Remembering Burt Reynolds and his 1962 photo shoot for "Gunsmoke" — shot on the Iverson Movie Ranch (Was Burt Reynolds left-handed?)

Burt Reynolds on the Iverson Movie Ranch, 1962

In celebration of the life of film icon Burt Reynolds, who died this week at 82, the Iverson Movie Ranch Blog is updating some posts about Burt and his work on the Iverson Ranch. I was delighted back in 2013 when I ran across these promotional photos of Reynolds from 1962, taken on the Upper Iverson.

Burt Reynolds photo shoot for "Gunsmoke" (1962)

The photo shoot was done in connection with the long-running TV Western "Gunsmoke." The above two shots are the only ones I've been able to find in color, and these appear to be the main ones released from the shoot. But a few black-and-white shots are also in circulation, and I've included some of those below. The shoot took place on the Fury Set, a ranch set that was built beginning in 1955 for the TV show "Fury." The set included the barn and house seen in the above shots, along with a corral and a small cabin.

One quirk I noticed about the "Gunsmoke" shoot is that the barn photo above is horizontally flipped — in effect creating a mirror image of the actual shot. An easy way to tell something's off is by comparing Burt's hair in the two photos above. Other clues include the wristband, which appears to switch arms, and the orientation of his gun in the two shots. It took a little detective work to figure out which photo is properly oriented and which is flipped, but after studying the backgrounds I was able to determine that the barn shot is the one that's reversed. As a bonus, it also dawned on me in the process that the barn shot was taken looking south, showcasing the rarely seen north end of the barn. (It looks about the same as the much more commonly seen south end.)

The barn shot should really look like this:

Burt Reynolds promo shot, with correct orientation

In the background is Cactus Hill — the hill that divided the Upper and Lower Iverson. Cactus Hill is still in place, just north of the 118 Freeway, and now has a couple of water tanks sitting on top of it.

Here's another shot from the same sequence — I tend to think of this one as an outtake. But the fact that it circulates in this orientation lends a little bit of support to what we already knew: that the barn shot near the top of this blog post is flipped. This shot also reveals more of Cactus Hill in the background.

Billy the Kid — circa 1879: left-handed or right-handed?

One tidbit I took away from this research is that Burt must have been left-handed, at least when it came to shooting a gun — unless he  just decided to play the character left-handed for some reason. I never did figure out whether Reynolds was in fact left-handed, but it's an issue of some importance when it comes to the Wild West. As an example, the "handedness" of Billy the Kid was debated for almost 100 years, in part because of the above photo.

Billy the Kid — properly oriented

Billy the Kid — born William Henry McCarty Jr. — was eventually determined to be right-handed, and the original ferrotype photo, thought for more than a century to be the only surviving image of the outlaw, was determined to be a mirror image. In its proper orientation, as seen here, Billy holds a Winchester carbine in his left hand, but his six-shooter is strapped to his right side. So even though Billy the Kid and Burt Reynolds don't share the trait of being left-handed, they do share the experience of having a "promotional" photo flipped horizontally.

Paul Newman as Billy the Kid in "The Left Handed Gun" (1958)

The legend of Billy the Kid as a left-handed gunslinger was so entrenched in modern culture that his story was told in a 1958 feature film titled "The Left Handed Gun," with Paul Newman portraying Billy in all his mythical left-handed glory.

A comic book version also appeared. I found it interesting that the original photo was tilted slightly to create a better composition for the comic book cover.

Burt Reynolds on the Fury Set at Iverson

Burt Reynolds had a pretty good run on "Gunsmoke" playing Quint, a half-Comanche blacksmith, from 1962-1965. Reynolds played the character in about 50 episodes, and the exposure helped jump-start his career. He had been kicking around TV, mostly in one-off roles, since about 1959, but his movie career had yet to take off. Right after "Gunsmoke," Reynolds landed the lead role in the spaghetti Western "Navajo Joe" (1966), and his film career was off and running. A few years later — in 1972 — he became a huge star thanks to "Deliverance."

The above shot shows the more commonly seen south end of the Fury Barn, along with part of the Fury Corral.

The above picture of a more stripped-down Burt — showing off his formidable biceps — was part of the same photo shoot as the other shots. The setting is still somewhere near the Fury Set, based once again on Cactus Hill in the background. Reynolds frequently appeared shirtless on "Gunsmoke," or at least with bare arms, and my guess is they had him gradually peel off his clothes as the shoot went on to get him closer to the "real" Quint.

In another promo shot showing off Reynolds' arms, we can see that he's still wearing the wristband, further evidence that it's all the same shoot.

The "Gunsmoke" gang — including Burt Reynolds as Quint

Even though "Gunsmoke" did the Quint promo shoot on the Iverson Movie Ranch, the series did not shoot at the ranch during the seasons Reynolds was on the show. "Gunsmoke" taped quite a few episodes there during other seasons — maybe as many as 50 episodes in all. The show aired from 1955 to 1975, breaking most of the TV longevity records and amassing a whopping 635 total episodes — and included during that run were a number of memorable Iverson Movie Ranch shoots.


Here is a clip of Burt Reynolds in his full fury on "Gunsmoke" — taken from the episode "The Bad One," which originally aired Jan. 26, 1963. The clip is shot in the studio and has nothing to do with the Iverson Ranch, but it's good fun — even if most or all of the actual fighting was done by Burt's perennial wingman, Hal Needham.

For additional views of the Fury Barn, please click here to see a previous blog entry featuring the barn. The following links should point you to the Burt Reynolds seasons of "Gunsmoke" on Amazon, in case you're interested in owning them on DVD or Blu-ray:

It's Springtime on the Iverson Ranch ... and the Cactus Is in Bloom

This blog post has a soundtrack, starting with the Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry. Just play the above video while you scroll down. (The photos below are better if you click on them to see a bigger version.)

If you're into cactus — and with Gene Autry singing about it, how can you not be? — a terrific place to see them in all their glory is Cactus Hill on the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif.

The word is that Joe Iverson, who oversaw filming on the ranch for more than 60 years, planted most of the cactus on Cactus Hill himself. Joe had a green thumb and was known to do large-scale plantings of a variety of flora.

Most of the cactus plants on the hill are of the prickly pear variety. I don't know the scientific name, but they're fascinating plants that have some unusual habits.

For example, here's one that decided to grow in the shape of a heart.

The heart-shaped cactus lives right in the middle of a bunch of "normal" ones.

Here's something that's probably normal for cactus plants, but I still thought it was a little unusual.

It's a new hunk of cactus growing right out of the surface of an older hunk.


Since that Gene Autry track is barely a minute long, here's another version of the cactus song to keep the soundtrack going. This one's by Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass.

I've been up there a few times lately to track the progress of the cactus blossoms. It appears to me that a lot of them are still waiting for the right moment to open up.

In areas that get more sun, the blossoming is further along.

Most of the cactus blossoms are yellow, although I've seen a few red ones here and there.

The trail at the top of Cactus Hill is punctuated by one impressive cactus field after another.

A single cactus leaf can hold a huge collection of buds. This batch of about 25 individual buds appears to still be a week or two away from full bloom.

Cactus, movie rocks and a view of the San Fernando Valley to the south

A few movie rocks are sprinkled among the cactus, although Cactus Hill wasn't nearly as heavily filmed as other areas of the ranch. The hill was a hard place for film crews to access — and remains a little out of the way today.

Along with the cactus, a number of other colorful plants can be found on Cactus Hill. I'm no plant expert, so I won't try to identify anything. But this was an especially pretty batch of flowers.

For the most part the colors are subdued, but we do get a nice blend of gold and lavender in spots.

Looking southwest from Cactus Hill

The foliage on Cactus Hill, and all over the Iverson Ranch, is much thicker than usual in the wake of Southern California's wettest winter in years.

As I was heading back down the hill in the late evening a few weeks ago, I caught an unusual shot of the Santa Susana Mountains to the west. The profiles seen here turn up regularly in old Westerns and other productions.

The Year in Review: Top 10 Iverson Movie Ranch finds of 2016

"Code of the Secret Service" (1939): Iverson Gorge

Here's a Top 10 list counting down the best Iverson Movie Ranch discoveries of the past year ...

No. 10

Joe Iverson's incredible old tractor

 

Joe Iverson rides one of the greatest tractors ever

Joe Iverson, who ran all or part of the Iverson Movie Ranch for 60-plus years, had a lot of cool toys, and his vintage grader/crawler was one of the coolest.

• Click here to see the original post about Joe's tractor, from July 2016.

No. 9

The Roy Rogers rock on top of Cactus Hill

"The Roy Rogers Show" (1952)

An episode of "The Roy Rogers Show" features an unusual rock, which was recently spotted at the east end of Cactus Hill — despite having changed its appearance over the years. The site also has a few things to say about the history of filming in that area.

• Click here to see the original post about Roy's encounter with the rock on Cactus Hill, published in August 2016.

No. 8

The former location of the Hangman's Tree

The Hangman's Tree on the Lower Iverson (from "An Ambush of Ghosts")

While the Hangman's Tree itself did not survive, we were able to determine the exact location where it once stood — and we did find the nearby Hangman's Tree Rock.

• Click here to see the original post about the Hangman's Tree, published in October 2016.

No. 7

Where Jesus walked in Silverland 

 

"The Living Bible" (1952) — Jesus comes to the Iverson Movie Ranch

Jesus and two Lone Rangers — the original, from the 1930s Republic serials, and the more famous one from the 1950s TV series — all made their way to Silverland on the Lower Iverson. But the biggest Silverland find of 2016 may have been the discovery of an important saucer-shaped movie rock.

Saucer, left, and Mushroom Rock in "The Man From Colorado" (1948)

We took a "long, strange trip through Silverland" early in the year and were able to unlock a number of its mysteries by decoding clues contained in its few surviving rocks. One of the biggest surprises was the discovery that the widely filmed rock "Saucer" can still be found.

• Click here to revisit the adventures of Jesus and two Lone Rangers among the fascinating rocks of Silverland — along with the discovery that the Saucer has survived — from April 2016.

No. 6

An amazing Iverson Movie Ranch sequence in "Montana Moon," the first singing cowboy movie 

 

Johnny Mack Brown in "Montana Moon" (1930)

The era of talking in movies had just begun, and when "Montana Moon" came out in 1930, it launched the era of the singing cowboy. The movie includes a great sequence filmed along the western edge of Garden of the Gods overlooking Santa Susana Pass Road — not to mention one of the best buttressing shots ever filmed at Iverson.

• Click here to see the original post about the remarkable Iverson Movie Ranch sequence in "Montana Moon," from October 2016.

No. 5

Joe Iverson's butterfly collection, hunting trophies and other prize possessions are captured on film

Kelly Sullivan in "Death by Dialogue" (1988), with a few of Joe's butterflies

Joe Iverson's museum is on display in the movie "Death by Dialogue." The trophy room alone elevates this low-budget thriller into a unique artifact of movie history.

• Click here to see the original post about "Death by Dialogue" and Joe's vast collections, from June 2016.

No. 4

The "Muffin" rock behind the Grove Cabin has popped its muffin

"Bells of Rosarita" (1945): giant muffin-shaped rock behind cabin

A muffin-shaped rock once stood directly behind the little building known as the Grove Cabin. The rock is still there but it no longer looks like a muffin — and we found out why.

• Click here to see the original post about what became of the giant muffin, from earlier this month — December 2016.

No. 3

The "kill rock" from the Hopalong Cassidy movie "Mystery Man"

"Mystery Man" (1944): Hoppy's gun casts a shadow on the Kill Rock

The Kill Rock in the Hopalong Cassidy movie "Mystery Man" took multiple expeditions to find, encompassing both Lone Pine and the Iverson Ranch. Between me and Don Kelsen, we eventually found the thing hiding in plain sight.

• Click here to see the original post about the "Mystery Man" Kill Rock, from September 2016.

No. 2

A film shoot inside Karl and Augusta Iverson's house in 1935 

"The Outlaw Deputy" (1935) — the view from the Iversons' house on the hill

Film historian Tinsley E. Yarbrough spotted this scene filmed inside the home of Iverson Movie Ranch founders Karl and Augusta Iverson in the Western "The Outlaw Deputy." It may be the only time anyone filmed in the house on the hill.

 • Click here to see the original post about the 1935 shoot inside Karl and Augusta's house, from October 2016.

No. 1

The "grassy knoll" — a mystery from "Little Big Horn" that took 65 years to solve

"Little Big Horn" (1951): Sheb Wooley's sad fate on the grassy knoll

The location where Sheb Wooley's character met his grisly demise in the classic Western "Little Big Horn" has long perplexed movie historians — but a couple of us put our heads together early this year and, thanks to the sharp eye of veteran location researcher Eddie Henn, we finally solved the mystery.

• Click here to see the original post about the discovery of the "grassy knoll" of "Little Big Horn" infamy, from February 2016.

Here are a few finds from the past year that didn't quite make it into the Top 10 — click on the text to be linked to the original blog items ...

• The rediscovery of an old movie road on the north side of Cactus Hill

• Promo stills from the John Wayne movie "The Fighting Seabees" with surprising details hidden way in the background

• The crack where the Japanese sniper was stationed in "The Fighting Seabees"

• Some overlooked rock survivors found in the Iverson Gorge

To catch up on additional discoveries on the Iverson Movie Ranch in recent years, here are links to past "Year in Review" posts ...

Top Iverson Movie Ranch finds of 2015

• Click here to review the major discoveries of 2015, when an Elvis Presley filming location, a fake cave house from the silent era, Burgess Meredith's "Siedry-Bert" inscription, a wonderland of old movie footholds and the location of the Chinese Bridge from the 1926 movie "Tell It to the Marines" all made the list.

Top Iverson Movie Ranch finds of 2014

• Click here for a look back at 2014, a year in which Bear Tree, the Hobbit House, the remains of Freddie Frog, the Charles Bronson Hanging Tree and Tom Mix's bootholes from the 1935 Mascot serial "The Miracle Rider" were among the year's biggest discoveries.

Roy Rogers' rocky rendezvous on Cactus Hill

"The Roy Rogers Show" ("Unwilling Outlaw," premiered March 8, 1952)

I found myself on Cactus Hill the other day searching for something that Iverson co-conspirator Cliff Roberts pointed out in an old episode of "The Roy Rogers Show."

The rock noted here has a featured role in a brief sequence where Roy comes to the aid of the "unwilling outlaw" of the episode title — a friend of Roy and Dale's who everyone thinks has gone bad.

A wider view of the area provides a nice look at the rock, along with a view of the foothills to the east of the Iverson Movie Ranch. Filming for the episode would have taken place late in 1951.

I've noted the rock again here to make it clear which rock I was trying to find. Based on its context in the episode, I expected to find it on top of Cactus Hill, near the east end of the hill.

While we're at it, I want to make sure you notice Roy, who's helping his fallen friend at the side of the trail.

We get a pretty good look at the rock in this shot of Roy helping Jed Collins, aka the "unwilling outlaw," played by prolific B-Western baddie I. Stanford Jolley. Not to spoil it, but Jolley plays a good guy here.

The same rock, as it appears in 2016

On my recent trip to Cactus Hill — the small hill that once separated the Upper Iverson from the Lower Iverson — I found the rock right where it was supposed to be. However, I have to admit I had a little trouble recognizing it.

The rock has undergone a bit of a facelift since 1951 — although "lift" probably isn't the right word. A big chunk at the top of the rock fell off at some point during the 65 years since "The Roy Rogers Show" filmed here.

It's an important piece, going a long way to define the look of the rock as it appeared back in 1951.

Fortunately, other markers on the rock can be identified, ensuring a positive match between then and now.

The same markers on the rock are highlighted in the same colors in the above two photos. Plus, the overall shape of the rock is pretty distinctive, even with the piece missing.

"Turban Rock," right, with the rock seen in "Unwilling Outlaw" on the left

The rock from the "Roy Rogers" episode is located close to an instantly recognized rock that I've been tracking for some time, which I call "Turban Rock" in my research. The two rocks overlook the western San Fernando Valley.

"Gun Street" (United Artists, 1961): Turban Rock

Positioned near the top of Cactus Hill, Turban Rock can be seen from many different angles and pops up in backgrounds all the time. However, the rock does not appear in the "Roy Rogers" episode.

Taking another look at the wide shot from "Unwilling Outlaw," let me call your attention to the background hills highlighted here.

This recent vista taken from near the "Unwilling Outlaw" rock includes the same background features in their contemporary setting. Suffice to say the place has gone through some changes.

The most obvious change since the "Roy Rogers" days is development, with the homes of the massive Porter Ranch development now occupying much of the landscape.

At the same time, many of the hills — especially those in the distance — remain largely untouched. The features identified here as A, B, C, D and E can all be found in the "Roy Rogers" vista.

Some of the most distant features are hard to make out here — particularly the peak labeled "C." But they're all here if you look closely.

The foothill that might be considered the "next hill over" looking east from Cactus Hill has paid a price in its battle against encroaching development in the years since Roy Rogers rode the local range.

This hill, which sits right in the middle of the largely built-out Porter Ranch area, has had a number of chunks taken out of it, and in fact has itself been earmarked for further development.

Hill in the middle of Porter Ranch (east of Cactus Hill and the Iverson Ranch)

This is what the hill to the east of Cactus Hill looks like today in a Google aerial — already carved up into individual lots and waiting to be developed into a high-profile suburban jungle that will match the surrounding neighborhoods.

Roy Rogers poses for a photo with two kids who showed up 

during a location shoot on the Upper Iverson (circa 1951)

A quick word about Roy Rogers, who I've always thought was one of the coolest of the old cowboy stars. By all accounts, he was a genuinely nice guy, and numerous photos have turned up that support that claim — including this one of Roy taking time out from an Iverson shoot to delight a couple of kids with a photo op.

I only wish someone would see to it that "The Roy Rogers Show," which is not on DVD in complete form and hard to find in any kind of decent quality, gets a long-overdue remastered DVD release of the full series.