Moving Pictures Excerpt #3
Magda shares her memory of making a western film with a famous cowboy actor.
_After a month on contract, Dolores and I were cast in the same film as sisters. We were cast as the daughters of a rancher in a Western called True-Hearted Cowboy, roles that were not so far from the truth.
We were filming on location at the site of an old adobe farmhouse in the San Fernando Valley. Dolores was originally cast as the lead sister, but when the director, Ferdinand Kranz, found out that I was an experienced rider, he switched our parts. Dolores wasn’t too upset. She got to play the bad sister and had some excellent scenes in which to have fun “doing wrong.”
The picture was meant to be a western and was being directed by the upcoming director Ferdy Kranz. He had worked as Monroe’s cameraman before branching out into Westerns. The story goes that Monroe was asked to make a series of Westerns–a genre that he detested–and he gave his best cameraman the job. In the year since Ferdy started directing, he hadn’t had a flop.
The hero of the picture was Floyd Howard, the famous horseman. He had gotten his start in the very early days of motion pictures when they still filmed the “wild west” in the untamed forests of New Jersey. He was a great deal older than me, not very tall, but handsome in a toughened way. I had loved his films growing up–the few that I saw. Even on the screen, I could tell how much he knew about riding and horses. To me, his Westerns were always the most accurate.
But in person he didn’t make much of an impression. At least not like Kingston Sam. I’d met him socially once or twice during the month that I had been working as an actress and I hadn’t taken too much notice of him. When I met him again on the first day of filming, I was very daunted. He had a gravity about him that was easy to overlook in a large crowd. He had pale blue eyes that were both laughing and sad. I soon found in him a kindred spirit.
The filming was only meant to take a week, but due to some stormy weather, none of the interior scenes could be shot. By that time, I was very much used to all the waiting involved in shooting pictures. Dolores spent her extra time joking with the filming crew or taking naps. I got to know my co-star Floyd.
I made good use of the extra time we had on that picture. In the year since I’d left home, I had hardly had a chance to be around horses, only a couple of visits to Del’s sporting club. While growing up, my horse Bailey, a handsome roan, had always been a huge part of my daily activities. I had found that I missed my horse more than my family. On that first picture I made with Floyd and Ferdy, I spent hours riding around the location. And when the weather was too inclimate, I would work with the horses in the stable. I got to be close friends with the horse trainers as well as Floyd.
Floyd was famous for the love he had for his horse and was constantly working with her, training her for tricks and stunts. He worked with some of the other horses as well, but his heart belonged to Black Baby, his personal horse.
One rainy afternoon I was helping to brush down the horses when he came up to the stable fence. “I see you sit a good mount on your horse.”
I hadn’t noticed him behind me and jumped a little when he broke my concentration. “I have been riding all my life,” was my reply.
“I see,” he drawled slowly. “Ever do any rodeo riding, trick riding?”
I continued to work on the horse, a large Appaloosa mare. “No one would ever teach me. I grew up on a ranch so I learned to ride cattle and trails. My mother thought it was unbecoming and made me learn what she called proper equestrian with an English saddle and proper clothing.” I stood up and looked at him. “I was never any good at that.”
Floyd grinned back at me. “How’d you like to learn now?” We spent the next day and a half working on the moving mount and some other very fun tricks. It was Floyd’s idea that for the rescue scene in the film instead of having the hero bring his horse to a full stop, he could catch up the girl as the horse ran. He was teaching me that trick.
First he had to teach me the trick of swinging off the horse at a full run, hitting the ground, and rebounding into the saddle. I must say, that it was exhausting work. By the end of the first day I was sore from head to toe. Sore in the head from taking a fall off Black Baby. By the middle of the next day I had fairly managed the trick. Floyd told me it was one of the hardest maneuvers to master for it involved strength, balance and lots of concentration. If you weren’t completely focused on making it work, you could easily miss your footing and be flung from the horse. Unfortunately, that happened to me several times before I finally got the hang of it. I never did it very prettily, but I could do it.
The trick we were going to use on the film was similar, but instead of coming off the side of the horse to rebound up, I had to jump up into the saddle, being pulled by Floyd. After a few practice sessions, Floyd and I got the hang of it. Ferdy couldn’t have been more pleased by the new choreography. After all it was an action film and this new maneuver would add a lot to the excitement of the picture.
The filming, I think, went particularly well. Of the films I worked on, it was one of my favorite to watch. After that first Western, I made several more pictures with Floyd as my costar and Ferdy as our director. Floyd once even played my father! Maybe it was the horses, with the addition of a gifted co-star and excellent director, but those were the films I most loved to make.
Floyd and I became close friends. He didn’t like the shallow atmosphere that surrounded much of the picture industry in Los Angeles and spent his free time on a small ranch he had bought just over the hill from Hollywood. Knowing my love for horse riding, he would invite me over now and then for a long ride through the hills where he lived. It was the one thing I did without Del or Dolores. Floyd’s steadiness and the Southern California scenery did a lot to make me feel grounded. I missed my childhood home, sometimes very dearly, but riding out with Floyd returned some of it to me.
