In the last twenty years western historians have focused on the role of women in the settling of the Frontier, with many scholarly books being researched and published on the theme. In a sense, Hollywood was ahead of this interest, although the many movie actors called on to be beautiful while riding, shooting and looking admiringly into their cowboy’s eyes bear little resemblance to the real "women of the west." That being acknowledged, it is appropriate this year to celebrate the contribution these female stars made to the genre at the center of our national western cultural myth. For the first time, a woman will be on the Festival Button. Of course, it is Dale Evans, Queen of the West. The Festival T shirt has pictures of 14 women who worked in Lone Pine over the years.
In this column we will examine the lives of the women who will be guests this year. In next month’s column, we will look at the Lone Pine careers of the women we will remember as we attend the 2003 Festival.

PEGGY STEWART WORKED WITH GENE AUTRY, ROY ROGERS IN LONE PINE
Peggy was born in Florida, but grew up in Atlanta where she developed her athletic skills that would come in handy in her many Republic westerns. When she visited her grandmother in California, she fell in love with acting and stayed. A character actor named Henry O’Nell who lived in the apartment house got her into Wells Fargo (1937) and her rise to fame began. She fell in love with and married Don "Red" Barry and was signed by Barry’s studio, Republic, for which she made nearly 30 films, mostly westerns, in 3 years. She starred in two very successful serials but resisted any others. Ultimately, she ended her connection with Republic and went on to work for several other studios (Monogram, Allied and PRC) on a movie-to-movie basis. She was picked up by Columbia and immediately cast in two serials. She left the film business in 1953 to devote her time to raising her family but from time to time appeared in plays, tv shows and inexpensive horror pictures. With Roy Rogers she made Utah (1945), working with Dale Evans as well, here in Lone Pine. Two years later she starred with Gene Autry in Trail to San Antone (1947) also made here and directed by John English. Peggy also made a very popular Have Gun Will Travel episode entitled "The Outlaw" in Lone Pine.

A "PISTOL PACKIN’ MAMA" RUTH TERRY WORKED WITH ROGERS TWICE IN LP
Ruth Terry made her name in the film Pistol Packin’ Mama (1943), filmed in between the two films she made here with the King of the Cowboys. Ruth was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan. She always sang at home, then entered a weekly talent show at her local movie theatre and went on eventually to sing and tour with the Paul Ash Orchestra. She worked in Irving Berlin’s music publishing house, with Ed Sullivan in night clubs, but it was Walter Winchell who gave her a new name: Ruth after Babe Ruth and Terry after Bill Terry, both baseball players. 20th Century Fox signed her for her first movie ("God awful," she states) and eventually she went under contract to Howard Hughes who loaned her "exclusively" to Republic. Working with Roy in Lone Pine, Ruth remembers one time being out on horses waiting for a shot, "when Trigger reared at a rattlesnake. Roy shot the snake, and before going on with the scene jumped down and said " ‘Wait a minute.’ With that he took his knife and slit right down the middle of that rattlesnake, took the skin off, and dried it the next day. He had it wound around his hat the following day. True story! "(Boyd Magers interview: in Ladies of the Western.)
Ruth starred in Hands Across the Border (1944) with Roy as well. Ruth states, "[It was] Republic’s answer to the Broadway smash, Oklahoma. They wanted someone who could sing as well as act. That started a whole series of musicals that were so-called westerns."

ANNE FRANCIS DID THREE STINTS IN LP : BAD DAY, HIRED GUN, D.V. DAYS. Anne Francis was a John Robert Powers model by six and on Broadway by eleven. First with MGM, an abortive entry into movies, she later was discovered and signed by 20th Century Fox working as a juvenile delinquent in the low budget So Young, So Bad. She went on to star in several classic fifties films including Bad Day at Black Rock(1955) here in Lone Pine, Blackboard Jungle, and Forbidden Planet. She returned to LP in 1957 to star with Rory Calhoun in The Hired Gun. In it Calhoun is a sheriff bringing back a young woman, who he becomes convinced is innocent, to be hanged for murder. In the Death Valley Days episode being shown at the Festival this year, "The Last Stagecoach Robbery," Anne plays a real life character who is not so innocent, but twice as funny as the one in The Hired Gun.

ANN RUTHERFORD WORKED WITH THE DUKE IN THE LOST THE OREGON TRAIL
While her work in the western The Oregon Trail remains "lost" or at least "missing" along with the John Wayne film, there is nothing lost or missing about Ann today. She was born in British Columbia to the former Metropolitan Opera star John Guilberty and an actress mother and made her first stage appearance at the ripe old age of five. She was fourteen when she appeared in her first film Carnival of Paris and went on into classic westerns. Then Ann played Polly Benedict in several of the Mickey Rooney Andy Hardy series, and played Scarlet O’Hara’s sister in Gone with the Wind. Other classic films followed including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Adventures of Don Juan. Producers tried to entice her out of retirement to play the Older Rose in Titanic, but she turned it down. Her name remains a household word in any film buff’s vocabulary.

MORE FAR EAST THAN WEST IN LP FILMS, TERRY MOORE MADE 6 WESTERNS
Terry Moore returns this year to our celebration with several western credits but none in Lone Pine. Instead she made the epic adventure King of the Khyber Rifles (1953) with Tyrone Power and Michael Rennie here. Born in L.A. she made her film debut at the age of 11. Terry worked under a variety of names before settling on Terry Moore. Columbia loaned her out to RKO for one of her most famous films Mighty Joe Young (1949) and was nominated for a best supporting Oscar for her performance in Paramount’s Come Back, Little Sheba (1952). In the sixties she made such films as Spurs, Waco, and A Man Called Dagger. In the 1970’s she was best known as the self-proclaimed secret wife of Howard Hughes.

A MAJOR CHILD STAR, MARGARET O’BRIEN WON A SPECIAL OSCAR IN 1944
Not known as a "Woman of the West" during her career, child star Margaret O’Brien could be called a "child of the West" for her work with Wallace Beery in Bad Bascomb . In Heller in Pink Tights(1960) which contains stock or second unit footage from our area, she played Della Southby. She broke into films at the age of three and achieved stardom playing Judy Garland’s younger sister in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). She went on to star in The Canterville Ghost, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, and The Secret Garden. She is famously quoted, when a child star, as asking, "When I cry, do you want the tears to run all the way down, or should I stop them halfway down?"