The Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, one building at a time ... Part VII: The Sheriff's Office

"The Hills of Utah" (1951): The Sheriff's Office

This small, square structure on the east side of the Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, seen here in the Gene Autry B-Western "The Hills of Utah," was all about law enforcement, typically appearing in movies and on TV as a Sheriff's Office or County Jail.

"Night Raiders" (1952)

Whip Wilson holds court outside the Bitter Springs County Jail in the Monogram Western "Night Raiders." Once again playing a law enforcement role is the Iverson Movie Ranch's Sheriff's Office.

This shot of Fuzzy Knight outside the building in "Night Raiders" gives the impression that it's evening, but the shadow of the west-facing building hints that it would have been filmed in the morning.

"The Caravan Trail" (1946) — Lash LaRue, left, and Eddie Dean

Lash LaRue and Eddie Dean collaborate in the PRC B-Western "The Caravan Trail" while the Sheriff's Office, in the background, makes one of its earliest color appearances.

"Oklahoma Justice" (1952)

The sign over the door reads "Sheriff's Office" in the Johnny Mack Brown B-Western "Oklahoma Justice," from Monogram. The movie was filmed by master B-movie cinematographer Ernest Miller, who was behind the camera on some of the greatest Iverson Movie Ranch showcases.

"El Paso" (Paramount, 1949)

The Sheriff's Office did assume other roles from time to time, including appearing as "Joe's Cafe" in the Western "El Paso." That's the Sheriff's Office on the left, lined up next to the two distinctive two-story facades that marked the east side of the street. Another name for the Iverson Western street is El Paso Street.

"The Range Rider" (1953)

The Sheriff's Office made a number of appearances in the TV show "The Range Rider." This one comes from the episode "The Black Terror."

"The Cisco Kid" TV series

Another non-law enforcement role came up in the TV show "The Cisco Kid," where the Sheriff's Office plays a mining supply store. The Sheriff's Office can be seen on the left in this behind-the-scenes shot.

"The Lone Ranger" TV series (1954)

The Sheriff's Office wasn't the most interesting building on the Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, but one fun feature it had was this gate area out back that it shared with the Barn. The gate opened into a large corral occupying much of the space to the east of the town set.

This shot comes from an episode of the TV show "The Lone Ranger" called "The Frightened Woman." The episode premiered Sept. 30, 1954, early in season four of the show's five-season run.

"Ghost Town Renegades" (1947)

The gate behind the Sheriff's Office was typically left open, and the gateway at times provided a "window onto the world," looking south and southeast. This shot from the Lash LaRue movie "Ghost Town Renegades" reveals part of the Eucalyptus Grove along with Cooper Rock.

Cooper Rock is named after Gary Cooper, the man responsible for building the town in 1944, for his 1945 Western "Along Came Jones." This shot also highlights the Eucalyptus Grove, or simply "The Grove."

That's Lash LaRue on the right, along with his frequent sidekick Al "Fuzzy" St. John, eyeing the situation in front of Cooper Rock in PRC's "Ghost Town Renegades." You may or may not have noticed that this blog post has now mentioned both of the two main "Fuzzys" of B-Westerns.

"Silver Canyon" (1951)

Here's a shot taken from a similar angle, but from farther back, with the General Store entering the picture on the left. The shot comes from the Gene Autry movie "Silver Canyon."

Cooper Rock can again be seen in the background, with the camera's telephoto effect making it appear larger and closer than it actually is.

"Night Raiders" (1952)

Either that gate was mighty tall, or Whip Wilson was mighty short — a conclusion that's hard to miss based on this shot of Wilson at the gate in "Night Raiders."

"Calamity Jane and the Texan" (1950)

Dominating the frame in this photo from "Calamity Jane and the Texan" is the General Store, on the left. But the shot provides additional context for the gate, which can be seen in the right half of the frame.

The gate was set back from the street as part of a dirt plaza area shared by the General Store, the Barn and the Sheriff's Office. I'm surprised this plaza area didn't get used more than it did, as it would have been a great place to stage a shootout.

