Face to face with the Head of the Lion — and finally, the truth about the "Dark Side of the Wall"

Head of the Lion, Chatsworth, Calif.

If you have ever been to the Garden of the Gods Park in Chatsworth, Calif., chances are you walked right past the Head of the Lion. It's one of the hundreds of widely filmed movie rocks that still populate the area, from when the site was part of a bustling filming location known as the Iverson Movie Ranch. The face of the rock directly overlooks what is now the main trail into the park.

"Rocky Mountain Rangers" (1940)

The rock's position — and on occasion, its artistic use — can make it easy to miss. An example of the latter is the above shot from a movie that's a full-on Iverson spectacle, Republic's Three Mesquiteers B-Western "Rocky Mountain Rangers." In this shot, you may or may not notice the Head of the Lion at first. Only the snout area is visible, with the rock being used as a framing device for an overview of a portion of the Iverson Gorge. The lion's snout can be seen at the left edge of the frame. I'll highlight it in the next photo.

This is the same shot with Head of the Lion pointed out.

While we're at it, this is the same shot again, with a number of additional features of the Iverson Gorge spotlighted.

Another view of Head of the Lion in modern times

The Head of the Lion looks like this when it's viewed from the west, and if you've been following this blog in recent weeks you may already know where this is headed. This angle does not show the part of the rock that looks like a lion's head, and that fact contributed to some confusion recently in my research. I put up a blog post about seeing this rock in an old movie, the 1934 Beacon Productions B-Western "Cowboy Holiday." But at the time I thought it was something else entirely.

"Cowboy Holiday" (1934)

This is how Head of the Lion Looks in "Cowboy Holiday," and after momentarily losing consciousness because I was so excited over what I thought I was seeing, I wrote a blog entry making a big deal about spotting what I thought was the "Dark Side of The Wall." You can click here to read that post — I'm leaving it up as a reference, but I'm adding a big "mea culpa."

"Cowboy Holiday": Another shot of Head of the Lion

One problem with "Cowboy Holiday" — and one reason I got the sighting wrong — is the movie never does show the face of the lion. The above shot is about as close as it gets, with Head of the Lion being the main rock filling up the middle of the shot. If they would have moved the camera a short distance to the right, they could have captured a much more ... what's the right word, leonine? ... view of the rock.

"Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941)

Another production in which Head of the Lion makes an appearance is the Republic serial "Adventures of Captain Marvel," as seen above. Here again, the rock is hard to see — and that may be one reason it wasn't filmed more often than it was. I'll highlight it in the next shot.

This is the same shot with the Head of the Lion pointed out. Even though the rock has a tendency to blend in with backgrounds, when you do see it here, its leonine — OK, lionlike — qualities are plainly evident.

"Rogue of the Rio Grande" (1930)

Above is what might be the first featured appearance on film by Head of the Lion, in the early sound B-Western "Rogue of the Rio Grande," from Monogram and Atlantic Pictures. The movie is said to be the first talking role for early cinema icon Myrna Loy. You should be able to spot the lion's face right in the middle of the shot.

"Blazing Across the Pecos" (1948)

Here's a shot from the Durango Kid movie "Blazing Across the Pecos," starring Charles Starrett, that shows not only part of the face of the lion, at far right, but also the rock's non-lion-head-like western profile.

Here's one more look at that western profile, and a last look at the rock in its contemporary setting, with Nyoka Cliff, across Iverson Gorge to the east, visible at far right.

Lorna Gray, Bad Girl of the Republic Serials — and the Katniss Everdeen of the 1940s

Lorna Gray, aka Adrian Booth

As a contract player at Columbia early in her career and later as one of Republic Pictures' top stars, actress Lorna Gray was a regular at the Iverson Movie Ranch. She racked up a string of screen credits in serials, B-Westerns and other productions from the late 1930s through the 1940s before retiring from acting back in 1951. Born Virginia Pound, she worked for about a decade as Lorna Gray and then wound down her career under the stage name Adrian Booth.

Lorna Gray as Vultura in "Perils of Nyoka" (1942)

Gray made what was probably her biggest impact at Iverson as the villainous Vultura in the 1942 Republic serial "Perils of Nyoka," leaving behind an unusual legacy of rocks and other features on the movie ranch that now bear informal "Vultura-related" nicknames: Vultura's Pass, Vultura's Trail, Vultura's Trail Rock, Vultura's Stakeout, etc.

Vultura's Palace, as seen in "Perils of Nyoka"

I've posted before about Vultura's Palace, which was a set for "Perils of Nyoka" that was built on the Lower Iverson. You can click here to see "then and now" shots of the area where the palace stood. The structure was a false front built on some high-profile rocks that remain in place in a privately owned section of the former movie ranch.

