Movie towns set slage for aWestern revlval

Main streetat thel. W. EaoesMoaieRanch,thestate'sftrst
Westernmouieset,southof SantaFe.
Movietownssetslage
for aWesternrevlval
storyandphotography
by DennisWall
ith the recent successof
such films as Kevin
Costner's DancesWith
Wolaesand Clint Eastwood's
Unforgiaen,the Western is back
with a steely-eyedvengeance.
Filmmakers searchingfor a classic
Western townsite need look no
farther than the SantaFe area,
where threeof moviedom's
prime Western movie setsare
found.
Boarded up and empty between shoots,thesethrowbacks
to Old West days rattle and creak
like ghostscomplaining.But after
the trucks arrive and the set
designersand crew begin "dressing" them with paint and plywood, thesemake-believecommunities come alive. Soon decent
folk and desperadoesfill their
streets,and the setsbustle like
the century-old cowtowns and
whistle-stops they're meant to
portray.
The state'sthree major Western
movie towns-Glenn Hughes'
BonanzaCreek Ranch,the I. W.
26 NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE / IUNE 1994
EavesMovie Ranch and the Cook
RanchMovie Set-are characters
in themselves,eachpossessingits
own unique talents. Like most
good actors,the setsare chameleons,able through skilled cosmetic tinkering to alter their appearanceagain and again, creating new and often memorable settings for the tales they tell.
All three setsare located within
an hour's drive of SantaFe.That's
no accidenl Producersof Western
movies require not only suitable
terrain and authentic-looking
structures,but also proximity to
hotels, eating placesand other
practical amenitiesfor cast and
crew, which can number in the
hundreds. SantaFe offers all
those amenities,along with a population that allows visiting celebrities a degreeof privacy and
anonvmitv.
Aciess io a skilled work force is
also critical, and here again Santa
Fe fills the bill. The city teems
with movie production peoplesome Hollywood refugees,others
homegrown-and is fast becoming a sort of mini-Hollywood,
complete with a growing cast of
L'ig-namestars taking up full- or
part-time residencv.Garson
Studios on the campus of College
of SantaFe provides first-rate
soundstagesfor "interior" filming. Other nearby sites,such as El
Ranchode las GolondrinasMuseum and a Mexican village set
located near the EavesMovie
Ranch,seryeas primary and collateral film sites.
In addition, photogenic locales
exist throughout New Mexico,
including historic neighborhoods
in Las Crucesand Las Vegas,the
red cliffs of Chama and Gallup,
the mountainsof Ruidosoand
northern New Mexico,and the
white sandsand endlessplains
near Alamogordo.
Since1898,n'hen ThomasEdison filmed Nerv Merico's landscape,hundreds of movieshave
beenmade here.But a nerr phase
in Westernmoviemakingbegan
in 1968,when T.\\'. Eavestook
S
l.;iirr.q,s
nt theEaues
thatsotnenrencttrallyfalseJrontstructures.
MouieRanchlookauthentic,but a stepto thesidereaeals
NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE / JUNE 1994 27
CreekRanchstandssolemnlvon a hill abouethetoutn.
Thechurchat theBonanza
Right-Imogene and
GlennHughesoperate
theBonanzaCreek
Ranch,a L6,000-acre
spreadsouthof SantaFe.
Far ight-A close-up
aiewof oneof thestorefronts at theEaaes
MoaieRanch.
28 NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE / TUNE1994
Actorsand extrasprepareto portray "Men WhoRideSidesaddle
and the WomenWhoLoaeThem"for a
humorousbeercommercial.
SmileuProductionsshotthecommercial
at theBonanzaCreekRanch.
producerGeneKelly's advice
.rndbuilt a completeWestern
tr)\r'non his ranch south of Santa
Fefor the filmThe Cheyenne
Social
CIub.
Producedby Kelly and starring
I'ic'nrvFondaand famesStewart,
::.rsquirky tale of a vagabond
-.r\\'pokewho inherits a brothel
:.hered in the modern era in New
\tr'rico filmmaking. The stateal.\ avs hashad someof the world's
:".\6t magnificent scenery;now it
:fered a Western set rivaling any::.rngHollywood had ever con-:ral up.
TheJ. W. EavesMovie Ranch
-:rce hasbeenthe locationfor
-ores of films, including classics
.:ich as TheCowboys(starring fohn
,\ avne),EasyRider,Billy lack and
:\)re recently Warner Brothers'
rrrc film WyattEarp.Eavesalso
-.-::r- the set for music videos,
-..mmercials,still photographyfor
.-rtalogsand print ads,and pri'. -rleparties,completewith dra:--rtic shoot-outsand assorted
-,.'rscplav.
Glenn Hughes, owner of the
BonanzaCreek Movie Ranchjust
south of SantaFe,remembersa
visit by actor Jimmy Stewart for
the 1955filmThe Man From
Laramie.That was the first film
shot on Hughes' 16,000-acre
working ranch,long beforehis
permanent set was built. The
ranch sincehas been used for
more than 50 film productions,
including cattle-drive sequences
for the 1960sTV seriesRawhide
and on a dramatically different
note, background for the campy
Tab Hunter/Divine comedv Lusf
In theDust.
In the late'70s,producersof The
Legendof theLoneRangerbuilt a
Western town on the ranch, but
Hughes saysthat one didn't last
long: "It was all false fronts, and
we had a horrible time with it,
with walls always blowing over.
So we tore it down." In 1983,
director Lawrence Kasdan built a
ranchhouseand barn on Hughes'
property for his movie Silaerado.
The tiny set was used several
times thereafter,including a stint
as Claire's house in the TV miniseriesLonesome
Doae.
