The Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, one building at a time ... Part XII: The Harness Maker

"Along Came Jones" (1945) — The Harness Maker, at far left

One of the first buildings that came into view upon arriving at the Iverson Movie Ranch Western street from the south was the Harness Maker, part of the original town set built for "Along Came Jones."

While the much larger Livery Stable dominated the south end of town from its position on the southeast corner of the street, the Harness Maker, distinguished by vertical columns along its south and east faces, held down the southwest corner in the town's original configuration.

Loretta Young drives her horse cart out of town in a hurry in "Along Came Jones," with the Harness Maker and the First Chance Saloon in the background as she heads east.

The name "Harness Maker" comes from the building's role in "Along Came Jones."

"The Millerson Case" (1947) — new buildings at the south end of town

By mid-1947 the Harness Maker no longer occupied the southwest corner of town, as a new building, the Rainbow Mine Co., had been built directly to its south, while the town's new church took over the south end of the street.

The Church — or Schoolhouse, as it appeared in "The Millerson Case" — would remain in place for just a couple of years, but the Rainbow Mine Co. would become a permanent part of the town set. I'll go into detail about these new buildings later in the Western street series.

"Passage West" (1951)

A horse-drawn hearse sits in front of the Harness Maker building in the Paramount movie "Passage West." The building plays a general store in the John Payne Western.

The Harness Maker is closely associated with the Saloon, as the two buildings were immediately adjacent to each other and tend to be thought of as a single structure.

The Harness Maker even appears to bear a sign for the Saloon on its roof in "Passage West." Also note the blank storefront sign on the left, which was presumably used in a previous movie or TV appearance.

"The Millerson Case"

However, the Harness Maker and Saloon were two separate buildings. In fact, the Harness Maker was not positioned perfectly in line with the Saloon, but was angled just slightly back from the straight line of the street.

"Check Your Guns" (1948)

The offset in alignment between the Harness Maker and the Saloon is evident again in this shot of Eddie Dean on the street in front of the Saloon in the PRC movie "Check Your Guns."

In this shot the offsets between the two buildings are highlighted. Also note the presence of the Church and the Rainbow Mine Co. in the background — both buildings were still relatively new at the time.

The "Check Your Guns" shot also reveals that the Harness Maker and Saloon had different types of posts on their front walkways, with the Harness Maker's posts being slightly "fancier." This distinction can be helpful for telling the buildings apart from certain angles.

"Night Raiders" (1952)

Fuzzy Knight stands in front of the Saloon in the Monogram B-Western "Night Raiders." This shot offers what may be the best look at the offset alignment between the Saloon and the Harness Maker.

A close examination of the front deck area in the "Night Raiders" shot highlights the variation in the alignment of the two buildings.

"Ghost Town Renegades (1947)

Here's an unusual shot that illustrates not only the proximity of the Saloon and the Harness Maker, but also the misalignment of the two buildings' front decks.

I try not to point out irony, as it speaks for itself. But I'll make an exception here, because I love the irony that this illustration of the misalignment also catches a guy in the act of doing surveying. "Hey, buddy! Look to your left!"

"Calamity Jane and the Texan" (1950)

The Harness Maker building included a barber shop — identified by its red-striped poles, on the right — in "Calamity Jane and the Texan."

"Gold Raiders" (1951)

The striped barber poles remained on the Harness Maker building in the Three Stooges movie "Gold Raiders," released the following year. The poles may be a little hard to spot here.

The barber poles out in front of the Harness Maker are highlighted in this version of the "Gold Raiders" photo.

This shot of the front of the Saloon in "Gold Raiders" captures a closeup of one of the barber poles on the Harness Maker building next door.

"Along Came Jones" (1945) — the original Barber Shop

The Harness Maker was not the first building in town to feature a barber shop. The town's original Barber Shop, seen in "Along Came Jones," was located near the north end of the street, south of the original Blacksmith Shop. It's easy to confuse this one with the later barber shop at the Harness Maker.

Unlike the Harness Maker, which survived virtually unscathed for the full 13-year lifespan of the Western street, the original Barber Shop was torn down within a year of its construction. You can click here to see a previous entry in this series focused on the Barber Shop and the original north end of town.

"Sky King" TV show (shot in 1955, aired in early 1956)

One of the best things about the Harness Maker from a movie history standpoint is that on occasion shots of the building also catch the old "Wee Willie Winkie" set in the background. In this example from the TV show "Sky King," the camera is looking toward the west and the old set can be seen at the left of the frame.

