Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas -- Buster Crabbe

'Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas' is a continuing series about "six-gun heroes that performed on the old Iverson Movie Location Ranch in Chatsworth, California.  For more information about the Iverson Movie Ranch see: http://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/iverson-movie-location-ranch-chatsworth.html

Buster Crabbe (1908-1983) was an American actor and Olympic athlete.  In 1928 Olympics he won the bronze medal for the 1,500 meters freestyle, and 1932 Olympic he won the gold medal for the 400 meters freestyle.

In 1933, he won a role in the serial Tarzan the Fearless.  Playing the part of Tarzan launched a successful film career, and he went on to star in over one hundred movies.

Working for PRC (in the 1940s) he starred in 36 films playing the Western character Billy the Kid.  His comical sidekick was Al St. John.  In the PRC Westerns he rode a beautiful palomino horse named Falcon (photo above).

Buster Crabbe's Santa Susana locations filmography:

Badman's Country (1958) starring George Montgomery, Neville Brand and Buster Crabbe - Warner Bros.

Billy the Kid Trapped (1942) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (Iverson) PRC 

Billy the Kid Wanted (1941) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (Iverson) PRC

Billy the Kid's Smoking Guns (1942) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

Blazing Frontier (1943) starring Buster Crabbe (photo above) PRC

Border Badmen (1945) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (Silvertown, Corriganville) (photo above) PRC

Cattle Stampede (1943) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

Desert Gold (1936) starring Buster Crabbe - Paramount

Devil Riders (1943) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (photo above) (Iverson Ranch) PRC

The Drifter (1944) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

Fighting Bill Carson (1945) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (Corriganville) PRC

Frontier Outlaws (1944) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (Corriganville) PRC

Fugitive of the Plains (1943) starring Buster Crabbe (Corriganville) PRC

Fuzzy Settles Down (1944) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (Corriganville) PRC

The Gangster's Den (1945) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

Gentlemen with Guns (1946) starring Buster Crabbe (Corriganville) PRC

Ghost of Hidden Valley (1946) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (photo above) PRC

Gun Brothers (1956) starring Buster Crabbe (Corriganville) United Artists

Gunfighters of Abilene (1960) starring Buster Crabbe (Iverson Ranch) (photo above) United Artists

His Brother's Ghost (1945) starring Buster Crabbe, Falcon and Al St. John - PRC

The Kid Rides Again (1943) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

King of the Congo (1952) starring Buster Crabbe, Gloria Dea and Leonard Penn (Iverson) Columbia [Serial]

Law and Order (1942) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

The Lawless Eighties (1957) starring Buster Crabbe (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Lightning Raiders (1945) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (Corriganville) PRC

The Mysterious Rider (1942) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

Oath of Vengeance (1944) starring Buster Crabbe (Corriganville) PRC

Outlaws of the Plains (1946) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (Corriganville) (photo above) PRC

Overland Riders (1946) starring Buster Crabbe (Corriganville) Republic

Pirates of the High Seas (1950) starring Buster Crabbe, Lois Hall, Tommy Farrell (Iverson) Columbia [Serial]

Prairie Badmen (1946) starring Buster Crabbe (Iverson Ranch) (photo above) PRC

Prairie Rustlers (1945) starring Buster Crabbe (Corriganville) PRC

Rustler’s Hideout (1945) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

Shadows of Death (1945) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

Stagecoach Outlaws (1945) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (Corriganville) PRC

Tarzan the Fearless (1933) starring Buster Crabbe, Julie Bishop and E. Alyn Warren (Iverson) Sol Lesser Prod. [Serial]

Terrors on Horseback (1946) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John (photo above) PRC

