Get your Tivos set, because on Tuesday, January 10th, PBS will premiere a new episode in their excellent AMERICAN EXPERIENCEdocumentary series. BILLY THE KID will be the first documentary to run under their THE WILD WEST grouping. To see a preview/teaser, click HERE. The following Tuesday, January 17th, another episode will premiere, CUSTER’S LAST STAND. To see the preview/teaser, click HERE.
Then each successive Tuesday, previously aired episodes will play, the subjects being WYATT EARP, GERONIMO, ANNIE OAKLEY, JESSE JAMES, BUFFALO BILL and KIT CARSON.
AMC RENEWS 'HELL ON WHEELS' FOR 2ND SEASON!
WESTERNS ‘TALL IN THE SADDLE’ AT EASTMAN HOUSE JAN & FEB
Beginning on Thursday, January 5th with THE OX-BOX INCIDENT and continuing for most Thursdays in February, Eastman House in Rochester, New York, will present ‘Tall in the Saddle’, a Western film festival curated by Jack Garner. Other films to be shown will include HIGH NOON, THE BIG COUNTRY, BLOOD ON THE MOON, WAGON MASTER, THE GUNFIGHTER and Walter Hill’s THE LONG RIDERS. I’ll have more details soon.
LOS ENCINOS SLATED FOR 2012 CLOSING
Often known simply as ‘The Duck Park’ or ‘The Duck Pond’, for the natural spring that attracts flocks of varied breeds of ducks, geese and other birds, both migratory and resident, Los Encinos State Park
At the corner of Balboa and Ventura Avenues in Encino, an Indian village was for centuries the home of the Tongva, most of whom left around 1797 to relocate at the then new San Fernando Mission. In 1834, when Mexico dissolved the Mission system, three mission Indians were given a 4,400 acre land grant for the Los Encinos area. The area, eventually the De La Osa Rancho, would become a center of beef-raising with the coming of the Gold Rush, and in fact the two standing adobe buildings were built in 1849. They were at various times the homes of Spanish families, Basque shepherds, and a busy stage-coach stop when Ventura Boulevard
A popular park, famous for their monthly ‘living history’ presentation, Los Encinos is no stranger to strife. Just weeks after the buildings’ 1994 reopening after an expensive renovation, the Northridge Earthquake hit, closing the buildings for more than another decade. At brainstorming meetings this month, docents, local residents, business representatives and politicians have to come up with ideas on how to raise the money to save the park. One clear fact is that it costs about $150,000 a year to operate the park, and the park has turned a paltry $50 profit two years running. Even to close the park to the public, but maintain it, would cost $15,000 to $30,000 a year.
Among the politicians who are trying to help save the place are State Senator Fran Pavley, who describes the park as “a hidden treasure,” and L.A. Councilman Paul Koretz. Ironically, in the midst of California ’s (and America
When I had a chance to chat with his last year, he pointed out that a
WATCH TRIGGER AND BULLET ON NEW YEARS DAY
The Annual New Years Day Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena Roy , riding the float will be Trigger, the smartest horse in the movies, and Roy