THE TOUR GUIDES AND PRESENTERS
October 5-8, 2023
please see the Museum of Western Film History's new website at
https://museumofwesternfilmhistory.org/
THE 2022 TOURS, TOUR GUIDES & PRESENTERS
NOTE: TOURS SELL OUT QUICKLY • THERE IS A WAITING LIST FOR TOURS.
WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU SEE THE FILMS OR ATTEND THE PRESENTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH THE TOURS.
Page Williams & Thomas Kelsey
Ansel Adams
Fri. 8:00 AM FULL • Sat. 8:00 AM
"Sometimes I think I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter." - Ansel Adams
Join California Historian Page Williams and Photojournalist Thomas Kelsey to follow in Ansel Adams’ footsteps to five specific sites in which he created images that capture our beautiful landscape. We have changed out one of the photos to a new stop on the tour this year. Bring your camera of choice. Learn about Ansel Adams, and take your own photos of the areas. When you get home and look at the photos, send your favorite one in, and we will post them on the Lone Pine Film Festival Facebook page.
NOTE: Camera, sunscreen, sturdy walking shoes! Some walking over uneven ground!
(Photo: 'Ansel Adams in Yosemite Valley', Courtesy of Thomas Kelsey, 1981with permission from The Ansel Adams Publishing Trust.)
Thomas Kelsey
Ansel Adams at Manzanar
Fri. 12:30 PM FULL • Sat. 11:00 AM FULL
This tour begins with a brief overview of the Manzanar National Historic site with a National Park Service Ranger (covid permitting) and then will tour and photograph nearby locations where Ansel Adams made his enduring images in and around this World War II Internment Camp. The tour will be led by Thomas Kelsey who attended Ansel Adams’ last Workshop in Yosemite National Park in 1981 and has had a 40-year career as an award winning photojournalist and author.
NOTE: Camera, sunscreen, sturdy walking shoes! Some walking on uneven ground!
(Photo: 'Leaving Manzanar' by Ansel Adams-1944, Courtesy Library of Congress.)
John & Mike DelGaudio and the
CHINA LAKE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Astronomy
Friday at 9:30 PM is FULL
Saturday night at 9:30 PM is FULL
Members of the China Lake Astronomical Society will bring their expertise and telescopes to view the heavens above the Alabama Hills.
Our sky guides are:
Keith Weisz
Brian Wolfe
Ted Hodgkinson
Roger Brower
https://www.chinalakeastro.org/
NOTE: Sturdy walking shoes! Some walking over uneven ground!
Photo 153338449 © Valentin M Armianu | Dreamstime.com
Richard W. Bann
BAR 20 - THE RANCH TOUR
PRESENTATION Friday 12:30 PM
Museum Theatre (1 hour +)
Please attend the presentation before you take the tour.
Tours Fri. 2:00 PM is FULL
Sat. 9:00 AM is FULL
Visit the still-working ranch which served as the original "Bar 20” in the first Hopalong Cassidy feature film made in 1935. Come and see the historic and beautiful Lubken Ranch. Incredibly, the many westerns film location books have all ignored it because until 2011 its storied movie history was unknown, even at our own festival. We begin in the museum theatre with a video compilation of western excerpts shot at this pastoral venue covering the period from 1926 through 1949.
This is a history overview which travels into the splendors of Lone Pine scenery via car caravan to tour the sacred grounds of the Lubken spread. There we will search for the ghosts of cowboy heroes who made scenes here we have known practically all our lives: Gene Autry, Randolph Scott, Bob Steele, Tim Holt, Ken Maynard, Fred Humes, Gabby Hayes, Richard Arlen, Big Boy Williams, Bill Cody, Hoot Gibson, Tom Mix, Johnny Mack Brown, Tom Tyler — even BONANZA shot here!
NOTE: Some walking is required.
John & Mike DelGaudio with Jay Dee Witney
Bonanza S8:E4 and E5
"The Pursued"
Watch the episodes online...
