love Aurifil thread and that my love of this thread did not come from being a supporter of their thread. Instead, I got to realize this first hand.


I design with many, many different colors in each quilt. I like to add many different textures, layers, shades all at once to make my designs pop. As a result, I often [perhaps "exclusively"] use monofilament thread to quilt my quilts. I have been burning through my thread stash for the bobbin thread. Different brands and I won't name them because I still think that they're good threads. I hadn't tried Aurifil in any great capacity because of availability and my huge stash of other threads.

Well, I was working on Chirp! at a weird, late hour of the night and I got the center background portion all quilted with the leafy vine only to really realize that the bobbin thread was pulling up too much for my liking. I had adjusted everything but I could still see the bobbin thread here and there. I took my seam ripper and ripped out all of the quilting. Crazy, I know. Did I tell you that I'm anal when it comes to these things? [One day I will tell you the story about "Believe" and how I appliqued one side panel in two days.] Or, it could have been because I was doing this in the wee hours of the morning.

Anyhoo, I popped in Aurifil Mako 50wt. #5015 [happens to be one of my favorite colors, by the way] in the bobbin and on top. It was like butter. It made me glide along effortlessly while quilting those vines and leaves. It felt incredibly light and smooth. The resulting quilting was nicely textured and not too overbearing. Awesome.

xo, L


Clinton's Got Talent!


I'm actually doing some hand applique. It's been a while but it was easy to get back to handwork. I generally use YLI Silk Thread and still love it but for this project, I'm using Aurifil Mako 50 wt. It is lovely to work with. The colors are fantastic [Confession:  Some people love to use a dark color and a light color for everything but I love to match threads when I applique.] The thread glides through the fabric with ease and blends into the background nicely. Love it. What do you like to use? I also like to use freezer paper on TOP of the applique. I'll share the project details with you soon! 


For a diversion, I went over to Kindred Quilts yesterday for a video taping. It was a fun time with a few lovely ladies. We taped a video for Toby's website. Did we do all right, Toby?

ox, L

MEET THE MAYOR OF PEETZBURGH, PETER SHERAYKO


















Back in April, while attending the Cowboy Festival at Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch (click here), I saw a familiar face from the silver screen and blurted out, “You’re Russian Pete!” Indeed it was Peter Sherayko, who portrayed said villain in 6 GUNS, a new western which had just been released by The Asylum. One of the very few actors who today makes a living acting exclusively in westerns, Peter is a western fixture off-screen as well as on. He made his name in the business in TOMBSTONE where, in addition to portraying lawman Texas Jack Vermillian, he was in charge of the authenticity of guns, saddles, costumes and props, and supplied many of the riders from his personal posse, The Buckaroos.

He invited me to visit his ranch in Agua Dulce, where he is building the western town of Peetzburgh, already the location for a number of TV episodes and western movies. I was warmly welcomed by Peter, his charming wife Susan – a busy production manager, and a passel of big, beautiful dogs. Things were jumping at Peetzburgh. For the last few days, both acting and riding auditions were being held for COWBOYS AND ALIENS, making sure that actors could handle a horse as well as they claimed. And that morning, a director who’s preparing a film set in ancient Rome was learning to ride like a Roman.

Susan had been out of town, so Pete was left to his own devices. “At the Cowboy Poetry Festival, a guy told me where I could buy all of the Hopalong Cassidy movies on DVD, in a Hopalong Cassidy lunchbox. My wife was gone so I watched all 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies last week.” But that’s not to say he isn’t busy. “I’m writing a documentary series. It’s the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express, so that’s what we’re doing the pilot about. And I’ve got another documentary coming up for the Nation Geographic Channel called MAN CREATED DOG, about the domestication of dogs twelve thousand years ago.”

HENRY : When did you fall in love with westerns?
PETER: I was always a fan of westerns. A psychologist told me, if a man can make a living doing what he loved from the time he was ten years old, he’ll always be a happy person. Most people don’t do it. That’s why Henry David Thoreau said most men live in quiet desperation. When I was ten years old I played cowboys. They were all the rage on TV at that time.
H: What did you watch?
P: HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL was one of my favorites. I remember it well because of one incident. I grew up on the east coast, in Brooklyn. Remember Zacherly (New York TV’s ‘Cool Ghoul’ horror host) ? I used to watch him on Saturday nights. I was a little kid. And they had THE MUMMY and DRACULA – I love all of the Universal horror movies. But then I don’t want to go to sleep – I’m afraid. One time I saw the curtains moving – the heat from the radiator was making them move – and I called my father. “Now what is it?” I said, “There’s something under the bed – there’s something in the closet!” He said, “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” Then we were watching HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, and Richard Boone, Paladin, was off in the desert, at night, by a campfire. And my father said, “See him? He’s not afraid of the dark.” And I said, “No. And he’s got a Colt .45.” That kinda got my interest. It goes back to the saying about Colts: ‘Be not afraid of any man, no matter what his size. Just call on me when you’re in need, and I will equalize.’ So I began learning about guns. And when I was ten I had a neighbor whose brother had a rental stable in one of the parks. I used to walk a mile to the park every day, and shovel up after horses, so I could get to ride them. I have a wonderful feeling towards horses.

