Lone Pine Film Festival 2019 (1 Viewer)

[Andrew M]

3 more filmed in and around Lone Pine. In 1966, Bonanza aired a 2-part program "The Pursued" directed by William Witney. Pa Cartwright was down to just 2 sons by then, Hoss and Little Joe. "The Pursued" had an excellent guest cast of Eric Fleming, Dina Merrill, and Lois Nettleton. Great use of the Alabama Hills by Witney added tension to a tale of religious bigotry and persecution. Fool's Gold (renamed Man from Butte for a re-issue) had Hoppy out of his usual black attire and in disguise in a den of thieves. And Masked Raiders with Tom Holt had an excellent supporting cast including Marjorie Lord, Clayton Moore, Tom Tyler, and a personal favorite character actor, Houseley Stevenson.

 

[Andrew M]

The Lone Pine Film Festival ended on Sunday. Crossed Death Valley to Las Vegas today. Headed home to San Francisco tomorrow. I'll be posting about the Film Festival later in the week.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

The Lone Pine Film Festival ended on Sunday. Crossed Death Valley to Las Vegas today. Headed home to San Francisco tomorrow. I'll be posting about the Film Festival later in the week.

Looking forward to your report, Andrew!

 

[Andrew M]

Still gathering up our schedules, etc. from the Festival. Last night we watched Gun Smugglers, one of the 12 movies starring Tim Holt that were filmed in Lone Pine.

 

[Andrew M]

Re-watched High Sierra last night. Locations include the town of Lone Pine and the Whitney Portal Road. My contemporary photo shows the road today. The Whitney Portal Road is also used in The Long Long Trailer with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and The King of the Khyber Rifles with Tyrone Power. I like the Italian poster which translates as "A Bullet For Roy."

 

[Andrew M]

Still editing photos, etc. from the Lone Pine Film Festival. We watched Barbary Coast Gent last week. Wallace Beery's good badman character was loosely based on legendary stagecoach robber "Black Bart" who left poetry behind after his holdups. The title lobby card shows a holdup in the Alabama Hills.

 

[Andrew M]

We watched Somewhere in Sonora (1933) last night. My partner commented on how young (26 years old) and handsome John Wayne appeared. Australian J. P. McGowan (a veteran of the Second Boer War) played the suave murderous villain, Monte Black. Henry B. Walthall, who had starred in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), was billed third after Wayne's horse "Duke."

 

[Andrew M]

Okay, looks like I've got my act together and I can finally start posting about the 30th Lone Pine Film Festival. On our previous visit in July, my partner Jane and I drove from San Francisco. It was a long drive so we decided that for the Film Festival we would fly into Las Vegas, rent an AWD vehicle and drive across Death Valley to Lone Pine. And we did; flying out on Wednesday the 9th, the day before the official start of the Film Festival. Leaving Las Vegas we drove north on 95 up to Beatty and across the desert on 374 to 190 to 136 to 395 into Lone Pine. We stocked up on breakfast and lunch foodstuffs at the Lone Pine Market on South Main Street. With the first screenings at 7:30 AM we planned on eating breakfast in our room at the Mt. Whitney Motel which had a fridge and microwave. With limited time for lunch, our sandwiches, fruit and snacks were essential. Fortunately, we always had time for dinner out. That night we ate at the Totem Café where movie stars and crews ate in years past. The walls are adorned with movie stills and authentic autographs of the stars. The photos are of Death Valley (off of Route 374), and Father Crowley Vista Point aka Star Wars Canyon.

The next day we did some exploring of sites we had missed in July. We went to Diaz Lake, south of Lone Pine. Diaz Lake was created by the great 1872 earthquake that flattened Lone Pine. This quake was similar in size to the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. In October, the lake was nearly deserted with a strong breeze blowing. Instead of tailgating we ate lunch inside the car. Afterwards we drove to the Olancha Dunes frequently used for desert scenes when the movies were shooting in Lone Pine. With closeups, overhead crane shots or silhouetting against the sky you'd never know the East Sierras are right there too. We ran into a geology class from Pomona taking a field trip and listened in on the professor's lecture before hiking the dunes. On our way back to our motel we revisited the Southern Inyo Museum on Bush Street, the former Whitney Portal Road used in High Sierra. Jane has a degree in Zoology and especially liked the "Bug Room," the small natural history collection on display created by Lee Gonzales . I spent time talking with the local historian, Marlene Cierniak who remembered us from our previous visit in July. The photos show Diaz Lake, the Olancha Dunes and the Southern Inyo Museum (small building with yellow sign on right side of the street).

We picked up our tickets and took pictures along the mural outside the Museum of Western Film History.


That night, Thursday, was the opening reception, a previously announced but somewhat impromptu costume contest and the first screening of the festival, Bill Tilghman and the Outlaws. The reception was held outdoors in the parking lot of the Museum of Western Film History. Plenty of good food and beverages and the opportunity to meet some of our fellow attendees. Jane had put together her own costume and assumed the role of the unknown film star Juanita Perdita, star of the lost Western classic, La Vida Loca. Unfortunately, she didn't win. Darby Hinton presented that night's feature. He portrayed the outlaw Cole Younger. Hinton is well-known in Western TV circles as Israel Boone, the son of Daniel Boone played by Fess Parker. Hinton appeared in 110 episodes of the show.

 

[Andrew M]

Friday, October 11th was the first full day of programming for the Film Festival. On all days, there were usually three different activities going on. We had already pre-booked three tours, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. The tours we did not take on Friday included Owens Lake History and Natural History Tour, Movies East of Lone Pine Tour, Ansel Adams Tour, "Good Day at Black Rock" Tour (offered twice during the day), Hopalong Cassidy Tour, Frontier Days Tour, Wagon Train to the Stars Tour, Gunga Din Tour, The Rip Van Winkle Caper (Twilight Zone) Tour, Randolph Scott in Lone Pine Tour and The White Outlaw Tour. We also did not attend the concurrent presentations in the Museum theater: Hopalong Cassidy film screening and Tour Presentation with Greg Packer, Rip Van Winkle Twilight Zone Tour presentation with Don Kelsen, Peggy Stewart Interview in Lone Pine by Cheryl Rogers Barbett, introduced by Julie Rogers Pomilia (daughters of Dale Evans and Roy Rogers), Randolph Scott in Lone Pine Tour presentation by Ross Schnioffsky and Warren Davey, The White Outlaw film screening and Tour presentation by Greg Parker.

We spent the majority of Friday inside the Lone Pine High School auditorium watching movies. We started at 7:30 AM with Frontier Days (1934) starring Bill Cody followed by Riders of the Frontier (1939) starring Tex Ritter. The 80th anniversary screening of Gunga Din (1939) at 10:00 AM was interrupted by a power failure. It was not resumed to the crowd's disappointment. After lunch, we continued with Saga of Death Valley (1939) starring Roy Rogers and The Round-Up (1920) starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and live piano accompaniment by Jay Munns. We skipped The Way West (1967) to attend The Lone Ranger, William Witney presentation by Jay Dee Witney (son of William Witney). After dinner we returned to the auditorium for a screening of The Cowboys (1971) starring John Wayne.

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[Andrew M]

Saturday, the 12th, started with our Eastern High Sierra "Sunrise Tour" led by Larry Maurice. We got an early morning start meeting up at 6:00 AM in the Museum parking lot for our caravan into the Alabama Hills. Once on site we watched the morning sun light up the Eastern High Sierra peaks. We stayed together until 8:30 AM bonding with our fellow sunrise viewers over good coffee, pastries and cowboy poetry from Larry Maurice. We missed the 7:30 AM screening of KIng of the Pecos (1935) starring John Wayne.