Watch PART 1 here:
Watch PART 2 here:
Tour Sat. 1:00 PM
In 1966 the makers of the popular television series, Bonanza, came to Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills to produce a two-part episode entitled, The Pursued. It is about a Mormon family in Nevada that is being persecuted by a new, intolerable town parson and others. The family, played by Eric Fleming (of Rawhide fame), Dina Merrill and Lois Nettleton take refuge in the Alabama Hills along with Joe Cartwright (Michael Landon) when one of the wives goes into labor and is at the perilous mercy of the pursuing persecutors. This one-stop tour will visit the area where the dramatic ballad played out and came to a bittersweet conclusion in the Alabamas.
Directed by William Witney, the director's son, Jay Dee Witney will share personal experiences about the filming.
NOTE: The tour requires a small amount of walking, including on uphill sloping terrain.
Tyler Malone
Dangerous Venture
with Hopalong Cassidy
Watch the film in the Auditorium
Fri. at 8:00 AM
Tours Fri. 9:30 AM • Sat. 1:00 PM
Sun. 2:30 PM
One interesting thing about the Hopalong Cassidy series is that, in the 66 films William Boyd made as the titular character between 1935 and 1948, there’s a strange absence of Native Americans. The series includes all the other hallmarks of Western lore in droves: gunfights with outlaws, disputes over water rights, shady saloon-owners, cattle rustlers, mining ventures, runaway horses, ghost towns, and hidden caches of gold. But the most common trope in the Western catalog—cowboys vs. Indians—rarely occurs. Only a few Hoppies have even minor indigenous characters. DANGEROUS VENTURE (1947) is the biggest exception, but even here Hoppy’s main antagonists are fellow white men dressing as natives in order to shift blame on a particular tribe that a group of archeologists think might be the descendants of Aztecs. On the tour, we’ll explore the cave site of these supposed “last of the Aztecs” and many other locations throughout the Alabama Hills that are featured in this classic Hoppy Western.
NOTE: Sturdy walking shoes! Some walking over uneven ground!
Katie VonSydow
The Timeless Geologic Tale of the Hollywood's Overlooked Star: The Alabama Hills
Fri. 8:00 AM & 12:30 PM • Sat. 11:00 AM
this tour meets at the Mobius Arch Trail Parking Lot
Why do filmmakers flock to the Alabama Hills year after year? The answer is simple; the unique landscape. Though these hills have been cherished and featured in over 400 films, they are the true unheard storytellers. Hear their origin story and how natural processes shaped them for millions of years into their iconic landscape we enjoy today.
Meet at Arch Trail Parking - we will walk the 1 mile loop trail and discuss the geologic story of the Alabama Hills.
NOTE: Please wear comfortable shoes with traction, sunscreen, layers (you never know out there), water, snacks, hiking poles are optional, but there are a few steep sections.
Don Kelsen
HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL S2:E2
"In An Evil Time"
Watch the episode in the Museum Theatre
Mon. at 10:00 AM
Tour Mon. 10:45 AM is FULL
$50 thousand and a great character are Paladin’s rewards in this Second Season, 1958 episode. Actor Hank Patterson, (Mr. Ziffel of "Green Acres”) is a bank robber and easy capture for Paladin.
Our tour makes two stops in the middle of the Alabama Hills.
NOTE: Good pair of shoes are recommended, along with long pants.
Don Kelsen with William Wellman Jr.
HAVE GUN - WILL TRAVEL S3:E10
"The Golden Toad"
Watch the episode in the Auditorium
Sat. at 9:00 AM
Tour Sat. 1:30 PM is FULL
In a savage land we find our favorite Knight already on the trail of adventure, in the Alabama Hills, where Festival Tours have rarely gone before. Gene Roddenberry has a writing credit for this third season, 1959 episode. Episode co-star William Wellman Jr., will journey along on our tour.
Tour is a ONE, stop destination Journey. It’s a long drive on Movie Road. Don’t forget to buckle the seat belt.
NOTE: Good pair of shoes are recommended, along with long pants.
Greg Parker
Introduction Tour
Tours Friday 8:00 AM is FULL
Friday 1:30 PM is FULL
With the newcomer to Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills in mind this tour is designed to give the visitor a general overview of the diverse roles the Alabamas have played in hundreds of movies and television episodes during the past century. You will see specially selected locations from several films and TV shows spanning the 1930’s to the 2000’s in genres such as westerns, army, drama, adventure and sci-fi. These include Django Unchained, The Lone Ranger, Tremors, Hopalong Cassidy, and many, many more. Visit the popular sites of the Gunga Din Bridge, Lone Ranger Canyon and Gene Autry rock, and see scenes with famous actors like John Wayne, Errol Flynn, Tex Ritter, Jamie Fox, Kevin Bacon, Clayton Moore and others. The variety of different films in this tour makes for a pleasant appreciation of the Alabama Hills as a unique shooting location for generations of Hollywood filmmakers.
NOTE: The tour requires a moderate amount of walking, including on uphill and sloping terrain, as wells as driving on dirt roads.
Greg Parker
OWENS RIVER TOUR
Tours Fri. 10:30 AM is FULL
Sat. 8:00 AM is FULL
In a venture outside of the Alabama Hills this tour will focus on a popular movie filming location northeast of Lone Pine at the Owens River bed, past the old train depot. Before the river was diverted upstream into the California Aqueduct the area was used time and time again for scenes in such films as The Man from Utah (1934) with John Wayne, Between Men (1935) with Johnny Mack Brown, and the Round-up (1920), the earliest surviving movie made in the area. See where scenes from these movies were made, as well as others from Lawless Range (1935), Army Girl (1938), The Nevadan (1950) and many more. A bonus site is the ruins of an old bridge ridden across by many of the stars on horseback. This tour is an interesting diversion from the rocks and boulders of the Alabamas but still a part of the Lone Pine film history experience.
NOTE: The tour requires some walking on level and sloping terrain in dusty areas, as wells as driving on dirt roads.
Don Kelsen
PANHANDLE
Watch the film in the Auditorium
Fri. at 1:30 PM followed by a
Q&A with Rod Cameron's son, Tony Cameron
Tour Sat. 10:00 AM is FULL
Directed by Lesley Selander and written by the team of John C. Champion and Blake Edwards this western stars Rod Cameron as John Sands, a former Texas marshal turns to ranching, and later to a gunfighter when he sets out to prove that casino saloon owner, Matt Garson, had his brother, a newspaperman, killed.
NOTE: The tour requires some walking on level and sloping terrain in dusty areas, as wells as driving on dirt roads.
Greg Parker
SLOW BURN
Watch the film in the Auditorium
Sat. 10:00 AM
Tours Sat. 2:00 PM • Sun. 10:30 AM
Released in 2000 this film features stars Minnie Driver, James Spader and Josh Brolin. The three meet in the heat of the Mexican desert, portrayed by the Alabama Hills. They begin manipulating and bluffing one another after their vehicle breaks down in attempts to insure survival and make off with a cache of diamonds found along the way. The tour will visit the areas where the vehicle is immobilized and where the characters have different interactions.
NOTE: This tour requires a small amount of walking, including on uphill sloping terrain.
Katie Von Sydow with Louis Race, 2nd Unit Director
STAR TREK VOYAGER
"Basics Part 1" & "Basics Part 2"
Watch the episodes in the Museum
Sat. 9:00 AM
Tours Sat. 1:30 PM
Sun. 2:30 PM is FULL
In 1996 the Alabama Hills were called upon to play the role of a distant, desolate planet where the crew of the Federation of Planets starship, Voyager, is marooned after the ship is commandeered by adversaries, the Kazons. This tour will venture into the Alabama’s to see where Voyager “landed” in Movie Flats. From there we will walk to the location of the entrance of the cave where the menacing alien creature lurked. Lastly, we will go to Lone Ranger Canyon to see the location of the indigenous inhabitants’ camp and where Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her crew first fought, then forged, an uneasy alliance with the planet’s hostiles.
