"Just the facts, Ma'am!"

Like many early television shows such as Martin Kane, Private Eye, Gangbusters, The Adventures of Superman, The Cisco Kid, and The Lone Ranger, Dragnet began as a radio show.  The show was created by a young radio star named Jack Webb. And took its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for catching criminals or suspects. Webb began his entertainment career as a radio announcer. But while playing a small part in a detective film, He Walked By Night, Webb became friends with the film’s technical advisor, Marty Wynn, who was a detective sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department.  He Walked By Night was based on the true story of the murder of the California Highway patrolman Erwin Walker. Based on the knowledge gained from working on that film and talking with Wynn,  Webb created Dragnet.  Dragnet was a procedural detective drama.  Procedural detective dramas first appeared in print in 1880 but were new to radio.

The major difference in the procedural drama is that they follow police procedure in solving crimes and the perpetrator isn’t revealed until the end of the story.  Dragnet crime dramas presented the cops as the “good guys”, which was unusual in the early 1950s. Webb was adamant about showing the hard work and heroism of the police. He created the procedural police drama for radio initially and was quite successful. However, when the show made the leap to television he didn’t want to reprise his role as Sgt. Joe Friday. He wanted the actor, Lloyd Nolan, to play Joe Friday. Nolan had played a detective in some films in the 1940s. But Webb succumbed to the pressure of his superiors at  NBC and reprised the role of Joe Friday on television. Actors playing the same characters on television as radio added continuity to the transition between radio and television.  

The show ran for eight seasons initially. Jack Webb’s usual partner in his role as a Los Angeles police sergeant, Joe Friday,  was Officer Frank Smith. Smith was played by Ben Alexander. At first, Friday’s partner was played by Barton Yarborough who unfortunately died of a heart attack during the first season after filming only two episodes. Most of the other cast members were veteran radio actors and were used for many different roles. Harry Bartell, Art Gilmore, Peggy Webber, Barney Phillips, Carolyn Jones, Virginia Christine, Kathleen Freeman, Stacy Harris, Virginia Gregg, Olan Soule, Herb Vigran, and many others. Lee Marvin of M Squad, and Raymond Burr of Perry Mason had roles in two of the shows. Burr was in the first television episode playing Friday’s boss. 

Dragnet was unique in several ways by today's standards. The show  began with the disclaimer that the events in the show were true but the names had been changed to protect the innocent.  Today I think we would refer to the show as a docudrama. Webb did a lot of voice-overs for the series. Frequently a scene would consist of actors performing without their voices being heard.  Webb’s first person voice-over would describe the action to the viewer. In a twenty-five minute show there was little chance for character development and very little small talk. Stories followed the police force often encountering the seedy side of Los Angeles, with a steady stream of calloused fugitives, desperate gunmen, slippery swindlers, and hard bitten women. The titles tell much about the stories,  "The Big Lamp," "The Big Seventeen," "The Big Grandma," "The Big Show," "The Big Break," "The Big Frank," " The Big Hands," "The Big Dance," "The Big Betty," "The Big Will," 

Dragnet had a number of well known writers.. James E. Moser wrote the majority of the scripts for the first three seasons. Webb wrote a few and,   he was the show’s producer and director. But after Moser, John Robinson became the most frequent writer of the show.  Although the scripts were written by staff writers each script was vetted by the LAPD for accuracy.  And, of course, to see if it did not reflect unfavorably on the Los Angeles Police Department.  Since all shows were based on actual investigations the results were always revealed at the end as the narrator read the punishment for the perpetrator.  

Remakes have been made of the series but none have reached the success of the original. None quite matched that Webb style. But there are many today who still remember the music, those brass and timpanis.  And  “Dum-de-dum-dum” 

That is if  “Dum-de-dum-dum” is considered music!

There are few accomplishments for a kid as great as pulling a successful prank on an adult. And there are few instances of successful pranks in my childhood which merit remembering. But there were two.