Peter knew what he loved, but he went through a lot of careers to get to it. “1966, I was seventeen years old. I tried to be a baseball player, left field. But I hurt my shoulder, and that career was over.” Then there was the Air Force. “I was in instrument repair, worked on the last of the Flying Tigers. They sent me from Charleston, South Carolina, with the beach and warm weather, to Maine, where it was 25 below. And I said, what am I doing here? I volunteered to go to Vietnam, went there in 1967. Came back, finished my last four or five months at the 48th in Langley Virginia.” His next stops were radio, then college, at Florida State and the University of Maine. “I fell into radio, as a disk jockey. I went back to college, majored in speech. And my speech teacher got me a part in a play, where I kissed the prettiest girl in the school, and the whole audience applauded. So I changed my major to theatre.”

Peter and Susan lived in New Jersey, Peter acted in plays, and in 1980 landed a continuing role in a New York-based soap opera. Oddly enough, it was a beer commercial, one that he didn’t get, that gave him the final push to move to California. “It was in 1982. In ’80 I got a job on ALL MY CHILDREN. I was doing that, doing stage plays, I did stand-up comedy, western-oriented stuff. I had a horse; I lived in a log cabin fifty miles outside of New York City, no heat, no hot water. Only heat was the fire place. What made me want to come out here was a beer, Lowenbrau beer. My agent sent me up: “You have an audition at twelve o’clock.” So I went. It was for a guy cutting firewood to warm himself, and then drinking the beer. Well, I live in a log cabin, I cut firewood every day, and I drink beer. Perfect. And the casting director comes out, and he says, “You’re not right for this.” Now, as Jerry Seinfeld said, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” but everybody else is a gay guy in a borrowed flannel shirt, trying to look tough. Then they tell me I’m at the wrong audition – I’m here for a singing quiche commercial. As soon as my contract is up with ALL MY CHILDREN, I’m moving to California. I got a Winnebago, my horse trailer, pick-up truck, and my wife and I moved out, and drove across country. People said to me, why don’t you sell your horses, fly, and get more horses when you get to California? They didn’t understand. I love this country, I love driving cross-country. And how many people have the opportunity, with no place to go, with no time to be anywhere. It took about twelve weeks. We’d go about fifty miles a day, I’d say, that looks like a good place to ride! We’d park, have dinner, saddle the horses, and go up into the hills. We met a lot of wonderful people on the way. And I remember a lot of people saying to me, when I was leaving New York, I wish I was going.”

H: What was your first role here in California?
P: There was a nighttime soap, RITUALS, and I played the father of the main character. But only in flashbacks, when they had a kid actor playing him, in dreams. They wanted me to go on GENERAL HOSPITAL, and I kept on telling my agent, I want to do westerns. They’d tell me, you’re a New York stage actor – you can’t do westerns. And I’d say, I can outride and outshoot any stuntman in town. It took a long time, three or four years, doing a day-player here, a play there, until I did DEATHWISH 4. Everybody else had AK-47s and Uzis. I said to the director, J. Lee Thompson, “I shoot single-actions, why don’t we use a single-action?” (A single-action is a revolver that must be cocked each time before it’s fired) I play a mafia hit-guy who survives all the gun-fights, and I don’t get killed until the end. So I used a Colt single-action. Then I did TARZAN IN MANHATTAN. I starred in a movie called BLACK SNOW down in Texas. I started trying to figure out, how can I start a business, so that I can be in this business, make a living at it, act, and do something worthwhile. And there was a show over at Disney, a western. And the technical advisor told me, “Come on out and see this guy. He’s been in the business forever, knows everything.” And all the guns were the wrong period. I said to him, you know this is all wrong. Why are you doing it? And he said, “Ah, the audience is stupid, a western gun is a western gun!” So I’ve devoted the last eighteen, nineteen years, to making westerns and making them historically correct. We have a research library with over 5,000 volumes on the old west. And we try to make it right. When you’re doing a show, whether it’s about real characters or fictional characters, it doesn’t matter. I’ll take the time period and make sure they have the right guns, the right saddles, the right clothes, and that’s my passion in life.

