ROESER’S OLD WEST FILM OUTFITTERS
by Marye Roeser
Old West Film Outfitters, our Western film outfitting business, evolved after we purchased the Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit in 1960. During the summer of 1960, the John Wayne movie, “North to Alaska” was filmed partially in Mammoth Lakes and Hot Creek and we supplied horses. John Wayne wanted to purchase Lou’s registered Quarter Horse mare, Buellah that he had taken a fancy to, but Lou turned him down as he fancied her too. Can you imagine refusing to sell John Wayne a horse?
In 1961, “Ride the High Country” starring Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea was filmed in Mammoth Lakes in the fall. Action scenes of a shoot-out on Red Mountain mine tailings were filmed right across the road from the Pack Station and a camp scene at Lake Mary. We supplied a corral for them to stable their stars’ horses and a place to park all of their vehicles and a base to work out from. They also needed some additional horses for their extras. Since we did not have a “covered stable” in the mule corral, the film crew erected a large “circus” tent for the pampered southern California horses to shelter in. We did have an early snow and their horses preferred to be out in nature ignoring the tent. “How the West Was Won” was next in 1962 needing many horses especially Indian horses for an Indian attack on a wagon train. Since we had many horses on that film, Lou wanted to be on the location. He acquired a Hollywood Wrangler Card but was bumped off in favor of another Wrangler with seniority. Two of our horses, Dick and Warpaint, were returned very lame, and when we later saw the film, it was clear that those two horses were used as stunt horses and were felled by their stunt riders. We were not compensated for stunt horses! In 1965, Lou worked part of the summer as a wrangler on “Nevada Smith” filmed in old Mammoth and at Hot Creek and also supplied saddle and pack horses. A replica Western town was constructed near present Sierra Meadows. Our son, Lee, was an extra, a starry eyed nine year old “playing in a nearby water ditch paralleling the road”. The town was really quite picturesque and it was a shame that it had to be torn down after the movie filming was competed. Lou and our pack station crew rode through the town horseback on a day off when the film company was not filming there. Leslie at the age of 2 rode in the saddle in front of Lou on this expedition. Once again, Lou turned down a proposed horse sale to the movie company for use in the movie by Steve McQueen. The double for McQueen rode that horse, Chongo, in sequences filmed in Mammoth and down a very steep hill into Hot Creek never missing a step. Chongo was an especial favorite horse at the pack station. After we built Sierra Meadows in Old Mammoth and were open all year, more advertising commercials began calling. Mono County Film Council was formed and Lou was the representative to the State Film Council for Mono County. There were commercials for Ford, Yamaha, Good Year Tires, Toyoto, Hennessy Cognac, Oil of Olay, and Velamint Chewing Gum to name a few. Lou did location and production services, making arrangements for lodging, catering, rental vehicles, locations and permits besides horses and wranglers. Our son, Lee, was Lou’s assistant and he has continued in the filming business with his film supply business, Roeser Livestock and Equipment. He too, has a coveted Hollywood Wrangler Card. One of our first commercials for Ford trucks that we supplied locations, horses and riders had our children Lee, and Kerry and Lou starring as extra’s as well as others of our crew. Shortly after purchasing the pack station, we had built a hayride wagon and the hayride business had expanded after we built Sierra Meadows. Lou had purchased a sleigh and a bob sled for sleigh ride dinners and winter work along with more draft horses and draft type mules. A draft team he purchased had been the lead team in the opening sequence of “Paint Your Wagon”. Later he had an opportunity to purchase a collection of movie wagons from another pack station owner who had purchased them at an auction by a movie supplier dispersing his collection. This group included a chuck wagon that was used in the John Wayne movie “The Cowboys”. The character of the camp cook, Mr. Nightlinger, drove the chuck wagon in the movie. In “Call of the Wild”, a movie remake of the classic tale partially filmed in Bodie, Lou drove one of our wagons along with two of our malamute dogs, Kim and Mukluk, sharing his wagon seat to work in “Alaska”. The Eastern Sierra has all of the geographical looks for film companies. |
Hover over photos for captions and click on photos for larger views. You can then scroll through all the photos if you wish.
|
In the 1970s, Lou formed his film business, Old West Film Outfitters with business cards and his first brochure that he distributed at the California State Film Council meetings. He outlined services, livestock, wagons, equipment, wranglers, locations and permits and other arrangements that he provided. The Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit and Sierra Meadows crew worked on these commercial films as wranglers, cowboys teamsters and whatever other services that were needed.
