Binders full of women: Fondly remembering a time when Hollywood hotties roamed the Iverson Movie Ranch

Virginia Mayo

Some of the hottest actresses of the 1930s, '40s and '50s — and please feel free to interpret the word "hottest" however it suits you — appeared in movies and TV shows filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch.

Rita Hayworth

The tantalizing Rita Hayworth was one of a number of top actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age to pay her dues at the Chatsworth filming location.

"The Renegade Ranger" (1938): Rita Hayworth and George O'Brien on the Iverson Ranch

Hayworth's Iverson Movie Ranch portfolio includes starring opposite George O'Brien in the 1938 RKO Western "The Renegade Ranger." Here the two stars are seen in a publicity still taken north of Garden of the Gods.

Rita Hayworth

When it comes to picking great photos of Rita Hayworth, a gorgeous movie star who moonlighted as one of the top pinups of World War II, it's hard to narrow it down to just a few.

Rhonda Fleming

Rhonda Fleming had a busy Iverson Movie Ranch career, including appearing in the Iverson movies "Tennessee's Partner," "Alias Jesse James" and "Yankee Pasha."

Rhonda Fleming

Rhonda cleaned up nicely.

In fact, here's a shot of Rhonda cleaning up — nicely.

Gene Tierney with Randolph Scott on the Iverson Ranch in "Belle Starr," 1941

Gene Tierney worked the Iverson Ranch as the title character in 20th Century-Fox's "Belle Starr." She dressed down for the part of the none-too-glamorous outlaw — and if you've ever seen a photo of the real Belle Starr, you know the role would have been a stretch for Tierney, considered one of the most beautiful actresses of her era.

Gene Tierney: Hay, babe, how 'bout it?

Like other screen babes of the era, Tierney was expected at times to be photographed either in or near hay — and I have a hunch we'll be seeing more combinations of women and hay before we're through here.

Gene Tierney

Tierney also had her more glamorous photo shoots.

Loretta Young

Speaking of glamour, Loretta Young helped class up a number of Iverson movies, including starring with Gary Cooper in "Along Came Jones," a landmark production for the movie ranch filmed in 1944 and 1945.

"Along Came Jones": Loretta Young, Gary Cooper and William Demarest on the Iverson Western street

Loretta's sudden display of affection catches Gary Cooper off guard as William "He'll Always Be Uncle Charley" Demarest looks on in disbelief. Cooper, who both starred in and produced "Along Came Jones," had the town set built specifically for the movie in 1944.

Loretta Young

Loretta seems to have no idea what all the fuss is about.

Jane Russell

Did I mention hay? Jane Russell rolled around in it with a six-shooter in a series of iconic promo shots for Howard Hughes' 1943 Western "The Outlaw."

Jane Russell

"The Outlaw" was not filmed on the Iverson Ranch, but Russell starred in her share of Iverson movies — among them, "The Paleface," "Son of Paleface" and "Waco."

Dale Evans

Speaking of hotties on the hay, we think mostly pure thoughts about Dale Evans, remembered fondly as Mrs. Roy Rogers, Queen of the West. But there's a reason the King of the Cowboys warmed up to her in the first place.

Dale Evans and soulmate Roy Rogers

If anyone had been counting, Roy and Dale would hold the record for "most often filmed couple on the Iverson Ranch" — by a lot. They lived in Chatsworth in the '50s and '60s, just 10 minutes from the movie ranch, and filmed almost all of the outdoor action for "The Roy Rogers Show" on the ranch.

Dale Evans

Evans played more than her share of saloon girls before she hooked up with Roy.

Maureen O'Sullivan as "Jane"

From the Queen of the West to the Queen of the Jungle, Maureen O'Sullivan raised the bar for all future Janes in the "Tarzan" movies of the '30s, with a number of her jungle adventures filmed on the Iverson Ranch.