H: How’d you get TOMBSTONE?
P: I did FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER with John Milius. He became a friend of mine – because I like to shoot, he likes to shoot. I did ROUGH RIDERS for him, and MOTORCYCLE GANG. Kevin Jarre, who wrote TOMBSTONE and was to direct it, was John’s protégé, and we got to know each other. And for a year or two years we rode horses and fired shotguns. He was doing a movie about Dracula, and I was going to lead the Transylvanian Cavalry. He was over in Eastern Europe, scouting locations, and another company came out with their Dracula, and Universal pulled the plug on him. And he was just distraught. For about three months he just disappeared. A few months later he called me up and said, I’m ready to work on a western. Kevin and me and a couple of guys, Frank and Gary, who got Kevin his horse, would go out, two or three times a week. We’d leave at nine at night, ride up into the hills, everyone would have a pint of whiskey, a cigar, and a hundred rounds of ammunition. And we would be doing live-fire shooting, on horseback, from nine o’clock until midnight. We’d come back whenever the ammunition ran out, or the whiskey ran out and Kevin would write. First it was going to be about the Gold Rush, so I started doing research on the gold rush. Then it became TOMBSTONE. And we all worked together. Kevin would write a few pages, call me at one o’clock in the morning. I’d drive to his house, and he’d go, “Here! Here’s five pages! Go home and read them, and tell me what guns the guys should carry.” He wanted me to do the guns, and Frank to do the saddles.

H: How did George Cosmatos end up directing it?
P: The classic phrase in Hollywood: creative differences. Kevin wanted to do it so right! He was a big John Ford fan, he wanted to do it like Ford. You remember in his movies, even though John Wayne was the star, everyone had wonderful roles. That’s what Kevin wanted. But Kurt Russell wanted to star. So he literally took lines away from everybody. My part went from seventy-five lines to five. Kevin put his foot down, and the powers that be fired him and replaced him with George. But George didn’t really direct it – it was really Kurt Russell. You know, most of the guys in Hollywood, we’re all taller than Kurt Russell. The rule on the set was Kurt Russell had to have very high lifts on his boots, and everyone else had to have flat heels. But Kurt taught me one thing, by observation: he taught me what being a star is all about. I came from a repertory theatre background, and in rep, one week you’re the star, and the next week you’re the guy carrying the spear. But with stars in Hollywood, it’s I am the star, and everyone else is cannon-fodder. Look at movies made in the last twenty, thirty years, that’s the way it is. One or two major people are the stars, everything revolves around them, they get all the good lines. If you look at movies of the ‘30s and ‘40s, it was almost an equal thing, and everybody has wonderful parts.
H: And people thought that there was value to being surrounded by good actors.
P: And that’s another reason I do what I do. Will I ever be a star? No. But I love this business, I love telling stories. I often make the joke that I, like John Wilkes Booth, am not going to be remembered for my acting.
H: What are your favorite roles you’ve played?
P: Well, I do a one-man show on Buffalo Bill. I love doing that, I am Buffalo Bill. He loved the west so much that he wanted to bring it to the world.
H: He wanted to preserve it.
P: He made the cowboy a hero, he made the west what it is. He hired an awful lot of people. He paid everyone the same – he paid Indians as much as he did white guys.
And he was the one who kept Indians being Indians. Our society, our government Society, our government, sent the Indian kids to government schools, cut their hair, changed their names, telling them, you’ve got to be like the white man. And Buffalo Bill said, ‘No, be Indians, be what you are.’ Many people still don’t realize how beneficial he was. I try to do the same thing, I hire a lot of people, put a lot of people to work. I’ve got a lot of people their SAG cards.
H: I notice you’ve worked a couple of times with Ernest Borgnine. What is he like?
P: Worked with him on CHINAMAN’S CHANCE and THE LONG RIDE HOME. I love Borgnine, I love all of the old actors that I’ve worked with. Charley Bronson, Charlton Heston, James Garner, Kirk Douglas – every one of these guys was just so open, so much fun to be around. James Garner and I were sitting around and talking, doing a show for The Western Channel. They needed him in front of the camera, the guy says Mr. Garner, we’re ready for you, and he says, “Hey! I’m holding court now. I’m talking.” And Ernie Borgnine, he loves doing what he does so much. And Charlton Heston, when we worked on TOMBSTONE, he was telling all these wonderful stories. And he told me one from Edward G. Robinson. He said, “Acting, I love so much I’d do it for free. It’s the waiting they pay me for.” Because it’s a lot of waiting.


