Glenn Strange and his "Strange Rock": Sam the Bartender on "Gunsmoke" wasn't always such a nice guy — just ask the Lone Ranger!

"Gunsmoke": Glenn Strange as Sam the Bartender

Fans of "Gunsmoke" know Glenn Strange mainly as Sam Noonan, the mild-mannered, albeit occasionally shotgun-wielding, bartender in Miss Kitty's Long Branch Saloon.

Glenn Strange: B-Western baddie

But before he settled down in 1961 for what would turn out to be 12 years and 238 episodes of steady, law-abiding work keeping Dodge City liquored up, Strange spent three decades in Hollywood piling up a resume as one of the baddest — and busiest — bad guys in the Westerns.

"Last Stagecoach West" (1957): Glenn Strange in the Iverson Gorge

As one of the most prolific actors in B-Westerns and early TV Westerns, Strange was a regular on the Iverson Movie Ranch. Between his career in movies going back to 1930 and his TV work starting with "The Lone Ranger" in 1949, Strange appeared in close to 600 productions.

Glenn Strange as Frankenstein's monster

Strange also played Frankenstein's monster in a series of Universal horror films in the 1940s, taking over the role made famous by Boris Karloff after Karloff reportedly got tired of being the monster all the time.

"The Lone Ranger," Episode 1: Glenn Strange as Butch Cavendish (1949)

One of Strange's signature roles came in the TV series "The Lone Ranger." Starting in the show's first episode, Strange played one of the most hated characters of his career — the brutal killer Butch Cavendish.

The Cavendish Gang gathers in Iverson's Garden of the Gods to plan an ambush

In a way, Strange's character created the Lone Ranger. Early in episode one of the TV show, Cavendish masterminded an ambush of a group of Texas Rangers that left almost all of them dead — all except one, who would recover from his injuries and would go on to become the Lone Ranger.

L.A.'s Bronson Canyon: Members of the Cavendish Gang lie in wait

The ambush scene was edited together from two location shoots in two different parts of L.A. — one in Bronson Canyon, near Griffith Park, and one on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth. Many of the shots of the bushwhackers were filmed in Bronson Canyon.

Texas Rangers ride into trouble in L.A.'s Bronson Canyon

The "box canyon" configuration of Bronson Canyon — a setup that a layman might call a "dead end" — makes it the ideal spot for an ambush.

Glenn Strange as Cavendish — the Phantom in the background

But shots of Cavendish himself during the ambush were filmed in front of a distinctive rock located on the Iverson Movie Ranch: the Phantom, one of the many sandstone giants found in the Garden of the Gods.

Cavendish, center, is joined by members of his gang at his ambush perch in front of the Phantom. The Phantom is readily identified by the smaller rock protruding over the edge at the top of the larger rock.

This is what the Phantom looks like today, from farther back. Here again we can see the smaller rock, at top center, sticking out over the edge of the larger rock.

The rocks seen in the "Lone Ranger" shot tend to blend into each other, but the shot includes three main rock features, as noted here — the Phantom in the background (Rock A), a rock immediately behind the bushwhackers (Rock B) and the rock in the foreground that provides cover for the bushwhackers (Rock C).

The same site as it appears today (photo by Tony M)

The general location for this shot has been known for several years. I blogged about the sequence back in 2010, soon after identifying the Phantom as the rock in the background. But it was only a couple of months ago that the other rocks in the shot were identified.

Iverson aficionado Tony M pointed out the site to me when he was here in September on a tour of movie locations. Tony also took this photo at that time — and I've taken the liberty of marking it up to show the three main rocks.

Rock C: "Glenn Strange Rock," in foreground

The identification of Rocks B and C is historically significant, given the central role the site played in the "Lone Ranger" story. I couldn't resist calling Rock C "Glenn Strange Rock," or just "Strange Rock," in honor of Glenn Strange. The rock's slightly "strange" shape only makes the name that much more appropriate.

"Desire" (1936): Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich

Rocks B and C turn up in a number of other productions as well, although they're generally not seen from the angles used in "The Lone Ranger." Both rocks are visible in the background in this screen shot from the Marlene Dietrich-Gary Cooper movie "Desire."

I mentioned Rock C — referring to it generically at the time as "the pointed rock" — when I wrote a couple of years ago about the Garden of the Gods shoot for "Desire." You can see the original post by clicking here.

Where Glenn Strange was positioned during filming of the "Lone Ranger" ambush

Taking a closer look at the "Lone Ranger" ambush site today, we can see that the almost 45-degree slope on the south side of Glenn Strange Rock, where Cavendish and his henchmen were positioned, would have made this a precarious shoot — even without the dried brush that now occupies much of the space.

Presumably Glenn Strange and the other actors had some kind of scaffolding to stand on during filming.

"The Flying Deuces" (Laurel and Hardy, 1939)

"Rock B" from the ambush sequence has its own claim to fame, having provided the foundation for a mountain of laundry during the famous "laundry scene" in the 1939 Laurel and Hardy movie "The Flying Deuces."

The Phantom and "Rock B" in modern times

Here's "Rock B" without the laundry piled on top of it. I posted a blog item last year providing additional details about this shoot, which you can find by clicking on this link.

Map to Glenn Strange Rock and the "Lone Ranger" ambush site

If you can find your way to Redmesa Road in Chatsworth, Calif., you can probably find Glenn Strange Rock and the site of the "Lone Ranger" ambush. Park on Redmesa, just before the condos, and head for the blue gate on the west side of the road. Behind the gate, take Garden of the Gods Trail; at the top, continue straight ahead.

Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper rendezvous at the border between France and Spain — really the Iverson Movie Ranch's Garden of the Gods

I found a terrific sequence filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch in the 1936 Paramount movie "Desire," starring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich — with both of the film's big stars putting in some time on location in Iverson's Garden of the Gods for the sequence.

Dietrich watches as Cooper tries to figure out what's wrong with her car in a scene that takes place at the border crossing from France into Spain. In reality it was shot in the Garden of the Gods on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif. Notice the sharp, pointed rock in the top right corner, which is a widely filmed movie rock.

The same pointed rock appears at the far left in this shot taken on a recent visit to Iverson. You can also see Rocky Peak in the background, in the hills directly to the west of Iverson.

The pointed rock is at the left again in this shot from the 1937 Columbia B-Western "Ranger Courage." You may recognize the rock at the right, as it also appears in the recent shot above.

Here's one more look at the pointed rock, in the 1938 RKO B-Western "The Renegade Ranger," starring George O'Brien. This time the pointed rock fills up the middle of the frame.

A promotional still of Dietrich in the car was part of the Iverson shoot, with minor Garden of the Gods rocks visible in the background. The car was a fairly spectacular ride back in its day (and still is) — a 1935 Auburn 851 Supercharged Boattail Speedster.

Here's a shot of the Auburn 851 in action, cruising past Iverson rocks as it nears the border crossing. It's kind of obviously not Dietrich at the wheel in this shot, but I'm not going to quibble about that with all the great shots coming up.

This is what the same car looked like when it was put up for auction in 2010. This was the exact car used in the movie, and it had been specially fitted with a rear-mounted spare for the movie. The spare was removed before the sale to restore the car to its original state, but was included as part of the sale.

Here's another shot of the car as it appeared when it was being auctioned. I'm told it went for $377,000.

The focal point of the scene in "Desire" is the border crossing between France and Spain, a source of tension because Dietrich's character is carrying stolen pearls. Here Dietrich's car approaches the crossing, where the filmmakers apparently built a set in the Garden of the Gods to serve as the border guards' headquarters.

Dietrich's car arrives at the border, with a familiar Iverson movie rock visible in the distance, at top center.

That same movie rock as it appears today, toward the top left of this shot. The rock is a prominent feature of the Iverson Gorge and a part of the Hole in the Wall group. I have referred to it in the past as GTR, and noted that from its back side it adopts the persona of a Jaunty Sailor. I hope you can match up the profiles of the rock in the above two photos.

Another view of the border crossing. Now Cooper is behind Dietrich in his Pontiac, about to get dragged into her situation. This shot offers a better view of part of the border crossing set, along with an improved view of some of the rocks.

This shot of Dietrich has the look of a studio shot or backlot, and we might think that's what it was if we hadn't already got a look at the border crossing set. She was on location at Iverson, and at this point was setting her sights on Cooper.

Dietrich and Cooper connect, with Garden of the Gods and part of the set in the background. Technically, I've never heard that this set was built specifically for this movie, but everything adds up: Paramount had the budget for that sort of thing, and this was a heavily filmed area and a busy time for Iverson. If these buildings had been built for any other reason, or had remained standing for any length of time, they would have turned up in other productions.

Another shot from the sequence, featuring Cooper's Pontiac, is also filmed in Garden of the Gods. Notice the rock and tree in the background.

"Cowboy Holiday" (1934)

The same rock and tree also surface in the 1934 Guinn "Big Boy" Williams B-Western "Cowboy Holiday," as seen above.

By the end of the scene in "Desire," Cooper is clearly smitten with Dietrich — and appears to have no idea what kind of trouble he's in.

"Desire" seems to be a hard movie to find. I wanted to include a link here for a DVD or Blu-ray on Amazon.com, but I could only find non-USA DVD formats and clunky old VHS — so you're on your own. Good luck!