OK, I’ve been asked, “What’s the story behind the FLOATING AROUND HOLLYWOOD cover photo?” Here you go…
I worked at Warner Bros. Studios from 1992 to 2003, first as a temporary secretary/administrative assistant (floater), later as an executive secretary, and (later still, after caring for DeForest Kelley during his final three months of life and then his wife for an additional seven months) as a hardware lease administrator.
My office was just fifty steps or so from the entrance to a western set called Laramie Street. During my time there the movies Tombstone (with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer) and Maverick (with Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster) were filmed there, as was a segment of STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION.
I got to meet some of the unnamed actors, wranglers and horses that appeared in TOMBSTONE; missed TNG filming altogether somehow. (Perhaps I was away from WB caring for De or Carolyn during that time…)
What I loved most about the western set was that De portrayed so many bad guys right there in that location. I could look around and see the various facades he’d stood in and on. I could retrace his footsteps. So even though he was still alive most of the time I had access to Laramie Street, after he died I would go there to “visit” with his cowboy essence… until the sad day when they tore it down. A little bit more of me died that day…
The Laramie set was torn town to be replaced by more modern Cape Cod-type facades. The razing seemed almost sacrilegious to me. So many western series that I grew up watching were filmed on that spot: Cheyenne, Bat Masterson, Bonanza, Have Gun Will Travel, you name it. The sight of the Laramie set had resurrected so many of my childhood heroes and stories… and now it was gone!
About 250 yards beyond the Laramie set was the re-assembled facade of the home of The Waltons. (The original Waltons show was filmed on Warner’s Ranch lot about a mile from the Warner main campus; the Walton home was torn down and reassembled on the main lot for the later anniversary shows.) So whenever I brought a lunch to work, I would usually walk through Laramie Street to get to the Walton home to eat and relax. I did this for three reasons: I’m a westerns/Waltons fan and this was the coolest place on campus (temperature-wise) because there were still a lot of trees there. So it was possible to walk from an 85 degree sunny day to a 72 degree (or less) shaded area that made you feel you’d stepped back in time.
The third reason I loved this set was that there were a bunch of cats that lived there. The story goes that when a rat infestation occurred during the 1940’s there was talk of setting out poison and rat traps, but Jack Warner would have none of it. He said, “Let’s get some ball-bearing rat traps.” When someone asked what those were, Warner ejaculated: “Cats! Get some cats!”
So the cats I knew were ancestors of Warner’s original cats. A cat lady (Bonnie Duehring) would catch cats on the lot every so often and get a bunch of them neutered so they didn’t overrun the place, but there were always enough left whole to ensure that there would be a future generation of Jack Warner’s “ball-bearing rat traps”.
But back to the original thrust of this story…
When Mom came to visit one time, I got special permission to bring a camera onto the lot and take some photos of us “horsing around” on Laramie Street and at the Walton’s home.
Here’s the original photo that Lisa adapted for the book cover…
Beneath that is Mom posing in the facade of a saloon…
And, last but not least, is a photo of Mom and me sitting on the porch steps of the Walton home. Now I’m wondering who was there to take the photo. I think it was Nancy Graf of Sacramento. (She and I worked together at the Animal Protection Institute from 1981 to 1984.)
Funny story about the Walton home. One time I was walking back from it after having eaten my lunch there and a tour shuttle came by packed with people. The tour guide spotted me (a redhead) and said, “And just up ahead, coming from the Walton homestead, is one of the Walton girls!”
Needless to say, everyone in the tour bus craned their necks to get a look at me. (blush…) I laughed and said, “Don’t I wish! I’d be lovin’ those residuals right about now!”
So that’s the story about how this “shootout” photo came into existence. It sure does take me back, looking at it…
Gives me a smile.
I hope it does the same for you!