H: When did you work with Kirk Douglas?
P: They did a photo-spread for Vanity Fair, and I had to dress him. The photographer was Annie Leibovitz, and everyone was making a big deal about her. I had clothes for Kirk and Michael Douglas. This is just before Kirk had the stroke. And they’d rented a lot of costumes from me, but they’d also rented other costumes. I had a pair of chaps for Kirk, and she didn’t like them, because they were 1880s chaps. So they had gotten a pair of modern chaps with zippers on them, and they were too small for Kirk Douglas – he’s a big guy. They were very tight, and his..uh…his genitals were kind of exposed. And he’s going, “These are too damned tight!” And she’s saying,“But Mr. Douglas, you’re a sex symbol. This is what people are going to be looking at.” And he goes, “I’m eighty years old: who wants to f*ck me now? Pete, get me a pair of chaps that fit!”
H: I know you’ve worked a lot with The Western Channel.
P: Remember how before and after every show, they’d have a guy walk into a saloon, have a guy draw a gun, the boots coming down with the spurs – that was me. They used that for eight years, and I loved it. Since 1993, the Western Channel calls me for all their shows. I’ve been dressing it or hosting it, part of it somewhere along the line.
H: You recently did AMERICAN BANDITS: FRANK AND JESSE JAMES, for Fred Olen Ray.
P: I’ve worked with Fred a couple of times on a couple of movies, and I love working with him. He called me up. “Pete, I hear you have a western town.” “Yes, I do.” “Okay, I’ll be out there.” So he came out a couple of days later, took pictures. We’ve got about seventeen-hundred acres. He said, “Okay, we’re gonna do the movie in about two weeks.” “Great, can I read script?” He said, “No, I haven’t written it yet.” He wrote the script in those two weeks, and we filmed it. It was a good script, not historically correct, but it was a good story, and I like working with Ray. On another show I did right after, it was… I can work cheap. I can do everything – I call myself the Wal-Mart of westerns. The same quality that I put in TOMBSTONE, I can put in any movie, I don’t care what the budget is. I’ve worked with the first A.D. before. He said, “Peter’s got to do the guns because he knows how to do them right.” So I did the guns, but I wanted to do the costumes, the set dressing and the props, and they said no-no-no, we can’t afford that. They’re regular people that they had. Their art director, she dressed the saloon – she had barstools! I said, there’s no barstools in a saloon! Luckily I got along with the director, and he listened to me. So it was, fix this, fix that, get that out of here. But I get to ride a horse and shoot a gun. What more can I ask for? And I make a living at it.
H: You did the series WILD WEST TECH for the History Channel. And what did you do on that?
P: Everything. I was a talking head, they were all my costumes, props, guns, horses – I hired all the actors who did the reenactments. Those are my Buckaroos. I love working that kind of a show.
H: Your town, Peetzburgh, is your Corriganville. (Corriganville was a western movie-town built piece by piece by actor Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan)
P: I travel across country twice a year. I leave here with an empty truck, and come back with a full one. Maybe five or ten years ago , I was at a flea market, and I found a pamphlet for a town named Peetzburgh from 1892, where you could buy a house for $846 even, a two-story house for $1200. And I said, Peetzburgh: what a great name! If I ever have a town, that’s what I’ll call it.
H: What’s your favorite western movie?
P: I haven’t made it yet. I like the old westerns best. Gregory Peck is one of my best western actors, GUNFIGHTER, BIG COUNTRY. Of course SHANE, THE WESTERNER. Joel McCrea, Gary Cooper, I have all of their movies on tape or DVD. There’s not a day that goes by that I do not have a western on the television. I love Randolph Scott
H: What do you think of the Italian westerns that came out in the 1960s?
P: Sergio Leone, in my opinion, changed the look of the western. You look at Hollywood westerns of the same period, they were dull. They were all shot onstage. There wasn’t the dirt and the grit and the – you’re in my house, I have dogs and horses, you see dust around, you see spider webs. I’ve seen westerns made in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and I’m looking at the walls, and it’s a sound-stage – look how clean it is. How come there’s no dirt anywhere. I’m not a big fan of late 1950s westerns. Sergio Leone changed that look, made it more gritty, made it more real.
H: How about Peckinpah?
P: You know, Peckinpah started doing THE RIFLEMAN series, and I enjoyed THE WILD BUNCH, but again, one of the reasons I do what I do, is because of movies like THE WILD BUNCH. Wrong guns, modern saddles – they used whatever was available to them. PAT GARRET AND BILLY THE KID, I can’t even watch it. And again he’s using modern stuff when you don’t have to. Most of the companies, most of the people that supply stuff, are just doing it for money, not doing it for art. I’m doing it for art. That’s the difference. You take the tour, I’ll show you the stuff that I have. And I welcome directors or producers, anybody that really cares about their project, to come out here and look at the stuff I have to offer you. Then go to all the other suppliers and look at their stuff. If you know the difference, we have the job.

I took the tour, and was astonished at his collection – the accompanying photos show you just a fraction. I called him yesterday to see what is new, and he told me in that he’s starting work on another western in about a week. A second edition of his book, TOMBSTONE, THE GUNS AND THE GEAR, will be available in early August. CLICK HERE to see Peter’s website.

GOING ONCE, TWICE, SOLD TO RFD-TV!

The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans auction at Christie’s New York is over, and netted $2.98 million. Trigger had been predicted to sell for between $100,000 and $200,000. The folks at Christie’s, concerned that they had overvalued the Smartest Horse in The Movies, considered lowering the estimate. Instead, on Wednesday, Trigger sold for $266,000 to Patrick Gottsch, owner of RFD-TV, which is known as ‘America’s Most Important Rural Network.’ On Thursday, Mr. Gottsch bought Roy’s Wonder-Dog Bullet, for $35,000, nearly twice the estimate.

