Let's put an end to the Myth of End Rock — and celebrate a survivor

"Under Texas Skies" (1940): End Rock, at left

Among the many myths about the Iverson Movie Ranch, a big one that has been out there for at least as long as I've been exploring the ranch is a myth about the movie rock known as "End Rock."

The rock comes up all the time in movies and TV shows, in large part because it was positioned right next to a road running north and south that was constantly used to film chases and stagecoach runs.

Planter with decorative rocks, in the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village

The myth is that the large, flat rock that today resides in a planter outside the clubhouse of the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village is actually End Rock, which — according to the myth — survived the development of the park.

I can understand if right now you're thinking, "That's ridiculous — that rock doesn't look anything like End Rock!" That's pretty much what I thought too, and the main reason I never completely bought into the myth.

"20 Million Miles to Earth" (1957): End Rock shares the screen with Ray Harryhausen's "Ymir"

If only the myth were true, it would contain the reassuring news that End Rock, a "star" of hundreds of movies and TV episodes, had indeed survived.

But reality is reality, even when it's not what we want to hear. As a location historian, sometimes it's my sad task to deliver bad news, and the bad news here is that End Rock no longer exists.

The old movie road running past End Rock (looking northwest)

Taking another look at the shot from "Under Texas Skies," we see the old movie road running north and south past End Rock. This view looking northwest is one of the most common angles for End Rock.

"Overland Trail" TV series (1960): End Rock on the right

The same area was also filmed in other directions, as in this shot from the TV series "Overland Trail" taken with the camera facing southwest.

From either direction, End Rock is often seen in combination with Corner Rock, as it is here. The old movie road ran right between the two rock features.

The direction of the movie road is indicated here, and we can see that the stagecoach is heading south.

The old road as it appears today, looking south

The movie road is essentially still in place, although it has been regraded and paved. Known today as Mohawk Avenue, the road runs north and south through the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village.

Mohawk Road continues to follow the north-south route of the old movie road

The direction of the road is indicated here. Note that the planter can be seen at the right of the frame, on the west side of the road, with the mobile home park's clubhouse behind it.

The planter is positioned on the west side of the old movie road

The old road is part of the reason the myth of End Rock has persisted, because the road runs past the planter and the flat rock the way it once ran past End Rock.

Corner Rock remains in place, but End Rock ... not so much

Further, Corner Rock remains in place just across the street, and admittedly, it would be comforting to think that the two old pals, End Rock and Corner Rock, remain "pardners" after all these years. Too bad it's not true.

Beautiful imposter: "Planter Rock"

Now, I have to say, the rock in the planter — can we just start calling it "Planter Rock"? — is a nice rock in its own right. It's just not End Rock.

The "pardnership" these days is between Corner Rock and Planter Rock.

While we're in the neighborhood, let me point out Range Rider Rock, another movie rock of some repute.

Range Rider Rock in 2018

Range Rider Rock doesn't get around much these days, but you can find it if you look hard enough. To read more about it, along with some of the other rocks in the neighborhood, check out this previous post.

"Overland Telegraph" (RKO, 1951): Another stage rolls past End Rock

We recently found the "smoking gun" that should finally put the myth of End Rock to rest. As is usually the case on the former Iverson Movie Ranch, the proof can be found in the movies and TV shows filmed on the ranch.

The story begins with this shot from the Tim Holt B-Western "Overland Telegraph," featuring yet another stagecoach headed south between End Rock and Corner Rock.

My pal and research partner Cliff Roberts started asking questions a few weeks back about this mystery rock hiding in the shadows — questions that ultimately blew the case of End Rock and Planter Rock wide open.

Planter Rock, looking northwest

Let's take another look at Planter Rock, this time looking northwest — more or less the same angle used in the "Overland Telegraph" shot. Maybe you can see where we're headed here.

If you focus on this part of the rock, you might notice that it has exactly the same profile as the mystery rock in the Tim Holt movie. You may want to click on some of these photos to see a larger version.

Take another look. For a variety of reasons, this rock almost never turns up in productions. Hidden under a tree, and overshadowed by its more flamboyant neighbor End Rock, it essentially went unnoticed all this time.

"Tales of Wells Fargo" TV series: "Woman With a Gun" (premiered Dec. 7, 1959)

You probably want more proof — and here it comes. The mystery of End Rock vs. Planter Rock might never have been solved had it not been for this shot from the TV show "Tales of Wells Fargo."

The shot features a perfectly good movie rock that had the bad fortune of being hidden under a tree. It turns out this hard-to-find rock is none other than Planter Rock — today's mobile home park landscaping feature.

Planter Rock today — sporting a monster crack

Today the rock has a massive crack in it. Besides detracting from the rock's aesthetic qualities, the crack also makes it hard to match up the rock with its movie shot — but we'll give it a try.

Matching the "Tales of Wells Fargo" angle is the first step, and it's not as easy as it should be, thanks in part to the bush at lower right. But this angle is fairly close.