You Tarzan, me Jane ... we half-naked: Maureen O'Sullivan gives Johnny Weissmuller ideas

Maureen created a stir with her skimpy Jane outfits, which helped convince Hollywood to start enforcing the Hays Code once the censors got a good look at Maureen's body in "Tarzan and His Mate" in 1934.

"Tarzan's Secret Treasure" (1941): The Tarzan family in the Iverson Gorge

O'Sullivan still made a pretty hot Jane, even after the new production code — along with her new job title as surrogate mom to Boy — forced her to cover up some of her attributes from the mid-'30s on.

Anita Ekberg in "La Dolce Vita"

Before Swedish bombshell Anita Ekberg became an international sensation in the 1960 classic "La Dolce Vita," she had a tour de force performance in the title role of 1957's "Valerie," filmed on the Upper Iverson.

Anita Ekberg

Something about this unusual colorized photo of Ekberg just works.

Ekberg comes across as someone who's comfortable in her skin.

Yvonne De Carlo

Speaking of skin, I hope my readers can handle photos of a young, scantily clad — and not-exactly-clad — Lily Munster, aka the sumptuous Yvonne De Carlo. These racy pics from the 1940s go back to early in her career.

De Carlo was no older than her early 20s at the time. Within a few years she was at Iverson starring in Universal Westerns in the late 1940s, including playing Calamity in "Calamity Jane and Sam Bass."

Dorothy Malone

Then there's Dorothy Malone, who could drive men to madness as a brunette cowgirl or a blonde femme fatale ... or a blonde cowgirl, for that matter. Really pretty much however they dressed her up.

Dorothy Malone and Rock Hudson, "Tarnished Angels," 1957

Dorothy's Iverson resume includes "The Nevadan," with Randolph Scott, and two early Roger Corman movies from 1955 — the original "The Fast and the Furious" and the unfairly overlooked Western "Five Guns West."

Dorothy Malone and Jonathan Haze, "Five Guns West," 1955

Malone was put to extremely good use as Shalee, the unbearably seductive fuel for outlaws' passions in Roger Corman's first directorial effort, "Five Guns West," filmed on the Iverson Ranch and Ingram Ranch.

A young Dorothy Malone does her part for the war effort

What's that you say? More Dorothy Malone? You got it!

Dorothy Malone and Penny Edwards: Double your hot cowgirl pleasure

We also have Dorothy to thank for roping in Penny Edwards, as the two tag-teamed a memorable cowgirl photo shoot around the time they appeared together in Warner Bros.' 1948 release "Two Guys From Texas."

Penny Edwards: Um, what am I supposed to do with these?

Penny, who brought her own fireworks wherever she went, starred in a batch of Iverson productions — usually billed third after the lead cowboy and his horse.

Penny Edwards

Penny starred with Roy Rogers in "Trail of Robin Hood" (1950) and "Spoilers of the Plains" (1951), appeared opposite Rex Allen in "Utah Wagon Train" (1951) and worked with Allan "Rocky" Lane in "Captive of Billy the Kid" (1952) — all filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch.

As a beautiful woman working in Westerns, Penny had her share of opportunities to get in the hay — let's just say a number of photographers apparently saw it as a metaphor.

Penny Edwards and co-star

It's easy to see why Penny got so much work in Westerns — she made a super-cute cowgirl.

Gale Robbins

While we're on the subject of super-cute cowgirls, how about a shout-out to the insanely hot Gale Robbins?

Gale Robbins

Gale's filmography includes the noteworthy Iverson Movie Ranch feature "Quantrill's Raiders" (1958), along with the late '50s TV shows "Trackdown" and "State Trooper," both of which shot at Iverson.

Peggie Castle

The gorgeous Peggie Castle was another frequent visitor to the Chatsworth location ranch, including appearing in "Son of Belle Starr" (1953), "The Oklahoma Woman" (1956) and "Hell's Crossroads" (1957).

Peggie Castle and John Russell, promo still for "Lawman," 1962

Peggie also had a regular role as saloon owner Lily Merrill, love interest for John Russell's Marshal Dan Troop, from 1959-1962 on "Lawman," another TV Western filmed on the Iverson Ranch.