"The Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, one building at a time" is a series of posts on the movie and TV history of each of the major structures making up Iverson's town set, which stood from 1944 to 1957 and appeared in hundreds of productions.



To see all of the posts in the series on the Iverson Western street, please click on the following links:

Part I: Casa Grande
Part II: The Livery Stable
Part III: The Saloon
Part IV: The Hotel
Part V: The General Store 
Part VI: The Barn
Part VII: The Sheriff's Office
Part VIII: The North and South Adobes
Part IX: The Lost Dutchman
Part X: The original north end of town
Part XI: The North and South Towers
Part XII: The Harness Maker
Part XIII: Rainbow Mine Co. 
Part XIV: The Church/Schoolhouse  
Part XV: The Corral Rocks Shack
Part XVI: The decline and fall of the Western street

Lash LaRue gives David Letterman a bullwhip lesson — and more than you probably wanted to know about the Golden Boot Awards

Alfred Wilson "Lash" LaRue

Lash LaRue starred in a string of B-Westerns in the 1940s and early 1950s, most of them at ultra-low budget studio PRC and its equally low-budget spinoff Western Adventure. In the early days he typically played the Cheyenne Kid or Cheyenne Davis, before ascending to the movie rank of U.S. Marshal Cheyenne Davis. After bailing out on PRC along with producer/director Ron Ormond, legendary B-Western director Ray Taylor and Cinematographer of the Gods Ernest Miller, who combined their talents and hung out their own shingle as Western Adventure Productions, LaRue got to appear for much of the rest of his career as a version of himself, in the person of U.S. Marshal Lash LaRue.

Lash LaRue with his trademark bullwhip

While he had no whip skills to speak of at the time he launched his acting career, LaRue learned fast — and it became his trademark, with Lash earning the nickname King of the Bullwhip. In the video at the bottom of this post, LaRue reveals to David Letterman that he lied about his ability with the bullwhip to land his first acting job. The above promotional still, courtesy of Western movie expert Jerry England, shows LaRue as an accomplished whipsman, plying his trade at the Iverson Movie Ranch, with Chatsworth's Stoney Point visible in the background. Hollywood legend has it that LaRue taught Harrison Ford how to use the bullwhip for the "Indiana Jones" movies.

Lash LaRue's Arch, as it appears today

LaRue  was a regular at the Iverson Movie Ranch in the peak filming era — and even ended up with an Iverson rock feature named after him: Lash LaRue's Arch. The formation can still be found today, near the swimming pool at the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village.

Here's Lash posing for a promo shot, circa 1950, in front of the Iverson arch that would eventually be named for him. The arch was big enough for a rider to take a horse through — barely. This is another photo from Jerry England's awe-inspiring collection.

These days the arch is fenced off, so there's not much chance of any spontaneous equestrian activity.

"King of the Bullwhip" (1950) was one of the more famous of LaRue's B-Westerns of the late 1940s and early 1950s, along with "Law of the Lash" (1947), "Ghost Town Renegades" (1947), "Stage to Mesa City" (1947), "The Hawk of Powder River" (1948), "Son of Billy the Kid" (1949), "The Vanishing Outpost" (1951) and "The Black Lash" (1952). All of these movies were shot at Iverson.

LaRue made his way to TV for a time in the 1950s, including getting his own show, "Lash of the West," a 15-minute clip show and gab session that never took off and no one seems to remember anymore. He also had recurring roles on "Judge Roy Bean" and "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp," along with one-off guest appearances on a few shows. In 1986 he got in on a TV remake of "Stagecoach" headlined by country legends the Highwaymen — Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Lash died in 1996 in Burbank, Calif., at age 74.

The world seems to be divided on whether his last name should be one word, LaRue, or two words, La Rue. Lash's movie credits have it both ways — and for that matter, credit him any number of different ways: Lash LaRue, Lash La Rue, Al La Rue, Alfred La Rue, Al "Lash" LaRue, etc. For what it's worth, IMDb is sticking with La Rue, while Wikipedia favors LaRue. I'm a recent convert to LaRue, which seems to be winning the "preponderance of Google hits" war.

