"The Outlaw Deputy": The day Karl and Augusta Iverson invited a movie company to shoot in their house

Karl and Augusta Iverson, ca. early 1940s (Quiet on the Set)

The Iverson Movie Ranch was founded by Karl and Augusta Iverson, who homesteaded in the rocky hills above the northwest San Fernando Valley in the late 19th century.

Iverson family watermelon crop (ca. early 1930s)

Like most of the families that settled the West, the Iversons' original livelihood came from farming. The family grew a variety of crops over the years, including potatoes, figs, grapes and watermelons.

"The Silent Man" (1917), one of the earliest movies filmed on the Iverson Ranch:
The rocks in the background can still be found at the site

After early Hollywood location scouts started sniffing around the couple's hillside property as early as 1912, Karl and Augusta began transitioning from farming to the movie location business.

Karl and Augusta Iverson's "house on the hill" under construction (ca. 1927)

By the late 1920s, their sons Joe and Aaron had taken over much of the day-to-day movie business, and Karl and Augusta moved into their new house overlooking the Valley.

Karl and Augusta's house after the January 1930 snowstorm

Built in about 1927, the house was located near the homes of both Joe and Aaron, but was remote enough to enable the couple to enjoy their golden years in relative privacy.

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" TV series (1960)

The movie business was generally kept a safe distance from the residence, which became known as the "Old Folks' House." It was only on rare occasions that a partial glimpse of the house might slip into the background of a movie or TV episode.

So it was out of character when, in 1935, Augusta and Karl allowed a film crew into their home to shoot a scene for the movie "The Outlaw Deputy."

"The Outlaw Deputy" (1935): Scene filmed in the Iversons' house

The brief scene plays out in a corner of the Iverson house, showcasing some of the building's distinctive arches. The location for this shoot would have been lost to history had it not been for the sharp eye of film historian Tinsley E. Yarbrough.

"The Outlaw Deputy": Nora Lane in the Iverson home

Tinsley noticed the scene in the movie and was able to pinpoint the location as the Old Folks' House — a jaw-dropping bit of location spotting, if you ask me.

"Foyer" area of the house, where the 1935 shoot takes place

The brief movie sequence essentially has two camera setups, one shooting west and one shooting south. Both setups were filmed in what I would call the "foyer" of the house, overlooking the Valley.

"The Outlaw Deputy": Rocky mound to the east of the Iverson Ranch

In a shot taken with the camera shooting to the east, we see a large rocky mound that today is located just east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Topanga would not be built through this area until the 1960s.

The same rocky mound, now located east of Topanga Canyon Boulevard

The rocky mound can still be found today, just across Topanga looking east from the former Iverson property.

Markers can be identified today that can also be seen in the movie. I've circled a number of rock clusters in this photo to facilitate matching them up against the background in the movie shot.

The same rock clusters are spotlighted here, with the outlines color-coded to match the recent shot above this one. The comparison is easier if you click on the photos to enlarge them.

Interesting rock seen with the camera shooting south

The property where the house once stood remains private and today is inaccessible. I hope to someday get a chance to track down the rock noted here, which I am almost certain would still be there.

The Old Folks' House in summer 2008

It's unclear whether the Old Folks' House had any full-time residents following the deaths of Karl and Augusta Iverson in the late 1940s. By the time I first came face to face with it in 2008 the place was all boarded up.

The boarded-up garage in 2008

After years of disuse, the Old Folks' House — aka the "House on the Hill" — became a hangout for kids hopping the fence from the nearby mobile home park.

Hangover Rock, which appeared frequently in productions, looms a short distance northwest of the house and garage.

Here's a better look at Hangover Rock in 2008, with a glimpse of the garage in the background. The African hut was a set for the NBC series "Heroes." (Click here to read more about the "Heroes" shoot.)

Remnants of the Old Folks' House after the 2008 Sesnon Fire

The Sesnon Fire, also known as the Porter Ranch Fire, ripped through the former Iverson Movie Ranch in fall 2008, destroying the Old Folks' House. I visited the site within weeks of the destruction and took pictures of the rubble.

After the fire: The "foyer"?

One part of the house that remained upright after the fire bears a resemblance to the "foyer" area used in "The Outlaw Deputy," although it does not appear to be correctly oriented. The design of the house included a number of arched entryways.

It's easy to miss the Chatsworth landmark Stoney Point, even though it looms large in the background. The shot is taken with the camera aimed toward the southeast.

