Why we love old movie locations — especially the Iverson Movie Ranch

For an introduction to this blog and to the growing interest in historic filming locations such as the Iverson Movie Ranch — the most widely filmed outdoor location in movie and TV history — please read the site's introductory post, found here.
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Showing posts with label Shirley Temple Rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shirley Temple Rock. Show all posts

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Lobby card for the Hopalong Cassidy movie "Undercover Man" paints a graphic picture of what happened in the Iverson Gorge

This lobby card for the 1942 Hopalong Cassidy movie "Undercover Man," from the collection of film historian Jerry England, features a photo that says more about what happened in the Iverson Gorge than just about any single shot I've seen. In the photo, the men in the foreground — including William Boyd, at the far left, as Hoppy — are taking cover behind Shirley Temple Rock, while the men farther back are gathered on and around Wyatt Earp Rock.

Shirley Temple Rock got its name from an appearance by the young actress in the Iverson Gorge in John Ford's 1937 war movie "Wee Willie Winkie." You can read more about that appearance, and about Shirley Temple Rock, by clicking here or, for additional details, by clicking on "Wee Willie Winkie" in the previous sentence.

This shot points out the large and complex feature Wyatt Earp Rock, which derives its name from the TV show "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp." I've blogged previously about the rock's appearance in the show, and you can read that entry by clicking here. I also want to point you to this post that goes into detail about the shoot in the Iverson Gorge for the 1935 movie "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer," which has additional material on Wyatt Earp Rock.

"Stagecoach" (1939) — sequence introducing John Wayne

Wyatt Earp Rock is the same rock that can be seen behind John Wayne during the famous sequence in which he makes his entrance as the Ringo Kid in the 1939 John Ford Western "Stagecoach." In the screen shot above, Wyatt Earp Rock is on the left, filling up much of the left half of the screen. The sequence introducing Wayne's character is stitched together using a number of locations, including Monument Valley, with this part of the sequence filmed in the Iverson Gorge.

Unfortunately, all of the features noted above are now gone. From a movie history standpoint, the story told by the "Undercover Man" lobby card is one of destruction. In the area where Shirley Temple Rock, Wyatt Earp Rock and other important and heavily filmed movie rocks once stood, today we find a row of condos, part of the Cal West Townhomes, which went up in the late 1980s.

One of the few rock features seen in the lobby card that has survived the development of the Iverson Gorge is the Football, along with its distinguishing "grass insert." This important rock feature, which I've blogged about before, enables us to easily pinpoint the location and compare the area as it looked in 1942 with the same location as it appears today.

The Football and grass insert are visible in the recent shot of the condos, as indicated in this annotated version of the photo. With this perspective in mind we can see that the area depicted here, showing two rows of condos, is roughly the same area presented in the lobby card, showing the Football along with the movie rocks that were destroyed when the condos were built. In a broad sense, the key rocks seen in the lobby card were replaced by the row of condos along the right.


One way to get ahold of a DVD copy of "Undercover Man" is on Volume 5 of the Hopalong Cassidy set on Amazon, which I've included as the first link below. The numbered sets are super-cheap and each one contains five Hoppy movies. In addition to "Undercover Man," the others on Volume 5 are "Three Men From Texas," "Stick to Your Guns," "The Dead Don't Dream" and "Colt Comrades." All five movies also feature Andy Clyde. For your Hoppy pleasure, I'm including links to a number of other Hopalong Cassidy sets as well.


Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Shirley Temple dies — and she probably never knew she had a rock named after her

Shirley Temple, 1928-2014

I was sorry to hear the news this week of the death of Shirley Temple Black at age 85. She was a unique talent and had an enormous impact not just on movie fans of the 1930s, but on American culture. She also earned a special place in Iverson Movie Ranch history, starring in one of the most important Iverson productions, "Wee Willie Winkie," released in 1937.

Shirley Temple was the biggest movie star in the world in the mid-1930s, even though she was still just a little kid. When she appeared in the John Ford epic "Wee Willie Winkie," along with established Hollywood stars including Victor McLaglen and Cesar Romero, Shirley — who was 8 years old during filming of the movie — was top-billed. And McLaglen was already an Oscar winner for his lead role in "The Informer" in 1935.

Shirley Temple, as young Priscilla Williams — Wee Willie Winkie — with Cesar Romero, as the warrior 
Khoda Khan, in a promotional still for John Ford's "Wee Willie Winkie." The photo, shot on the 
Iverson Movie Ranch, comes from the collection of film historian Jerry England.

As she always did, Shirley stole the show in "Wee Willie Winkie," a war movie about the British colonial period in India. Shirley's character charmed her way into the hearts of soldiers on both sides of the conflict, while the young actress chewed up the scenery across two elaborate sets built for the movie on the Iverson Movie Ranch — widely considered to be the most extensive construction ever done for a movie at Iverson.