We were filming on location at the site of an old adobe farmhouse in the San Fernando Valley. Dolores was originally cast as the lead sister, but when the director, Ferdinand Kranz, found out that I was an experienced rider, he switched our parts. Dolores wasn’t too upset. She got to play the bad sister and had some excellent scenes in which to have fun “doing wrong.”
The picture was meant to be a western and was being directed by the upcoming director Ferdy Kranz. He had worked as Monroe’s cameraman before branching out into Westerns. The story goes that Monroe was asked to make a series of Westerns–a genre that he detested–and he gave his best cameraman the job. In the year since Ferdy started directing, he hadn’t had a flop.
The hero of the picture was Floyd Howard, the famous horseman. He had gotten his start in the very early days of motion pictures when they still filmed the “wild west” in the untamed forests of New Jersey. He was a great deal older than me, not very tall, but handsome in a toughened way. I had loved his films growing up–the few that I saw. Even on the screen, I could tell how much he knew about riding and horses. To me, his Westerns were always the most accurate.
But in person he didn’t make much of an impression. At least not like Kingston Sam. I’d met him socially once or twice during the month that I had been working as an actress and I hadn’t taken too much notice of him. When I met him again on the first day of filming, I was very daunted. He had a gravity about him that was easy to overlook in a large crowd. He had pale blue eyes that were both laughing and sad. I soon found in him a kindred spirit.
The filming was only meant to take a week, but due to some stormy weather, none of the interior scenes could be shot. By that time, I was very much used to all the waiting involved in shooting pictures. Dolores spent her extra time joking with the filming crew or taking naps. I got to know my co-star Floyd.
I made good use of the extra time we had on that picture. In the year since I’d left home, I had hardly had a chance to be around horses, only a couple of visits to Del’s sporting club. While growing up, my horse Bailey, a handsome roan, had always been a huge part of my daily activities. I had found that I missed my horse more than my family. On that first picture I made with Floyd and Ferdy, I spent hours riding around the location. And when the weather was too inclimate, I would work with the horses in the stable. I got to be close friends with the horse trainers as well as Floyd.
Floyd was famous for the love he had for his horse and was constantly working with her, training her for tricks and stunts. He worked with some of the other horses as well, but his heart belonged to Black Baby, his personal horse.
One rainy afternoon I was helping to brush down the horses when he came up to the stable fence. “I see you sit a good mount on your horse.”
I hadn’t noticed him behind me and jumped a little when he broke my concentration. “I have been riding all my life,” was my reply.
“I see,” he drawled slowly. “Ever do any rodeo riding, trick riding?”
I continued to work on the horse, a large Appaloosa mare. “No one would ever teach me. I grew up on a ranch so I learned to ride cattle and trails. My mother thought it was unbecoming and made me learn what she called proper equestrian with an English saddle and proper clothing.” I stood up and looked at him. “I was never any good at that.”
Floyd grinned back at me. “How’d you like to learn now?” We spent the next day and a half working on the moving mount and some other very fun tricks. It was Floyd’s idea that for the rescue scene in the film instead of having the hero bring his horse to a full stop, he could catch up the girl as the horse ran. He was teaching me that trick.
First he had to teach me the trick of swinging off the horse at a full run, hitting the ground, and rebounding into the saddle. I must say, that it was exhausting work. By the end of the first day I was sore from head to toe. Sore in the head from taking a fall off Black Baby. By the middle of the next day I had fairly managed the trick. Floyd told me it was one of the hardest maneuvers to master for it involved strength, balance and lots of concentration. If you weren’t completely focused on making it work, you could easily miss your footing and be flung from the horse. Unfortunately, that happened to me several times before I finally got the hang of it. I never did it very prettily, but I could do it.
The trick we were going to use on the film was similar, but instead of coming off the side of the horse to rebound up, I had to jump up into the saddle, being pulled by Floyd. After a few practice sessions, Floyd and I got the hang of it. Ferdy couldn’t have been more pleased by the new choreography. After all it was an action film and this new maneuver would add a lot to the excitement of the picture.
The filming, I think, went particularly well. Of the films I worked on, it was one of my favorite to watch. After that first Western, I made several more pictures with Floyd as my costar and Ferdy as our director. Floyd once even played my father! Maybe it was the horses, with the addition of a gifted co-star and excellent director, but those were the films I most loved to make.
Floyd and I became close friends. He didn’t like the shallow atmosphere that surrounded much of the picture industry in Los Angeles and spent his free time on a small ranch he had bought just over the hill from Hollywood. Knowing my love for horse riding, he would invite me over now and then for a long ride through the hills where he lived. It was the one thing I did without Del or Dolores. Floyd’s steadiness and the Southern California scenery did a lot to make me feel grounded. I missed my childhood home, sometimes very dearly, but riding out with Floyd returned some of it to me.