REGION
Thursday, July 7, 2022
ThE OBsErVEr — A3
Movie filmed in Grant County holds fond memories
‘Napoleon and
Samantha’ filmed in
Grant County marks
its 50th anniversary
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
Man with felony
warrants arrested after
police vehicle chase
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — A
Lakeview man who had
multiple felony warrants
and led police on a chase
on the Fourth of July was
arrested after officers found
him in the Powder River.
Michael Ray Schulte,
36, was arrested at about
7:49 p.m. near Church
Street, according to a press
release from the Baker
County Sheriff’s Office.
Schulte was taken to
the Baker County Jail,
charged with being a
felon in possession of a
firearm, reckless driving,
attempting to elude police
and unlawful possession
of methamphetamine.
He also had an arrest
warrant from Lake
County.
The incident started
when the Baker County
Sheriff’s Office dis-
patch center received a
call about a suspicious
vehicle in the ditch along
Old Highway 30 near
Ebell Creek, several miles
southeast of Baker City.
As deputies were en
route, a caller reported
that another vehicle had
arrived and pulled the first
vehicle out of the ditch.
The first vehicle, a
2006 Ford Taurus, was
heading toward Baker
City on the highway
at a high rate of speed,
according to the press
release.
Deputies learned that
the driver was Schulte,
and that he had mul-
tiple felony arrest war-
rants. Deputies turned on
their overhead lights and
started following Schulte.
He failed to stop at
a stop sign and entered
Baker City on Elm Street.
Baker City Police Depart-
ment officers joined the
deputies in pursuing
Schulte.
Police found the
Taurus, empty, along
Church Street near the
river. After searching for
about 30 minutes, police
found Schulte “partially
submerged” in the river,
according to the press
release.
Marvin Gibbs was 14
years old that summer and
working as a paperboy,
delivering The Oregonian
and the Oregon Journal
in John Day. One of his
delivery stops was a bakery
on Main Street, where
members of the production
crew would gather to start
their day.
“One day a guy asked
me if I wanted to be in one
of the scenes and I said,
‘Sure, why not?” recalled
Gibbs, now 65 and living in
Wallowa.
The filmmakers wanted
to use him as an extra in a
scene where Whitaker, as
Napoleon, and Geer, who
played his grandfather, are
Wildhorse Pow Wow recognizes thousands
of indigenous women through first-time event
petitions back to the eve-
ning of July 3.
After finishing up the
previous day’s events, the
Red Dress competition took
place, where women were
judged by other members
for their dancing and dress.
The event was a part of
three days’ worth of com-
petitions with more than
$90,000 in prizes. The event
typically brings in 5,000-
7,000 guests per year, and
the crowds packed in to
watch the celebrations July 3.
Along with the guests,
nearly 100 participants
from several tribes came
to participate at Wildhorse,
the first Pow Wow on the
site in two years due to the
pandemic.
By ANTONIO ARREDONDO
East Oregonian
MISSION — After
two days full of dancing
and drumming at the 26th
annual Wildhorse Pow
Wow, the many indigenous
tribes gathered in the area
took a moment to recognize
those who are missing.
The pow wow is a Native
American tradition where
many tribes gather together
to celebrate their culture as
well as compete in different
events. One of the events at
this year’s Wildhorse Pow
Wow was the Red Dress
Competition.
“It’s a newer move-
ment to raise awareness for
the missing women from
Canada and the United
States,” Pow Wow Master
of Ceremonies Thomas
Morning Owl said. “It
started in Canada but has
moved down here.”
The REDress Project dis-
plays red dresses in public
spaces to show the number
of missing Indigenous
women. Since 1980, thou-
sands of indigenous women
have gone missing, with
most cases left unsolved.
antonio arredondo/East Oregonian
Sonney Walsey of Toppenish, Washington, stands surrounded by
others dancing in a circle during the opening ceremony Sunday, July
3, 2022, at the Wildhorse Pow Wow in Mission.
Morning Owl highlighted
several cases in the Yakama
tribes as well as some far-
ther north in the Seattle area
as regional examples.
“For some reason when
indigenous women go
missing in this nation they
slip through the cracks,”
Morning Owl said.
Morning Owl said this is
the first time the Pow Wow
held an event of this nature,
and the staff showed their
support for the new activity.
Most staff members wore
red Wildhorse staff shirts
on July 3 to honor those
missing. Many of the
women participating in
other events also wore red.
The Red Dress remem-
brance initially was
schedule for the early eve-
ning on July 3, but a thun-
derstorm with heavy wind
and rain July 2 sent spec-
tators and participants
alike to seek cover, ending
the festivities a few hours
early. The rescheduled slate
pushed the final day’s com-
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were filmed.
At the time, Oregon
was enjoying a bit of a
Hollywood moment. Sev-
eral major motion pictures
had been shot in the state
in the previous few years,
including “Paint Your
Wagon” with Clint East-
wood and Lee Marvin,
filmed near Baker City;
Paul Newman’s “Some-
times a Great Notion,” shot
in the Newport area; and
“The Great Northfield Min-
nesota Raid,” filmed around
Jacksonville with Cliff Rob-
ertson and Robert Duvall.
Those films had pumped
an estimated $5 million into
the state’s economy and
“Napoleon and Samantha,”
with a budget of around $1
million or so, was having
Even people who weren’t
involved in the movie’s pro-
duction got caught up in the
excitement.