In a battle sequence from the film, Shirley stopped to survey the situation from atop a particular rock, seen above. The scene takes place in the Iverson Gorge, among buildings that were part of the set built as India freedom fighter Khoda Khan's mountain stronghold. I've blogged about this scene before — and you can click here to read that earlier post. Shirley's scene on this rock led to the rock being referred to — by me, initially, but to some extent by other location researchers as well — as Shirley Temple Rock.

Here's a wider view of Shirley Temple Rock from "Wee Willie Winkie," with 8-year-old Shirley scampering down from the rock feature.

The rock has turned up in other productions as well, which helped pinpoint its location. Here's an appearance by Shirley Temple Rock many years after the "Wee Willie Winkie" filming, in an episode of the TV show "The Virginian" called "Run Quiet," which first aired Nov. 13, 1963. Shirley Temple Rock is the shade-covered rock feature occupying the lower left corner of the frame. This shot also includes a number of other significant features of the Iverson Gorge — I'll post an annotated version of the photo below to point those out.

Here you can get an idea of the various rock features seen in the shot above this one, from "The Virginian." The hill in the background, across much of the top of the frame, is Cactus Hill, located to the north of Iverson Gorge. Most of the rock features seen in this shot remain in place today — but Shirley Temple Rock was not as fortunate. Sadly, the rock did not survive the development of the former Iverson Movie Ranch, being demolished to make way for condos.

Here's another appearance by Shirley Temple Rock, in the 1938 Bob Steele B-Western "Thunder in the Desert." The picture quality isn't the greatest, but you may be able to make out the rock at the left, below the shooter's outstretched arm. The background is filled by the rock feature known as The Wall, and a portion of Potato Rock, on top of The Wall, can be seen. I'll point out these features in the next shot.

This is the same shot as above, from "Thunder in the Desert," with key rock features highlighted. Unfortunately, all of the rocks seen here — including Shirley Temple Rock — were destroyed to make way for the Cal West Townhomes.

Shirley Temple on the set of the India outpost, built at Sheep Flats on the Iverson Movie Ranch,
in a scene from "Wee Willie Winkie." 

Other key scenes in "Wee Willie Winkie" took place on Iverson's Sheep Flats, where a massive set, usually called the India outpost or the India fort, was built. A small portion of this set can be seen in the shot above. By coincidence, my previous blog entry, published about a week before Shirley Temple's death, also featured Shirley Temple, "Wee Willie Winkie" and the India fort. You can go to that entry by clicking here, or you should be able to find it below this post. Additional posts about "Wee Willie Winkie" may be found here.

Shirley Temple Black

I would be shocked if I found out Shirley Temple Black ever heard of Shirley Temple Rock, or knew she had a rock named in her honor — a rock she scampered up as a child, with that scampering preserved for future generations thanks to the magic of celluloid. The rock name is a modest honor, to be sure — nothing formal, just a tribute to an actress and a little girl who won over the hearts of millions.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

"Wee Willie Winkie" and Shirley Temple Rock

One of the most important location shoots in the early history of the Iverson Movie Ranch was for "Wee Willie Winkie" in 1937, directed by John Ford and starring Shirley Temple and Victor McLaglen. A number of sets were built for the production, notably the India Outpost at Sheep Flats, which has been featured in a recent post, and the mountain stronghold of Khoda Khan (Cesar Romero), seen below. The Khan set was built next to the formidable rock structure known as The Wall in Iverson's Upper Gorge.

Khoda Khan's stronghold, Iverson Gorge, "Wee Willie Winkie," 1937

The set in the Upper Gorge at the time included a number of stone or adobe buildings, one of which is seen above, along with Shirley Temple perched on a rock that I came to refer to as Shirley Temple Rock. This rock — a small one by Iverson standards — has appeared in other productions as well, and has been useful in helping to identify scenes shot in the Upper Gorge.

This is Shirley again, scampering about near the rock as the battle rages all around her in "Wee Willie Winkie." The movie is based on a Rudyard Kipling story set in India during the British colonial period. This view gives a better idea of what Shirley Temple Rock looked like.

Here's a much later appearance by Shirley Temple Rock, in the 1960 Western "One Foot in Hell," shot long after the "Wee Willie Winkie" sets were gone.

Update: At the time I first published this post, I was unsure whether Shirley Temple Rock still existed. I have since determined that the rock was destroyed during development of the Cal West Townhomes project, after the former Iverson Movie Ranch was subdivided. Following the death of Shirley Temple Black on Feb. 10, 2014, I posted a tribute to the actress, including an update on Shirley Temple Rock. You can read that tribute by clicking here.