Gottsch actually wanted to buy the entire collection, but as his chief financial officer Steve Campion explained on Wednesday, “(the auction) came to our attention a little too late. By the time we lined up the right financing and kind of got our arms around the value of the collection, it was literally 24 hours ago.” And on Thursday, Gottsch announced that starting on November 6th, RFD-TV will begin running Roy Rogers movies, introduced by Roy Jr., with Trigger and Bullet in the background. Mr. Gottsch has assured me that he will keep the Round-up apprised of future developments.

Christie’s low-balled the value of many items, all of which came from the shuttered Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum, which operated for four decades, first in Apple Valley, California, then in Branson, Missouri. The family dining set, which included a table made by actor George Montgomery, sold for $11,875, three times what was estimated. In their most absurd prediction they estimated that Dale’s hand-written lyrics and music to ‘Happy Trails’ would bring $500. They were $27,000 short. Pat Brady’s Jeep, Nellybelle, was sold to New Jersey horse-trainer Pam Weidel for $116,500, far above the $20,000 to $30,000 estimate.

All items sold, but at least one brought less than predicted, probably for sentimental reasons. Western clothes designer Nudie had given Roy a trailer shaped like a covered wagon. It was estimated to go for $5,000 to $8,000. But it was sold to a single bid of $3,000 to Nudie’s granddaughter Jamie, Mary Lynn Cabrall and Julie Anne Reames, who continue the Nudie Tailoring business. “For it to come back into our family – it’s amazing,” said Reames, who is also the niece of singing cowboy Rex Allen.

Much of this information came from articles by Eva Dou of the Associated Press.

NATIONAL DAY OF THE COWBOY AND COWGIRL AT THE AUTRY


Saturday, July 24th, the Autry celebrates the 5th annual event with a day of activities, all included with Museum admission. It runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and you’re encouraged to dress the part, with the exception of sidearms. Among the entertainments will be blacksmithing and chuckwagon demonstrations, roping demonstrations and lessons, leather braiding, gun engraving, musical performances, book signings, water-melon seed-spiting competitions, gold panning, one of Nudie’s cars, and episodes of The Gene Autry Show is the Wells Fargo Theatre. For more details, CLICK HERE.

THE HOLLYWOOD SHOW – FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY


Attention autograph hounds: from July 23rd through the 25th, the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel & Convention Center at 2500 North Hollywood Way, Burbank, California 91505 will welcome movie and TV stars and their fans for one of their seasonal get-togethers. It’s a great way to meet some of your favorites face to face, take pictures and get things signed – you can bring your own items, or buy pictures from the stars, but they charge you either way, and the prices start at about $20. Admission is $20 a day, $15 for Friday only, and there are different deals for multiple days and early-bird admissions. And there is a big cowboy contingent expected. Among them: Angie Dickinson (Saturday only), Ann Rutherford, Anne Jeffreys (Saturday only), Dan Haggerty, Denny Miller, Don Murray, Earl Holliman, Chad Allen (Saturday only), George Hamilton (Sunday only), James Hampton – Dobbs from F-TROOP, Joe Lando, Keith and Kevin Schultz from THE MONROES, Lana Wood, Michael Parks, Morgan Woodward – GUNSMOKE’s most frequent guest star, Peter Brown, Robert Fuller, Robert Horton, DEADWOOD’s Stephen Toblonsky, Ty Hardin and William Smith. Western author and historian C. Courtney Joyner will be signing his books. The hours are Friday 6-9p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, CLICK HERE.



Adios!

Henry

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

Who runs Barter Town?

