"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"
The Iverson Movie Ranch was home to a number of well-used fake caves and
fake mines during the filming days, but I recently heard about a little-known one that was set up in Central Garden of the Gods in the late 1950s.
"Wyatt Earp" episode "Frontier Surgeon"
Iverson researcher Cliff Roberts noticed the cave in "Frontier Surgeon," an episode of the TV series "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp." The episode premiered Jan. 19, 1960, and would have been shot in 1959.
Phantom — the north face
The cave entrance appeared over a large crack on the south side of Phantom, one of the most iconic boulders in Garden of the Gods. The above photo from recent years shows the more familiar north side of Phantom.
"Tennessee's Partner" (1955): Anthony Caruso in the crack on the south side of Phantom
The crack on Phantom's south side is famous in its own right, having played a pivotal role in the RKO Western "Tennessee's Partner." Spoiler alert: Skip ahead if you don't want to know that a certain U.S. president gets gunned down near here. As Iverson location shoots go, that
"Tennessee's Partner" sequence is a barnburner.
"Frontier Surgeon": Fake cave built over the crack
The crack on the south side of Phantom is right where the fake cave was built that appears in "Wyatt Earp." This area is "Grubstake's Claim," so named after its role in "Tennessee's Partner."
Damian O'Flynn guest stars on the episode as Dr. Goodfellow, the "Frontier Surgeon" of the title. The other two guys are series regulars.
At one point in "Frontier Surgeon," bad guys start pouring out of the fake cave, guns blazing.
This wide shot gives a better idea of where the cave was located. Besides the famous scene in "Tennessee's Partner," the same area in Central Garden of the Gods was where
Elvis Presley filmed the original tent scene for "Harum Scarum" in 1965. A few feet away and a few years earlier, wild boars caused trouble in "Old Yeller."
The shot is taken with the camera aimed toward the west, with a hazy view of the Santa Susana Mountains in the distance, to the west of the Iverson Movie Ranch.
This is a shot I took not long ago of that same part of the Santa Susana Mountains. This ridge west of Garden of the Gods, which I call Boat Hill, can be spotted in the background in a lot of old movies and TV shows.
Here's another recent shot that includes Boat Hill. Part of Central Garden of the Gods can also be seen in this photo, including the important marker Getaway Rock.
Getaway Rock turns up again in the "Wyatt Earp" sequence, as noted here. Also note the large bump on the rock on which Wyatt Earp is leaning as he and his associates get the jump on the outlaw gang.
This photo from a recent visit captures the same bump on the rock, near the top left corner, along with a partial view of Getaway Rock, to the left of the bump.
The angle here is different from the one seen in the TV show. You may or may not be able to match up the bumps in the two shots, but other features are readily identifiable.
The horizontal lines can also be seen in the "Wyatt Earp" shots.
This shot from "Wyatt Earp" has it all: the bump, the horizontal lines, a tiny semblance of the diagonal crack where the fake cave entrance construction begins ... and the entrance itself.
The bump, the lines and the cave are all noted here.
A huge diagonal crack appears in the recent shot, near the right end of the horizontal lines, but does not appear in the "Wyatt Earp" shot. That's because in the TV show the crack marks the beginning of the section of the rock that is filled in with material forming the fake cave entrance.
"Tennessee's Partner"
The huge crack is also visible in the shot of Anthony Caruso from "Tennessee's Partner."
In "Tennessee's Partner," we also get a good look at the main cave area, just to the right of the diagonal crack. The cave, which is shallow, appears in its natural state in the movie — in contrast to the "enhanced" artificial cave we see in "Wyatt Earp."
How
about a special shoutout to this important little diagonal sliver of shadowy intent — I mean, sliver of a shadowy indent — pointing the way to where the fake cave material begins, to the
right.
I'd say roughly this much is fake. I don't know, fake caves can be pretty lame. Speaking from the heart ... I won't come out and say this one is lame, but let's just say it's not the most convincing fake cave ever seen.
Lane Bradford, in "Wyatt Earp"
I'd be remiss not to point out Lane Bradford, one of the most familiar bad guys in the B-Westerns.
He's right here in all those shots of the cave. His character in the "Wyatt Earp" episode is "Swanee." Having a character name can be an upgrade for a TV outlaw. Bradford was often billed generically as "henchman."
Lane Bradford, right, with fellow outlaw Jimmy Noel in the "Wyatt Earp" episode
Bradford never lost his stride when the Westerns shifted to TV in the 1950s. The prolific actor tallied in the ballpark of 250 credits, about evenly distributed between B-Westerns and TV series.
Note the chin on Bradford — his trademark chin signifies both strength and weakness. Mostly strength — he was a formidable thug. On the other hand, as a perennial outlaw, sometimes his job was to make dumb decisions. My guess is Lane Bradford the actor was a man of high intellect who knew how to maximize his assets.
That chin can be hard to miss. In this shot it almost looks as though it's drawn in. Bradford wasn't the only tough outlaw in the Westerns to boast an awe-inspiring chin, but he may have been the most memorable.
Today a tree gets in the way, but this is a look at Grubstake's Claim on the south side of Phantom.
The same diagonal crack and main cave entrance can still be found.
A wider shot shows more of the south side of Phantom, but this is mainly a better look at the tree that makes access to the cave a challenge.
Swanee, played by Lane Bradford, schemes to get the dying man's money
In some "Wyatt Earp" shots we catch glimpses of an indented area on the rock, to the right of the fake cave. In this shot it's near the top left corner.
Take a look at this indented area.
I took this photo of the same indented area on a recent visit to the site.
This is the distinctive indented area on the rock.
Also here we see some worn signs of old graffiti.
Graffiti near entrance to Grubstake's Claim (2011)
The graffiti has been there for some time. It already looked worn-out — and appeared exactly the same as it does now — when I took this photo back in 2011.
One of the many interesting features of the cave area is this hole.
Going back to that original screen shot of Anthony Caruso from "Tennessee's Partner," notice that the same hole is seen in the movie, and it has what appears to be some kind of metal blade sticking out of it.
I have this other angle on the metal blade, but it doesn't add much. The "shiv" and its shadow can be seen in the bottom right corner. The hole's origin story remains untold, although we know it predates the "Wyatt Earp" cave.
"Outlaws of Boulder Pass" (1942): Phantom Shack
It should be noted that the same site was home
to the Phantom Shack in the 1940s. If I had to guess I'd say the hole is most likely an artifact of this period and probably originally helped hold the shack in place.
"Six Gun Gospel" (1943): Phantom Shack
But even if the hole originated as part of the support system for the Phantom Shack, it may have been called upon again in 1959 to serve as an anchor point for the fake cave in "Wyatt Earp."
"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"
While
many of the fake caves and fake mines on the old Iverson Movie Ranch
stood for years and were used repeatedly, the fake cave seen in "Wyatt Earp" appears to have been
in place for only a short time — possibly for a single production.
"Tennessee's Partner": Anthony Caruso holds Grubstake McNiven's claim sign
In telling the tale of Grubstake's Claim out behind Phantom in "Tennessee's Partner," the movie goes so far as to display the claim sign. In a way, the sign works not only to stake Grubstake's claim in the movie, but also to stamp this historic filming location as "Grubstake's Claim" ... at the risk of over-romanticizing the movies.