Grant County Emer-
gency Management Coor-
dinator Eric Bush was just
6 years old when “Napo-
leon and Samantha” came
out. He remembers seeing
it with his mother, brother
and sister at the Grant
County Drive-In in John
Day. He also remembers
how excited his mother
got when she saw familiar
locations up on the big
screen.
“My mom grew up in
Canyon City, and (part of)
the movie was filmed up
behind her house,” said
Bush, now 56. “I remember
my mom pointing out
places and saying, ‘Hey,
that was filmed right by our
house!’
“I remember as a kid
everybody talking about
that,” he added. “That was
the buzz — everybody
was excited about it being
filmed around here.”
Michael Johnson, home
from his freshman year at
Oregon State University,
got a job working for the
production company in the
summer of 1971. Then 19,
he was assigned to assem-
bling props and helping to
stage scenes, mostly for
interior shots.
He got to know sev-
15 % & 10 %
2
Filming began on June
21, 1971, and continued for
about four weeks, with a
production company of 65
people — 15 cast and 50
crew members — in town
for the duration.
“Interest in the film has
been keen locally,” the Blue
Mountain Eagle reported,
noting that Walt Disney
Productions planned to hire
roughly 50 locals to serve
as extras and stand-ins.
Some two dozen loca-
tions around Grant County
were used in the filming,
including the county court-
house, the state welfare
office and the fraternal
hall in Canyon City (which
was renamed “Grant-
ville” in the movie). The
old Damon’s Mercantile in
Mount Vernon was prom-
inently featured, and other
scenes showed Campbell’s
Texaco and other down-
town businesses along Main
Street in John Day. Sev-
eral scenes were shot at the
Gerald and Jessie Lewis
home in Canyon City and
the Tom and Jerry Mos-
grove home in John Day.
Other shooting locations
included the Oxbow Ranch
near Prairie City and the
Williams Ranch on the
East Fork of Canyon Creek.
And the Grant Union High
School gymnasium was
transformed into a sound-
stage, where interior scenes
Movie mania
RD
The making of …
Bennett hall/Blue Mountain Eagle
The old schoolhouse in Canyon City was one of the filming locations
in “Napoleon and Samantha.” It has since been restored by Steve and
Shelley Fischer.
eral of the movie people,
including Will Geer and his
adult son Raleigh, who was
traveling with him. One
night, Johnson recalled, he
borrowed his dad’s car and
went to the Grant County
Drive-In with the Geers and
a friend of his.
“The drive-in was actu-
ally the only theater in town
and was showing a movie
Will Geer had starred in
called ‘The Reivers,’” said
Johnson, now 70 and living
in Tualatin.
Some people got
front-row seats to the pro-
duction, such as the resi-
dents of two houses used
in several key scenes in the
movie.
The Tom and Jerry Mos-
grove house on Hillcrest
Road in John Day filled the
role of Samantha’s house
in the movie and was the
site of intensive filming for
two days. The Mosgroves’
son, David Liberty, recalls
watching with his sisters
Mary and Michelle as the
production crew pulled up
with two huge trailers and
started unloading their
gear.
“We watched in amaze-
ment as they got out all
their equipment,” said Lib-
erty, who was 14 in the
summer of ’71.
The house was used for
exterior shots only, so the
family could observe the
proceedings from inside as
long as they didn’t get into
the shot. One of the more
exciting scenes in the movie
happens when Danny
(Michael Douglas), who is
trying to help Napoleon and
Samantha, knocks on the
door and Samantha’s suspi-
cious grandmother, played
by Ellen Corby, calls the
police.
“Michael Douglas got
arrested on my front porch
while I watched from my
upstairs bedroom,” said
Liberty, now 65 and living
in Hood River.
walking out of a movie the-
ater (the Canyon City Fra-
ternal Hall, made over as
the Grantville Theatre in
the film).
“They come out the
door and as they’re coming
out, I get on my bike and
ride off,” Gibbs said. “It’s a
pretty short clip, just two or
three seconds.”
Gibbs was paid $100 for
his efforts.
“I made more in one day
than I did in two months
delivering papers,” he said.
TH
JOHN DAY — In the
summer of 1972, U.S.
newspaper headlines were
dominated by the Watergate
burglary and the growing
political scandal that would
ultimately end the presi-
dency of Richard M. Nixon.
But the Grant County
was abuzz over a new
movie — “Napoleon and
Samantha,” a Disney pro-
duction — that was filmed
the summer before in Grant
County.
The movie — a wildly
improbable tale of two
young runaways who sur-
vive a perilous trek through
the Oregon wilds protected
by a pet lion and an ideal-
istic college student — was
released 50 years ago on
July 5, 1972.
Half a century later,
“Napoleon and Samantha”
still conjures fond mem-
ories for some local
residents.
a positive effect on Grant
County businesses.
The biggest name on
the cast list may have been
Johnny Whitaker, the
11-year-old child actor who
played Napoleon and was
then riding the crest of his
fame as Brian Keith’s son in
the hit TV sitcom “Family
Affair.”
Samantha was played
by Jodie Foster, who would
go on to win a pair of Best
Actress Oscars for “The
Accused” and “The Silence
of the Lambs” but was then
a relative unknown. Just 8
years old at the time, she
was performing in her first
movie role.
Likewise, Michael
Douglas would have a long
career as a leading man
(including a Best Actor
Oscar for “Wall Street”) but
at the time was just begin-
ning to step out from under
the long shadow cast by his
screen idol father, Kirk.
The cast also featured
a number of veteran char-
acter actors, including Will
Geer and Ellen Corby, who
would later team up again
as Grandpa and Grandma
on the long-running televi-
sion series “The Waltons.”
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