For additional entertainment be sure to catch the screening of the episode of this popular TV series before your scheduled tour to experience the special effects used to transform the Alabamas into an alien environment.
NOTE: This tour requires a moderate amount of walking, including on uphill sloping terrain.
STUNT SHOW CANCELLED
Sat. 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM is
We regret to announce that unfortunately our performer and horse were just hired for a movie. Refunds will be given — you might want to choose another tour.
Larry Maurice
THE SUNRISE TOUR
Sat. 6:00 AM is FULL
Sun. 6:00 AMis FULL
For 32 years film festival visitors have thrilled to the breathtaking beauty of the Eastern High Sierra “Sunrise Tour.” A photographer’s dream event, but so inspirational, everyone can enjoy this early morning spectacle. See why directors and cinematographers couldn’t get enough of the spectacular mornings in “The Range of Light.” Watch the morning sun ignite the peak of Mt. Whitney and bring the Alabama Hills to life. Join Cowboy Poet, Larry Maurice for good fellowship with a spectacular light show, a continental breakfast, a little music, a little poetry, and a start to your film festival day that will never be forgotten.
NOTE: Some walking is required.
Don Kelsen with film scholar and author Luis Reyes
THE GAY CABALLERO
Watch the film in the Museum
Fri. 8:00 AM
TOURS
Fri. 9:30 AM • Fri. 3:00 PM
Riding along with guide Don Kelsen, film scholar, Luis I. Reyes will provide excellent additional insight into Cesar Romero and the Cisco Kid's legacy.
20th Century-Fox Series: Tour: Cisco Kid’s: “The Gay Caballero” Starring Cesar Romero and Chris-Pin Martin
The plot - No Goods trying to cheat a girl out of some land. Cisco and Gordito ride through the beautiful Alabama Hills
as they attempt, to prevent the land grab. Our tour journeys to numerous sites of the story.
NOTE: Good pair of shoes are recommended, along with long pants.
John & Mike DelGaudio
THE TALL T
Watch the film in the Auditorium
Fri. 11:30 AM
TOURS
Fri. 1:00 PM is FULL
Sat. 10:30 AM is FULL
Sun. 10:30 AM is FULL
The Tall T is a popular 1957, classic movie, and is a renowned adaptation of Burt Kennedy’s short story ‘The Captives’. The shooting sites that match the whole context of the story. This film is a Budd Boetticher directorial. Over these years, fans have loved this film and tour. The film is a great action-adventure with Randolph Scott with outstanding film locations.
NOTE: Good pair of shoes are recommended, along with long pants.
Tyler Malone with William Wellman Jr
YELLOW SKY
Watch the film in the Auditorium
Fri. 9:30 AM
TOURS
Fri. 12:00 PM is FULL
Sat. 9:00 AM is FULL
Five years after THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943), director William A. Wellman and writer-producer Lamar Trotti collaborated again on another smart, unsettling Western picture. YELLOW SKY (1948) stars Gregory Peck as James “Stretch” Dawson leading his gang of outlaws into the godforsaken salt flats of Death Valley after a bank robbery. Desperate, dehydrated, and near-dead, they stumble into a ghost town whose only residents are an old man and his granddaughter named Mike (played by Anne Baxter). What follows is a strange retelling of William Shakespeare’s THE TEMPEST staged on the rugged Western frontier amid the iconic rock formations of the Alabama Hills. On the tour, we’ll explore the area where the house and barn stood, the location of the waterhole, and the site of mine—in addition to many other places showcased in this exquisite film.
NOTE: Good pair of shoes are recommended, along with long pants.