"Beginning of the End" (1957): Peggie Castle and Peter Graves

When I was just a little kid — years before I would attain a level of "maturity" sufficient to fully appreciate Peggie Castle's hotness — said hotness was hiding in plain sight in one of my favorite "nature run amok" sci-fi movies of the '50s, "Beginning of the End." Back then all I cared about was the giant grasshoppers.

Viola Richard in the Garden of the Gods, "Flying Elephants" (1928)

Many readers may be unfamiliar with the beautiful Viola Richard, who had one of the nicest smiles of the silent film era. Viola shared the screen not only with comedy giants Laurel and Hardy, but also with the sandstone giants of the Iverson Ranch's Garden of the Gods.

Viola Richard

The sporty Viola was under contract to the Hal Roach Studios in the late 1920s, so her body of work consists almost entirely of silent comedy shorts.

Virginia Mayo and James Cagney, "White Heat" (1949)

Virginia Mayo, also seen at the top of this post, had a way of getting under James Cagney's skin in "White Heat," one of only a handful of films noir to shoot on the Iverson Ranch.

Virginia Mayo

Any tension with Cagney's grumpy "White Heat" character was understandable — Mayo, who was another popular pinup girl during World War II, was clearly worth getting worked up about.

Virginia Mayo

The photogenic Mayo appeared in a number of Iverson Movie Ranch productions, including the 1954 Warner Bros. feature "King Richard and the Crusaders."

Abby Dalton

Abby Dalton was an unknown back in 1957 when Roger Corman cast her in the lead role in his Iverson Movie Ranch showpiece "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent."

Abby Dalton

Dalton was back at Iverson the following year in "Cole Younger, Gunfighter" before going on to a prolific career in television that included a long run on the prime-time soap opera "Falcon Crest" in the 1980s.

Mara Corday

Mara Corday offers another variation on the theme of "girls, guns and hay." Mara put in some time in the Westerns, including the 1957 20th Century-Fox feature "The Quiet Gun," filmed on the Iverson Ranch.

Believe it or not, we've barely scratched the surface when it comes to gorgeous women who worked the Iverson Ranch. Let me know if you like this sort of thing and I'll see what I can do to put together a Part 2.

Roger Corman's Iverson Movie Ranch movies, Part 1: Five Guns West

Roger Corman

One of the most interesting filmmakers to embrace the Iverson Movie Ranch as a shooting location over the years is Roger Corman, whose Iverson work goes all the way back to his first movie as a director.

A traditional Western in many respects, the 1955 film "Five Guns West" — Corman's directorial debut, which he also produced — boasts better production values, a better script and better acting than the B-Westerns that inspired it, serving notice that the career of an important filmmaker was being launched.

Dorothy Malone and John Lund on the Ingram Ranch in "Five Guns West"

John Lund, best known for Billy Wilder's "A Foreign Affair" (1948), plays the male lead in "Five Guns West," opposite the potent screen presence of Dorothy Malone.

Promo still for "Five Guns West" featuring Dorothy Malone and Jonathan Haze

Malone is put to great use in the movie, tantalizing a series of outlaws with her raw sexuality.

"Five Guns West": Mike "Touch" Connors, center

The cast also includes Mike Connors — long before he became famous as TV's Mannix, back when he was still known as "Touch" Connors.

Ambush sequence using Wrench Rock, on the Upper Iverson Movie Ranch

Corman's ability to economize on production costs was already evident, with "Five Guns West" shot almost in its entirety at two locations: The first half-hour takes place at the Iverson Movie Ranch, with the rest of the movie set a few miles south of there at the Jack Ingram Ranch. (Jack Ingram, who was a B-Western regular for years before opening his location ranch, also has a role in the movie.) The above shot features the widely filmed Wrench Rock, sometimes called Indian Head. Even though the rock is a familiar feature in Iverson movies, it's unusual to see it used in this manner — as a perch for an ambush.

