Lone Pine

  Images of Early Lone Pine

Main street Lone Pine in 1936

1924 - Unknown carriage riders.

Main Street Lone Pine in the 1930s.

Summer - Main street Lone Pine in 1911.

Ray,

Here’s a story that I posted, in April 2025, for a group that I belong to - (most of it, you’ll recognize)

It’s May of 1956 and about a week before my 8th birthday. We’ve just moved to the small vacation town of Lone Pine, in east central California. I’m going to be starting the 3rd grade, when school starts. The town only has one TV channel, CBS. That doesn’t bother me though, because there’s plenty of things to do and my dad’s going to be the projectionist for the town’s theater. The theater’s only open two days a week, nine months of the year and three days a week during the summer months, when school’s out. The theater shows one movie per week and most of those are the newest releases. I get to change the letters on the theater’s marquee and the large movie posters in those glass enclosed frames, both outside the theater and inside where the concession area was. Dad asked me if I wanted any of those posters, but having a slightly above average I.Q. I said; “No Thank You.” “I wouldn’t know what to do with those things.” Speaking of the concession area, my mom works the theater’s ticket booth and 15 minutes before the cartoon comes on, she closes the ticket booth and helps the other person in the concession area. I watched all the movies, sometimes more than once.

When dad isn't working at the theater he’s usually working with one of the studio crews that’s filming movies, in the nearby Alabama Hills and Mt. Whitney areas. He works with the sound crew, doing whatever they need. Hundreds of movies and TV series were filmed there. Some of the earlier movies were: “Gunga Din,” starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine (1939), “The Long, Long Trailer,” starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and “Bad Day at Black Rock” starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan (1955) Because of the landscape, the majority of the movies and TV series filmed around Lone Pine are westerns. I believe most of Randolph Scott’s westerns were filmed in the Alabama Hills. Some of the earlier TV series included: “The Lone Ranger,” “The Gene Autry Show,” The Roy Rogers Show,” “The Cisco Kid” and “Have Gun Will Travel.” Because dad works with the filming crews, I had the rare opportunity to meet several stars, over the five years that we lived in Lone Pine, including having Robert Taylor come to our small, (1 bedroom, one bath), home for dinner, during the filming of, "The Law and Jake Wade.”

The story goes: After the day's filming, the Writers, Directors, and various people, including the actors would sit in the town’s closed' theater while my dad would run the day's filming. If there was a small area that needed to be removed, for whatever reason, they'd holler up to the projection room asking my dad to remove whatever frames needed removing. he'd 'cut out' those frames and glue the two ends together, editing the 35mm film right there in the projection booth. Anyway, it was during one of those previewing sessions, when I’m 10 years old and sitting between Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark, that I asked Mr. Widmark if he'd like to come to our house for dinner. He said he had a prior engagement, but I might ask Mr. Taylor. I did and he accepted. I told him we normally ate around 6pm. I gave him directions to our house and the address. After everyone was satisfied with the day's filming they all left. I waited for my dad to finish and we started home. I told him about Mr. Taylor joining us for dinner. He didn't look happy. As soon as he walked in and saw my mother he said; "Guess what YOUR son did"? For some reason, she didn't look happy, either. Dinner was fine and Mr. Taylor was a gracious guest.

I don’t remember much about the dinner, other than my parents telling me to NEVER do that again. The tiny rental house that we lived in, is no longer there. (655 E. Muir St.) It was a one bedroom, one bath house. I slept on the sofa. Mr. Taylor didn’t talk much about himself, but more to me and my parents. How long had we lived in Lone Pine, how did I like living in Lone Pine and what did I do for fun, what other films had my dad on, etc. I just remember Mr. Taylor being polite and a very gracious guest. During the filming of “The Law and Jake Wade” mom took a couple of photos of the filming, with my grandmother’s camera:  I believe it was a Kodak #1 folding pocket camera. I know it used 120 film.

Dick Mayorgas - January 2026

Below I’ve attached two photos, that my mom took, during the filming of “The Law and Jake Wade.” In the first photo, I believe that’s Robert Taylor, (black shirt and hat), standing and talking to someone, in the background between the two horses. I believe Richard Widmark, (dark jacket and tan hat), is the person in front and on the right side of the small wooden water tank. There’s a better view of him in the second photo.