The Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, one building at a time ... Part VIII: The North and South Adobes

"Ghost Town Renegades" (PRC, 1947) — The South Adobe

The South Adobe was one of the original buildings on the Iverson Western street when the town set was built in 1944 for "Along Came Jones." While it wasn't exactly an architectural wonder — it's the plain white building in the center of this group of three buildings — it proved to be among the town's most durable structures.

In "Ghost Town Renegades, filmed about two years after the town was built, the South Adobe is part of a sparse northwest corner of town, tucked in between the Hotel, on the left, and a temporary shed on the right that served mainly as a blacksmith shop. Dominating the background are Smooth Hill and Oat Mountain.

"The Millerson Case" (1947)

The building's simple but functional cube design with two distinguishing raised horizontal bars near the top remained consistent throughout the lifespan of the town set, even as adjacent buildings on both sides of the South Adobe underwent a series of renovations.

"El Paso" (1949) — west side of El Paso Street

By 1949 the South Adobe had a new partner, the North Adobe — seen directly above the gent in the top hat in this shot from the Paramount Western "El Paso." The Iverson Ranch town set is sometimes called El Paso Street because of its prominent role in this movie.

The North Adobe and South Adobe typically appear to be right next to each other, as they do in the "El Paso" shot. But in reality they had quite a bit of space between them, as I'll point out below.

"Calamity Jane and the Texan" (1950): closeup of the North Adobe

The North Adobe was even more plain-looking than the South Adobe, often appearing to be little more than a blank cube. But first impressions can be deceiving, and the North Adobe was more complex than it appeared.

"The Hills of Utah" (1951) — The North Adobe

Shots like this one, from the Gene Autry Western "The Hills of Utah," reinforced the impression that the North Adobe was a simple cube. That's longtime Autry sidekick Pat Buttram at the reins.

Pat Buttram, right, with Eddie Albert in "Green Acres"

Many readers will recall that Buttram, who was a regular in B-Westerns in the late 1940s and early 1950s, went on to play quirky country rube Mr. Haney on "Green Acres," appearing in 142 episodes of the popular CBS sitcom from 1965-1971.

"Calamity Jane and the Texan" (1950) — The North Adobe

The North Adobe had a staggered front profile, as you may be able to tell from this shot. Notice the notch in the building's top right corner, formed by its two staggered faces.

"Montana Incident" (1952): North and South Adobes

This view of the adobes from the Whip Wilson movie "Montana Incident" gives a better idea of the wide gap between the two buildings — the South Adobe on the left and North Adobe on the right.

"Calamity Jand and the Texan" — The South Adobe as the "Mine Office"

Here's a fun shot of the South Adobe from "Calamity Jane and the Texan." That's Evelyn Ankers, as Calamity, walking past the South Adobe, which plays the Mine Office in the movie.

Notice the owner's name on the sign: "J. Iverson." Joe Iverson, the son of Iverson Movie Ranch founders Karl and Augusta Iverson, oversaw the movie ranch for decades, including the site of the Western town. This is the only time I know of that a reference to the Iverson family made it into the movies.

"Man From Sonora" (1951): Adobe village at the north end of town

With the addition of the North Adobe in 1949 — along with the construction of Casa Grande around the same time — a new look was taking shape for the north end of town, which now had the appearance of a small adobe village.

"Night Raiders" (1952) — The North Adobe, with a missile base in the background

It's appropriate that this shot of the North Adobe is dark, given the movie's title. But this photo from the Monogram B-Western "Night Raiders" is interesting for its context. Oat Mountain, located north of the Iverson Ranch, can be seen in the top right corner. Notice the small white dot at the very top of Oat Mountain.

That small dot was in reality a huge radar dish, part of the Nike missile installation that was located atop Oat Mountain during the Cold War. The missile base, known as LA-88, was one of 16 Nike Ajax sites positioned strategically around the L.A. area. Please click here to read about its appearance in "Panic in Year Zero" — a movie about the bomb scare, filmed on the Iverson Ranch.

"Montana Incident" (1952) — The North Adobe

The North Adobe's strategic position at the north end of the street made it a part of some unusual shots. From this angle, with the camera shooting toward the west, the North Adobe has the appearance of a false front. But make a note of the awning around the right side of the building, which was featured in its own movie moments.

One of the most interesting elements of the "Montana Incident" shot is the presence of a building to the west of the town set, noted in yellow above. This structure was part of the India Fort set that was left over from the filming of "Wee Willie Winkie" in 1937.

"Oklahoma Justice" (Monogram, 1951)

The North Adobe does double duty in the Johnny Mack Brown Western "Oklahoma Justice." In the above shot we see the usual east face of the building as the Lynwood Bank, which has just been held up.

Just around the corner, the rarely seen north face of the North Adobe appears as a cafe. As we did in "Montana Incident," we again get a peek at the remaining structures from "Wee Willie Winkie," near the center of the frame.

"Oklahoma Justice" — cross street, lined with adobes

With the camera pulling back for a wider view of the area, we see something extremely rare: A cross street runs east and west at the north end of the main town set. This second street is lined mainly with adobe structures.

Helping to create the effect of the second street are the North Adobe, the storefront to Casa Grande — as the Lynwood Stage Line — the familiar adobe wall adjacent to Casa Grande, and even, to some extent, the "Wee Willie Winkie" buildings in the background.

"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: