26th Annual Lone Pine Film Festival
Tom Mix, Jack Hoxie, Ken Maynard Return to the Silver Screen at the 26th Annual Lone Pine Film Festival
Film Festival Pres Release:
Yes, Mix, Maynard and Hoxie lead the bill, but the Festival screens and stages for the weekend present a broad spectrum of western Film Fare from Silent, Early and Contemporary Western directors and writers.
The weekend kicks off with a 4:30 PM Reception, Thursday October 8th at the Museum of Western Film History with early festival guests, celebrities and the local community celebrating another year with America’s Cowboy Balladeer, Don Edwards in Concert at 7:00PM.
Western film screenings start sharply at 7:30 AM on Friday with the 1941 Hoppy film, In Old Colorado, and continue throughout the weekend, with over 20 plus films being screened. We are including the first film shot in Lone Pine, the classic Fatty Arbuckle 1920 4-Reeler, The Round-Up, which will be presented with the piano accompaniment of keyboard specialist J.C. Munns. Munns will also accompany other films for the weekend bringing the incredible keyboard nostalgia to these wonderful silent films as they were originally seen in the movie houses of the 1920’s.
Ed Hulse, Western writer, will be our moderator for panels & discussions featuring Los Angeles Times critic, Kenneth Turan, Western Film historian, Robert Birchard, screenwriter, Robert Knox, and actors Rex Linn, William Wellman Jr. and Wyatt McCrea as they provide guests with stimulating memories of films and film making.
Award-winning author editor and AFI film preservationist, Robert S. Birchard will present a program about the earliest days of silent Westerns. Incorporated into the program will be a short documentary film, Bronco Billy, the First Reel Cowboy, produced by the Arkansas Public Broadcasting Service, followed by a discussion of the earliest silent cowboys.
In 1938, Billy King, played child star to William Boyd in four “Hopalong Cassidy Features”. Billy shares wonderful memories of working with Hoppy, Grace Bradley Boyd and shooting in the Alabama Hills.
Join Sylvia Durando in her first public discussion of her Hollywood past as one of movie making’s great stuntwomen. Sylvia, has shared the screen with Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, Richard Boone, Tony Curtis and Randolph Scott to name a few.
Additional celebrity guests Gary Brown, Diamond Farnsworth, Larry Floyd, Cheryl Rogers, Petrine Day Mitchum, and Bob White complement out weekend with wonderful stories of Western heroes, heroines, horses and even their “cars.”
Twenty-two “On Location,” guided tours celebrate the hundreds of Western films shot in Lone Pine and the incredible, unique landscape of the Alabama Hills.
Team Roping will be featured on Saturday at the Museum rodeo grounds. Sunday will begin with a morning Cowboy Church on the Anchor Ranch, followed by our famous Sunday Main Street Parade. The Closing Campfire led by Cowboy Larry Maurice at Lone Pine Park on Sunday evening will wrap the weekend festivities.
And last but not least, the weekend center of activity, The Museum of Western Film History. The Museum hosts a new name to represent the new and expanded mission of the Museum “to collect, preserve, protect, archive and exhibit original materials of permanent historical value relating to the history and heritage of the American Western film.” The Museum will continue to feature the films made in the Alabama Hills and the Eastern Sierra. Come see our new and updated exhibits, meet our staff, and join our membership, contributing to the Museum’s continued effort and commitment to honor Western film heritage.
Cover Photo, Tom Mix 1937 Restored Cord, photo provided