Thundering Gun Slingers (1944) starring Buster Crabbe - PRC

Western Cyclone (1943) starring Buster Crabbe and Al St. John - PRC

Wild Horse Phantom (1944) starring Buster Crabbe, Falcon and Al St. John - PRC

Meanwhile back at the ranch -- Bulldog Bluff

'Meanwhile back at the ranch' is a continuing series about "rock stars" (landscape features) on the old Iverson Movie Location Ranch in Chatsworth, California.  For more information about the Iverson Movie Ranch see: http://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/iverson-movie-location-ranch-chatsworth.html

Bill Rock (center) at south end of Bulldog Bluff from Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942)

We all remember those thrilling Western chase scenes that culminated with our cowboy hero: a) bulldogging a bad guy off his horse; b) roping a bad guy off his horse; or c) shooting a bad guy off his horse (the last resort reserved for the baddest of the bad).

Have you ever noticed that the ground they land on in bulldogging scenes is usually soft sand?  And,  did you notice you can't see your hero's face until they've rolled to a stop?  This dangerous work was reserved for the second unit.

The Iverson Ranch had the perfect place to capture the bad guys… Bulldog Bluff.  It was a sandy slope on the west side of an north-south trail that ran between Zorro's Cave and Bill Rock.  The cave never showed up in bulldog scenes, but Bill Rock (center of photo above) often showed up in the scene.

Today Bulldog Bluff and its anchor Bill Rock are located at the extreme east end of the Cal-West Townhomes (private property) off Sun Ranch Court, in Chatsworth.  The bluff is a landscaped slope (photo above) that has trees planted on it, and its companion Bill Rock (on neighboring property) is mostly hidden behind a block wall (photo below).

Looking at Bulldog Bluff or Bill Rock in film:

Bandits of Dark Canyon (1947) starring Allan Lane and Bob Steele (photo of Bill Rock top left) Republic

The Blazing Trail (1949) starring Charles Starrett (photo of Bill Rock behind left) (Iverson Range) (Corriganville) Columbia

Land Beyond the Law (1937) starring Dick Foran - Warner Bros.

Mountain Rhythm (1939) starring Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette (photo of bad guy roped off his horse at Bulldog Bluff) (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Rancho Grande (1940) starring Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette(photo of bad guy bulldogged off his horse at Bulldog Bluff) (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Red River Renegades (1946) starring Sunset Carson (photo of bad guy shot off his horse at Bulldog Bluff) Republic

Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942) starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello (photo of Bill Rock at end of chase along Bulldog Bluff) (Iverson Ranch) Universal

Shadow Valley (1947) starring Eddie Dean (photo of Bill Rock-top left center) (Iverson Ranch) PRC

Sheriff of Sundown (1944) starring Allan Lane (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Silver City Kid (1944) starring Allan Lane (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Rendezvous at Boulder Pass -- Cowboy's sweethearts (1950-60)

'Rendezvous at Boulder Pass' is a continuing series about "movie genres and character roles" performed on the old Iverson Movie Location Ranch in Chatsworth, California.  For more information about the Iverson Movie Ranch see: http://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/iverson-movie-location-ranch-chatsworth.html  

Or see http://www.cowboyup.com/ to find my books about Chatsworth movie locations: Rendezvous at Boulder Pass: Hollywood's Fantasyland - 2010 (ISBN: 978-0-615-21522-8) and Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas - 2008 (ISBN: 978-0-615-21499-3) by Jerry England, and published by Echo Press

In my 'Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas' posts I've paid homage to some of my cowboy heroes, and listed their filmographies for Chatsworth filming locations.

Part three (1950-60) more cowgirls--Western heart throbs and cowboy's sweethearts...

Calamity Jane and the Texan (1950) starring Evelyn Ankers (photo above right) Lee White and James Ellison (Iverson) Columbia

Fancy Pants (1950) starring Bob Hope and Lucille Ball (above right) (Chatsworth Trains) Paramount

Man in the Saddle (1951) starring Randolph Scott, Joan Leslie and Ellen Drew (above) (Iverson Ranch) Columbia

Son of Paleface (1952) starring Bob Hope, Jane Russell (above-smooching Trigger) and Roy Rogers (Iverson Ranch) Paramount

Another look at Jane Russell (above) in her outlaw role as portrayed in Son of Paleface (1952)

The Black Dakotas (1954) starring Gary Merrill, Wanda Hendrix (above) and John Bromfield - Columbia

Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) starring Ronald Reagan and Barbara Stanwyck (above) (Iverson Ranch) RKO

Valerie (1957) starring Sterling Hayden, Anita Ekberg (above left) and Anthony Steel (Iverson Ranch) United Artists

Alias Jesse James (1959) starring Bob Hope, Rhonda Fleming (above left) and Wendell Corey (Iverson Ranch) United Artists

Rendezvous at Boulder Pass -- Cowboy's sweethearts (1945-50)

'Rendezvous at Boulder Pass' is a continuing series about "movie genres and character roles" performed on the old Iverson Movie Location Ranch in Chatsworth, California.  For more information about the Iverson Movie Ranch see: http://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/iverson-movie-location-ranch-chatsworth.html  

Or see http://www.cowboyup.com/ to find my books about Chatsworth movie locations: Rendezvous at Boulder Pass: Hollywood's Fantasyland - 2010 (ISBN: 978-0-615-21522-8) and Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas - 2008 (ISBN: 978-0-615-21499-3) by Jerry England, and published by Echo Press

In my 'Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas' posts I've paid homage to some of my cowboy heroes, and listed their filmographies for Chatsworth filming locations.

Part two (1945-50) more cowgirls--Western heart throbs and cowboy's sweethearts...

Utah (1945) starring (photo l to r) Beverly Lloyd, Roy Rogers, and Peggy Stewart (Iverson Ranch) - Republic

Along Came Jones (1945) starring Gary Cooper, Loretta Young (photo above) and William Demarest (Iverson Ranch) RKO

Bells of Rosarita (1945) starring Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes and Dale Evans (photo above) (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Under Western Skies (1945) starring Martha O'Driscoll (photo above), Noah Beery Jr. and Leo Carrillo - Universal

Duel in the Sun (1946) starring Jennifer Jones (photo above), Joseph Cotten and Gregory Peck (Chatsworth)(Corriganville) Selznick

The Harvey Girls (1946) starring Judy Garland (photo above), Ray Bolger and John Hodiak (Iverson Ranch) MGM

Renegades (1946) starring Evelyn Keyes (photo above), Willard Parker, Larry Parks (Corriganville) Columbia

The Scarlet Horseman (1946) starring Peter Cookson, Paul Guilfoyle and Janet Shaw (photo above) - Universal [serial]

Calamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949) starring Yvonne De Carlo (photo above), Howard Duff and Dorothy Hart (Iverson Ranch) Universal

Rendezvous at Boulder Pass -- Cowboy's sweethearts (1935-45)

'Rendezvous at Boulder Pass' is a continuing series about "movie genres and character roles" performed on the old Iverson Movie Location Ranch in Chatsworth, California.  For more information about the Iverson Movie Ranch see: http://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/iverson-movie-location-ranch-chatsworth.html  

Or see http://www.cowboyup.com/ to find my books about Chatsworth movie locations: Rendezvous at Boulder Pass: Hollywood's Fantasyland - 2010 (ISBN: 978-0-615-21522-8) and Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas - 2008 (ISBN: 978-0-615-21499-3) by Jerry England, and published by Echo Press

In my 'Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas' posts I've paid homage to some of my cowboy heroes, and listed their filmographies for Chatsworth filming locations.

Now, let's take a look at some cowgirls... those Western heart throbs and 'cowboy's sweethearts

Annie Oakley (1935) starring Barbara Stanwyck (above) and Preston Foster (Iverson Ranch) RKO

The Renegade Ranger (1938) starring George O’Brien, Rita Hayworth (above left) and Tim Holt (Iverson Ranch) RKO

Another look at Rita Hayworth who played a fast shooting, hard riding cowgirl in The Renegade Ranger (1938)

Boss of Bullion City (1940) starring Johnny Mack Brown, Fuzzy Knight and Nell O'Day (above) (Iverson Ranch) Universal

Sierra Sue (1941) starring Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette and Fay McKenzie (above) (Corriganville) Republic

Belle Starr (1941) starring Randolph Scott, Gene Tierney (above right foreground) and Dana Andrews (Iverson Ranch) 20th Century-Fox

Another look at Gene Tierney (above)--the Bandit Queen--as she appeared in Belle Starr (1941)

Stagecoach Buckaroo (1942) starring Johnny Mack Brown, Fuzzy Knight and Nell O'Day (above 2nd from right) (Iverson Ranch) Universal

The Man from Thunder River (1943) starring Bill Elliott, George “Gabby” Hayes and Anne Jeffreys (above left) (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Zorro's Black Whip (1944) starring George J. Lewis, Linda Stirling (aka The Serial Queen - above) and Lucien Littlefield (Garden of the Gods, Iverson Ranch) Republic

Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas -- Eddie Dean

'Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas' is a continuing series about "six-gun heroes that performed on the old Iverson Movie Location Ranch in Chatsworth, California.  For more information about the Iverson Movie Ranch see: http://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2011/10/iverson-movie-location-ranch-chatsworth.html

Eddie Dean (1907-1999) (photo above on White Cloud) was an America actor and singing cowboy.  Both Roy Rogers and Gene Autry praised Dean's singing ability and stated he was one of the best cowboy singers of all time.

Dean got his start singing on the radio, but then came to Hollywood and played bit parts in several movies during the 1930s.  He finally got a break in 1944 and co-starred with an aging Ken Maynard in Harmony Trail.  From then on he became one of the more popular of the cowboy stars.

During the 1940s he was under contract with PRC that shot most of their outdoor scenes on the Iverson Ranch.

Eddie Dean's Santa Susana locations filmography

Black Hills (1948) starring Eddie Dean (lobby card photo above) (Iverson Street) (Corriganville) PRC

The Caravan Trail (1946) starring Eddie Dean (Iverson Ranch) PRC

Check Your Guns (1948) starring Eddie Dean (photo above) with Roscoe Ates (Iverson Ranch) PRC

Colorado Serenade (1946) starring Eddie Dean with Roscoe Ates (Corriganville) PRC

Driftin' River (1946) starring Eddie Dean (photo above) with Roscoe Ates - PRC

Harmony Trail (1944) starring Ken Maynard and Eddie Dean (Corriganville) Astor

The Hawk of Powder River (1948) starring Eddie Dean with Roscoe Ates (Iverson Ranch) PRC

Prairie Outlaws (1948) starring Eddie Dean and Lash LaRue with Roscoe Ates (Corriganville) PRC

Range Beyond the Blue (1947) starring Eddie Dean/Roscoe Ates - PRC

Romance of the West (1946) starring Eddie Dean (Iverson Ranch)(Corriganville) PRC

Shadow Valley (1947) starring Eddie Dean (photo above) (Iverson Ranch) PRC

Song of Old Wyoming (1945) starring Eddie Dean and Lash LaRue (Corriganville) PRC

Stars Over Texas (1946) starring Eddie Dean (photo above) with Roscoe Ates (Corriganville) PRC

The Tioga Kid (1948) starring Eddie Dean with Roscoe Ates - PRC

Tornado Range (1948) starring Eddie Dean (Iverson Ranch) PRC

Tumbleweed Trail (1946) starring Eddie Dean - PRC

West to Glory (1947) starring Eddie Dean (photo above) (Iverson Ranch) PRC

The Westward Trail (1948) starring Eddie Dean (photo above) (Iverson Ranch) PRC

Wild Country (1947) starring Eddie Dean (Iverson Ranch)(Corriganville) PRC

Wild West (1946) starring Eddie Dean (Iverson Ranch)(Corriganville) PRC