Tricks of light and imagination: The Llama ... and why you'll never get to see it in real life

Here's a photo that never fails to amuse me. It's a grainy, low-res screen shot from the "Lone Ranger" movie (shot in 1949 for the TV series, edited into a feature film in 1952). Now, you may not see the same thing I see, but I can't help but see a nearly perfect side view of a llama's head and neck. It's just to the left of the rider, hovering above the smooth white rock at the far left.

Here's a detail shot of the Llama.

Silver, the Lone Ranger's horse, rehabbing in Silverland in the movie "The Lone Ranger," filmed in 1949. 

Directly above the horse is Silver Rock, also known as the Manta Ray.

That smooth white rock, by the way, is a feature I called the Manta Ray early in my research, and later came to call Silver Rock in honor of the Lone Ranger's horse, Silver. I originally called this area the Manta Ray's Garden, before learning that it had already been called Silverland for some time, in recognition of the fact that it is the area where the Lone Ranger nursed a wounded Silver back to health in the movie and TV series.

This empty concrete basin is what occupies Silverland today.

As much as I've always wanted to get a look at that "llama" in real life, the sad reality is that most of the rocks in the above screen shots have been destroyed, giving way to a mysterious project that was once described to me (accurately or not) as an attempt at a sewage facility that was built as part of the adjacent mobile home park and apparently never worked out. These days an empty concrete reservoir occupies the location.

Did the Iverson Ranch get a sprinkling of Gong pixie dust?

South Rim of the Upper Iverson, Chatsworth, Calif.

I'm always finding faces in the rocks, and here's a pair of characters I spotted on a visit a while back to the Upper Iverson. They're in the top left corner of the photo. These rocks are located in the South Rim area where much of the filming took place for the old Westerns. I've amped up the contrast here because the original photo is pretty dark. I always seem to be fighting tough lighting conditions at Iverson — I just don't get up as early as the old film crews did, what can I say? These rocks would be better lit in the morning, but then the faces would probably disappear too.

Here's a detail shot from the above photo — not that it adds any clarity. But in case you're having trouble finding them in the larger photo, these are the faces I'm talking about.

The faces change as you shift camera angles and as the sunlight changes. In the above shot, the "pixie" on the left looks pretty much the same as in the previous shot, but the one on the right has a completely new face — seemingly having grown a beard.

Here's what I mean by two different faces for that pixie on the right.

"Wagon Tracks West" (1943)

While it's rare to find the Pixies in movies or TV shows, they do appear on occasion — although I've never seen a production that shows off their "faces." In the above example from the Republic B-Western "Wagon Tracks West," one of the Pixies can be seen in the background of a shot featuring the Miner's Cabin.

Here's the same screen shot with the Pixie spotlighted. "Wagon Tracks West" starred Wild Bill Elliott and Gabby Hayes, with camera work by the legendary Reggie Lanning — a member of my pantheon of great Iverson cinematographers.

For anyone familiar with the 1970s space rock group Gong, these characters and others at Iverson remind me of the Pothead Pixies from Daevid Allen's mythological drawings on the old Gong albums.

Here's an idea of what the Pothead Pixies look like on the Gong/Daevid Allen album covers.

The many faces of Hangdog

Hangdog, on the Lower Iverson Movie Ranch

One of my favorite characters on the site of the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., is Hangdog, situated in the "Above Nyoka" area of the Lower Iverson. Not unlike many of the Iverson features, Hangdog has a split personality. I see it as sort of a lion on the left, Labrador retriever on the right. 

Hangdog also hosts a few smaller players, including a monkey head that lives in the Lab's eyebrow and a "mini-Hangdog," partially hidden behind a bush in this photo, down below the monkey head. You may be able to see these features better if you click on the photo for a larger view; you can also see "Mini-Hangdog" better in the photo at the bottom of this post.

That house in the background, known as the Old Folks' House, is where the original owners of the Iverson Movie Ranch lived for years. It burned down during the Porter Ranch Fire (also known as the Sesnon Fire) in October 2008. The Ruins, at bottom right, are one of the many mysteries that remained at Iverson well beyond the filming era.

The Ruins, with Hangdog, in 2008 (Bill Rock and Cactus Hill in background)

An estimated 3,500 movies and TV show episodes were shot on the ranch, mostly from the heyday of the B-Western through the early years of the TV Western, from the 1930s through the 1950s. I've been scanning old productions for a few years now trying to find the rocks and buildings of the Iverson Ranch, but it appears that the mysterious stone structure I call the Ruins was never used in the filming.

Hangdog, in recent times

I have a number of other posts on the blog about Hangdog, but I'd like to point you to one in particular, focusing on an especially cool appearance by Hangdog in the 1941 Republic serial "Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc." Please click here to see that entry. Otherwise, check the long index at the right of the page for more about Hangdog, or click here to see a compilation of Hangdog-related entries. 

Classic Rock: Brainiac

"The Roy Rogers Show" (1955)

Here's one of those funny faces in the rocks that show up in movies and TV shows from time to time. I doubt anyone will be as amused by it as I am, but I hope you can at least see it. It looks perfect to me: little dark eye, button nose, grim mouth and that massive forehead. It's right in the middle of this screen shot, facing toward the left. This character, which I call Brainiac, appears in "The Scavenger," a 1955 episode of "The Roy Rogers Show." That's Dale Evans riding by.

In case you're having trouble seeing it, I've identified some of the key parts in this version of the photo. Brainiac the rock is actually the north end of a familiar movie rock, which I used to refer to by the unimaginative name "the Log" before I learned that it already had a name: Range Rider Rock.

Another "Brainiac-type" figure

Incidentally, Range Rider Rock — including its north "face," Brainiac — is now located in the Indian Hills Mobile Home Park area of the former Lower Iverson Movie Ranch. These days the rock is hidden behind some mobile homes, and it's no longer possible to grab a photo that looks anything like Brainiac.

Brainiac the supervillain, battling Superman

Another so-called Brainiac in popular culture is the supervillain of the same name in DC Comics, seen fighting with Superman in the action shot above. This Brainiac is no relation to the one on the Iverson Movie Ranch — even though Superman did do stuff at Iverson, and you can read about that by clicking here. Personally, I find this Brainiac's giant brain to be not fully exaggerated enough — even though I understand that for the purposes of fighting people like Superman, a larger brain could get in the way.

This post is part of a series on "Classic Rocks" — sandstone giants located on the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., that became a part of not only America's physical landscape but also its cultural heritage, through featured roles in old movies, cliffhanger serials and early TV shows. Other entries in the series can be seen by clicking here.

Note: Volume 14 of the DVD set "Roy Rogers With Dale Evans" includes the episode "The Scavenger." See Amazon link below.

Bugeye and Trapezoid

Bugeye and Trapezoid are a pair of rocks that show up pretty regularly in old B-Westerns. They're not not particularly dramatic but they are good landmarks, easily recognized sitting atop a relatively flat wall-rock that was located alongside a road used frequently for chase sequences and horseback scenes. In the shot above they're seen in the "Lone Ranger" movie, a 1952 release made from the first three episodes of the "Lone Ranger" TV show, originally shot in 1949. They're not clear in this screen shot, but they're the two rocks near the top of the photo, Bugeye on the left and Trapezoid on the right.

Today they live in the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village, located at Topanga and the 118 Freeway in Chatsworth, Calif.