I marked a number of features that I think can be found in the "Tales of Wells Fargo" shot. What you see here is basically my "rock-matching worksheet," and it won't necessarily be easy to see the matches.

For comparison's sake, I've zoomed way in on the "Tales of Wells Fargo" shot here. The most important item may be the black line, which approximates where the rock later would split in two.

Here's what it looks like in the context of the full "Tales of Wells Fargo" frame. It should be noted that the horizontal "scratches" outlined in light blue and magenta line up here, but no longer line up after the rock splits.

Changing the angle from which the rock is viewed, even a little, dramatically alters how the various markings appear. From this angle a number of key markers can be identified that weren't as clear from the previous angle.

Notice the dark area highlighted here.

We can easily find that same marking in the "Tales of Wells Fargo" shot. To me it looks like a badge here, but your mileage may vary.

We can also see that the "badge" is positioned near what appears to be the fault line that will later help create the split in the rock.

This may be my favorite marking on the rock — although it's a bit like admitting which of your children you love the most. The TV shot doesn't do it justice — it kind of resembles a face here, but no big whoop.

Where the "face" really pops out is in contemporary shots of the rock. I'm not sure whether it's a skull, a clown, an alien or what ... but it's something.

To be honest, it freaks me out a little.

"Tales of Wells Fargo": End Rock on the right, Corner Rock on the left

The point of this analysis is that the rock that's found in the planter today is the same rock seen in the "Tales of Wells Fargo" episode, and it's not End Rock. We can be sure because the sequence also includes End Rock.

The sequence uses one continuous camera shot, but End Rock and Planter Rock do not appear on screen at the same time. To juxtapose them in the sequence using still frames, we can use the tree as a reference point.

The same tree, which was positioned between End Rock and Planter Rock, appears on screen with both rocks, moments apart, revealing that while the two rocks were neighbors, they kept some distance between them.

Planter Rock in 2018: Holding it together

Taking another look at Planter Rock as it survives today, it's readily evident that the crack in the rock is no trifling matter — it's a serious rift that runs clean through the entire rock.

Planter Rock as seen from space — including the crack

The crack running through Planter Rock is big enough to be seen from space. You can't miss it in this Google 3D image taken from a satellite.

From a lower angle the shift in elevation created by the crack is evident. How the crack got there is not known, but it may have happened as long ago as 1963, when the mobile home park was built.

Planter Rock — take a bow!

Crack or no crack, the survival of Planter Rock is worth celebrating. Sure, it's no End Rock, but it's a movie rock all the same — just one that was never quite as famous as its neighbors.

Have a terrific 2019, cowboys and cowgirls!

One of Ray Harryhausen's monsters goes on a rampage at the Iverson Movie Ranch — Harryhausen died today in London at 92

Ray Harryhausen was the king of the Hollywood special effects guys in the pre-CGI days, known for the classics "Mighty Joe Young" (1949), "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958) and "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963), among many other movies from the 1940s into the 1980s. His stop-motion monsters were his calling card — he called his process "Dynamation" — and as it turns out, at least one of those monsters went on a rampage at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif.

It all went down in the 1957 sci-fi movie "20 Million Miles to Earth," which filmed at Iverson in late 1956.

In the monster's first appearance at Iverson, it surfaces in the Upper Gorge. The two rocks behind it can still be found at the site today: Crown Rock on the left and the Devil's Doorway Wall on the right.

Crown Rock appears again in this shot, where the hapless authorities are setting up to try to kill the monster with a flamethrower. That's Crown Rock filling up the bulk of the left half of the screen. You can also catch a glimpse of Minisub in the background, toward the right, directly above the guy in the suit. Both Crown and Minisub can still be found at Iverson. Well, technically, only about half of Crown Rock survived the Cal West Townhomes development that now fills the site — the same half seen here. The original rock extends farther to the left, as noted below.

Here's what's left of Crown Rock, which is now sort of a decoration among the condos. The rest of it was hacked away to make way for the driveway. You may notice the similarity in the shape of this rock and the one in the photo above it. The round part of the rock in the black-and-white shot, framing the guy with the flamethrower, is now concealed behind the foliage at the right of the above shot.

Detouring momentarily from the monster movie, this is what a hacked-up famous movie rock looks like. It's another view of Crown Rock in recent times, from what might be called the front of the rock. This view shows the pockmarks left when a portion of the rock was hacked away to make it fit the plan for the condo development. The rock is adjacent to one of the development's main driveways. (You may want to click on the photo to enlarge it for a better look at its hacked-up face.)

Sadly, they destroyed Crown's "twin," which was at least as interesting as the part that survived. Above is a shot of the two Crown Rock twins as they appeared in 1957 in the TV show "Have Gun, Will Travel" — each with its own Indian warrior on top. The shot is from the episode "The Yuma Treasure," which first aired Dec. 14, 1957. The twin on the right is the piece of the rock that remains today.