 

Lash LaRue comic book

Lash's series of comic books back in The Day went with the one-word "LaRue," and even if it may be weird to use a comic book as the definitive source, it does seem likely that the comics would have got his name right. A couple of noteworthy tidbits about the above cover: Note that Lash autographed it using his real name, Alfred, but he tells Letterman in the video clip below that even his mom called him Lash. Also, note that the background appears to be the Iverson Movie Ranch, although I haven't been able to make a positive ID on it.

Here's a peek inside one of the comic books. You can click on the photo to enlarge it if you want to make it easier to read the page.

Lash LaRue was awarded the Golden Boot in 1983. In case you don't know what that is (I didn't either), it's an honor that was handed out by the Motion Picture & Television Fund for 25 years, and it was pretty prestigious. Other recipients that year — the awards' inaugural class — included Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Clayton Moore, Slim Pickens, Linda Stirling, Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, Doug McClure, Lee Majors and LaRue's stablemate at PRC, Eddie Dean, with the "In Memoriam" award going to Will Rogers. B-Western regulars Bob Steele, Charles Starrett, Rex Allen, Sunset Carson and Monte Hale were also a part of that illustrious first group of "Bootees."

Pat Buttram

The Golden Boot Awards were the idea of Mr. Haney from "Green Acres" — veteran Gene Autry sidekick and B-Western regular Pat Buttram. They were meant to honor the people who kept the Western tradition alive in film and on TV, while also raising money for the Fund — a charitable organization that looks after veterans of the entertainment industry who wind up in tough health situations and low on money.

Rhonda Fleming

Golden Boot honorees over the years included all the heavyweights of the genre — John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Chuck Connors, Sam Peckinpah, Dale Robertson, Audie Murphy, Jimmy Stewart, James Arness, Tex Ritter, Rhonda Fleming, Glenn Ford, Johnny Cash, Robert Duvall, Burt Reynolds, Robert Mitchum ... the list goes on.

Eva Marie Saint in "On the Waterfront" (1954)

I suppose by 2007, the last year the Golden Boots were handed out, they were running out of Western stars to honor. The "heavyweights" who got in on that last batch of Boots included Caruth C. Byrd — a well-funded but relatively unknown actor and producer who apparently made up for his puny (and not particularly Western-oriented) filmography by being generous to the Motion Picture & Television Fund — Martin Kove — an actor known mainly for "Rambo," "Karate Kid" and "Cagney & Lacey" — "Lord of the Rings" actor Viggo Mortensen — who did make a Western called "Appaloosa" around that time — stuntman Walt LaRue — possibly the most legit recipient in the bunch, having done stunts on "Silverado," "Pale Rider" and even "Blazing Saddles" (I don't know whether he's related to Lash, but my guess is that he is, either by blood or by hero worship) — and that giant of the Westerns, Eva Marie Saint — a terrific actress known more for her Oscar-winning performance in "On the Waterfront" and her star turn in Hitchcock's spy masterpiece "North by Northwest," although she did appear in a 1977 TV remake of "How the West Was Won."

John Wayne is introduced in John Ford's epic Western "Stagecoach" 

in 1939 — with the Iverson Movie Ranch in the background

The organizers of the Golden Boots also took the opportunity in 2007 to bestow the Founder's Award on the late John Wayne, so the Boot went out with a bang.

The other kind of Golden Boot — with Bulgarian soccer star 

Dimitar Berbatov, a striker in Premier League

In recent years the term "Golden Boot" has come to be associated more with sports — specifically soccer, or what much of the rest of the world calls football. The Premier League's "Barclays Golden Boot" is one of a number of Golden Boots and Golden Shoes awarded annually in the sport.