Not surprisingly, the fireplace was also among the last features standing when the house burned down.

The foundation and fireplace in 2009

Not long after the fire the rubble was removed and the area was cleaned up. Even though this photo was taken in 2009, this is essentially what the foundation still looks like today.

Why "The Outlaw Deputy"?

The "Outlaw Deputy" shoot raises its share of questions. I can't help but wonder why, out of the thousands of productions filmed on their ranch, the Iversons opened their doors to an obscure Tim McCoy B-Western and then never repeated the gesture. I'd be interested to hear any theories.

I want to congratulate Tinsley E. Yarbrough on an amazing piece of detective work in spotting the "foyer" shoot, and would like to thank him again for all his great location research. Tinsley recently updated his seminal book "Those Great Western Movie Locations," which can be purchased through this previous blog post or by clicking on the Amazon icon below.

Bird's-eye view of Chatsworth, Calif., in the 1920s offers a glimpse at movie history in the northwest San Fernando Valley

Aerial photo of Chatsworth, Calif., circa 1920s

I found an old bird's-eye view of Chatsworth, Calif., at the library, and while it's low-res by today's Bing and Google Earth standards, it's an important shot from a film history standpoint. The photo provides insights into the area surrounding the Iverson Movie Ranch when it was first getting up to speed as a filming location back in the silent movie era. I recommend that you click on these photos to see larger versions of them.

This shot indicates where the Iverson Movie Ranch, divided into its upper and lower halves, fits into the landscape. The photo is not clear enough to provide a meaningful look at the Iverson Ranch itself, but it helps put the nearby hills, roads and other features in perspective. The undated photo appears to be from sometime in the 1920s.

Oat Mountain may be the most frequently seen background feature in productions filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch. Also noted here are Stoney Point — a Chatsworth landmark next to Topanga Canyon Boulevard that today is a popular rock-climbing destination — and a portion of the Brandeis Ranch that I call Brandeis Plain, which is often visible in the background in productions shot on the Upper Iverson. The Brandeis property was located immediately to the west of the Upper Iverson, and to the south and west of the Brandeis Estate was another filming location, the Lazy A Ranch, which operated mainly in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The most exciting discovery in the early photo is a road that is now known as Johnson Motorway or Johnson Mountain Way. These days the road, besides serving as a fire break, is part of a hiking loop that includes the Rocky Peak area to the west. But the photo reveals that it already existed as a relatively well-defined road as far back as the 1920s, suggesting that it would have been used as a route into and out of the northwestern corner of the San Fernando Valley. This route is not nearly as well-known as Santa Susana Pass Road, built in 1917, which connected — and still connects — the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley. The Johnson Motorway route is also much less well-documented than the old stagecoach road, which is not seen in this shot but entered the San Fernando Valley below Santa Susana Pass Road.

The old road winding its way down the hill from the northwest connected up in those days with Mayan Drive, part of early planned development in the foothills. The Twin Lakes project never fully took off, and the Deerlake Highlands development farther up the hill was a complete bust, with the land remaining undeveloped for almost 100 years. Today a small residential area at the northern end of Topanga bears the name Twin Lakes, and Mayan Drive runs through the neighborhood, connecting the top of Topanga with the top of Canoga. This shot also points out the location of the old Mayan Gate that marked the entrance to Twin Lakes. The gate stood near the southeast corner of the Iverson Movie Ranch until the 1950s.

1929 aerial: Roads for the Deerlake Highlands project already in place

The Twin Lakes neighborhood was only a small part of the grand scheme that included the proposed Deerlake Highlands development, and for almost a century the hills above Twin Lakes remained marked with some of the proposed residential streets that were carved out for Deerlake Highlands in the 1920s — mostly for homes that were never built.

 

Entrance to the new "Deerlake Ranch" gated community

The land that was designated to become Deerlake Highlands all the way back in the 1920s did eventually get developed, but not until the 21st century. Today it is a gated community known as "Deerlake Ranch," which has no connection to the original project other than geographic proximity and the use of the name. This development is visible in the hills above Chatsworth, appearing as a mass of relatively uniform homes filling the hillside area to the west of similar developments in Porter Ranch.

The Mayan Gate, marking the entrance to the Twin Lakes development

The above view of the Mayan Gate looks south, and would be the view visitors would get when leaving the Twin Lakes area. I know of one occasion when the Mayan Gate appeared in an old movie — the James Cagney feature "White Heat," which I discussed in this earlier blog entry. Visible in the distance in this shot, framed by the gate, is the hill known today as Summit Ridge, to the south of Twin Lakes and the Iverson Ranch.