When I was about eight years old we played a prank on my daddy. Family meals together were a big deal at our house. The only opportunity for the four of us to eat together was the weekend except in the summer.  While school was in session, daddy would be at work when we had our evening meal which we referred to as “supper”. Daddy worked in a textile mill on what they called the “second shift”.  He worked from four o’clock in the afternoon until midnight. 

We lived in what I referred to as an ancient farmhouse. Actually, my great grandfather had built it near the end of the nineteenth century. He had bought the land, cut the timber and built the house. We rented five rooms in the house. 

My mother said she had been afraid of my great-grandfather.  He had a long white beard.   Now the house belonged to my mother's uncle. He was an unmarried farmer and lived in the attached kitchen. Houses built in those days had kitchens separated from the main house because of the possibility of fire.The kitchen was attached though by a covered breezeway of about ten feet.  Momma usually invited my great uncle to Sunday dinner. I think she felt sorry for him. Sunday dinner was about one o’clock.

 

Sunday dinner was a big deal at our house. After church we would come and get out of our Sunday church clothes while Momma got Sunday dinner ready. Soon the smells of chicken frying and biscuits baking would waft through the house. Sunday was the only day we ate meat except maybe for ham, sausage or bacon for breakfast. The chicken would have been butchered on Saturday. I was the designated chicken decapitator. Soon the table in the kitchen would have a tablecloth on it and spread with beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn,  and sliced tomatoes. Fried chicken filled the need for meat. I would be hoping there would be some sweet potato pie for desert. My sister and I sat on a bench facing Momma. She was always telling me to slow my rate of food consumption. Momma would tell me, "Slow down eating, Son. Nobody's going to take it from you." My sister and I rarely spoke.  In those days children did not speak unless spoken to. My grandpa didn’t go for table talk either.  He always said. “Let your food stop your mouth!”

Now the beverage of choice for Sunday dinner, or any dinner for that matter,  was sweet iced tea. I'm not sure why Daddy always put lemon in his iced tea. To us it seemed that maybe Daddy thought his tea was too sweet. So with Momma's help, we conspired to serve Daddy unsweetened tea. But Daddy got the best of us. He added lemon to the unsweetened tea and drank it down without a grimace. Yes, the joke was on us.

 

My grandest, if I might say "grandest", prank was the one we pulled on my Momma. 

If I remember correctly, it was in the summertime when this happened. 

When I was a boy prior to the age of twelve the favorite game played by me and my buddies was  cowboys and Indians. I realize that the popularity of this game was due to that time in history. Those were the days when western movies were very popular. Television programming was filled with western shows. I remember them well, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, and The Cisco Kid.  Playing cowboys and Indians came naturally. And if you didn't have a buddy to play with you would reluctantly recruit your sister. I did it. I recruited my sister to play cowboys and Indians with me. She didn't really know how to play, and she did have some reservations about playing the Indian. She knew enough about westerns to know that the Indians usually lost. Actually, in our games the Indians never won.  I told her we would do something never done before. I announced that we would play a joke on Momma. For whatever reason she went along with my idea. Maybe she was mad at Momma or something. I didn't care. The important thing was she was on board with the idea. Yep the cowboy was gonna shoot an Indian. And I was the cowboy. I found an arrow which had somehow been broken in half. My idea had come from a Three Stooges film. There were a few things I needed from inside the house. With great stealth I sneaked into my room and liberated a pair of my Sunday pants from a coat hanger. Mr. Showalter had delivered them from Star Dry Cleaners  the day before. By using a pair of pliers from the back porch I cut a length of wire from the clothes hanger. My sister obliged as I shaped the wire across her head from ear to ear. After removing it I attached a  piece of  arrow to each end of the wire. When I put it over her head the illusion was almost complete! Just one more thing was needed. With Indian like stealth I entered the kitchen and managed to get a bit of catsup from the kitchen table. I put It around the part of the arrow closest to my sister's head. 

