Vultura's Palace in the classic Republic serial "Perils of Nyoka": Here's where the front of the building once stood

"The Perils of Nyoka" (1942)

The screen shot above shows the front entrance to Vultura's Palace, one of the main sets for the 1942 Republic serial "Perils of Nyoka" (based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs heroine Nyoka, or Jungle Girl). The palace entrance was built between two major rock formations on the Iverson Movie Ranch — Stegosaurus, or Pavlova, on the left and Hangdog on the right. At top center, just above the roofline of the palace, is Cracked Meringue. 

The same rocky area in recent times

In the recent color shot above, Stegosaurus on the left and Hangdog on the right mark the spot where the front entrance to Vultura's Palace stood almost seven decades ago. Cracked Meringue appears above Hangdog's nose, with Sticky Bun to the left of Cracked Meringue. Rubble at the base of Hangdog and Pavlova is probably from movie sets built in the intervening years, not from Vultura's Palace.

Lone Ranger Rock and the "Lone Ranger" title sequence

Lone Ranger Rock, as it appears today, on the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This early post about the "Lone Ranger" opening remains up as a historical reference, but I have since updated my research on the opening and have posted a newer, more comprehensive blog entry about the sequence, including higher-quality video of various versions of the opening, which you can see by clicking here.

Original 1949 opening

Here's a brief video clip of the famous opening sequence to the TV show "The Lone Ranger," which aired original episodes on ABC from September 1949 to June 1957, divided up into five seasons. If you aren't old enough to have caught it back then, you probably still saw it thanks to reruns, syndication, cable, VHS, DVD, YouTube, etc. It's pretty hard to miss. Because of the distinctiveness and ubiquity of Lone Ranger Rock, this sequence tends to be the starting point in a lot of people's exploration of the Iverson Movie Ranch.

A few different versions of the title sequence were used over the span of the show's 221 episodes, with various edits and a couple of different tapings of the Lone Ranger's arrival on his horse, Silver. (Click here for a breakdown of the different versions.) For the most part the versions are pretty similar, with the first part consisting of an open gallop along a straightaway. In the above clip, this initial part is shot in an unknown location that has been widely reported to be Lone Pine — a claim that has been disputed. In the later reshoot, the early sequence is done on the Upper Iverson, with Pyramid Peak visible in the background. 

Soon we come to the familiar arrival and hard right turn to ascend to Lone Ranger Rock to rear up on Silver (shot on the Lower Iverson amid rocks that are all still pretty much in place); and a final sequence (deleted from this video) that includes a descent through Iverson's Lower Gorge toward Santa Susana Pass Road and some additional horseback footage from the unknown "Lone Pine-like" location. 

The final frames of the clip above show the Lone Ranger rearing up Silver right next to the rock that (thanks to this sequence) became known as Lone Ranger Rock. Supposedly before that it was known as Indian Head Rock, which is unfortunate because there are at least three other rocks at Iverson that have been referred to as Indian Head. (See separate post on Eagle Beak and Indian Head.) 

The most interesting stuff for me in this clip isn't Lone Ranger Rock itself but the other rocks that can be seen before the Lone Ranger makes the turn to head up to Lone Ranger Rock. My early Iverson research included trying to retrace this part of his path, which isn't nearly as easy as it looks. If you pause the clip at the 18-second mark, you'll see a large rock on the right, Sea Leopard. That thing eluded me for some time because it's buried inside a large tree now and you really can't get to it. 

In that same frame, again not very clear but still visible, are some landmark rocks in the background, pretty much in the center of the frame: Sticky Bun, Cracked Meringue and Stegosaurus. All of these features appear frequently in the old movies shot at Iverson, and they're all still intact, though they now have some condos as neighbors. The plan is to discuss these rocks in more detail, so you should be able to use the label index to find posts on them.

"Hi-Yo, Silver!" — was the famous opening sequence to the TV show "The Lone Ranger" colorized?

