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On location with "High
Chaparral" |
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Cameron Mitchell, Leif
Erickson, Mark Slade, Roberto Contreras, and Henry Darrow |
Arizona is hot.
Terribly hot; and out on the vast expanses of the desert, as hot as 115 degrees.
But it's one of the places where the West was won, so if you're doing a
television series about, among other things, winning the West, you go out on
location to Arizona. The location is on the White Stallion Ranch some 60
miles from Tucson. It is arid, cactus-studded and formidable.
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While not actually filming, the cast and crew seem inordinately fond of finding
some shade and going to sleep or, barring that, drinking considerable amounts of
water. The Indian extras spent a goodly portion of their time under
shrubs, wagons, equipment and the like. With a murderous sun in the sky,
and being smack in the middle of the desert, one would think the utmost
authenticity had been realized. But no, even with that sun up there, the
company employed lights and reflectors. Also, the cacti near the cameras
were not in bloom, and had to be adorned with plastic blossoms.
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Linda Cristal, Marie Gomez, and Mark Slade |
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But for
the cast (Cameron Mitchell, Leif Erickson, Mark Slade, Henry Darrow, and Linda
Cristal) the heat, the dust, the thirst and the work were authentic
enough. and the sheer space was no delight, either -- up on the water
tower stood a man, a semi-permanent fixture, whose job was to relay messages
from the director to various locations. But aside from the heat, the dust
and the thirst, the biggest problem is the tourists -- they're everywhere, with
cameras. Think of it -- no privacy even in a desert. |
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