Lou began receiving calls from Marlboro and the Leo Burnett Advertising Co. Marlboro needed not only horses and wranglers, but wagons, and old time camp set ups in addition to location and production services. Marlboro ads featuring “ Marlboro Country and the Marlboro Man” took the print media by storm. The company captured the rugged cowboy image with the wide open spaces of the West as their backdrop. Sloguns such as “It’s home, forty miles from nowhere, out here in Marlboro County” were compelling. The public loved this image and wanted to experience Marlboro Country but this ambience was really quite apart from the product. We always thought they should have had a food product to advertise for such as coffee, beans and bacon! In fact, they even published a beautiful little recipe booklet of Chile Recipes and a catalog with outdoor cowboy clothing and camping items.
Lou handled Marlboro shoots for about twenty five years. The company filmed up and down the Eastern Sierra and from the Valley of the Fire near Las Vegas, to north of Susanville and the Hearst Ranch at San Simeon. He knew the Marlboro cowboys who were not actors but real cowboys and ranchers, the directors and photographers and knew what they wanted and what would work for them. Lou was a “Marlboro Man” himself in several published ads even though he never smoked. Lou was able to make these settings possible, but the behind the scenes work activity for the wranglers was probably as interesting as the public story! Our crew were cowboys, packers and ranchers – the best in the Eastern Sierra and they equally enjoyed these shoots even though there was often not very much sleep time at night.
Sierra Meadows Equestrian and Ski Touring Center served as business headquarters. When we determined to do sleigh ride dinners during the winter at Sierra Meadows, we purchased more sleighs and draft horses and these seasoned draft horses and drivers that pulled the sleighs through the frosty meadows were also used in film work. There were a number of winter shoots. Even our bob sled was used in a Ford and Goodyear Tire company winter commercial. The bob sled was loaded with hay and Lee drove the Belgian draft team down a snowy road especially packed for the occasion.
An Oil of Olay commercial on the Old Mammoth Road had Lou doubling for the Hollywood actor and driving Blue, our Clydesdale Horse with a snappy cutter sleigh. The actor would quickly switch positions with Lou for close-ups. A Velamint commercial showed a model riding Lee’s horse, Stetson” on the snow covered Rock Creek Road. Some of the winter film shoots were filmed in the Mammoth Meadows and one involved ski sailing around a Ford truck. One of our Sierra Meadows dinner waitresses just happened to be ski sailor! In 1986, a Paramount Movie, “The Golden Child” starring Eddie Murphy was supposed to be in Tibet where there were Tibetan yaks seen through the swirling snowflakes in the Mammoth Meadows. Lou even briefly climbed aboard one of the Yaks and it was cold enough to be in Tibet!
A Hennessy Cognac Christmas commercial involved constructing a picturesque cabin in the snow covered Mammoth Meadows in our horse pasture and below Mammoth Rock. This involved hauling the building materials for the cabin to the site on a snow cat. There was no power out there for power tools so this necessitated a generator! The published photograph featured a handsome couple (with a goblet of cognac, of course) on a hill about the cabin and looking down on the lit up cabin in the snowy meadows. They were also photographed in the cutter sleigh.
We hosted a winter episode in the TV series “The Chisolm’s” starring Robert Preston that was filmed in Kerry Meadow where we conducted our hayride dinners at that time and on top of Minaret Summit. This was the story of a family wagon train to California who were crossing the Sierra in winter. Our daughter Leslie, who was a junior in high school, doubled for an actress and rode down a steep hillside in a snow storm. She also doubled for another young actress on a covered wagon. To make the movie exciting, of course, there had to be a runaway team and a wagon wreck. This scene was set up on Minaret Summit and a perfectly good wagon was pushed over a cliff in a spectacular crash. Lou had a hard time understanding the concept of destroying such a good wagon! Part of his job after the scene was shot was to haul away the wreckage!
