Rudy Ramos, Henry Darrow and Don Collier meet fans at the
2009 Reunion
The High Chaparral Reunion 2011
Back to Tucson!
We already have 21 fans registered for The High Chaparral 2011 Reunion on October 21- 23 in Tucson!
The 3-day weekend package is only $320, and you can pay in installments through the online website at wwwthehighchaparralreunion.com.
Visit The High Chaparral Reunion website for details about registration costs and all the planned events.
See you in Tucson!
Season Three Release of
High Chaparral on DVD
English/German audio
A 7 DVD set of The High Chaparral in German and English is available from Kinowelt, a leading film distributor and DVD provider in Germany has announced they will release Season 3 of The High Chaparral in June.
Seasons 1 and 2 DVDs are available on Amazon Germany.
The Kinowelt DVDs are in PAL (European) format with both German and English languages and Dolby sound. In the U.S an all region/all format DVD player is required to read the PAL formatted discs, however most newer model players are all region. Check the manufacturer/model documentation to be certain. Computer DVD players will often play back a PAL formatted disk so the episodes can be watched that way if the TV DVD player won't accept the PAL format.
The first season set includes the two hour pilot. Episodes on the Kinowelt set have crystal clear, crisp sound and picture quality. Regular season episodes appear to be complete and uncut and of exceptionally high resolution.
Susan McCray:
The Business of Talent
From Westlake Magazine, Jan/Feb 2011
Most people are fortunate if they have one good career.
Susan McCray has enjoyed several - as a casting director,
TV producer, record producer, author of a children’s book,
and radio host. And as if that weren’t enough, McCray has recently fulfilled a childhood dream by creating and launching her own fragrance called Nightfall.
Growing up in West L.A.,
McCray was steeped in the world of
music, spending many hours listening to
her Academy Award winning composer
father Harry Sukman and talented mother
Francesca perform on their Steinways. At
the same time, McCray’s mother was a
model and fashion designer who handed
down the love of the art of makeup and
fragrance.
“Since I was eight years old, my mother said to me, ‘Susan, never, ever tell anybody the makeup you’re wearing – the color – or the perfume you’re wearing. You have to be an individual.’ We used to mix perfumes in the house so she could come up with the perfect fragrance and no one would know what it was. You have to be careful what you mix, so it wouldn’t be too strong, but it was something we did.”
Hollywood sidetracked Susan. As a young woman in her early 20’s, she climbed the ladder, First in 1967, as a secretary in front of the casting office that worked on Bonanza and High Chaparral and then as a casting secretary where she was allowed to help out with the shows. In the early ‘70s, she went to work for Paramount’s casting office, working on such shows as Laverne & Shirley, Happy Days, Mannix and the Odd Couple. It was there she received an incredible phone call from Michael Landon. “He said, ‘The women you’re working with were just submitted an offer to cast Little House on the Prairie,’” McCray recalls. “I would rather just have you with me if you’re going to cover the show,” She remembers, still amazed by his call. “Those kinds of things so rarely happen,” she says.
“Mike was a uniquely special
individual. He just had a way of writing
something that people could relate to.
There were so many times I would bring
actors in to read and they would say they
went through something like that. They
were subject matters that were meaningful
and real. He was an exceptional man.
There just aren’t many people like Mike
anymore. I think times have changed
and people’s values in certain areas have
gone away. Someone recently said to
me, ‘The shows you did with Mike were
so beautiful, where are they today?’ And
I said, ‘In rerun on cable.’ Mike loved
writing. First was writing, second was
directing and the last thing he liked was
acting.”
While working on Little House, McCray was able to cast other shows as well, including Hawaii 5-0, a PBS show called Freestyle, as well some TV movies including Diary of Anne Frank, The Five of Me and Rodeo Girl, “So that was the year I bought a new car,” she says with a laugh. “A black and silver Cadillac Seville.”
In 1990, just as Landon’s
production team got word that
their pilot, Us, had been picked up
for a series, the star was diagnosed with
cancer. After he passed away, McCray
and her husband produced Michael
Landon: Memories with Laughter and Love
and McCray went on to work on two
Bonanza specials with Ben Johnson. In
2003, she produced a CD of her father’s
work called The Legacy of a Man and His
Music, a tribute to her father, followed by
one in 2007 called Warm Heart…Cool
Hands (A Tribute to My Friend). In 2005,
McCray also began a radio internet show called Getting to Know
You with Susan McCray which broadcasts on KSAV.org and airs
every Tuesday evening at 6:30. She has just begun a second
show called Orchestra Hall, about classical music, which runs
the first and third Sunday of the month at noon.
Two years ago, after 26 years in Malibu, the McCrays
(married since 1984), moved to a home in Westlake with,
ironically, a view of the Bonanza location. Then it felt like time
to rediscover her childhood passion, so she set about coming up
with the right fragrance.
“There are certain scents that I love. I like a fresh scent ~ basil, citrus and the smell of white roses, and these make up Nightfall,” she says, explaining that she named the perfume after a piece of music her father composed. “I knew I was on the right track when I sprayed myself and went out to lunch with my husband. We were at a restaurant in the valley and the maitre d’ came over to me and said, ‘What is that perfume? It smells so good.’ My husband started to laugh and said, ‘You set that up!’ I told the maitre d’ he could purchase it at NightfallBySusanMccray. com and I knew I was in the right direction.”
Visit Nightfallbysusanmccray.com, perfect for a gift or special treat for yourself.