The shot comes from the "Sky King" episode "The Plastic Ghost," which premiered Jan. 9, 1956, and would have been shot during 1955. The India Fort set was used only occasionally in productions after the early 1940s.

"Along Came Jones" (1945)

A tiny corner of the "Wee Willie Winkie" set snuck into this shot from "Along Came Jones," which also appears near the top of this post. The set is barely noticeable here, unless you know to look for it.

"Silver Raiders" (Monogram, 1950) — The Harness Maker

A shot of the Harness Maker building in the Whip Wilson B-Western "Silver Raiders" offers what may be an unintentionally close look at part of the "Wee Willie Winkie" set.

As this photo points out, a portion of one of the buildings from the 1937 India Fort in "Wee Willie Winkie" can be seen just behind the Harness Maker. 

The shot may also provide a clue to efforts on the set to minimize the impact of other old buildings to the west. I get the impression that it's no accident that a covered wagon was parked in this exact spot, as the wagon blocks the view of a large portion of the old India Fort set.

"Wee Willie Winkie" (1937) — The India Fort

This overview of the "Wee Willie Winkie" filming area gives an idea of what the sprawling India Fort set looked like in 1937. Eight years later, the Iverson Western street would be built in the area seen in the foreground. The India Fort would remain standing until the early 1960s — outlasting the Western street by several years.

"Montana Incident" (1952) — the north end of town

Parts of the India Fort from "Wee Willie Winkie" also on occasion snuck into shots of the north end of the Western street, as discussed in an earlier post on the North and South Adobes. Please click here to read that entry.

Aerial photo (1952)

An aerial photo of a portion of Sheep Flats on the Lower Iverson from 1952 shows the juxtaposition of the Western street, to the east, and the old "Wee Willie Winkie" set, to the west. I've blogged previously about the endlessly fascinating India Fort set, and you can learn more about it by clicking here.

If you would like to dive even deeper into the 1937 "Wee Willie Winkie" sets and the early history of movie construction on Sheep Flats, I recommend clicking on "Wee Willie Winkie" in the long index of LABELS along the right of the page — or just click here for the same link.

"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 Iverson 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

The Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, one building at a time ... Part XI: The North and South Towers

"Check Your Guns" (1948): Eddie Dean and the Two Towers

A large section of the eastern side of the Iverson Western street was occupied by the two similar buildings shown here in a shot from the PRC Western "Check Your Guns."

The neighboring two-story "towers," which I identify in my research as the North Tower and South Tower, are immediately recognizable by their angular rooflines and vertical windows — four windows on the South Tower and three windows on the North Tower.

"The Range Rider" TV series (1952)

The Two Towers became a familiar sight to movie and TV fans through their frequent appearances in productions shot on the Western street over a span of a little more than 10 years, from 1946 to 1957. The above shot comes from an episode of the early TV Western "The Range Rider" titled "Renegade Ranch."

The towers occupied the space between the Livery Stable to the south and the Sheriff's Office to the north. Their rooflines and windows were part of a major renovation of that side of the street that started around 1946.

"Along Came Jones" (1945): Before the Towers were built

When the town set first surfaced in "Along Came Jones," that part of the eastern side of the street consisted of an almost unnoticeable single-story facade.

Renovation on this single-story storefront would begin not long after production wrapped on "Along Came Jones" in late 1944 or early 1945. By late 1946, the place would look quite a bit different. 

In "Along Came Jones" the span between the Livery Stable and the Sheriff's Office housed two small businesses: the Chinese Laundry, to the north, and a store dealing in "Ladies' and Gentlemen's Furnishings," to the south.

This is the clearest shot I could find of the sign on the Chinese Laundry in "Along Came Jones."

Here's a closeup of the sign. I looks to me like "Hop Sing Chinese Laundry," but I'm not positive about the name. If it is Hop Sing, then it's the same name later used for the Cartwright family's cook on "Bonanza."

The Chinese Laundry was filmed from inside the Lost Dutchman across the street during an attempted ambush In "Along Came Jones." Click here to read an entry on the Lost Dutchman that examines this sequence.

Here's a partial glimpse of the sign for "Ladies' and Gentlemen's Furnishings" in "Along Came Jones."

"California" (filmed in 1946, released in February 1947)

Within a year after the release of "Along Came Jones," the producers of the Barbara Stanwyck movie "California" had created a new look for the Chinese Laundry/Furnishings area, adding second stories with new storefronts that, as far as I know, would be seen only in that one movie.