When Opel Car Company in Germany wanted to do a wagon train to California commercial, Lou was able to use all of his movie wagons to make up the wagon train that was filmed in the Alabama Hills and the alkali flats near Lone Pine. Our crew, plus friends, made up the people on the wagon train and the production company costumed them so it looked very authentic. These “extras” really got into the feeling of the wagon train scenes and had a wonderful time. So, a wagon train (probably in Death Valley) wended its way over the salt flat and through the Alabama Hills to the lookout point where a longtime Sierra packer pointed (at Mt. Whitney) and shouted “Look, California!”
Marlboro developed their “lights” logo of horses splashing through water and we set up the film shoots for many of these fabulous photos decorating bill boards as well as magazines. These were not videos but still shots used for print media including billboards. It appears in the photos as though the horses just love running and splashing in the water while getting their photographs taken. In reality the horses did not like to run through the water. It required much effort and organization to set up this filming. The water had to have a firm footing and remain clear when churned up by the running horses. Places that worked well for this special photography were at Crowley Lake, Lake Lahontan, ponds in Bridgeport and north of Susanville. Corrals had to be set-up in the water close to shore or on shore and the loose horses would be corralled there until a gate was opened and they would then race out splashing toward where the photographer was set-up sometimes in a boat. The horses did not make just this one time splashing run. They had to repeat it again and again while the photographer captured that great shot.
An exciting happening occurred when the crew were preparing a filming at Lake Lahontan in Nevada. Lake Lahontan has a number of inlets or bays. The horses were in their water corral and the wrangler crew were wearing yellow slickers to keep themselves reasonably dry. This bunch of horses, however, decided that they were done with this action and they were “outta there!” They headed for deeper water and began swimming across the inlet. The wranglers had to race their horses around the little bay and then head them back. It was quite a race to see who would reach the other side first. The horses didn’t know it but the wranglers certainly did; there was open desert beyond the direction they were heading and they could have run quite a distance. These were gentle pack station dude horses but they surprised us sometimes with their wild possibilities.
Lou and the wrangler crew also set-up cowboy round-up camps with wagons, tents, cook fires and bed rolls. Since we set-up a large cowboy camp twice a year for our Spring and Fall horse Drives that drove the horses to and from winter pasture 100 miles away and moved daily, we had all the necessary equipment for an authentic working camp. There was always a rope corral for the remuda and sometimes we had cattle for the round-up scenes. Corriente cattle resembled Texas long horns and gave an old west look. Another slogun used was, “Longhorns. If you’re tough enough to handle ‘em, they call you a cowboy.”
Occasionally the photographer would decide, on the shoot, that he wanted to do a particular scene and would ask Lou to set this up on short notice. This caused a great scramble but Lou always managed to successfully pull it off. One late afternoon, the Marlboro photographer decided he wanted to have a Marlboro cowboy rope a black horse with white markings. Lou thought about our large horse remuda and we did not have a younger black horse that answered that description and also do a fast run on command that a Marlboro cowboy could show off his roping skills also at a fast run. One of our wranglers thought that he knew of a black horse for sale about 50 miles away from where this filming was taking place. Telephone calls were made and Lou purchased, sight unseen, a young mare trained as a barrel racing horse and she was a flashy, shiny black with white markings. Two of the wranglers hooked up a horse trailer and off they went into the night to pick up this horse for an early five AM morning shoot. She was probably totally surprised at what she was doing so early in the morning but Frances made the perfect run. The photographer was oblivious to the almost impossible task that he had imposed and the fact that the desired set-up came about on time without a hitch! Lou liked Frances so well that we kept her and she became a favorite film horse as well as a dependable pack station horse. But, she did miss out on a possible barrel racing career.
Lou was able to make these settings possible, as he has a deep passion for the splendid wide open spaces of the Eastern Sierra, extensive knowledge and a vision of where “Marlboro Country” really is. Through all these endeavors, Lou kept his 35 camera with him and shot photographs of the film shoots and activities. Some of the best photographers in the world were the first class professional photographers on these commercial film shoots and Lou observed how they shot their photographs and asked many questions developing his own photographic skills. His extensive collection of beautiful photographs tell the story of these film shoots from his view and inside perspective.