The illusion was complete. Then I coached my sister to go crying to my momma telling her that she had been shot by me with an arrow. I did not get to see the actual delivery of my best work. But when I heard my momma's scream, I knew I had been successful. 

Momma only  said to me, "Wait til your father gets home!"

And that was enough. 

It was my grandest, but last, practical joke.

119 Gordon Row

I was listening to the slow summer rain fall on the roof as I read the story.  It  was a warm afternoon in Savannah, and we had just checked into Savannah's Bed and Breakfast Inn. The Inn is housed in joined houses which form Gordon Row and was built 1853-54. It features wrought iron banisters leading to the parlor floor of the four story structure. On this shady street off Chatham Square, the inn exudes the charm of the old South with treelined streets, hanging Spanish moss, and blooming flowers. We had enjoyed lunch with friends soon after arriving in this city, on the banks of the river for which it was named, before checking into the Inn. The drumming of the rain on the roof gave more life to the story I was reading about the war in Afghanistan. It echoed the gunfire from the war zone. Claudette was catching up with her Facebook friends on her iPad at a nearby table. The overhead fans moved the warm humid air in a futile effort to cool things off. The story I was reading about American soldiers collecting the corpses of Afghani war victims was in stark contrast to my surroundings. A semi-calico cat brushed against my leg and brought me back to reality, as a young couple entered the porch from the parlor. Both were dressed in shorts and flip-flops. She wore the shorter shorts, but both had on long-sleeved shirts, untucked. Her dark hair spilled over her shoulders, and he had the fashionable facial stubble.  I would have put their age at mid to late twenties. They were very much engrossed in each other.  Newlyweds?  Perhaps. I finished reading the story

before Claudette was ready for tea, and I busied myself looking at the patio gardens below.  From my second story porch vantage point I got a good view. Several had fountains.  One particular fountain of note was an ugly creature spewing water from its mouth. Ceramic or stone stone animals were quite common too. I took a few photos including some of angels or "garden angels", as I referred to them. 
Soon she had finished catching up with her daily emails, and we ventured inside for tea. For some reason, after visiting the British Isles several times, afternoon tea has become a part or our daily lives. There was a variety of teas available, but I usually prefer a standard English breakfast tea with two lumps of sugar. I let others enjoy the various and sundry flavors. The necessary items for tea were on an elegantly carved sideboard with tiny pastries under glass. The parlor extended from the front to the back of the house and had matching carved black marble fireplaces along one side. Art framed in carved gilded frames hung on the walls. Some were botanical prints and others original oils or watercolors, and there were some reproductions on canvas also. All were very tastily hung on an off-white wall.  Of course everything was well illuminated by overhead chandeliers. 

We retired to our room to relax a bit before dinner. Our ground level room was spacious with private bath. There were two queen-size beds with matching carved headboards and were truly beautiful pieces of furniture. There was an upholstered chair by the window with end table. The flat screen TV was on a chest of drawers beside the fireplace. I kicked back on the bed and was going to watch television when I spied a stack of books on a shelf behind the room door. I selected a book reviewing a recent film festival in the city. 

We walked a few blocks to the Crystal Beer Parlor to dine. As you would imagine it had a storied past dating back to the early 1900s. I had the shrimp scampi pita pizza and it was delicious. It was a white pizza and the shrimp were surprisingly tender. Claudette had the bison burger which she enjoyed. 

Breakfast was all you could ask for. We had the classic breakfasts of eggs, bacon, toast and fresh fruit. I ordered strawberry jam for my toast. Yogurt parfaits, and waffles were also available. We had placed our orders for breakfast when we checked in. The parlor had spaces at the tables for 20 guests, but we did not see that many there at once. The waitress was very courteous and efficient.

But alas it was time to check out and leave to travel north to our home. I hope that the next time we visit Savannah it doesn't rain every day. We did find a nice place to stay even though it rained. 