 

"Old Los Angeles" (Republic, 1948): Summit Ridge turns up in the background

Summit Ridge, which today is another gated community, appears in the backgrounds of many movies filmed on the Iverson Ranch. This shot from the Bill Elliott Western "Old Los Angeles" is taken looking south through the Iverson Gorge, with Nyoka Cliff looming large on the left side of the frame and Hawk Rock jutting above the ridgeline on the right.

The Deerlake Highlands and Twin Lakes area in 2014

Here's a modern aerial photo showing the area of the proposed Twin Lakes and Deerlake Highlands developments. The neighborhood now known as Twin Lakes, circled in yellow at the bottom of the photo, is filled with unique residential homes, a rare few of which date back to the original development. The original Mayan Drive still winds through the neighborhood. Meanwhile, many of the roads that were carved out in the 1920s for Deerlake Highlands remained etched into the hills above the northwest San Fernando Valley as of 2014 and can be seen toward the top of the photo. The original layout was later destroyed as part of grading for today's Deerlake Ranch.

One feature that can be easily matched up between the circa 1920s bird's-eye photo and productions shot on the Iverson Movie Ranch is a short section of road set against the hills to the north of the Upper Iverson. I have been calling this section "Road Up the Hill" in my research, but thanks to the old bird's-eye shot, I now know that it was part of that original road that extended far to the northwest — the same road now known as Johnson Motorway and used mainly for hiking.

"Go West, Young Lady" (1941) — Road Up the Hill

Here's an example of a movie appearance by Road Up the Hill, or Johnson Motorway, in Columbia's musical-comedy Western "Go West, Young Lady," which starred Glenn Ford, Penny Singleton and Ann Miller. This shot is taken on the Upper Iverson, and Road Up the Hill can be seen in the top right corner.

The Line of Trees divided the Upper Iverson Movie Ranch from the Brandeis Estate to the west, including the section of the estate property I call Brandeis Plain. Road Up the Hill can be seen in the backgrounds of countless chase sequences filmed on both the Upper Iverson and the Lazy A Ranch, adjacent to the Brandeis Ranch. In this shot, a stagecoach can be seen near the center of the frame, speeding across the Upper Iverson.

"Johnny Concho" (United Artists, 1956)

Here's another movie appearance by Road Up the Hill, in the Frank Sinatra Western "Johnny Concho." Road Up the Hill appears near the top left corner, and this shot also features Bear Tree — a photogenic Upper Iverson oak tree that survived well into the 21st century.

This is the same "Johnny Concho" shot, pointing out Road Up the Hill and Bear Tree. Bear Tree was discussed in detail in this earlier blog post.

 

Frank Sinatra and Phyllis Kirk at Corriganville in "Johnny Concho"

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The old Mayan Gate to Chatsworth's historic Twin Lakes Park pops up in a James Cagney movie

Twin Lakes Park was a 1920s-era development in the hills above the northwest San Fernando Valley that was known for its Mayan and Aztec-style architecture and its two lakes — created by damming Chatsworth's Devils Creek and Browns Creek.

Twin Lakes Park — photo from promotional brochure, circa 1926

Twin Lakes Park disappeared decades ago, although its legacy survives in the form of a few artifacts — including the remnants of the two original dams; some old deteriorated strips of asphalt that used to be Mayan Drive, one of the main access roads to the park; and a current residential area known by the name Twin Lakes, located just above the 118 Freeway east of Topanga, near the original Twin Lakes.

 Twin Lakes Park Gate, looking south

One thing that no longer exists is the massive Mayan-style gate that marked one of the main entrances to Twin Lakes — straddling Mayan Drive just above Santa Susana Pass Road, a short distance west of Topanga.

 Approximately the same view, looking south

You may or may not see the similarity in the shape of the background hills in the above two shots, but the second shot is my attempt to re-create the view through the Twin Lakes Park Gate, as seen in the old shot of the gate. I wasn't able to duplicate the angle exactly.

"White Heat," 1949

Twin Lakes Park's Mayan Gate made a fleeting appearance in the James Cagney film noir "White Heat," as seen in the above screen shot. As far as I've been able to determine, no one has previously identified the structure seen in this movie as the gate to Twin Lakes Park. The gate appears suddenly and is on screen only briefly, showing up during a sequence focused on a speeding car. The portion of the gate seen above, at the right of the shot, is all we see of it in the movie. Directed by Raoul Walsh, the movie is widely considered to be one of Cagney's best, and includes his iconic line, "Made it, Ma — top of the world!"

