Is a piece of wall art on the spy show "The Americans" inspired by the Iverson Movie Ranch?

I'm a big fan of the FX series "The Americans," about Russian spies pretending to be a normal American family living in Washington, D.C., during the Cold War.

"The Americans" episode "Darkroom" (premiered May 9, 2017)

I never expected to find a reference to the Iverson Movie Ranch in the show, but I did spot something in a recent episode that qualifies at least as an intriguing coincidence.

Take a close look at the artwork hanging on the wall at the left of the frame.

Here's a closeup of the artwork, which depicts something quintessentially "American" — an adobe village.

Indian Village, Lower Iverson Movie Ranch (ca. 1950)

Is it just me, or does the adobe village in the "Americans" art bear a striking resemblance to the "Indian Village" that stood in the Iverson Gorge in the late 1940s and into the 1950s?

"Arizona Territory" (1950): Iverson's Indian Village

The Iverson Ranch's Indian Village appeared regularly in movies and TV shows during the decade or so that it was in place in the heavily filmed Iverson Gorge, roughly 1944-1954.

Lobby card for the 1944 Columbia serial "Black Arrow"

The Iverson adobes also found their way into movie posters and lobby cards. This one includes a note at the bottom that wouldn't fly these days.

I love this poster for "Black Arrow," which includes an artist's rendering of the adobe village on fire. I'm not endorsing burning villages, I just like that someone went to the trouble to draw a version of the Gorge set.

Hopi House, Grand Canyon, Ariz.

It may be that both the Iverson Indian Village and the "Americans" art draw inspiration from the Hopi House on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, built as a living museum by architect Mary Colter in 1904.

"Hopi House," Iverson Ranch (ca. 1950)

In fact, the Iverson family is known to have referred to the largest structure in the Iverson Ranch Indian Village as the "Hopi House."

Hopi village in Oraibi, Ariz. (ca. 1899)

The Grand Canyon's Hopi House is said to be inspired by the much older Hopi village in Oraibi, Ariz.

I suppose most Hopi-style adobe villages have design similarities. Still, the best match among all the examples I've found is between the village in the Iverson Gorge and the one in "The Americans."

Lobby card for "Outlaw Country" (1949)

In this lobby card for the Western Adventure B-Western "Outlaw Country," Lash LaRue stands on the first-story roof of Iverson's three-story "Hopi House."

"Outlaw Country": Lash LaRue on the Hopi House

Here's Lash in almost the same spot, from the movie. While the movie shots aren't nearly as sharp as the lobby card, it's interesting to compare the two shots, which were presumably taken during the same filming session.

With Lash repositioned to the right, a dented area is exposed on the adobe structure. If you look again at the color lobby card, you can see this darker, recessed area between Lash's legs. Maybe there's a more polite way to say that, but I haven't thought of one.

Also note that the shadows are slightly different between the two shots. Based on the orientation of the buildings, I'd say filming took place in the morning, with the promo shot taken a short time after the movie shot.

"Black Arrow" (1944)

The "Black Arrow" lobby card, from four or five years earlier, appears to show the same section of the adobes seen in the Lash LaRue sequence. "Black Arrow" is the earliest production I've run across that featues these adobes, and production records indicate that the village was in fact built originally for "Black Arrow."

I've noted the spot where Lash LaRue will stand a few years later in "Outlaw Country." It's also worth noting that the rocks making up the Hole in the Wall area can be seen at top left. These rocks remain in place today.

Early shots of the adobes show that back around 1944 they had fake logs sticking out of them near the roofline, similar to what we find in the adobes in "The Americans" and in the real-world examples.

Those logs were gone by the late 1940s. But if one looks closely at the circa 1950 photo, the clearest shot we have of the Hopi House, it's possible to see where the wall was "patched up" after the logs were removed.

The Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, one building at a time ... Part X: The original north end of town

"Along Came Jones" (1945) — Loretta Young at the north end of the Western street

The original Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, built in late 1944 for the Gary Cooper-Loretta Young feature "Along Came Jones," released the following year, included no fewer than five buildings at the north end of town that would be torn down over the next couple of years.

Four of those buildings — the Lost Dutchman, the Barber Shop, the original Blacksmith Shop and a small adobe at the far north end of town — were situated on the west side of the street.

Here's another look at the Barber Shop, Blacksmith Shop and small adobe, again from "Along Came Jones," with Gary Cooper riding his horse across the street. All of these buildings would soon be gone.

"Along Came Jones" — Gary Cooper arrives at the General Store

Also disappearing within a few years would be the small, odd-shaped building to the north of the General Store, on the east side of the street. In this shot the building can be seen above and behind Gary Cooper.

The odd-shaped building is highlighted above. I've never found anything explaining the building's role in "Along Came Jones" or other productions, but the building stood at least until 1947 and made it into a few movies.

"Romance of the West" (1946) — an appearance by the original Blacksmith Shop

"Along Came Jones" was the primary showcase for these early buildings, although the Blacksmith Shop resurfaced the following year in a couple of PRC B-Westerns. The Eddie Dean vehicle "Romance of the West" appears to be the first movie to film in town after production wrapped on "Along Came Jones."

"Romance of the West" — the Barber Shop

It's a little hard to tell from these washed-out shots, but "Romance of the West" was filmed in color — a significant break with B-Western tradition in 1946, and an uncharacteristically expensive move for the notoriously low-budget PRC. While the barber pole remains something close to red, the original Cinecolor has not held up well over time.

"The Caravan Trail" — the original north end of town

PRC continued its move into color with "The Caravan Trail," which premiered just one month after "Romance of the West," in April 1946. Once again an early version of the Iverson Western street was featured — including the original north end of town.

The only copy I've found of "The Caravan Trail" is pretty heavily damaged — note the vertical scoring near the top of the frame. But the movie provides rare color views of some of the short-lived buildings at the north end of town, such as the small adobe.

The original Blacksmith Shop pops up again in the background in "The Caravan Trail," although its painted "Blacksmith — Horseshoeing" sign is hidden.

The shot is taken from the deck area in front of the South Adobe. Like its predecessor "Romance of the West," "The Caravan Trail" was shot in Cinecolor — and in this case the color has held up a little better.

Lash LaRue takes a gunfighter's stance in "The Caravan Trail," with the small adobe in the background. It has been reported that the Iverson Movie Ranch had a policy of waiting two years to begin filming the sets left behind by production companies, but it's clear that no such policy was in place when it came to the Western town set.

"Ghost Town Renegades" (1947): The odd-shaped building and Pond Rock

The odd-shaped building near the General Store turns up again in the Lash LaRue B-Western "Ghost Town Renegades," another PRC effort. In this shot two riders approach town from the northeast.

The odd-shaped building, Pond Rock and the northeast road in and out of town are noted in this version of the "Ghost Town Renegades" shot.

"Silver Canyon" (1951) — headed out of town toward the northeast

The same northeast road is seen a few years later in the Gene Autry movie "Silver Canyon." By this time the odd-shaped building had been torn down.

The "Ghost Town Renegades" shot and the "Silver Canyon" shot show almost exactly the same stretch of road, as evidenced by some of the background rocks. The rocks designated here as A, B, C and D ...

... appear again in the "Silver Canyon" shot four years later. The shadow of Pond Rock is visible in both photos, and a couple of large rocks can now be seen toward the left of the screen that were concealed by the odd-shaped building when it was standing.

"Check Your Guns" (1948 release, filmed in 1947)

When the Eddie Dean movie "Check Your Guns" came out in early 1948, the odd-shaped building was still in place.

As it was in "Along Came Jones," the building is partially concealed behind the General Store.

You may have noticed the large rock in the background in some of these shots. Center Rock has its own history apart from that of the Western street, appearing in many movies and TV shows. The rock outlived the town set and today can be found at the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village. Please click here to learn more about Center Rock.

"Ghost Town Renegades" (1947): North end of town in transition

By 1947, all of the buildings north of the South Adobe on the west side of the street had been torn down, and the north end of town was in a period of transition.

A temporary Blacksmith Shed jutted out into the street in the area where the Lost Dutchman previously stood, and a pile of rubble could be found on the previous site of the original Blacksmith Shop.

"The Millerson Case" (1947) — The Blacksmith Shed

We get a good look at the new Blacksmith Shed — complete with blacksmith — in the 1947 Crime Doctor movie "The Millerson Case."

The Blacksmith Shed remained in place for a couple of years while the north end of town was in transition.

"Man From Sonora" (1950)

By 1950 the transition was complete — with the removal of the Blacksmith Shed and the additions of Casa Grande and the North Adobe.

In combination with the South Adobe, which was part of the original town set, the new structures created the effect of an adobe village at the north end of town.

"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 the movie ranch'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

Quetzalcoatl flies — and kills — on the Iverson Movie Ranch

Quetzalcoatl — the feathered serpent deity of the Aztecs — made an appearance on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., in 1946 for the low-budget PRC horror flick "The Flying Serpent." And low-budget or not, the movie produced at least a couple of noteworthy location shots, thanks to the magic of special effects.

"The Flying Serpent" (1946)

The movie's opening shot, above, includes some real-world Iverson features at the bottom of the frame, incorporated into a fake Aztec setting via a superimposed backdrop at the top of the frame. I've pinpointed some of the key elements of the shot in the photo below.

The adobe village seen in the bottom half of the shot was in place in the Iverson Gorge throughout the late 1940s, and turns up occasionally in old PRC B-Westerns and other productions of the era. The buildings were temporary movie structures and had a tendency to move around, so the key thing that pinpoints exactly where the above shot was taken is The Wall, a massive rock feature at Iverson that clearly never moved — until it was destroyed after the filming days so that condos could be built in its place. The Wall is barely noticeable in the above shot, but it's there, and Potato Rock, which sat on top of The Wall, helps identify it.

Another shot from the movie further incorporates real-world Iverson rock features into a make-believe world that includes ancient Aztec structures. In this shot we see the full spread of the Devil's Doorway rock features at the bottom of the frame, and another set of Aztec buildings superimposed at the top.

The labels make for a "busy" photo, but the simple version is this: The bottom one-third of the frame consists mainly of actual Iverson Movie Ranch rocks, with the rest of the shot created through movie magic.

This shot appears to me to be yet another special effect  — a smaller-scale composite along the same lines as the larger-scale shots above — combining some unknown Iverson rocks at the bottom with a superimposed background that includes a representation of an Aztec structure.

The movie also has a fun scene in which Quetzalcoatl flies down from Tower Rock in Iverson's Garden of the Gods and attacks a guy. For the most part, shots of the deadly serpent in flight appear to have been filmed in and around Bronson Canyon, including just before Quetzalcoatl shows up in Garden of the Gods in the clip below. Check out the clip:

 

Quetzalcoatl