I Don't Like Jazz, But I Did!

I was born and raised a Baptist south of the Mason-Dixon line. Only organs and pianos were allowed as accompaniment for hymns in our church. There was once a man who sang accompanying himself with a guitar. He was never invited back! The mere idea of jazz renderings of this sacred music must have been sacrilege. That’s pure sacrilege.

I knew very little about jazz. When I was in  high school I heard some jazz they called Dixieland. I think it was used at African American funerals in New Orleans. There were some shipmates of mine in the Navy that were fond of jazz. They listened to Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and other performers I don’t remember. The songs were long and didn’t have any words. Even rap music has words! Jazz always reminded me of film noir and those gumshoes in trench coats of black and white television.  I liked those television shows.

On a recent Sunday the Horton School of Music at Charleston Southern University was presenting a jazz concert. The performance had been recommended by a friend and we decided to attend. It was held at East Cooper Baptist Church. We crossed the Cooper River on a rainy night to hear music that I had no particular desire to hear.

The youngish looking bearded man in the gray suit began to play. His instrument was the saxophone. The guttural sounds I remembered from film noir filled the air. Next was the man with the shaved head shining like an eight ball under a pool room light. His trumpet reached those high notes that only the angels reach. The fat man sitting on the stool with hair like steel wool sparkling in the light worked the slide on his instrument with deft precision. The notes from the horn blended with the others.  Brassy!

The drummer did not wear a suit. He was attired in a jacket and a red shirt. His shirt tail was out and he had dreadlocks below his waist. The sounds he coaxed from the drums hinted their origin from across the sea. But the rub board he rubbed reminded me of zydeco. There were the low rich notes of the double bass and the tinkling of the piano that added to the music.

Suddenly, I found myself patting my right foot to the music. I reminded myself that I did not like jazz, but my foot did not stop. A few seconds later I found myself humming the tune the Mark Sterbank Group was playing. It was a tune, a hymn really, that I remembered from my childhood; Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.

I don’t like jazz, but I did!

Making a Documentary Video

I have made over one hundred YouTube videos in the past few years. However, I've never considered any of them that great. Perhaps it was because my methodology was backwards. Or maybe I'm just too much of a perfectionist. Probably 90% of my videos are about travel. I would shoot photographs or video on vacation and upon returning home make my YouTube video from these. 

Ken Burns

In my most recent video, the SO Young Story, I had began collecting data, still photos, documents, and video clips pre-production. That's moviemaking speak for: "getting your stuff together".  My normal process. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and that was to tell the story of my great grandfather. As a part of my ongoing educational process, I watched a video about film editing featuring Richard Speziale. Then I realized I had no definite plan. I wrote a script, something I had never done before. Previously I added commentary after I completed the

Casey Neistat

video part of the project. Now I set to work using photos, video, etc. to illustrate that script. I found that one of the secrets is to get more material than you can possibly use. Part of the difficulty in making this video was that I had only three photos of the subject of the video. I had to come up with new and interesting methods to present information. In any work of art whether painting, film or book you must create interest and entertain the viewer/reader. For example, when I told of my ancestor buying property I showed the bill of sale of the property with money laid bill by bill on top of the bill of sale. The documentary filmmaker Ken Burns shows considerable creativity in his films. A procedure for filming still photographs is called the Ken burns Effect. On perhaps the opposite end of the spectrum Casey Neistat uses creative yet different techniques than Burns. I borrow from both.

The most important part of the process is to never forget that the purpose of the video is to tell a story.

This is my most recent video.  This was the first video I wrote a script for before beginning. The S O Young Story video is special and personal.

This video I made, which has no narration (it isn't necessary), was made after I found interest in paper engineering. The video is quite short  I had learned the importance of brevity.  Television commercials tell a complete story in 30 seconds. But it is hurts to discard footage ( to use film nomenclature). One must CUT, CUT, CUT and cut some more.