Shot from the opening sequence to "The Lone Ranger" — this color version is from 1956

EDITOR'S NOTE: Had I known then what I know now, I would have taken a different approach with this post. The good news is I've since done a fully updated and much more thoroughly researched post about the evolution of the opening sequence for "The Lone Ranger," and you can go to it by clicking here. Meanwhile, I'm leaving up this older post with a few minor tweaks, as it still tells a part of the story and has some historical merit. Note that this post is all about the 1956 reshoot of the opening. For details on the original 1949 opening, click on the link in this paragraph.

Here are some shots of the well-known "Lone Ranger" opening sequence, usually seen in black and white. The color version of the opening ran with the later color episodes of the TV show, Season 5, which aired from 1956-57. I originally posted that my hunch was that they just colorized the original opening sequence, which dates back to 1949. If so, it would have been a pretty nice job of colorization and a fairly early example. They did have the technology as far back as the 1920s, and I know they colorized some cartoons in the 1950s. But that's different, and this color version of the Lone Ranger opening looks pretty good. So it was a bit of a mystery to me, until a reader named Richard explained that the original opening was replaced by a new color opening for the color season, and that color opening was then "de-colorized" back to black-and-white for DVDs of the black-and-white episodes. Mystery solved.

"The Lone Ranger" title shot — in color

Conventional wisdom held for years that the first part of the opening wasn't shot on the Iverson Movie Ranch but at the neighboring Brandeis Ranch, also in Chatsworth, Calif. However, as is often the case, conventional wisdom turns out to be wrong. That's Pyramid Peak (aka Rocky Peak) in the background, a familiar background feature also seen in plenty of Iverson scenes. Brandeis and Iverson were right next to each other, so it can be hard to distinguish them on screen. One useful clue — albeit not a scientific one — is that Iverson was used a lot more than Brandeis, so when you're seeing this scenery, there's a better chance that it's Iverson. However, the Line of Trees seen in the background here — they look like pines, but I'm no expert — represented the boundary between Iverson and Brandeis, which would place the action shown here on the eastern side of the Line of Trees — the Iverson side.

Here's the "de-colorized" black-and-white title shot. The fact that it's crooked has to do with my camera work; it didn't run that way on TV.


The action shifts from the Upper Iverson to the Lower Iverson for this part of the opening. This shot shows the approach to Lone Ranger Rock on the Lower Iverson, and the rocks in the distant background are a familiar grouping just above the Upper Iverson Gorge: Sticky Bun (partially visible near the top, sticking out from the tree on the left), along with Cracked Meringue (directly above the Lone Ranger's head) and Stegosaurus (above Silver's nose). In the foreground, at the right, is the elusive Sea Leopard. You can find more information about most of these rocks elsewhere in the blog — try the massive alphabetical index along the right side of the page.

Here's a look at the rock cluster consisting mainly of Sticky Bun, Cracked Meringue and Stegosaurus today, hidden behind the condos. Sticky Bun is the one shaped like a sticky bun, kind of obviously. To its right, looking nondescript here, is Cracked Meringue, which angles downward from left to right. Below the two of them, largely hidden behind the condo building, is the larger Stegosaurus, which also looks nondescript here due to the presence of the condos. All three of these rocks are also visible in the Lone Ranger approach shot, above. Also in this recent shot is Lone Ranger Rock itself, almost directly in the center of the photo.


Here's the familiar shot of the Lone Ranger on Silver, rearing up next to Lone Ranger Rock. The rock can still easily be found at the site of the former Iverson Movie Ranch, just off Redmesa Road in Chatsworth.

This is what the rearing-up scene looks like in its familiar black-and-white version. I posted a brief video of the "Lone Ranger" opening in an early blog entry that can still be found here, but what I would now recommend is that you go to a much more thoroughly researched post about the "Lone Ranger" opening sequence, with video clips of five or six different versions of the opening and a full explanation of how it evolved, which you can find by clicking here.

Check out a cool "Lone Ranger" DVD set on Amazon by clicking the link below: