A Moment of Time in Wrightwood History

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

Tom Pinard relayed the following to me:Thanks for the memory. Just a short add....  the cast of Appaloosa "invaded" Wrightwood and made quite a "hit" on the community.... that's another story. The reason they were here is that their location in New Mexico (I believe) was snowed out and the closing scenes needed to be finished and locations scouts found that the closest terrain and trees to match New Mexico were here in our San Gabriel's...... Needless to say, Wrightwood went "ga-ga" over Brando and John Saxon.....

[TheSandman]

please tell me more about brando and wrightwood.

decades ago, someone told me marlon was seen walking around hwy 2.  with your appaloosa story, it now makes sense.

[TheSandman]

mr. ranch:

i need some brando.  where did he go in town?  everything brando and his time in ww.

we're not talking david hasselhoff.  this is brando.  a streetcar named desire.  on the waterfront.  last tango in paris.  the anchor behind the godfather.  the actor that made the t shirt fashionable in the wild one.

now i know gene hackman ate at the evergreen and bruce springsteen stopped at the yodeler.

i need brando ww trivia.

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

Sorry Sandman, the old timers up here don't remember much when Brando (the man) was up here. Some have the impression that he might have gone over to the school and met the kids and handed out his autograph.. Those days, most of the stars filming up here, including William Holden and George Kennedy, frequented Pinon Manor (Lyle's...or Evergreen Inn). Years ago, photos of the some of the stars used to hang there. It was forty years ago...perhaps the ones that remembered him the most are long gone.

[TheSandman]

thanks for trying.

i'm a brando fan.  ever since i heard years ago that he was seen roaming ww, i became intrigued.  you hit a nerve that has been implanted deep in my brain when you mentioned his name.

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

In follow up to the Marlon Brando thing:

I'm a Brando fan myself (except for Last Tango in Paris); sorry to say that when he was here filming, he didn't mix (from some of the old timers where lived here during the Appaloosa filming). He appeared to be in a solemn and non-approachable mood. John Saxon visited and was easy to talk as he visited with crew, cast and onlookers during breaks in shooting and chow time (great food served on long picnic tables on location). The actor that visited the school and was very nice to residents here was James Gardner, when they filmed "Rockford Files" up here.

[ChrisLynnet]

I admire Brando of course, but I always liked John Saxon and James Gartner. It's great to hear that they're nice guys, that's always good to know.

[RobertW]

The actor that visited the school and was very nice to residents here was James Gardner, when they filmed "Rockford Files" up here.

I've never met Brando, but I've met James Gardner.  James Gardner was our guest on our front lawn when Kim and I lived in an apartment on Valencia Ave in Burbank.  They were filming "The Rockford Files" in an apartment building across the street.  It was the episode that Rita Morino also starred in.

James sat in his "set chair" on our front lawn.  He was very nice and a perfect gentleman, even thanking us for putting up with all the commotion.

Of course, as I've written before on this website, there were local News celebrites that frequented Wrightwood including Gil Straten and Bob Bandfield.  Bill Keane, the weatherman on CBS during the Jerry Dunphy error in the 60s was the Grand Marshall during Mountaineer Days and awarded me my first place trophy for "Best Novelty" act.  (In 1967 I rode down Parkside on a unicycle dressed as a hobo. Forty-two years late, I still have my trophy).

My brother and I would regularly help out my Grandfather in cleaning Lee Marvin's cabin for renters.  Lee Marvin's cabin was located just Southeast of Wright's Lake, "the bog", just a stone's throw away from Mr. Wright's original cabin.

[ChrisLynnet]

Great memories, RobertW!

[CA5th]

James Garner, not Gardner!

[RobertW]

James Garner, not Gardner!

Typo!  But if you want to be technical it is actually...

Bumgarner

[TheSandman]

the following must be an omen.  not a very good life changing omen but an omen none the less.

i found an unopened four movie compilation of brando films i received as a gift a while back.  one of the films was the appaloosa.  as a tough critic, i found the film quite interesting.  it has about five memorable scenes that one doesn't see in a standard western.  a clint eastwood spaghetti film feel.

the wrightwood scenes appear in the last fifteen minutes.  it doesn't seem to be filmed in the flat lands of lone pine canyon but rather at the top by pinon mesa.

i need wrightwoodians that know the terrain to view the film and let me know what they think.  i'll mail my copy to say, robert w, and the townsfolk can have a movie gathering to pinpoint the spot.  it'll be hours of fun discussion.

i mean really, brando was at the top of wrightwood. 

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

Actually Sandman, the scenes were shot on the ridge just south of Clyde Ranch and Lone Pine Meadows. One shot was filmed in the small valley that you can see just north of the small dirt service road off Lone Pine Canyon, just as you  pass East Canyon and reach the "S" curves before you drop down into Lone Pine Cyn.

I talked to a long time resident (since1937) , who only remember Brandon as being very reserved and withindrawn. There were times that Brando would suddenly stop acting, freeze for a moment and wander off. When Thomas would cast a questionable eye at some of the cast and crew, they seemed to roll their eyes....specailly when he had this habit of urinating off to the side, right in plain sight of all the folks. Quess when ya gotta go, ya gotta go.

Dining with the film crew and actors was really special...sitting a long pinic tables loaded with great food among the mountain pines. He remembered the atmosphere being great.