Iron Men in Horseless Carriages

In Charlotte,NC is a museum dedicated to the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. There, on Martin Luther King Boulevard is homage to the men and machines that created the second most watched sport in the country. In the 175,000 square foot structure designed by Peter Cobb Freed and Partners are many displays of which many are interactive. We visited on Wednesday which was less crowded than the weekend. There was considerable activity due to  television technicians setting up for the evening telecast from there. (The 2016 group of inductee into the Hàll of Fame were to be announced.) When we bought our tickets we received a small plastic card about the size of a credit card. It's called your "Hard Card". We were told that when we activated these cards they would grant us access to certain interactive displays. After completing these tasks, which I did not care for*, we began to look around. The first thing you see is hat appears to be part of a racetrack. Upon this track are race cars beginning with a 1952 Hudson Hornet. As you continue along the track the walkway is inclined as the track is banked. The cars represented are noteworthy. Fred Lorenzen's famous "Yellow Banana" Ford and Buck Baker's "Black Widow" Chevrolet and the cars of famous drivers past and present. It is easy to see the evolution of the NASCAR racer. It is also interesting to experience banking of the track as you allowed to attempt to stand on the 33 degree banked surface.

Once you walk pass the last car on the track you find yourself on the second floor. On this floor are the simulators. There are more than a dozen cars on a small section of track. You pay your money and pick your ride. Then the race is on and the spectators can watch the action on a large screen television. The leader board changes as the race progresses although the cars never move. We did not do this. I had once driven an actual race car at Darlington. Nearby was a place to have your picture take driving a race car. For many all these activities you use your "Hard Card". There are many kiosks around the area in which you can use your Hard Card to test your

skill knowledge and performance. One such test is to see how fast you can change tire and refuel a race car. One activity i enjoyed was testing an engine on a dynamometer. You can punch in changes to the engine and then test it to see improvements. In the raceweek area you see cutaway version of the racecars which allow you to see "under the skin" of these 200 mph machines. The Hall of Honor is where the inductees into the NASCAR hall of fame are featured. the cars of the recent inductees are displayed along with drivers bios and videos.

You could probably take from opening to closing to read all the captions, watch all the film, and participate in the interactivities. There is a lot to see and do. However, I knew much of the history and rather lacking in physical ability so our visit did not last all day. But, itis a "must see" for any stock car racing fan.

Rollin' on the River...but No Tina!

We crossed the 14th street bridge, and I said to Claudette, "There she is" referring to the steamboat, Delta Queen, moored below in the Tennessee River.  "Angie will tell us how to get there," she said. "Angie" is the name I bestowed on the distinctly midwestern voice of the Acura navigation system." Turn left on   Manufacturers Boulevard," said Angie.  A few more turns and we were there, looking at a true paddle wheeler on the river and our lodging for the nest two days.

Since my boyhood days of reading Twain's Tom Sawyer I've had a fascination for riverboats, so when the opportunity came to spend the night on one, how could I say no? And here it was.

The Delta Queen is a steam powered paddlewheel riverboat of 285 feet in length and 58 feet in width, and it weighs over sixteen tons. I was surprised that it was built in 1929 in Scotland and shipped in sections to the U.S. It was assembled in California and plied the Sacramento River delta.  In fact, her sister ship, the Delta King, is moored in Sacramento, California. Somehow that twentieth century history kind of takes away some of the romance of riverboats of film and television.  Those were the days of Yancy Derringer and the Maverick brothers, fancy ladies and fast talking gamblers. 

While in the lounge I heard the sound of ice cubes in glasses and pure Kentucky bourbon being poured. I was looking over the screen of my laptop, which could have been a poker hand, and I thought I heard someone say," Cards, Mister?" The lounge, dining room and lobby rekindle this romantic era with lush period furnishings, crystal chandeliers and lots of polished brass. Did I see Jodie Foster in period dress?