An Italian film company built
Hughes' presenttown in i989,
taking advantageof the site's
nearly unobstructed 360-degree
view backdropped by mountains, prairie and stream-cut
arroyos-a varied terrain that can
simulate a wide range of geographical settings.The present
BonanzaCreek set featuresfreestanding, structurally complete
buildings, and has its own water
and electricity.
BonanzaCreek Movie Ranch
often is used in films depicting a
pioneerish,rough-hewn period of
Old West history, such as the upcoming Mickey Rooney/Gene
Pauly production TheLegendof O.
B. Taggart,filmed there in late
1993.Like his neighbor Eaves,
Hughes also makes the set available for TV commercials,ad photography, music videos and private parties.
Despite the Disneyesquequality
NEWMEXICOMAGAZINE / NNE1,994 29
TheBonanzaCreekRanchduplicatesthelookof thepioneerphaseof Westernsettlement.
of the towns, neither owner plans
to open his set to public accessri /a
Arizona's Old Tucson.Insurance
costsand the hassleof dealing
with large crowds put both men
off. In fact, says Hughes, given the
choiceof supervising 200 tourists
or 200 longhorns, "I'd take the
cows anytime."
A third SantaFe-areaWestern
town, the Cook RanchMovie
Set,was built in the mid-1980s
as the primary setting for
LawrenceKasdan'sSilaerado.
Sincethen it's beenused at least
half a dozen times for a variety of
films. But none comparesto the
five-month cinematic workout the
town experiencedin 1993,when
Silaeradoprincipals Kasdan and
Kevin Costner returned to produce Warner Brothers' Wyatt
Earp.
Publicist Spooky Stevens
wouldn't confirm the film's
rumored $60million budget, but
she did say, "The town went
through an enormous alteration.
Our production designer,Ida
30 NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE / IUNE 1994
Random,did both Silaeradoand
WyattEarp.A lot had fallen down
in the eight yearssinceSilaerado,
so it was completelvrebuilt. The
town was exp-andeilfrom sevento
14 acres;we used about 100local
constructionpeoplefor the job.
Somenew buildings were put up,
and we added a little Chinatown
alley.
"Ida did a lot of research,using
old books,historic photosof
Tombstone;a lot of the signage
is authentic.We used one street
for Dodge City. For that we
added stockyardsat one end of
town, and all the buildings suddenly had secondstories.We
alsobrought in about 300cattle,
sinceDodge was a big cattle
town."
Filming of Wyatt Earp alternated between the Cook and Eaves
ranches,with a few scenesshot at
El Ranchode las Golondrinas
near La Cienega.Eavessays as his
town was being re-dressed,the
Cook site was used for filming
and vice versa.Together,the two
sitesportrayeda total of 10 separate towns.
Italian-bornactor/ director/
producerTerenceHill was impressedenough with New Mexico's real and make-believeWestern milieu to move his production
company, Paloma Films, to Santa
Fe in 1993.Hill is probablybest
known in the U. S. for his roles in
two 1970s"spaghettiWesterns,"
TheyCalIMeTrinity andTrinity ls
Still W Name,as well as for another'70s classic(filmed in New
Mexico), My Nameis Nobody,costarring Henry Fonda and directed by legendaryshootrem-up
icon SergioLeone.
Hill is one of the most popular
starsin Europe,a continentthat
loves Westerns-with a little less
violence and a bit more sentiment
than their U. S. counterparts.
Many of them are shot in the U.S.,
in English. For European distribution, voices are dubbed or subtitles are added.
Hill's recentproduction of
LucktlLuke,an affectionatelook at
at theEaaes
MoaieRanch.
A oeekbehindthescenes
new Western
Wyatt Earp,dueout laterthissummer.
Thesetseraed
asa primarylocale
t'orKeuinCostner's
Left-The Mexicantown set
neartheEaaes
MoaieRanch.
Dozensof moaieswereshotat
thesite,includingtheBilly
theKid sagaYoung Guns.
NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE / ]UNE 1994 31
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MovrnSErVrsrrs
40l7 CentralAve, NE
Albuquerque,NM 87108
(5O5)2518961
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32 NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE / TUNE1994
a cowboy and his horsebasedon
a popular Frenchcomicbook, was
well receivedthroughout Europe
and should seeU.S.distribution
soon. It was for the LuclcyLukefeature film and subsequent eightpart seriesthat Hughes' present
town was built in 1990.
"Doing cowboy films is like a
vacationfor me," Hill says."New
Mexico is ideal for Westerns.I'm
nuts about the light here. Spain
has somewonderful Western
towns, but the light is not the
same.This makesa big difference."
His present film,The Fight
Bet'ore
Christmas,wasfilmed in
the spring of 1,994on the Eaves
movie set and BonanzaCreek
Ranch.Germanproduction company Rialto Film choseEaves' site
as its main settingbecause,Hill
explains,"the script called for
more of a settled,civilized town."
The relationshipbetweenactor
and environment is critical to a
film's impact,Hill said before
shooting TheFight BeforeChristmas."There'sa lot of comedyin
this one.So we want a realistic
background, and we'll probably
tone down someof the colors.If
you make everything stand out
equally,it all becomestoo sweet,
and the humor suffers.It's the
samefor my character.My costume has to be the samecolorsas
the background.Nothing stands
out."
Hill saysthat exceptfor a few
key people,most of his crew came
from SantaFe.With thoseresources,the area'smovie setsand
New Mexico'srich scenery,
PalomaFilms is settlinginto Santa
Fe for the long haul. "New Mexico
has just about everything you
need to make movies," he says."I
can only say positive things about
the area.I've becomea resident,
so that's obvious." $
DennisWall isat'ree-lance
writerlphotographer
based
in SantaCruz.Hisstoriesandphotographs
appear
in a wide
including
Southrangeofpublications,
westArt, PopularScienceandThird
Coastmagazine.