Western Revisited

They may have been fresh off the plane from Hollywood, but the
Cannons and the Montoyas had just as much mud on their chaps as any
other cowboy in the Wild West.

OK, so they were characters being played by actors, but one would
have never known that after looking at those Tucson Mountains in the
background.

The cast and crew of The High Chaparral will return to Tucson
for a reunion event at Old Tucson Studios, where the show was shot from
1967 to 1971.

The reunion will begin with a morning program at The High
Chaparral ranch set, where attendees will hear stories about the
golden days from producer Kent McCray and various actors. A luncheon is
closed to the general public, but following that will be an open
discussion and Q&A with cast members. Episodes will be shown at Old
Tucson Studios all day long.

Guests will include Henry Darrow, Bob Hoy, Tucson’s Dan Collier and
other cast members. Event-goers, and especially those familiar with the
show, can expect a nostalgic visit to the set.

Penny McQueen, an event organizer, says that her love for the
post-Civil War-era show stems from its historical realism. McQueen
claims that, unlike counterparts like Little House on the
Prairie and Bonanza, this was first Western series to be
shot onsite—a site where Apache leaders fought Spaniards and
American settlers.

“The dirt and the dust and the grit and the sweat—it all had
this terribly authentic feel,” says McQueen. She is the editor,
publisher and main contributor to The High Chaparral Newsletter and Web site (www.highchaparralnewsletter.com).

As if the historical value of the desert landscape were not enough,
the part of Cochise, a legendary Apache leader, was cast in true
Southwestern spirit: A direct descendant of Cochise himself, Nino
Cochise, was in his 90s at the time and was missing one leg, but the
hobbling old man with the impressive lineage nonetheless won the small
role.

The show also broke barriers in terms of its inclusion of violence,
for which the producers “took a lot of heat,” says McQueen. The
rough-and-tumble boys suffered injuries like broken legs, and some
crewmembers fainted under the Tucson sun. (Nobody was around to nag ’em
with the slogan, “It’s a dry heat, boys.”)

While The High Chaparral made a name for itself among Western
buffs, it also gave Tucson a claim to fame.

“High Chaparral was a very important series to Old Tucson,”
says Frances Causey, film manager at Old Tucson Studios. “It was such a
highly successful show on NBC, and it had a serious impact on the
Western genre.”

Causey says that the reunion will offer an opportunity to get Tucson
back on the map by introducing Old Tucson to the newest generation of
movie buffs and television fans. She is currently working on five
projects that could get the green light to be filmed at Old Tucson,
including Ghost Wolf.

If business were to start booming, she foresees an economic boost
for all of Tucson.

“The economic impact of film is so great. Just think: So many people
in the town—even the dry cleaners who cleaned the cast’s costumes
(in Chaparral)—benefited,” Causey says. “We are trying to
bring film production back to Tucson.”

It is not enough to just film shows here, though. In order to bring
attention to Tucson, that show has got to have a lasting following,
like Chaparral.

“When I first watched it, I watched at a point in time when I could
believe it was real,” says McQueen. “I’ve carried it in my heart for
all these years.”

A band of loyal followers has continued to support the show,
organizing a reunion every two years since 2003. This is the first
reunion held in the Old Pueblo.

“The fans overwhelmingly wanted to come to Tucson, to bring the show
back the ranch,” says McQueen.

The High Chaparral Reunion will be held on Saturday, Oct.
17, at Old Tucson Studios. The festivities will begin at 10 a.m.
Admission to Old Tucson costs $16.95 for adults, and $10.95 for kids
age 4 to 11. For more information, call 883-0100, or visit thehighchaparralreunion.com.

This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.