Back to the rampaging monster. This shot was probably one of the things the creature wound up rampaging about. The flamethrower scene takes place on the plateau at the top of Iverson's Upper Gorge, with the rock feature known as The Wall (not to be confused with the Devil's Doorway Wall) seen at the right, and Elders Peak in the background, to the right of the monster. The plateau in the foreground is now filled with condos, and The Wall was torn down to make room for them.

Another shot from the flamethrower showdown has the monster again positioned with its back to the Devil's Doorway Wall, center. At the left is Crown Rock, and the tall rock toward the right is part of the Devil's Doorway Cluster. In the background is Cactus Hill. All of these features remain in place today.

Fleeing the flamethrower, the monster emerges from the back side of Zorro's Cave, at the right. The tall rock toward the left is another familiar Iverson feature, which I call Heroes Tower because of its appearance in the NBC TV series "Heroes."

Here's a look at some of those same rocks in the summer of 2008 — including Heroes Tower and the rocks behind Zorro's Cave. This shot was taken when "Heroes" was being taped at the site, and the show's producers had added paintings to a number of the rocks.

Another pic from summer 2008 offers a better look at some of the rock paintings used in "Heroes," including the one on Heroes Tower at top right. The paint was all cleaned up as soon as the shoot was done, although I did find a couple of traces that hung around for a short time on some other rocks. Click here to see more about the "Heroes" shoot.

The pursuit of the monster in "20 Million Miles to Earth" eventually leads to another part of the Iverson Movie Ranch, where the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village now stands. In this shot a helicopter closes in as the monster is enjoying a snack in the approximate spot where the mobile home park's swimming pool is now located. Flanking the chopper are End Rock, on the left, and Corner Rock, just to the right of the helicopter, with Smooth Hill in the background.

End Rock as it appears today, near the foreground (behind the smaller rock in front),

with Corner Rock in the shadows behind the lamp post at left

These days, End Rock is thought to be part of a planter setting at the mobile home park, while Corner Rock was partially lopped off to make way for a road. In the recent photo above, the rock that now passes for End Rock is the larger of the two rocks in the foreground, while Corner Rock is in the shadows at the left, behind a low brick wall. The positions are reversed because this shot is taken from the north, while the shot of the monster above is taken from the south. I've never been fully convinced that this flat rock in the planter is in fact End Rock, something I've talked about a little in a previous blog entry. It has generally been "accepted" among researchers that it's End Rock, but I think everyone's at least a little suspicious.

This angle from "20 Million Miles to Earth" more closely approximates the recent shot, with Corner Rock on the left and End Rock on the right. The dirt road seen here follows the same path as the current asphalt road bordered by the low brick wall in the recent shot above, which leads to the mobile home seen above End Rock in the recent shot. The "bump" on the right side of Corner Rock, which protrudes over the dirt road, has been removed to allow for a wider road today.

Apartment complex atop the former Smooth Hill

Even Smooth Hill, an important landmark in hundreds of old movies and TV shows shot at Iverson, was destroyed. The top of the hill was lopped off when the 118 Freeway came through in the 1960s, and a large apartment complex now occupies the site, along with some condos. In the above shot looking northwest toward the two main buildings of the apartment complex, the freeway can be seen cutting through the center of the shot above Topanga Canyon Boulevard, with a glimpse of the condos at far left.

The monster's Iverson rampage ends when it is captured by dropping a steel net on it, with the capture taking place in what's now the mobile home park. However, as anyone who knows monster movies will tell you, we can expect it to come roaring back to life — and it does. For reasons that I presume are explained in the movie, the monster's next rampage takes place in the streets of Rome. I have heard that one reason the production went to Italy was because Ray Harryhausen wanted to vacation there.

One of the highlights of "20 Million Miles to Earth" is a brutal fight between the monster and a Dynamation elephant, with Harryhausen's fluid motion work seen in all its glory. (The still shots don't do it justice.) This sequence, along with the remainder of the movie, is set in Rome and no longer involves Iverson. But the Rome rampage is too cool not to post a bunch of screen shots of it anyway.

In contrast to the frustratingly brief appearances by star monsters in many 1950s monster movies, viewers get a "lot of monster" in this one.

The creature goes on a tour of Rome for a while, and kind of trashes the place. In some instances, as with the shot above, the modeling is pretty obvious.

In other shots the sets look real, as when things come to a head with a climactic stand atop the Roman Colosseum.

Ultimately, the odds are stacked against the monster ...

... which takes some hard hits from the gathered artillery ...

... and winds up in ruins, like much of the rest of Rome. Oh yeah: Spoiler alert. I mean ... but is this really the end of the monster?

The man behind the monster. Born in Los Angeles, Ray Harryhausen moved to London in 1960 and remained active in the movies through "Clash of the Titans" in 1981. Here he's seen with a model of one of his trademark skeleton warriors — a tribute to the classic battle scene in "Jason and the Argonauts" that featured seven of the hard-to-kill swordsmen. Harryhausen, one of the true legends of the movies, died today, May 7, 2013, at 92.