Lou began receiving calls from Marlboro and the Leo Burnett Advertising Co. Marlboro needed not only horses and wranglers, but wagons, and old time camp set ups in addition to location and production services. Marlboro ads featuring “ Marlboro Country and the Marlboro Man” took the print media by storm. The company captured the rugged cowboy image with the wide open spaces of the West as their backdrop. Sloguns such as “It’s home, forty miles from nowhere, out here in Marlboro County” were compelling. The public loved this image and wanted to experience Marlboro Country but this ambience was really quite apart from the product. We always thought they should have had a food product to advertise for such as coffee, beans and bacon! In fact, they even published a beautiful little recipe booklet of Chile Recipes and a catalog with outdoor cowboy clothing and camping items.
Lou handled Marlboro shoots for about twenty five years. The company filmed up and down the Eastern Sierra and from the Valley of the Fire near Las Vegas, to north of Susanville and the Hearst Ranch at San Simeon. He knew the Marlboro cowboys who were not actors but real cowboys and ranchers, the directors and photographers and knew what they wanted and what would work for them. Lou was a “Marlboro Man” himself in several published ads even though he never smoked. Lou was able to make these settings possible, but the behind the scenes work activity for the wranglers was probably as interesting as the public story! Our crew were cowboys, packers and ranchers – the best in the Eastern Sierra and they equally enjoyed these shoots even though there was often not very much sleep time at night.
Sierra Meadows Equestrian and Ski Touring Center served as business headquarters. When we determined to do sleigh ride dinners during the winter at Sierra Meadows, we purchased more sleighs and draft horses and these seasoned draft horses and drivers that pulled the sleighs through the frosty meadows were also used in film work. There were a number of winter shoots. Even our bob sled was used in a Ford and Goodyear Tire company winter commercial. The bob sled was loaded with hay and Lee drove the Belgian draft team down a snowy road especially packed for the occasion.
An Oil of Olay commercial on the Old Mammoth Road had Lou doubling for the Hollywood actor and driving Blue, our Clydesdale Horse with a snappy cutter sleigh. The actor would quickly switch positions with Lou for close-ups. A Velamint commercial showed a model riding Lee’s horse, Stetson” on the snow covered Rock Creek Road. Some of the winter film shoots were filmed in the Mammoth Meadows and one involved ski sailing around a Ford truck. One of our Sierra Meadows dinner waitresses just happened to be ski sailor! In 1986, a Paramount Movie, “The Golden Child” starring Eddie Murphy was supposed to be in Tibet where there were Tibetan yaks seen through the swirling snowflakes in the Mammoth Meadows. Lou even briefly climbed aboard one of the Yaks and it was cold enough to be in Tibet!
A Hennessy Cognac Christmas commercial involved constructing a picturesque cabin in the snow covered Mammoth Meadows in our horse pasture and below Mammoth Rock. This involved hauling the building materials for the cabin to the site on a snow cat. There was no power out there for power tools so this necessitated a generator! The published photograph featured a handsome couple (with a goblet of cognac, of course) on a hill about the cabin and looking down on the lit up cabin in the snowy meadows. They were also photographed in the cutter sleigh.
We hosted a winter episode in the TV series “The Chisolm’s” starring Robert Preston that was filmed in Kerry Meadow where we conducted our hayride dinners at that time and on top of Minaret Summit. This was the story of a family wagon train to California who were crossing the Sierra in winter. Our daughter Leslie, who was a junior in high school, doubled for an actress and rode down a steep hillside in a snow storm. She also doubled for another young actress on a covered wagon. To make the movie exciting, of course, there had to be a runaway team and a wagon wreck. This scene was set up on Minaret Summit and a perfectly good wagon was pushed over a cliff in a spectacular crash. Lou had a hard time understanding the concept of destroying such a good wagon! Part of his job after the scene was shot was to haul away the wreckage!