We did not have a thrilling dining experience, the food was good, but not great.  However, the buffet breakfast was a redeeming feature.  I'm a grits 'n' gravy kind of guy and the piles of sausages, bacon, eggs and biscuits we the right thing for me. I think Claudette even found some potatoes on the buffet.  Our cabin had a queen size bed, which eliminated space for a chair.  The dresser was an antique from the Federal period.  One caveat: headroom is at a premium in the shower. 

I enjoyed wandering around the boat, noting the giant 30 ton wood and iron paddlewheel and the calliope. Cabin number 340 had a brass plaque stating that President Jimmy Carter had stayed there. As I wandered about, the sound of Tina Turner singing "Rollin' on the River" echoed through my mind.

For a good video tour of the Delta Queen
Maverick trailer


_________________________________________________

On another note: Does anyone have a good name, female, of course, for the voice on my smartphone's navigation ap?

Film Noir or Not?

I've always been a fan of film noir motion pictures and television shows. Actually, I was a fan before I knew what the term film noir meant.   The literal translation is "black film". Usage started in the press by a film critic back in the 1940s who used it to describe a certain kind of film. Fritz Lang was one of the first to use these techniques for telling stories with motion pictures. Is it a genre?  I don't know.  I suppose it depends on who you ask. I say it is. In the 1940's through the 1950's there was a type of film produced that could be recognized by certain characteristics and these characteristics identify film noir... 

• Low light 
• first person voice-overs
• characters of questionable morals
• protagonists who are the unfortunate or downtrodden 
• unique camera angles
• locales are urban 

Many film noir movie's lighting is so low that the actors are frequently seen in strong sidelight.  And, who can forget  how the shade from Venetian blinds gives the effect reminiscent of prison bars. Camera angles are used to create that special mood.  The villain is much more threatening when viewed from a low angle. The "Dutch" or skewed angle is frequently used as well. The voiceover by the main character not only tells you the back story but lets you know what he's thinking.  Most likely the locale is a big city, and the seedy part of it.


Film noir movies are usually cast with seedy characters. The protagonist is most likely a hard-boiled private detective. Many of these scripts are based on pulp fiction of the forties and fifties; characters like Raymond Chandler's Sam Spade or Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer.  A more modern version of this character can be seen as John McClane in the "Die Hard" films, although these are hardly film noir. The character is always flawed, but has a heart and is usually the good guy. The leading lady was hardly the virtuous sort either. The film noir genre ventured into television as well. Such films as "The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Night of the Hunter, Sunset Boulevard, and D.O.A. really identify the genre.   In recent years film noir techniques have been used successfully by some directors.  Some examples are Rodrigues's "Sin City", Tarenteno's,"Reservoir Dogs"and Mann's, "Collateral".  One of the more interesting uses of the film noir "look" was in Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner".  Science fiction film noir. 

 What's not to like about film noir? The overuse of flashbacks can be annoying and confusing sometimes, but otherwise, make that last shot a double, grab your best broad, and head on down to the Regency for a double feature!

Tales of the Gold Monkey ...Flashback

This was one of my favorite television shows of the early '80's.  How could I not like it?  Set in the late 1930's, a time of spies and intrigue, on a tropical island under French jurisdiction in the south Pacific. A ex-military pilot flying a seaplane who has a comic sidekick and a one-eyed dog with a cafe singer for a girlfriend make for exciting television.    And that's just a few of the characters.  With plot lines dealing with German spies and unruly natives things kept getting better and better. Stephen Collins played the main character, Jake Cutter, the owner-pilot of the Grumman flying boat, Cutter's Goose.

I'm a big fan of adventure stories whether on film or in print and this was one of the best. I'm reminded of a character in a Louis L'Amour story who flew a seaplane which had machine guns mounted on it. Maybe the creator of Tales of the Gold Monkey read the same stories. And maybe that is the connection between the best of western fiction  and the best of south Pacific pre-WWII aviation intrigue. At any rate this was a great fun show. Plots were simple and the good guys were easy to distinguish from the bad guys.

Of the actors in this show Stephen Collins went on to  many movies and television series and is probably best known for his role in 7th Heaven. Roddy MacDowall was a well known film actor when he took a part in Tales of the Gold Monkey.  Jeff MacKay would play recurring characters in other television series such as Magnum P.I., JAG, Battlestar Galactica, The Black Sheep Squadron, and Airwolf as well as other adventure shows.

I'm a great fan of  the productions of Donald P. Bellisario, the producer of Tales of the Gold Monkey. Other Bellisario productions include Magnum P. I., Airwolf, Quantum Leap, JAG, and NCIS.  Bellisario was also the writer of such shows as Black Sheep Squadron and Battlestar Gallactica.

Links:

• Gold Monkey fan page.
• Bellisario info
• Stephen Collins

Old Tucson

When I was but a wee lad my grandmother (We called her Ma, she thought she was too young to be a granny.) would take me to the movies at the Carolina Theater while my uncle, who had the car, played pool and drank beer in the pool hall next door. There we'd sit in darkness of the theater and watch the guys in white hats bring law and order to the old west.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the place where much of that movie magic was created, Old Tucson Studios, Arizona. It was built as a movie set but with the demise of the western film it is now a popular tourist attraction. Tourists can ride the train, visit the saloon, see a gunfight and enjoy the old west the way it was in the movies.

And now, about our visit.  We arrived a little before one o'clock in the afternoon on a beautiful day after navigating a crooked mountain road to reach the attraction and were at first taken aback by the seemingly dozens of those big yellow buses.  Yep, the kind that haul school children. Upon entering the gift shop where you buy your ticket we found out more bad news.  Not only would the place be covered with screaming kids but it would close at two o'clock.  I complained that that wasn't mentioned in any of the promotional literature, but that didn't change closing time.  After a meeting of the minds we decided to check it out anyway.  Our discussion with the lady selling tickets did result in a half-price ticket.

As you walk into the town it's just like in the old western movies.  But then it should feel that way.  It is a movie set.  We wandered around checking out the various buildings.  Many have signs telling what movies they appeared in. Many were John Wayne movies.  But my favorite was the sets used in the television western, The High Chaparral.  I did have visions of Linda Cristal while snooping around the ranch house as seen above photo an the lower left. This was one of my favorite westerns. It was different somehow.  Maybe... it was the music.

As you see the intro to The High Chaparral is quite different from the intro to most TV westerns. On the right is a video of the gunfight entertainment at Old Tucson.  This was a skit based on the TV series The Wild, Wild, West. It was professionally done with great sound including that old movie music.  The stunts were impressive also.

Were it not for all the tourists, it would be easy to imagine yourself walking out in that wide main street with a six-gun at your side.  And beside you would be The Duke, or Coop, or Matt, or Wyatt.  But screaming kids and fiberglass buildings would bring you back to reality.

There was one thing that really spoiled the illusion...NO HORSES!

I am happy that we were able to spend and hour or so in Old Tucson.  Sure made me think of Ma...and Linda Cristal.

• Our Picasa album has more pictures.
• Old Tucson Studios is unbelievably near the city of Tucson, Arizona.
• For a look at another version of the Old Tucson Video click on it.

movie for a rainy day

I guess it could be a good movie for any day. I'm speaking of the sci-fi pic Next. I'm not a big Nick Cage fan but this story carries him along. He plays a magician with a talent for seeing into the future for about two minutes. Julianne Moore one of my favorite readheads, plays the tough FBI agent who wants to use Cage's talents to thwart a nuclear attack. And then there is Jessica Biel. She's just hot! She seems to have changed a lot since her preacher's daughter role on television.It's a good film with good visual effects and a good action story.

Todays Music

• Pink
• CVB
• Tobey Kieth