Celebs Celebrate John Mitchum

John Mitchum in Noises Off.

When Cindy Mitchum Azbill’s father, actor, singer and poet John Mitchum, passed away in 2001, she had the idea of commemorating his life with a memorial website. But a few of John’s celebrity friends, including actor Ernest Borgnine and producer A.C. Lyles, said he deserved something bigger. An idea was born: Contact John’s friends and ask each one to pick their favorite John Mitchum poem and record it. The result is Old Friends, Why I Love Them: a 10-year project of 50 recorded poems featuring some of Hollywood’s brightest stars – many of who have connections to Arizona’s Little Hollywood. (Though John never made a film in Sedona, his brother, Robert Mitchum, starred in Blood on the Moon; John is best known for his role as Clint Eastwood’s partner in three Dirty Harry films.)

Among the talent who have filmed movies in Sedona and recorded John’s poetry, you’ll find Ernest Borgnine and Ben Cooper (Johnny Guitar); James Drury (The Last Wagon); L.Q. Jones (Stay Away, Joe); Jane Russell (actress and former Sedona resident); Morgan Woodward (Firecreek); Bruce Boxleitner (Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues); and Ann Rutherford (Out West with the Hardys). Though he doesn’t have a Sedona connection, Academy Award winner Robert Duvall recorded John’s best-known poem, America, Why I Love Her (written at his home in Los Angeles in 1969). John Wayne originally recorded the poem, which became the title track for John Wayne’s only album, released in 1973. John Mitchum was nominated for a Grammy for the record.

“There’s been a remarkable outpouring of love and respect for my father, his poetry and each other,”says Cindy. “I think every Western [film] is represented on this record.”

Though the album won’t be released until the end of this year, at press time plans were in the works to screen a video of Robert Duvall reciting America at the unveiling of the 9/11 memorial in New York City this month. For more info, visit www.johnmitchum.com.––By Erika Ayn Finch. Originally published in the September 2011 issue of Sedona Monthly

Morgan Woodward Revisits 'Firecreek'

Firecreek gang Morgan Woodward, James Best, Jack Elam, and Gary Lockwood.

During his 2005 visit to Sedona, I caught up with perennial movie bad guy Morgan Woodward, who is best remembered as Cool Hand Luke’s “man with no eyes.” Woodward reminisced about 1968's Firecreek (partly filmed in Sedona) and its stars, Henry Fonda and James Stewart, as well as his moviemaking career.––Joe McNeill

JM: Let’s talk about Firecreek.

MORGAN WOODWARD: I just saw a copy of the local press and they quoted me saying it was “absolutely the greatest cast I ever worked with.” Well look at the cast, for God’s sake. This started out as, I think, a CBS-Warner movie or something like that; and there was Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Jack Elam, Inger Stevens, Jimmy Best and on and on and on. You know, I looked at that cast and thought, “Jesus, I’ll be lucky to get billing above Glen Glenn Sound!”

They [Stewart and Fonda] were two top leading men; of course, at that time they were in kind of the sunset of their careers. Except Fonda came back real big with Katherine Hepburn in On Golden Pond [winning his first and only best actor Oscar in 1981]. They were old friends but had worked together in a picture only once before, and that had been many years earlier. They were available at that time and that’s the reason they got to work together. And I got to work with them.

How did you get into films?

With Walt Disney, in The Great Locomotive Chase. There was a great part in it, this wild-ass Confederate Master Sergeant––a bad guy––who threatened James J. Andrews, who was played by Fess Parker. Fess and I went to the University of Texas together, we were fraternity brothers. Fess told Walt, I know a genuine redneck that can come out here. He’s an actor, he’s been on stage before, he can do that part. Walt told him to have me come test for it. I did the test and got it, and then did two more pictures for Disney. That was 1955.

Do you have a favorite role that you’ve done?

Well, I would say my favorite roles were on Gunsmoke. Of course, Cool Hand Luke was an absolute giant step for me. I think it was Bosley Crowther in The New York Times who wrote ‘Morgan Woodward may be the only actor since Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda to get an Academy Award for never speaking a word.’ If you remember, she couldn’t hear or speak in that. So that quote made it into the trade papers.

One more question; I read somewhere that your uncle was a doctor and that he delivered Tex Ritter, the singing cowboy and John Ritter’s father. Is this true?