When Opel Car Company in Germany wanted to do a wagon train to California commercial, Lou was able to use all of his movie wagons to make up the wagon train that was filmed in the Alabama Hills and the alkali flats near Lone Pine. Our crew, plus friends, made up the people on the wagon train and the production company costumed them so it looked very authentic. These “extras” really got into the feeling of the wagon train scenes and had a wonderful time. So, a wagon train (probably in Death Valley) wended its way over the salt flat and through the Alabama Hills to the lookout point where a longtime Sierra packer pointed (at Mt. Whitney) and shouted “Look, California!”
Marlboro developed their “lights” logo of horses splashing through water and we set up the film shoots for many of these fabulous photos decorating bill boards as well as magazines. These were not videos but still shots used for print media including billboards. It appears in the photos as though the horses just love running and splashing in the water while getting their photographs taken. In reality the horses did not like to run through the water. It required much effort and organization to set up this filming. The water had to have a firm footing and remain clear when churned up by the running horses. Places that worked well for this special photography were at Crowley Lake, Lake Lahontan, ponds in Bridgeport and north of Susanville. Corrals had to be set-up in the water close to shore or on shore and the loose horses would be corralled there until a gate was opened and they would then race out splashing toward where the photographer was set-up sometimes in a boat. The horses did not make just this one time splashing run. They had to repeat it again and again while the photographer captured that great shot.
An exciting happening occurred when the crew were preparing a filming at Lake Lahontan in Nevada. Lake Lahontan has a number of inlets or bays. The horses were in their water corral and the wrangler crew were wearing yellow slickers to keep themselves reasonably dry. This bunch of horses, however, decided that they were done with this action and they were “outta there!” They headed for deeper water and began swimming across the inlet. The wranglers had to race their horses around the little bay and then head them back. It was quite a race to see who would reach the other side first. The horses didn’t know it but the wranglers certainly did; there was open desert beyond the direction they were heading and they could have run quite a distance. These were gentle pack station dude horses but they surprised us sometimes with their wild possibilities.
Lou and the wrangler crew also set-up cowboy round-up camps with wagons, tents, cook fires and bed rolls. Since we set-up a large cowboy camp twice a year for our Spring and Fall horse Drives that drove the horses to and from winter pasture 100 miles away and moved daily, we had all the necessary equipment for an authentic working camp. There was always a rope corral for the remuda and sometimes we had cattle for the round-up scenes. Corriente cattle resembled Texas long horns and gave an old west look. Another slogun used was, “Longhorns. If you’re tough enough to handle ‘em, they call you a cowboy.”
Occasionally the photographer would decide, on the shoot, that he wanted to do a particular scene and would ask Lou to set this up on short notice. This caused a great scramble but Lou always managed to successfully pull it off. One late afternoon, the Marlboro photographer decided he wanted to have a Marlboro cowboy rope a black horse with white markings. Lou thought about our large horse remuda and we did not have a younger black horse that answered that description and also do a fast run on command that a Marlboro cowboy could show off his roping skills also at a fast run. One of our wranglers thought that he knew of a black horse for sale about 50 miles away from where this filming was taking place. Telephone calls were made and Lou purchased, sight unseen, a young mare trained as a barrel racing horse and she was a flashy, shiny black with white markings. Two of the wranglers hooked up a horse trailer and off they went into the night to pick up this horse for an early five AM morning shoot. She was probably totally surprised at what she was doing so early in the morning but Frances made the perfect run. The photographer was oblivious to the almost impossible task that he had imposed and the fact that the desired set-up came about on time without a hitch! Lou liked Frances so well that we kept her and she became a favorite film horse as well as a dependable pack station horse. But, she did miss out on a possible barrel racing career.
Lou was able to make these settings possible, as he has a deep passion for the splendid wide open spaces of the Eastern Sierra, extensive knowledge and a vision of where “Marlboro Country” really is. Through all these endeavors, Lou kept his 35 camera with him and shot photographs of the film shoots and activities. Some of the best photographers in the world were the first class professional photographers on these commercial film shoots and Lou observed how they shot their photographs and asked many questions developing his own photographic skills. His extensive collection of beautiful photographs tell the story of these film shoots from his view and inside perspective.