Lorna Gray takes aim in "Daughter of Don Q" (1946)

Gray earned a reputation as an actress who was "good at being bad," and frequently wound up playing villainous characters. But her versatile chops enabled her to break out of that mold from time to time, something she did with panache in the 1946 Republic serial "Daughter of Don Q."

Gray segues smoothly into the spotlight as the serial's heroine — and she is an action heroine in the purest sense. Much of the action in "Daughter of Don Q" takes place on the Iverson Movie Ranch, including all of the screen shots you see here from the production.

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games"

Gray's bow-and-arrow-wielding heroine was a forerunner to — and possibly inspiration for — later heroic female archers such as Katniss Everdeen of "The Hunger Games" ...

... or red-haired Merida of Disney/Pixar's 2012 animated feature "Brave."

Kirk Alyn and Lorna Gray in "Daughter of Don Q"

Gray stars with Kirk Alyn in "Daughter of Don Q." Two years later Alyn would become the first Superman of the movies, starring in the 1948 Columbia serial "Superman" and later in the 1950 sequel "Atom Man vs. Superman."

This shot from behind the actors locks in where the scene takes place — it's in the North Cluster section of the former Iverson Movie Ranch, with the well-known movie landmark Cleft Rock providing a positive ID.

Here's a markup of the previous shot highlighting Cleft Rock. This movie rock is still in place at Iverson, as you'll see below, and you can click here to see a post containing additional photos and other details about Cleft Rock.

Lorna Gray and Charles Starrett in "Bullets for Rustlers" (1940)

In her 20s Lorna Gray was a contract player at Columbia, where she starred opposite movie cowboy Charles Starrett in 1940 in "Bullets for Rustlers," which shot much of its outdoor action at Iverson.

Gray wasn't afraid to mix it up with the boys, and got right in the middle of the action for this shootout among the rocks of Iverson's North Cluster in "Bullets for Rustlers."

 "Bullets for Rustlers" (1940)

Coincidentally, Gray shares the screen here too with Cleft Rock, as she would again later in "Daughter of Don Q," as noted above. This shot contains a number of features that are worth pointing out, which I'll do in the next photo.

This is the same shot from "Bullets for Rustlers," with a number of rock features highlighted — along with Lorna Gray. Notice the large rock in the center foreground, with the major cleft pointed out.

Here's a photo of that same area from a recent visit to Iverson. The rock with the major cleft appears again here, as I'll note in the photo below.

I found it intriguing that both Cleft Rock and a rock that appears to share a common geological ancestry with it — a sort of "melted down" version of Cleft Rock, with a similar "split muffin top" — would wind up in such close proximity to each other.

Another shot from that recent visit offers a better look at Cleft Rock, at top right, along with its geological next-of-kin in their current habitat. The "melted" version of Cleft Rock that fills up much of the left half of this photo is crying out for a name, and from a "scientific" standpoint, Melted Cleft Rock makes sense. So I'll go with that.

Monte Hale and Lorna Gray — billed here as Adrian Booth — in Republic's 1947 B-Western "Under Colorado Skies."

Other movies Lorna Gray — by this time working as Adrian Booth — shot at Iverson included a number of Republic Pictures' Monte Hale titles: "Home on the Range" (1946); "Out California Way" (1946), with Hale, Roy Rogers and a young Robert ("Bobby") Blake; "The Man From Rainbow Valley" (1946); "Under Colorado Skies" (1947); "Last Frontier Uprising" (1947); and "California Firebrand" (1948), to name a few.

Lorna Gray and Don Douglas in "Deadwood Dick"

Gray starred with Don Douglas in Columbia's 1940 serial "Deadwood Dick," another Iverson production, and worked the Iverson Ranch yet again in Republic's "The Gallant Legion" (1948), starring alongside Wild Bill Elliott.

The movies I've mentioned are just a sampling of Gray's Iverson Movie Ranch filmography — of her 69 film credits in the span of a career that lasted just 14 years, it's probably not a stretch to say that most of those movies were shot at Iverson.

Adrian Booth Brian in 2009

Lorna Gray, who now goes by Adrian Booth Brian, is still going strong at 96 and continues to make the rounds of movie conventions and other industry events.

The stories those old oak trees could tell ...

"The Adventures of Spin and Marty" (1955)

Getting the trees to tell their stories is a relatively untapped branch of Iverson Movie Ranch research, and one that's in some ways more challenging than using rocks to reveal history. After all, trees don't hold their shape over the decades quite as well as rocks do. But there comes a time when a tree is the best person to tell a story. The scene depicted above, from the Disney production "The Adventures of Spin and Marty," is a good example. (Credit Disney for any screen shots from "Spin and Marty" that appear here.)