£33! Shout it out! The total budget available to sustain Wee Mo and I each day for six months in Asia. £33 for food, drink, accommodation, transport, shits, giggles and tat. It's not much, but it's enough. Yet, we're aware that there are those who would seek to steal our fortune and always – always – their minds are working towards our undoing. These untidy fellows come at us with smiles and they always come when we seem to need them most.
Having heard various complaints from a rainbow of nationals, we expected things to be pretty bad in Vietnam and, sure enough, we cross the border to find blood in the streets.
Some people really go in for the whole bargaining thing. The rat-a-tat-tat of bartering in the street with strangers gives them a thrill; buying something for 40p when it should be 50p becomes an anecdote to take home; the theatre of haggling lets them unleash their inner Thespian and they often believe they have struck upon some kind of wonderful camaraderie with their fellow man.
I'm not one of those people.
For me, the whole thing is a infuriating nonsense. Where some purposely seek out marketplaces, I crave barcodes; where others revel in hard-bargaining with an impoverished local, I think: “You white c***. You've not got much son-shine, but you've got a fuck-sight more than this toothless crone, now pony-up and stop being such a merciless bastard”; if a shop owner offers me an embarrassingly high price for something, I walk away not as a tactic, but because I couldn't give a subatomic fuck about rolling around in the dirt to reduce the price by pennies.
Unfortunately in Vietnam the battle comes to me, and getting off the bus in the staggeringly pretty town of Sapa, we are immediately surrounded by groups of diminutive girls in minority dress.
Their tactics range from mindlessly yelping “You buy from me?” to the infinitely more-disarming nicey-nice approach. Having worn you down with questions about age, nationality and marital status (honestly, it's like sitting a Standard Grade language exam) the girls then gently – ever so softly – suggest that once we've showered and checked in, we might have a look at what they've got to sell. Of course the responses we give don't actually matter.
“What your name?”
“Me? Rumplestilkskin.”
“Lumpilstil...”
“Yeah, I was mercilessly bullied at school.”
“...You buy from me?”
They even brand Wee Mo with a bracelet – this, I think, is so she can be easily identified as a mark in the crowd later. Honestly, English gangsters know nothing about the hard-sell.
Now, when someone comes at you smiling and greeting you a cheerful “hello”, it's hard to ignore them. And yet, having watched Chinese tourists in action last month – and hoards of Russians in Dubai over a two year period – ignoring touts seems by far the best tactic to use. Britishness gets you absolutely nowhere. Saying: “Oh no thank you” translates roughly as “Oh go on, you cheeky little scamp – twist my arm, I love it. Love it! Oh you naughty, mischievous wee darling, here, please have everything I own.”
There's no room for any mistranslation if you don't say anything at all, and that's the Commy Way: not to let the existence of Bobby Sellstuff into your realm of being. Even if they're right in front of you, prostrate with an Aladdin's cave of shit to buy, you stomp right over the top of them. Eyes ahead, no excuses, no refusals, nothing.
And you know the worst of it? It works. Raising the bastard stakes passed manners and into the lofty realm of ignorance is about the only way to get peace when walking around on the streets of Vietnam. Well that, or just buggering off into the country, which we do too.
On our second day we spend over seven hours stumbling around the countryside and scarcely see another soul the whole time. We nearly get stuck out in the dark – and almost kill each other a couple of times thanks to some highly questionable map-reading on my part – but it's comfortably one of the best afternoons of our trip.
The only people we do meet out here are country folk, farmers harvesting hilariously large crops of dope and the ubiquitous cute kids, of course. None of them try to sell us a thing.
Tired and reeking, we wearily trudge back up to the hill just before sunset and bump into kettle of hawkers. We sigh, but they've have a hard day too and just fancy an Actual Chat. Almost accidentally, they've let their humanity slip through and we just about fashion a real coversation with them. But then a youngster, unable to decipher the English cracks and it's back to urban warfare; the hint of a connection we thought we'd made carried away on a chorus of you-buy-from-mes.

Random Things



It has been a very busy summer and I've only managed to play on Facebook because it's quick and easy. [Do join me there if you can!] I've been trying to finish up a lot of projects while I've been working away. I've made great progress on that granny square blanket up there. It's a lovely project because I can just pick it up whenever I want and put it down just as easily without thinking. That's the key. Without thinking.



I've been working to finish Hugs and Kisses. The strike-offs turned out so cute. I can't wait to make some things with this line. It's available in quilt shops in November.


I don't buy a lot of fabrics but when I was at Sample Spree, I bought Heather Ross' new line. It's so pretty and somehow not really me. I think that I'm nostalgic for my childhood!



My friend, Linda Hohag of Brandywine Designs gave me these copies of her latest patterns. So gorgeous! The doll clothes can be changed because they're attached by velcro dots. I fell in love with the owl quilt too! Linda, you're so clever!

Another friend, Nancy Mahoney, shared her latest fabric with me. This line, Nellie's Garden, is so pretty, don't you think? Nice job!




I'm so lucky to have such talented friends. xo, L

Folk



One of the many things I couldn't stand about Dubai was The Conversation, the why you here-what you doing-how long you staying blah blah. Unfortunate, then, that travelling is a distilled version of this faux interest in the lives of others – at least in Dubai, the next time you saw that person you could move past the introduction. Worse, for all the temples, natural wonders, weird food, architecture, currencies, and climate, it's hard to get away from a misanthropic feeling that it can all be buggered up by the presence of other people.
A tragicomic nerd from Wisconsin; an archaeologist from Toronto; a film buff from Copenhagen; an intellectual polyglot from Iceland; a demented, brilliant couple of property developers from New Zealand... We spend time with them all and some of the time, we feel boring by comparison. The majority, though – office workers mostly – are escaping the crushing humdrum of their normal lives. Others are travelling for work, some for an all-too-short holiday and some are very obviously fleeing from whatever demons are chasing them, Tam O'Shanter style. 
In all cases, though, it's necessary to get past The Conversation – where you been-where you from-where you going – which is why it's great when you stumble across locals. At best they might have a fleeting interest in where you're from. For the most part, though, they just don't care.


Naturally, there are exceptions to this rule. Like Mama Naxi, the terrifying matriarch of a hostel in Lijiang. She speaks just enough English to run her business, but has the kind of shit-kicking attitude that leaves the guests slightly fearful of her wrath during their stay. As if to reassure us that there was never anything to worry about – there was, trust me – on checking out she gives us a little handmade trinket, a banana and a cuddle before sending us back out into the world.

Not far from her place, we stumble across another of Yunnan's great characters as we amble along the cobbled streets of Baisha. It's not the dozens of newspaper articles littering the outside of Dr Ho's practise that we notice first, it's his beard: classic, wispy Chinese face fuzz that's perfect for stroking theatrically.


The doctor isn't shy about his fame – in fact he won't really start talking to us until we've sifted through a small selection from the weighty pile of international clippings that clutter his office. These days, his life is defined by telling the people he meets about those he's met in the past. His list, though, includes the likes of Michael Palin, Bruce Chatwin, and other journalists from the likes of the New York Times. Naturally, he doesn't complain about his meetings. Neither do I – he may have had 300+ pieces written about him over the years, but I fully intend to add my name to his list of interviewers.
Ho claims to have first learned English from the charismatic Austrian adventure botanist Joseph Rock, who was good friends with his father. Later, American airmen based nearby, along with Western missionaries helped to greatly improve his English. “But then Communist [shit storm] came and I didn't use it for 30 years,” he says solemnly. “Also, I don't have so many teeth now. I used to be better, I'm sorry.” While it's true that his English may not be quite perfect, the 87-year-old can also speak German and Japanese, which is pretty decent for someone who's only ever learned from the people he's met.
The octogenarian is famous for his expertise in herbalism and Chinese traditional medicine. Having nearly died of an unnamed illness, and subsequently healing himself using the plants from the foothills near where he was born, he provides a pretty convincing testimony. Ho's stories are colourful and occasionally unbelievable (he claims to have cured a leukaemia patient using only his herbal remedies) but he's been telling them for so long, it's become second nature. Unlike me, he relishes the repetition. Having been told I'm British, he stops me as I leave. “If, when you got back to the UK, you meet anyone who knows me,” he says, “tell them Dr Ho is still alive. And I'm very strong!”

WHAT AM I BID FOR TRIGGER?






The good news is that the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, including key artifacts and 120 boxes of Roy and Dale-related stuff have been acquired by the Autry. It will take a few years for archivists to catalog and preserve it all, and make it available. The announcement from the Autry notes that, “Once the archive has been completely processed, key items will be exhibited in a dedicated case in the museum’s Imagination Gallery.”

The not bad but wistful news – good news if you have money to spend – is that 346 lots from the now defunct Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri, formerly in Victorville, California, will be sold at auction, at Christie’s Auction Gallery in New York’s Rockefeller Center, on Wednesday and Thursday, July 14th and 15th. The preview starts today, Friday, July 9th. The vast array of items for bid include Roy and Dale merchandise, clothes, chandeliers, boots, saddles, spurs, collections of badges, and Trigger, the taxidermied Golden Palomino, the “Smartest Horse In The Movies”. Trigger, who is estimated at $100,000 to $200,000, is lot #38, the final lot for Wednesday. On Thursday, lot #230, Dale’s horse, Buttermilk, with an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000, will go under the gavel, followed by lot #231, “Roy’s Wonder-Dog, Bullet,” who is expected to fetch $10,000 to $15,000. Pat Brady's Jeep NELLYBELLE is estimated at $20,000 - $30,000. The catalog will set you back $30.00. Wednesday's auction starts at 6:00 p.m., Thursday's at 10:00 a.m..

To read the informative, if somewhat wise-ass story in the New York Times -- it starts with the line, “Wild West kitsch will take over Christie’s plush quarters at Rockefeller Center,” CLICK HERE. But be warned, those illiterate city-slickers call a 'chuck wagon' a 'chow wagon.' To take a look at the items up for auction, and to register to bid, CLICK HERE. To read a touching Christie-provided interview with Roy 'Dusty' Rogers Jr., CLICK HERE. (Photos from top: Roy and Dale with Trigger, Dale with Buttermilk, Dale with Bullet)

LUCAS AND SPEILBERG LET NORMAN ROCKWELL OUT OF THE VAULT

Remember that scene at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, where the Ark of the Covenant is sealed in a wooden crate and hidden away in a massive warehouse, never to be seen again? Well, enthusiastic Norman Rockwell collectors Steven Speilberg and George Lucas have lately been accused of the same thing by the art world, for refusing to lend their pictures to Rockwell exhibitions.

They’ve made up for it in a big way, by combining fifty-seven of the paintings in one exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., entitled, “Telling Stories: Norman Rockwell From The Collections of George Lucas and Steven Speilberg.” The show will run until early 2011. Rockwell gained his greatest fame for the hundreds of covers he painted for THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, mostly depicting cheerful aspects of American life.