But I digress (as usual) ... back to the reason we're here: Lash LaRue made an appearance on David Letterman's old NBC show way back in Dave's third season in late-night, on Feb. 16, 1984. Before bringing out the cowboy star, Dave ran a few brief clips of Lash's movies — marking what might be the only appearance by the Iverson Movie Ranch on "Letterman," as a number of quick Iverson shots flashed on the screen. Lash may have filmed a higher percentage of his movies at Iverson than just about any other cowboy star, although Starrett and a few others would also be in that conversation.

The clip montage includes Lash slugging a bald-headed guy (whose hat fell off), after which Lash eventually makes his way out to trade quips with Dave and torment the host with his whip technique. It's worth checking out.

Here's the video:

The Iverson Church wasn't originally a church

Update (April 12, 2014): I've done a more recent, updated version of this post, which you can read by clicking here. The older version below remains pretty much as I originally published it, and contains some information that didn't make it into the newer post. But in my opinion, if you had to pick one or the other as the place to start ... I'd go to the newer post. (Again, click here to go to the newer post.)

Film location researcher Bill Sasser tipped me off about a 1947 movie called The Millerson Case, part of a series of Crime Doctor movies from Larry Darmour Productions starring Warner Baxter, originally distributed to theaters by Columbia. The series is usually set in the big city, and so it rarely ventures into rustic Iverson territory. But in this installment the lead character goes on a hunting trip and finds himself in a small country town called Brook Falls — played by Iverson's Western street, sometimes called El Paso Street or Iverson Village.

Among a number of important finds in this movie is probably the first film appearance of what would become the Iverson Church. Tracking the release dates of movies in which the church appears — and there are only a few of them, all released from 1947 to 1949 — I've become convinced that the church was built specifically for The Millerson Case, which came out in May 1947, a couple of months before its next known film appearance — in the Hopalong Cassidy feature The Marauders — and a few months before the church would make the first of what are probably its most commonly seen appearances these days, in a string of PRC-produced B-Westerns starring Eddie Dean and Lash LaRue.

The most surprising twist in the story of the church is that when it was first built, it wasn't a church. It was a schoolhouse. It was subsequently modified to make it look like a church — with arched tops added to the two front windows and a taller turret, complete with arched window, replacing the bell tower, transforming it into a steeple. Above is a slightly askew shot from one of the late 1947 to early 1949 B-Westerns from PRC or its spinoff, Western Adventure, showing the church as a church. The tall rock to the left of the steeple, also visible in the top photo, is known as Church Rock, obviously because of its proximity to the church.

Location expert Tinsley Yarbrough offers what seems to be the most plausible explanation for the transformation of the schoolhouse into a church: It was probably undertaken by United Artists for The Marauders, where the building again plays a major role, this time as a church. Since I first published this post I had a chance to see The Marauders, and I can confirm that the movie is set almost entirely in and around the church. I agree with Tinsley that in all likelihood the producers of that Hopalong Cassidy movie were the ones who transformed the schoolhouse into a church — and it retained that identity for the remainder of its short life.

My original theory was that PRC had something to do with the construction of the church, but PRC was notoriously low-budget, and now that the Crime Doctor and Hoppy movies have surfaced with their more meaningful use of the building, that theory can be put to rest. I find it interesting too that once PRC begins shooting in the area — and the company was there a lot from 1947-1949, with Eddie and Lash — the church is always there, in the background, but it's never brought to the foreground or incorporated into the story.

Here's another shot of the schoolhouse in The Millerson Case, giving a better look at the original turret or bell tower. The schoolhouse plays a central role in the plot of the movie — as headquarters for treating an outbreak of typhoid fever. The building is featured far more in The Millerson Case and The Marauders than in any other movie I've seen.

Here's one more view of the schoolhouse in The Millerson Case, with a portion of Iverson Village also seen. The building on the right can easily be matched with the second photo, after the schoolhouse down at the end of town became the church down at the end of town. Note that horse-drawn carts and more modern vehicles such as the stylish coupe in the top photo coexist in the small country town depicted in The Millerson Case.