"Five Guns West": The view from Cactus Hill looking south

This shot offers a long-distance view of the movie ranch's most famous section, the Garden of the Gods (to the left of the riders), along with the western San Fernando Valley, at top left, and a familiar rocky hill at top center.

Sunset Peak, or Elders Peak, was (and remains) situated south of the Iverson Ranch, across Santa Susana Pass Road. The western San Fernando Valley was still rural at the time, and Chatsworth Reservoir still had water in it.

Corman's Iverson shoot for "Five Guns West" is an unusual one, taking place mostly on Cactus Hill — probably the most prominent single feature at Iverson, but one that was typically seen only in the background and was rarely used as a shooting location in its own right. Corman used that fact to his advantage, shooting heavily on Cactus Hill and getting unusual shots in the process. The above shot, looking north from Cactus Hill, provides a rare glimpse of a rock I call Gorilla, seen at the right of the photo, just above the halfway point.

Here's another view of Gorilla from a recent site visit, again looking north. You can also see Oat Mountain in the distance, along with some of the estates that now fill the former Upper Iverson. For the Iverson aficionados, that's the back end of Turtle Rock directly to the left of Gorilla.

Cactus Hill has traditionally been referred to anonymously by film location researchers (for example: "a large hill separating the Upper and Lower Iverson"), but it came to my attention recently that the Iverson family called it Cactus Hill, and it works for me. True to its name, Cactus Hill is loaded with impressive cactus. Above is an example from a recent visit. The hill also features a treasure trove of beautiful and underutilized movie rocks, if you're into that sort of thing (which I am).

Another shot from "Five Guns West" — looking toward the west this time — features another unusual Iverson rock located atop Cactus Hill. Between the trailing rider and the two leading riders is a spherical rock I call the Head, because when you first come upon it along the trail, it looks a lot like a human head.

"The Head" in modern times

Here's a shot of the Head that I snapped on a recent visit to the site. One intriguing thing about the Head is that it's manmade — the smaller rock on top of the formation was cemented onto the larger rock that forms the base.

Closeup of the Head — note the cement base

This closeup shows some of the cement work. Whenever I find a rock at Iverson that has been cemented, and there are a number of them, I find it significant because it had to be done specifically for the movies — the place was a working movie ranch, after all. I always want to know the answers to questions such as: What movie was this done for, and why? And where else does it appear?

"Apache Woman," 1955, directed by Roger Corman

In the case of the Head, I'm sure it wasn't done specifically for the Corman movie. It's not the kind of thing he would budget for, and besides, it was probably done a few years earlier. The bulk of the cement work at Iverson appears to have taken place around 1950-1951, indicating that the practice may have been associated with the transition from B-movies to early TV shows. It may be that the Iversons felt they had to "spruce up" the place to get it in shape for what would turn out to be extensive TV work in the 1950s. Oddly, most of the "stacked rocks" created during the "cement scare" of the early 1950s never ended up being used much — with a few noteworthy exceptions, which I will cover in a future post.

Jack Ingram Ranch, as seen in "Five Guns West"

For now, suffice to say that whatever the motivation was to create "the Head," the rock almost never turned up in any productions. I have my fingers crossed that it will eventually show up somewhere else, but at this time Corman's "Five Guns West" is the only movie I've found that features it.

"Viking Women and the Sea Serpent," 

1957, directed by Roger Corman

Roger Corman returned to Iverson a number of times, especially early in his career, and whenever he shot there — often with "Five Guns West" cinematographer Floyd Crosby — he typically found inventive ways to shoot it. The pair collaborated again on another Iverson Western, "Apache Woman," later in 1955, and Corman continued to shoot at Iverson even after moving on from Westerns to cult films — including "Viking Women and the Sea Serpent" (whose full title is much longer) in 1957 and "Teenage Caveman" in 1958. I'll feature more of Corman's Iverson work in Part 2.