The site of the Mayan Gate today

The location of the Mayan Gate was immediately to the east of what is generally thought of as the southeast corner of the Iverson Ranch. The gate may in fact have been situated on property that at one time or other was a part of the ranch. The land shares the topography of Iverson, including its distinctive sandstone boulders. One of those boulders, seen in the above photo, remains at the site today and helps pinpoint where the gate was located. A little bit of the remains of Mayan Drive can also be seen in the above shot.

Here's a poor-resolution photo from the old promotional brochure for Twin Lakes, showing the gate holding a sign reading "Twin Lakes Park." One of the most important details in this shot is the boulder just above and to the left of the gate — the same boulder found at the site today and seen in the photo above this one. The big rocks in front of the gate — seen here and in the "White Heat" shot above — no longer exist, having been removed when Santa Susana Pass Road was built through to Topanga.

Click here to see a previous blog entry about James Cagney's connection to the Iverson Movie Ranch — including Cagney Rock, which can still be found at the site today.

Topanga Canyon Boulevard — sort of — circa 1947 (updated)

This is an older blog entry that I decided to update and repost because I've learned more about it since then and wanted to clarify some details. The above shot is from the 1947 Republic serial "The Black Widow," directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and Fred C. Brannon, with cinematography by the great John MacBurnie. We're looking north along what I believed when I originally posted this to be part of Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Chatsworth, circa 1947. I originally noted: "Anyone familiar with that corner of the San Fernando Valley knows that Topanga has come a long way from being an undeveloped two-lane country road with nothing but a fruit stand as far as the eye can see. These days it's fully built out and even at six lanes wide or more, constantly jammed with cars."

However, I've since learned that Topanga Canyon Boulevard didn't exist at that time, at least not that far north. It's a bit of a technicality, as this stretch of road appears to be in more or less the same place where one finds Topanga now — and old aerial photos of the area do show a country road following much of the route now occupied by Topanga. The stretch of road seen above was most likely part of Old Santa Susana Pass Road, which followed part of the current Topanga route through what was then a very rural eastern San Fernando Valley. It's definitely Chatsworth, based on the landmarks noted below (from the original post).

Among the landmarks in this screen shot are Stoney Point on the far right and some of the rocks at or near the Iverson Movie Ranch in the center background, which would be right where the 118 freeway now crosses Topanga. All the way in the background is Oat Mountain.

Here's a more recent shot of Stoney Point, which is a familiar sight to motorists traveling along the northern end of Topanga. It's a popular rock-climbing venue these days. It has minimal history as a movie location in its own right, but it appears frequently in the background of films shot at the nearby Iverson Movie Ranch.

Stoney Point also figures prominently in a well-known promo shot for John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940), seen above. In the movie itself, Stoney Point was cut out of the shot, with the focus instead on the rich farmland that surrounded it in 1940 — all of which has since been fully developed into residential and business properties. Check out Jerry England's blog for a good entry on Stoney Point, including a bit more about "Grapes of Wrath."

Here's an example of how this shot is handled in the movie:

The sequence is shot from Iverson's Overlook Point, also known as the camera mount. This view signifies the arrival of the Joad family in the promised land of California, where they have been counting on finding agricultural jobs. After barely making it through the Mojave Desert, they're pretty excited to see how good the land is here.

While I've never been able to properly explain it, I find a sort of circular perfection — albeit a bit disturbing — in Hollywood telling the story of the migration to California for farming, when ultimately the even more defining migration to California may have been for Hollywood itself, for the burgeoning movie industry — a migration that in fact brought about the destruction of farmland for housing and movie sets (including Iverson), along with the decidedly "farming unfriendly" diversion of water from rural areas to L.A. Inevitably, Hollywood and L.A. got too big to even allow the industry's movie sets to survive, and they eventually succumbed to the spiraling development pressure and, in some cases (as in the case of the Upper Iverson), wound up hosting the sprawling homes of those who had made their fortunes in Hollywood.

"The Real McCoys" offers another perspective, even if it's a lot lighter in tone.

On another lighter note, Stoney Point is a great place to see faces pop out of the rocks. Below are a couple of the characters I spotted in the recent photo of Stoney Point:

Creature From the Black Lagoon

The Alien