Hidden Valley Cabin on the Upper Iverson Movie Ranch

"Prairie Outlaws" (1948)

This screen shot from the old Eddie Dean B-Western "Prairie Outlaws" features a cabin that appeared on the South Rim of the Upper Iverson starting in about 1944. The cabin is usually called "Hidden Valley Cabin," and has been alternately referred to simply as "Stone Cabin."

The distinctive rock towering above the cabin, which helps pinpoint the structure's location, has been called Stone Cabin Rock. In this version of the "Prairie Outlaws" screen shot, Stone Cabin Rock is identified, as is the ubiquitous background feature Oat Mountain — along with Hidden Valley Cabin, or Stone Cabin, in the foreground.

"Cheyenne Takes Over" (1947)

This shot from the Lash LaRue B-Western "Cheyenne Takes Over" gives a good look at the porch of the cabin. The term "Stone Cabin" is a reference to its appearance, not its construction. Being a movie cabin, it would have been built as inexpensively as possible. The outer surface was made to look like stones, but was presumably made up of some kind of facing material — in other words, "movie magic."

Stone Cabin Rock and a portion of the old Upper Iverson in recent times

The cabin is long gone, and this shot of Stone Cabin Rock and its surroundings from a recent visit shows some of the mansions that now occupy much of what used to be the Upper Iverson Movie Ranch. The rock's name, Stone Cabin Rock, commemorates that the distinctive feature clearly marks the spot where the cabin previously stood.

Also visible in these photos, in the distance, is Oat Mountain, and in the recent shot, as noted above, microwave towers and related gear can be seen at top right. (You may want to click on the photo to enlarge it to get a better look.) Back in the Cold War years of the 1950s and 1960s a Nike missile base, part of the national defense system, was situated where the microwave towers now stand. I believe the small rectangular white building visible in the smaller blue box on the left was a part of the missile base.

I've blogged about the Nike base before, in an entry I wrote about the Cold War movie "Panic in Year Zero," which you can read by clicking here. That post includes a shot of the missile base that snuck into the background of the movie, which was released in 1962 at the peak of the nuclear scare.

"Prairie Outlaws," made by Producers Releasing Corp., has an interesting backstory. It was an edited version of a movie the company made two years earlier, "Wild West," with additional footage shot for the new movie even though the new movie wound up being shorter than the original.

The earlier production, "Wild West," was out of character for a notoriously cheap B-movie studio such as PRC: It was in color, for one thing, and at 73 minutes, longer than typical B-movie fare. It also had two cowboy stars instead of the usual one, featuring both Eddie Dean and Lash LaRue. And it had a dual love story AND a story about a heroic young boy.

When PRC reinvented the movie two years later as "Prairie Outlaws," the company was clearly targeting the Saturday matinee market, especially young boys. Much of the "mushy stuff" was cut out, but the plot line about the heroic kid was left in. Even with the movie shortened now to about 56 minutes, a batch of new footage was added — mostly action — at the opening of the movie. The number of songs was cut back, and this time the movie was released in black and white.

The outdoor action in the original movie, "Wild West," was shot entirely at Corriganville. But in the two years that had passed before "Prairie Outlaws" was pieced together, PRC had shifted its focus to Iverson, and that's where the new footage was filmed — including a big shootout at Hidden Valley Cabin.

"Prairie Outlaws" (1948): Hidden Valley Cabin, on the Upper Iverson

Many film historians believe Iverson's Gorge Cabin, which first appeared in 1936 and was located on the Lower Iverson, was taken apart and reassembled on the Upper Iverson, becoming what we now know as Hidden Valley Cabin. The move would have taken place in about 1944, as that's when the Gorge Cabin disappears from film footage of the Gorge.

"Adventures of Red Ryder" (1940): Gorge Cabin, on the Lower Iverson

The above shot shows the earlier cabin, located in the Iverson Gorge on the Lower Iverson. I have yet to find a "smoking gun" image of one or the other cabin that confirms whether they're the same cabin, but so far, I would have to say I still need some convincing. Even so, I have to admit the two cabins are pretty similar.