For its appearance in "California," the South Tower bore some resemblance to a Quonset hut, while the North Tower had a more traditional Wild West storefront appearance. The buildings' trademark vertical windows were already in place, but the shapes of both storefronts would soon be redesigned.

Promo still for "California" — Barbara Stanwyck in the striped dress (Jerry England collection)

"California" was filmed in color, but the clearest image I've seen of this rare "Quonset hut" front on the South Tower is in this black-and-white promo shot for the Paramount Western. The most prominent building in the shot is the Livery Stable on the right, appearing here as "General Agent & Outfitters."

"El Paso" (1949)

By 1949 the familiar angled roofs were in place on the North and South Towers, as seen in another Paramount Western, "El Paso" — the movie that gave the Iverson town set one of its nicknames, "El Paso Street."

Now the rooflines on the Two Towers matched those on the other major structures on the east side of the street, the Livery Stable and General Store.

"Calamity Jane and the Texan" (Columbia, 1950)

Once the angled roofs were in place, the "permanent" look of the North and South Towers was set. This shot in "Calamity Jane and the Texan" bears a strong resemblance to the shot from "El Paso" a year earlier.

The biggest difference between the "El Paso" shot and the shot one year later from "Calamity Jane and the Texan" is that by 1950 the original Casa Grande built for "El Paso" had been replaced with a more generic design.

"El Paso": North Tower as "Texas Development"

Both towers took on a variety of identities in their many movie and TV appearances over the years. In "El Paso" the North Tower became the lending firm "Texas Development."

The South Tower played the Sheriff's Office in "El Paso," although it's hard to read the sign in this dusty shot. You may want to click on the photo to see a larger version.

"The Nevadan" (filmed in 1949, released in 1950)

In the Randolph Scott Western "The Nevadan," released in January 1950 by Columbia, the unmarked North and South Towers were just across the street from the Westville Stage Depot, which was played by the Saloon.

"The Daltons' Women" — filmed in 1949, released in 1950 (Jerry England collection)

For the Lash LaRue movie "The Daltons' Women," from Poverty Row studio Western Adventure Productions, the stage stop moved across the street, with the sign on the North Tower reading "Stage Coach Depot."

"Gold Raiders" (United Artists, 1951)

Most of the buildings in town got new names for the Three Stooges movie "Gold Raiders." The South Tower became "Johns General Merchandise."

"Silver Canyon" (Columbia, 1951)

Gene Autry did some shooting on the Iverson Western street around the same time the Three Stooges were in town, and part of the sign on the South Tower found its way into Autry's "Silver Canyon."

But "Silver Canyon's" producers at Columbia, the longtime home of the Stooges, saw to it that the name "Johns" was removed from the building's sign before it appeared in the Autry movie.

"Gold Raiders" — the North Tower as the Odd Fellows Lodge

It may be hard to spot here, but a sign on the front of the North Tower in the Three Stooges movie says "IOOF Lodge," indicating that the building is a meeting place for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

While the "Odd Fellows" reference could be taken as a humorous swipe at the Three Stooges, the reference is historically accurate. During America's "Golden Age of Fraternalism" in the second half of the 19th century, the IOOF was the predominant fraternal organization in the small towns of the West.

"The Range Rider" TV series (1953)

Like other signs installed in town for "Gold Raiders," the "IOOF Lodge" sign on the North Tower took on a life of its own. A blurry version of the sign appears in the top left corner of this shot from the "Range Rider" episode "Convict at Large." The episode aired in 1953, but I believe the footage was probably from 1951 or 1952.

"The Lone Ranger" TV series (shot in 1956, aired in 1957)

The Western town set fell on hard times in later years — whether by design or due to actual deterioration, as it was sometimes hard to tell which was which. When things started falling apart, as in this shot from the TV show "The Lone Ranger," the Two Towers went into decline along with the rest of the town.

The North and South Towers, on the left, are identified here, along with other key features of the town and its surroundings. The shot comes from the "Lone Ranger" episode "Ghost Town Fury," which aired March 28, 1957.

"Sky King" TV series (1955)

I hope this shot is not a disappointment for readers, but aerial footage of the Iverson Western town taken in 1955 for the TV series "Sky King" revealed that the North and South Towers were movie props and not actual buildings. Like much of the town set, the towers consisted mainly of false fronts with partial roofs.

From a historical standpoint, this aerial footage is extremely important. I'm not sure it would have been known that the Two Towers were fronts had it not been for the "Sky King" footage, illustrating the key role a single production can play in unlocking the secrets of movie history.

"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 Iverson'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