David Dortort focus at Autry National Center
Mallory Furnier, Assistant Archivist at the Gene Autry National Center in Los Angeles, wrote to alert High Chaparral fans about a new tribute to Chaparral creator David Dortort.
"I’m currently working on processing the David Dortort Archive at the Autry Library at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles," Furnier said. "I recently started a monthly blog post examining facets of the Dortort Archive. As this month features several scanned images from the archive relating to High Chaparral I thought your newsletter readers might be interested in having a look." http://libraries.theautry.org/
As part of a series - Exploring Highlights from the David Dortort Archive - The Autry National Center’s Institute for the Study of the American West is currently processing the donated papers of novelist, screenwriter, and producer David Dortort. Every 1st Tuesday of the month the Autry Libraries blog will feature highlights from the collection in anticipation of processing completion in June 2011.
Vintage News Clips
On The High Chaparral set, Leif Erickson likes to brag about what a good cook he is. He got his chance to prove it in the series' Thanksgiving show. He actually cooked the turkey seen in the last scene. He stuffed it with his own special bread dressing with oysters, sage and chestnuts.
Linda Cristal has already used some of her High Chaparral loot to surprise her 2 young sons with a gift of 2 Welsh ponies. They'll be spending time with Linda on location in Arizona where they've also been promised they can take horseback riding lessons.
Henry Darrow, of NBC's The High Chaparral, uses Indian sign language frequently in the 1967-68 series. He has learned 300 signs. His only problem now is to find Indians around the location site near Tucson, Ariz. who know how to talk back.
Don Collier, High Chaparral's ranch foreman Sam Butler, took a screen punch from legendary John Wayne in 'The War Wagon'. After it was over, Collier, on the receiving end of Wayne's powerful left, told set onlookers that it was the most lethal movie punch he'd ever taken.
Actor Cameron Mitchell, who plays Buck Cannon on The High Chaparral television show, welcomes Rudy Ramos, 19-year old newcomer, to the Cannon family. Ramos, as a new regular character, Wind, will play Buck's half-breed son, starting with the series' first show of the new season.
Henry Darrow on PBS' Pioneers of Television
Henry Darrow as Manolito Montoya
In January, Henry Darrow appeared in the PBS series, Pioneers of Television episode, Westerns. If you missed the original broadcast check your schedule as PBS frequently rebroadcasts this popular show, or see the PBS website.
The following article is from the Wilmington Star News Online.
Last week, PBS’ “Pioneers of Television” series showed how “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry was able to explore topical issues like race relations by setting his show in the distant future. This week, the series explores how TV Westerns did the same thing – by setting their stories in the past. And one Wilmington resident played a key role.
Among the TV icons interviewed in tonight’s episode (airing at 8 p.m.) is Henry Darrow, who starred in “High Chaparral” from 1967 to 1971. The actor has lived in Wilmington with his wife, Lauren Levian, since 2002.
Darrow, who changed his name from Delgado shortly before landing the role of Manolito Montoya in “High Chaparral” role, was one of few minority actors to have a regular role on TV Westerns. But in his interview, the Puerto Rican-born Darrow downplays his role playing a “breakout character.”
“I’m not a Latin actor or a Hispanic actor. I’m an actor who happens to be of Spanish heritage,” he says.
Darrow, who filmed his segment with the show’s producers last January in Wilmington, also reveals that he and his co-stars often were given freedom to invent their own lines when the script called for them to speak Spanish.
A fixture in TV Westerns of the ’60s and ’70s – “The Wild Wild West,” “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke,” and “Zorro” are on his resume – Darrow also comments on some of his fellow “pioneers.” The episode includes interviews with Robert Conrad (“The Wild Wild West”), Linda Evans (“Big Valley”), James Garner (“Maverick”), Fess Parker (“Daniel Boone”) and Parker’s co-star Darby Hinton.
“The one thread that runs through us is the Western,” Darrow says at the opening of the episode. “And we were there to celebrate it.”
Watch “Pioneers of Television – Westerns” at 8 p.m. Tuesday on PBS.
Celebrity Appearances
Henry Darrow is slated for a guest celebrity spot at Festival of the West near Scottsdale, AZ, March 17-20.
This is a great opportunity to meet (or re-connect) with Henry and many other celebrities, and Festival of the West has lots of great activities, vendors, and film.
According to Arizona Central, this 20th annual Festival will be the last, so if you're near Scottsdale this may be your last chance to experience this great Western tradition.
Don Collier is slated to appear at the Palm Springs Westfest and Rodeo on March 24-27. Billed as a Western World's Fair, there's even a Fantasy Camp for cowboys, so along with meeting High Chaparral's Sam Butler, what more could you ask for?
Addition to That Face, That Voice - Don Collier
Lots of great reading in this month's issue, Penny, as well as a few unique
photos.
In my article on Don Collier, the link to a sample of Don's Arizona Twilight CD didn't make it through. Click here to listen to one of Don's stories http://outwestentertainment.com/DonCD.htm
I also should have added a link to samples of West of the Story. Check those out here. http://westofthestory.com/soundclips.htm
Ginny Shook
High Chaparral
Reunion 2009 DVD
Read about The 2009 High Chaparral Reunion DVD in this Newsletter article by Wendy St. Germain.
The DVD is two hours of memories and a must for any fan of the show. $25 plus shipping/handling. Payments are processed securely via Paypal. Order here.
Do you have a favorite piece of memorabilia, or an article you'd like to share with other fans? Send it to info@highchaparralnewsletter.com, and we'll do our best to add it to a future newsletter.