Uh huh. All my uncles were doctors. You know Tex Ritter’s real name? It was Woodward Ritter. Tex Ritter’s father named him after my uncle, Dr. Samuel Andrew Woodward, who delivered him. Let me tell you how im­pressed John was with that. His dad got the Golden Boot award posthumously. I’d never met John before and I walked up to him and said, “John, my name’s Morgan Woodward; my uncle, Dr. Samuel Andrew Woodward, delivered your father.” He said, “Oh.” Then he turned and walked away. Sometimes I’m surprised at the reaction I get from people.

Sedona Movie Alert!

Catch a pair of films ­featuring our red rock scenery on TV: Firecreek (1968, filmed in Sedona) starring James Stewart and Henry Fonda; directed by Vincent McEveety. Airing on Turner Classic Movies July 31 at 12 p.m.; The Rounders (1965, filmed in Sedona and Flagstaff) starring Henry Fonda, Hope Holiday, Sue Ane Langdon, and Glenn Ford (pictured above in a scary piece of promotional art); directed by Burt Kennedy. Airing on Turner Classic Movies July 31 at 2 p.m. (Both scheduled screenings are Eastern time.)

Sedona Movie Legends Walk of Fame

With more than sixty major feature films shot in Sedona between 1923 and 1973, and occasional TV, commercial and other productions ever since, the town holds a special place in movie history. On October 27, 2004, Sedona Main Street Program celebrated that legacy with the first “Hands through History” event. The five guests of honor who helped make movie magic in Sedona – Ernest Borgnine and Ben Cooper, co-stars of Johnny Guitar (1954); Sue Ane Langdon, co-star of The Rounders (1965); Bob Bradshaw, a local rancher who did late-era location scouting; Dwight Brooks, director, producer and CEO of Sedona Movie Studio, a local production company; and A.C. Lyles, the legendary Hollywood producer whose series of westerns breathed life into the genre in the 1960s – attended a cocktail party where granite plaques, each with their images and signatures, were unveiled.

After introductions and the screening of vintage film clips, the guests of honor cast their handprints in concrete slabs, which would be installed in Uptown Sedona in August 2006 as part of the Uptown Enhancement Project for streetscape beautification.

Borg­nine recalled that when he first came to Sedona “it was just a little hamlet, a little tiny town…there weren’t very many people here. Then, BAM! Next thing you know, it’s a city.” Cooper recalled that Sedona Lodge, headquarters for the Johnny Guitar company during their stay “had a big mess hall and they would bring in platters of food; they would have a platter of pork chops piled high, a platter of steaks piled high.” When asked if she had the chance to sightsee while shooting The Rounders, Langdon replied, “It was mostly just work, work, work – but where we worked was sightseeable. Where is there a place that’s not sightseeable here?”

A.C. Lyles, who’s worked for Paramount Pictures since 1928, was serving as a consultant to HBO’s Deadwood at the time and bursting with pride at the show’s success. “We just opened in England,” he said, “it’s been on four weeks and already is the highest-rated drama on Sky Network,” a British pay-TV service.

Actors Clint Walker, Edd “Kookie” Byrnes, Robert Horton, and Morgan Wood­ward were the guests of honor in February 2005 when the second “Hands Through History” evening brought more of the greats from Sedona’s western movie past back to town. Walker, who filmed Yellow­­stone Kelly there in 1959, joked, “It’s been 18 years [since my last visit]; most of this wasn’t here. I wondered, would I be able to find my way around?” His Kelly co-star, Byrnes, called that film “my favorite western that I’ve done.”

Robert Horton said, “I first saw Sedona [when we filmed] Pony Soldier in 1952. My wife and I came back in 1989 and it had changed; but the red rocks didn’t change, and I think the city should be very proud.”

Movie tough guy Morgan Wood­ward showed he has a soft spot for our town. He noted he filmed Firecreek here in the late ‘60s and “I can see that both of us have changed a great deal. I’m delighted to be back to celebrate this marvelous historical event that you’re carrying forward. Sedona is an absolutely beautiful place and I’ve never been among friendlier people.”




Passersby check out Uptown Sedona's "Hands Through History" installations.

A third “Hands Through History” event was held in May 2005, honoring Randolph Scott (Gunfighters, 1947), Tyrone Power (Pony Soldier, 1952), James Drury (The Last Wagon, 1956) and Dick Jones (The Strawberry Roan, 1948) for their roles in Sedona movies. Actress Donna Martell represented the deceased Scott, her co-star in the Tucson-filmed Ten Wanted Men (1955); Tyrone Power Jr. stood in for his father. To date, the last Sedona film star honored by Sedona Main Street Program has been The Strawberry Roan’s Gloria Henry, who cast her handprints in concrete during a visit to town in September 2007.––Joe McNeill