The same shot, with an Iverson landmark noted

I was skeptical at first when "Spin and Marty" expert Kurt Spitzner suggested that the bear sequence was shot at Iverson. But as is usually the case with Kurt and anything to do with "Spin and Marty," he was absolutely right. Kurt's research pointed to the Oak Flats area of the Upper Iverson, where many of the original oak trees — not all of them, unfortunately — have survived. Kurt spotted a number of rocks in the background that turned out to be known Iverson rocks, with the clincher for me being Rock in the Field, as noted above.

"The Golden Stallion" (1949)

The above shot from Republic's color B-Western "The Golden Stallion," starring Roy Rogers, offers a more familiar view of Rock in the Field. The rock was commonly seen during chase sequences in old Western movies and early Western TV shows, typically appearing to be out in the middle of a field (hence, the name).

1952 aerial photo of the Oak Flats section of the Upper Iverson

With Rock in the Field as a known landmark, the search for the tree in the "Spin and Marty" bear sequence zeroed in on the area seen in the above aerial photo from 1952, which depicts the section of the former Upper Iverson Movie Ranch known as "Oak Flats."

Here's that same 1952 aerial with a few key features noted.

A zoomed-in view of the Oak Flats area — still from the 1952 aerial — shows a number of trees that were identified as possibilities for the bear sequence in "Spin and Marty." The research team, consisting of myself, Kurt and field operative Cliff Roberts, began testing out theories involving Trees A, B and C.

This is what that same area looks like today, in a Google aerial view. A number of large estates now occupy the site of the former Upper Iverson, but by comparing this view with the 1952 aerial above, we can see that many of the native oak trees that made up Oak Flats during the filming era remain in place — including all three trees that were targeted in the "Spin and Marty" research.

Tree A: "Bear Tree," as it appears today

After I obtained photos of all of the trees in question, it became immediately apparent that Tree A — now known in my research as "Bear Tree" — is the mighty four-trunked oak seen in "Spin and Marty."

A closer view of Bear Tree gives some idea of how gnarled it has become in the almost 60 years since "Spin and Marty" was filmed. The chain-link fence in the background is a reminder that the area is all private property — and is now home to an exclusive gated community.

Certain views of the tree can be matched up almost perfectly with shots from the 1955 "Spin and Marty" episode. The shot above includes a distinctive arched limb branching off to the left, and Rock in the Field, although hard to make out here, appears in the background. This shot is a good match for the bear shot from 1955 seen below.

The same arched limb seen in the 2014 photo of Bear Tree is immediately recognizable in the bear sequence from 1955 — the limb looks remarkably similar in these two shots taken almost 60 years apart. You may notice that by 2014 the weight of the limb and its many appendages has caused it to sag, with much of the weight of that part of the tree now resting on the ground.

This is the same view of the bear and its namesake tree from 1955, pointing out the arched limb and noting the location of Rock in the Field.

For comparison, here's the 2014 shot of Bear Tree's arched limb, with the limb and the location of Rock in the Field noted. As I mentioned above, it's harder to make out Rock in the Field from this angle than it was in 1955. Some of that has to do with lighting conditions at the time this photo was taken. But it's still possible to see the rock.

The young actors treed by the bear in the "Spin and Marty" episode are Dee Aaker and Tim Hartnagel, as noted above.

Here's a better look at the boys in the tree.

The bear that took part in the sequence must have been pretty tame. Presumably the producers had containment measures in place, but based on some of these shots it appears as though the bear could have bolted the set if it got a sudden hankering to make a run for nearby Cactus Hill. This is the only time I can recall seeing a live bear at Iverson for the filming of a production — rather than a guy in a bear suit, which is how they would have handled it in the old B-movies.

Interactive map from Kurt Spitzner's "Spin and Marty" site cinchset.com

Please do yourself a favor — especially if you have fond memories of "Spin and Marty" — and check out Kurt's incredibly well-researched cinchset.com website, devoted to all things "Spin and Marty." The site's emphasis is on the first, and widely considered the best, of the three "Spin and Marty" productions, "The Adventures of Spin and Marty," which aired during 1955 as part of "The Mickey Mouse Club." While "Spin and Marty" shot mainly at Disney's Golden Oak Ranch in Newhall — which is still operating as a filming location — Kurt's site includes a number of pages devoted exclusively to "Spin and Marty" location shoots at the Iverson Movie Ranch, which you can access directly by clicking here. His recent research on Bear Tree and the Upper Iverson, including the interactive map seen above, can be found by clicking here and going to the bottom of the page.

Below is a link to the DVD set "Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Spin & Marty," which is the same set I used in my Bear Tree research: