Movie Road makes westerns come to life
by Catherine Felty, Outpost staff
Lights! Camera! Roll 'em &endash; and action!
For movie buffs and television viewers, echoes of Hollywood roll from the Alabama Hills, west of Lone Pine, Calif. The location of hundreds of films and television shows, these hills in the Owens Valley have seen the filming of many genres of film, including westerns, comedies and science fiction.
Movie Road, in the
Alabama Hills, leads visitors to shooting
locations. Photo by Catherine Felty
Since the early years of filmmaking, directors, actors, actresses and stunt doubles have packed up their bags and left Hollywood for the great outdoors &endash; which, in many cases, was Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills. About three hours northeast of Hollywood, and a million miles away from urban life, Lone Pine has played host to many actors, including John Wayne, Ronald Reagan and Mel Gibson, as well as animal stars like Trigger and Silver, of western movie fame, and the elephant in "Gunga Din."
Annual film festival attracts thousands of movie fans
Lone Pine celebrates its movie history each October with the Lone Pine Film Festival. The event highlights films shot in area, and celebrities often attend the festival. Roy Rogers appeared at the first festival, held in 1990. During the festival, the "King of Cowboys" dedicated a permanent marker in the Alabama Hills, about four miles west of Lone Pine at the corner of Whitney Portal and Movie roads.
The event attracts about 5,000 visitors each year, said Donna Bonnesin of the Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce.
"We're packed during the festival," she said, adding that motels are filled up and down the Owens Valley from Bishop to Ridgecrest. Make reservations early if you plan on attending the event. The festival is held throughout the town, including the high school.
But you won't find the same competition here that permeates other festivals such as Sundance in Colorado or Cannes in France. This is a festival for people who just enjoy movies.
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Would-be director places subject as close to the canyon edge as possible. Photo by Catherine Felty |
"We don't give out awards, and we don't rate the movies," Bonnesin said. "All the films were made in Lone Pine, with most of them being "B" westerns from the 1930s and '40s."
The unusual rock formations, the desert landscape and the backdrop of the Sierra and Mount Whitney allow filmmakers to turn the hills into a lunar moonscape, an Arabian desert or an Alaskan tundra, making the Alabama Hills are a favorite shooting location. The most popular genre of movie filmed in the area was the western. The site was home to John Wayne films such as "The Oregon Trail" and "North to Alaska," as well as Henry Fonda's "Oxbow Incident," and "Hopalong Cassidy" starring William Boyd.
The strange rock formations have served as another planet in both the "Star Trek" films and the television series. Other television shows that have been filmed in Lone Pine include episodes of the "Rockford Files" and "The Twilight Zone."
Today, Toyota often uses the hills as backdrops for truck commercials, and viewers will often see the red dust of the Alabama Hills churning beneath four-wheel drive tires.
Because so many westerns were shot in the area, a western memorabilia show is held in the town hall during the film festival, Bonnesin said. An arts and crafts show and barbecue are held in the park, and a Sunday parade and a campfire in the park round out the festival. Tours of movie locations in the Alabama Hills are offered throughout the weekend.
On your own tour through the Alabama Hills, you can wander around the canyons and crevices and perhaps find remnants of past filmmaking. Rock ledges have iron stakes hammered into them. They may have been used to lower equipment &endash; and perhaps actors &endash; into the canyons below. Or, the stakes may have held up the suspension bridge that Cary Grant held onto in "Gunga Din," as the elephant swung the bridge cable back and forth.
Hikers may find other relics, such as a '36 Ford coupe, steel beer cans and odd pieces of metal, that may or may not have been left by film crews in their haste to leave behind the great outdoors and get back to the bright lights of Hollywood.
Alabama Hills: at home on silver screen or television screen
On the Lone Pine Chamber of Commerce Web site, you can find complete listings of films and television shows that were shot on location in the Alabama Hills. According to the site, more than 250 films were made there.
"How the West Was Won," one of the 1960s first wide-screen spectaculars, was filmed in Lone Pine. Roy Rogers and Trigger sauntered along the canyon rims, and Hoot Gibson, Tom Mix, Gene Autry and Randolph Scott all mounted their trusty steeds and rode off into the sunset in a cloud of dust. Latter-day western stars included Clint Eastwood in "Joe Kidd" and Mel Gibson in "Maverick."
Perhaps the most well recognized characters to ride off into the Lone Pine dust were the Lone Ranger and Silver. The 1950s television series was filmed on location in the Alabama Hills, as were many other series. Television favorites from the 1950s and '60s included "Wagon Train," "Bonanza," "Death Valley Days," "The Virginian" and "Have Gun Will Travel."
But directors made use of the Alabama Hills for more than just westerns. In 1920, Mary Pickford filmed "Pollyanna" there, and the site was also the scene for the 1939 filming of "Gunga Din." Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez almost lost their home over the side of the steep road leading to Whitney Portal in the "Long, Long Trailer." Humphrey Bogart met his end at the end of Whitney Portal Road in "High Sierra," and Spencer Tracy received an Academy Award nomination for his 1950s performance in "Bad Day at Black Rock."
Posted Nov. 11, 1998
Copyright 1998 Nevada Outpost