b'Check Out Our Latest ClothingWESTERNS AREand Footwear! Alive and WellBy Charlie LeSueurThanksgivingCharlie LeSueur, AZs Official Western Film Historian. Encore Fellow @ Western Spirit,Blessings To All! Scottsdales Museum of the West. azfilmhistorian@gmail.com, silverscreencowboyz.comA s I prepare my returnThere are several tours that take you trip from Lone Pine,into them thar hills and I made California back tomention to my good friend, Rusty the Valley of the Sun, I amRichards, that I couldnt decide which confident that westerns are alive and well. This was theones to take. Rusty had been a very second festival I attended in a matter of two weeks. popular addition to The Sons of the Pioneers for many years, as well as a First, was the successful International Wild Bunch Filmbusy actor and stuntmen. Festival in Willcox. Both new and seasoned filmmakers submit their films for consideration. Western filmsRusty is one of the most modest men are shown for three days and genre fans can sit in ayou would ever meet when it comes to darkened theater and OD on the finest westerns fromone of the most sought after, and revered independent film companies. Im hearing it may extendfestival guests; so I didnt expect him to to four days in 2020. volunteer to give me a personal tour.This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be invitedAlong with his wife, Amy, and popular to the Annual Lone Pine Festival. Im ashamed to admitwestern poet Tony Argento and histhat I hadnt already made the pilgrimage to this meccawife Marcy, we ventured into one ofof westerns. The California fire closed all the northernthe hallowed grounds for westernbound traffic so I was five hours late to my destinationfilm making.and wasnt able to take in all the beauty of Mt. Whitney and the Alabama Hills nestled below it. If you havent been through the Alabama Hills then youre missing a large part of western history. There is literally no bad location for filmmakers and traveling through them I could visualize Hopalong Cassidy riding through the odd-looking boulders since so many of his films were shot in this terrain.Gene, Roy, Allan Rocky Lane, and Clayton Moore are a few of the silver screen western heroes who also used the area often, and with Rustys personal stories about all these gentlemen it was an amazing couple of hours. fortunately I made sure it was all recorded for posterity. HOURSMonFri: 8am6pmSat: 8am4pmSun: ClosedLOW PRICES & FRIENDLY STAFF!@Stockman Feeds AZ 7315 W. Buckeye Rd.@stockmanfeeds_az Phoenix, AZ 85043 Clockwise from top: The Majestic Mount Whitney (Nel Graham)John Wayne in the Alabama Hills (Museum of Western Film History)Se Habla Espaol (623) 936-5549 Hoppy in the Alabama Hills(westernposterpage.com)Gene Autry Rock; Randolph Scott "HangmansKnot"; Lone Ranger Ambush(The Great SilenceThe Alabama Hills Series)stockmanfeedswesternwear.com ArizonaRealCountry.com November 2019 57'