I went back to the motel room and made us some popcorn for Hopalong Rides Again (1937) starring William Boyd. Jane went to the Museum and I stayed in the high school auditorium for 4 TV Shows filmed in Lone Pine: Annie Oakley (1954) with Gail Davis "The Cinder Trail," The Gene Autry Show (1955) "The Million Dollar Fiddle," Red Ryder (1956) with Allan "Rocky" Lane "Gun Trouble Valley," and Have Gun Will Travel (1960) with Richard Boone "Crowbait." I missed out on Rough Riders of Cheyenne (1945) starring Sunset Carson and Blazing Days (1927) starring Fred Humes and directed by William Wyler to attend David Matuszak's presentation of Top 10 Western Cinematography in Western Movies. I also purchased an autographed copy of his latest book, The Cowboy's Trail Guide to Westerns. The next presentation was by Greg Parker on Jack Hoxie: The Forgotten Western Hero. Hoxie is practically unknown today but he made over 132 films and 14 of them were shot in Lone Pine. Very few of them survive today. We also missed attending the Stunt Show with Diamond Farnsworth, Celebrating Packy Smith and the History of Western Film Festivals and the screening of The Tall T (1957) starring Randolph Scott.

Then we were off for our second tour of the day, the "Good Day at Black Rock" Tour lead by Jerry Condit. Our first stop was Owens Dry Lake not used in Bad Day at Black Rock but used as a locale in movies with Bob Steele, Randolph Scott, John Wayne, Johnny Mack Brown, William Boyd and Maverick (1994) starring Mel Gibson. From there we moved on to the locations used for the town, jail and railroad tracks used in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) starring Spencer Tracy and directed by John Sturges.. A short distance away was the site of the ghost town set from The Law and Jake Wade (1958) starring Robert Taylor and also directed by John Sturges. Our last stop was the location for the fiery climax of Bad Day at Black Rock where Spencer Tracy threw a Molotov cocktail at Robert Ryan. Those photos will appear in my next post.

Jane and I were very tired having gotten up before 5:00 AM for the Sunrise Tour so we had dinner and did not attend the Video Tribute to Packy Smith and the evening screening of An Eye for An Eye (1966) starring Robert Lansing. Other tours that day included Arches of the Alabama Hills Tour, Movies East of Lone Pine Tour, The White Outlaw Tour, Randolph Scott in Lone Pine Tour, King of the Pecos Tour (offered twice that day), Bar 20 Ranch Tour, Ansel Adams Tour, Gunga Din Tour, Hopalong Cassidy Tour, and Wagon Train to the Stars Tour. Presentations in the Museum that day included Bar 20 Ranch Tour presentation, Will Bill: Hollywood Maverick screening with Bill Wellman, Jr., and 101 Ranch program.

 

[Bert Greene]

Yeah, I hated that we lost Packy Smith, about a year ago. I always enjoyed chatting with him especially about the old-time silent era cowboy stars... Jack Hoxie, Leo Maloney, Fred Thomson, etc. You'd see him at a show, looking all down in the dumps (often his natural expression), and go up and ask him about forgotten cowboy stars like Lester Cuneo or Newton House, and his eyes would light up and he'd get all excited, and just extend things into a long, fun conversation. He had a lot of stories, like when he had arranged Tim Holt to come to his first or second show, only to be nixed by Holt's sudden and fatal illness. It's been just about a year, but I'm already missing seeing Packy Smith at the various western-themed film festivals.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Thank you for these detailed write-ups and photos, Andrew! Sounds like a great time.

I've always wanted to attend this festival, but it always falls smack dab in the middle of the university semester here, and I can't justify taking the time off. One of these days...

 

[Andrew M]

Hey, Jim!

If you can't do the Film Festival, why not go to the Concert in the Rocks on June 6, 2020? It's held in the Lone Ranger Canyon.

On your visit you can do a self-guided tour of the movie locations. There's a map with locations here: http://www.theothersideofcalifornia.com/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/movie_road_tour_brochure.pdf

Plenty of info on line and Arches guide books on sale at Amazon.

Enjoy!