Speilberg notes, “I had a great deal of respect for how he could tell stories in a single frozen image. Entire stories.” Lucas notes, “To me the most important part of Rockwell’s work is that it illustrates compassion and caring about other people.” Lucas, who has lived too long in Marin County, adds, “You could almost say he was a Buddhist painter.”

HARRISON FORD TAKES BREAK FROM ‘ALIENS’ TO TIE KNOT

On location in Santa Fe, New Mexico, COWBOYS AND ALIENS star Harrison Ford took a break from acting duties to wed his steady of eight years, Calista Flockhart. The vows were said at the Governor’s Mansion, the wedding performed by Governor Bill Richardson under the legal supervision of New Mexico Chief Justice Charles W. Daniels.

FOLLOW-UP FROM THE 4TH OF JULY


Got a few interesting calls and comments after COWPOKE WHO SERVED. I was able to add Earl Holliman and Cesar Romero to out list. Ron Scheer had an interesting suggestion: Western writers who served might make an interesting list. I agree. Haven't had much time for research, but I learned that Louis L'Amour served in the U.S. Merchant Marines. Charles Marquis Warren, novelist (ONLY THE VALIENT), screenwriter, producer and director who shaped TV's GUNSMOKE and RAWHIDE, served in the Navy in the Photo Science Laboratory. Wounded by a Japanese grenade, he received a Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and five battle stars. And speaking of the 4th of July, that day in 1884 was the birthday of George Trendle, the man who thought up THE LONG RANGER.

And we would be remiss if we did not note the recent passing of a man of the real west, the very last of the Navajo 'code talkers,' who used their native language as a uncrackable code during World War II. Clarence Wolf Guts was 86 when he died, on June 16th, at the South Dakota Veterans home in Hot Springs.

AMERICAN BANDITS WINS TELLY AWARD

Congratulations to writer-director Fred Olen Ray, who has won the Bronze Telly Award for AMERICAN BANDITS: FRANK AND JESSE JAMES.

WESTERN ROUND-UP HAS A SPONSOR

I'm delighted to announce that the good folks from the Dish Satellite company are our first advertisers -- if you missed their ad, it's on the top left corner of the opening page! If you're looking for satellite service, please click on the link!

SCREENINGS

RANDOLPH SCOTT IN 'SANTA FE' (1951) AT THE AUTRY

How long has it been since you saw Randolph Scott on the big screen? You can, this Saturday, July 10th, at the Autry's Wells Fargo Theatre. It's part of The Imagined West Film Series, and is preceeded by the film that started it (westerns) all, Edwin S. Porter's THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903). The show is at 2:00 p.m. And although membership or admission usually gets you in, for some reason it'll cost $5 for members and $9 for non-members. Regular readers of the Round-up may remember that in the April 17th entry, at an event celebrating the issuing of the Cowboys of the Silver Screen stamps, Autry CEO John L. Gray annnounced that, starting in mid-June, The Autry would present a western film festival, commencing with a Roy Rogers picture. June has come and gone, no Roy, no Gene. On August 14th we will get UNDER WESTERN SKIES, which launched Roy's career. The only Autry pictures expected to run this summer are TV episodes during July 24th's NATIONAL DAY OF THE COWBOY event. THE HARVEY GIRLS is running on Saturday, July 31st. Kinda slim pickings for western fans. Yet opening on August 17th is a show, HOW THE WEST WAS WORN...BY MICHAEL JACKSON. Yes, that Michael Jackson. I don't understand some people's priorities.



ANTHONY MANN FESTIVAL AT NEW YORK’S FILM FORUM

What a treat for all of you that live East but love West! From June 25th through July 15th, the Forum will be presenting 26 movies – most in double features and a few in triple bills! -- directed by the great Anthony Mann, whose post-war westerns brought a new-found maturity to the form, and gave James Stewart a chance to stretch as an actor as never before. In addition to the westerns being shown, Mann's fine crime and war stories will also be on view. Among the westerns: THE FAR COUNTRY (1955) and THE TALL TARGET (1951) on Friday and Saturday, July 9th and 10th. To whet your appetite -- and this is for everyone, not just New Yorkers - CLICK HERE to see trailers of several of the Anthony Mann westerns.

AROUND LOS ANGELES

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. Currently they have HOMELANDS: HOW WOMEN MADE THE WEST through August 22nd, and THE ART OF NATIVE AMERICAN BASKETRY: A LIVING TRADITION, through November 7th. I've seen the basketry show three times, and am continually astonished at the beauty and variety of the work of the various tribes. 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.

ON TV

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 THE LONE RANGER at 1:30 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.

Unless something unexpected happens, that's it for this week's report. Have a great weekend! And by the way, readers tipped me about both the Norman Rockwell show and the Roy Rogers auction. If you hear something that'd interest the Round-up, let me know!

Happy Trails to you!

Henry

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