GRANT COUNTY FAIR & RODEO GUIDE | INSIDE
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
154th Year • No. 26 • 14 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
H o l ly w o o d
comes to Grant County
“Napoleon and Samantha,” Disney feature fi lmed here, marks its 50th anniversary
By BENNETT HALL
Blue Mountain Eagle
I
n the summer of 1972, U.S. newspaper headlines were dominated
by the Watergate burglary and the growing political scandal that
would ultimately end the presidency of Richard M. Nixon.
But the June 29 edition of the Blue Mountain Eagle devoted a
full quarter of its front page to telling readers about a new movie
that would soon be showing at the local drive-in: “Napoleon and
Samantha,” a Disney production that was fi lmed the summer before
right here in Grant County.
The movie — a wildly improbable tale of two young runaways
who survive a perilous trek through the Oregon wilds protected by a
pet lion and an idealistic college student — was released 50 years ago
next month, on July 5, 1972.
Half a century later, “Napoleon and Samantha” still conjures
fond memories for some local residents.
The making of …
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. As might be expected,
the local newspaper chronicled the proceedings extensively.
“Interest in the fi lm has been keen locally,” the Blue Moun-
tain Eagle reported, noting that Walt Disney Productions planned
to hire roughly 50 locals to serve as extras and stand-ins.
Some two dozen locations around Grant County were used
in the fi lming, including the county courthouse, the state wel-
fare offi ce and the fraternal hall in Canyon City (which was
renamed “Grantville” in the movie). The old Damon’s Mer-
cantile in Mt. Vernon was prominently featured, and other
scenes showed Campbell’s Texaco and other downtown busi-
nesses along Main Street in John Day. Several scenes were
shot at the Gerald and Jessie Lewis home in Canyon City
and the Tom and Jerry Mosgrove 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 soundstage, where interior scenes were
fi lmed.
At the time, Oregon was enjoying a bit of a Hollywood
moment. Several major motion pictures had been shot in
the state in the previous few years, including “Paint Your
Wagon” with Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin, fi lmed
near Baker City; Paul Newman’s “Sometimes a Great
Notion,” shot in the Newport area; and “The Great North-
fi eld Minnesota Raid,” fi lmed around Jacksonville with Cliff Robertson and
Robert Duvall.
Those fi lms had pumped an estimated $5 million into the state’s economy,
the Eagle reported, and “Napoleon and Samantha,” with a budget of around $1
million or so, was having a positive eff ect 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 Aff air.”
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 fi rst movie role.
See Hollywood, Page A14
Bennett Hall
Blue Mountain Eagle
The former Mos-
grove house on
Hillcrest Road in
John Day was used
as Samantha’s
grandmother’s
house in “Napoleon
and Samantha.” The
home now belongs
to Rod Carpenter.
Handout
Photo
The pro-
motional
poster for
“Napoleon
and Saman-
tha.” Filmed
in Grant
County, the
Disney movie
was released
50 years ago
next month.
Location, location, location
Top 10 movies fi lmed in and around John
Day, as ranked by imdb.com.
1. “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” (1993)
Sissy Hankshaw (Uma Thurman) and
Bonanza Jellybean (Rain Phoenix) lead a cow-
girl uprising at a California beauty ranch.
2. “Napoleon and Samantha” (1972)
A young boy (Johnny Whitaker) and girl
(Jodie Foster) survive a harrowing trip through
the wilds of Oregon with the help of a guardian
lion and a misunderstood grad student (Michael
Douglas).
3. “The Body Human: Facts for Boys”
(1980)
Half-hour documentary made for television.
4. “The Old Oregon Trail” (1928)
Three cowboys save a band of settlers from
horse thieves and rebellious farmworkers.
5. “Wood” (2007)
This 22-minute documentary follows the jour-
ney of timber from the forest to the sawmill.
6. “Layers of Life: Stories of Ancient Ore-
gon” (2020)
A 21-minute documentary fi lmed at the John
Day Fossil Beds National Monument.
7. “A Window Into the Past” (2021)
Written and directed by Jeff Boedecker, this
TV movie may or may not have a John Day con-
nection. If you’ve seen it, maybe you can tell us.
8. “Eden” (2012)
This short fi lm stars Rafael Untalan as Adam
and Kacy Owens as Eve.
9. “Blowing Up the John Day Rapids”
(1912)
A short fi lm that documents the U.S. govern-
ment’s use of dynamite to tame a stretch of the
John Day River.
10. “World’s Toughest Fixes: Columbia
River Dam” (2009)
An episode of the reality show hosted by
Sean Riley that focuses on the John Day Dam.
Source: imdb.com
Department
heads speak
out on
budget cuts
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
CANYON CITY — Grant
County department heads are
voicing their displeasure with
funding cuts in the county’s
$94.7 million budget for the
upcoming fi scal year, which
County Court members voted
to adopt on
Friday, June
24.
The cut-
backs aff ect
all
county
departments
except for the
fairgrounds,
Myers
Sheriff ’s
Offi ce, air-
port and Road
Department.
All county
offi ces in the
Grant County
Courthouse
Carpenter
will
be
closed on Fri-
days beginning July 1. Grant
County Circuit Court, which
is funded by the state, will
remain open on Fridays.
The Budget Committee
passed the budget on a 4-2
vote, with all three citizen
members voting to approve
the budget. Grant County
Judge Scott Myers broke with
the court’s two commissioners
to end the budget standoff .
With a looming deadline to
submit a balanced budget by
June 30 to head off a county-
wide shutdown, county offi -
cials were forced to grapple
with potential cuts in the wake
of an $800,0000 “miscalcula-
tion” discovered amid deliber-
ations on the 2022-23 budget.
County Treasurer Julie Elli-
son presented multiple options
for attempting to rebalance the
budget.
One option, Ellison said,
would be to cut all gen-
eral fund and elected county
employees to 36 hours a week.
The savings, she said, would
work out to roughly $145,000
a year. If the county were to
cut those positions to 32 hours
a week, the savings would
increase to just over $258,000.
Cuts to county services
Some department heads are
saying that staffi ng cuts will
necessitate cuts to the services
their offi ces provide.
In a June 14 press release,
Grant County District Attor-
ney Jim Carpenter said his
offi ce would no longer handle
property tax foreclosure pro-
ceedings, monitor bench pro-
bation or enforce child support
in the county.
See Budget, Page A5
Golf tourney raises money for grief center
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Nearly 25
teams competed in the Thadd’s
Place Golf Tournament on Sat-
urday, June 25, at the John Day
Golf Club, raising thousands
of dollars for a local nonprofi t
for a third year.
Named in honor of Thad-
deus Cowan Thompson, who
died of cancer in 2019 at the
age of 39, Thadd’s Place is
a grieving center at 635 W.
Main St. in John Day, a few
doors down from Chester’s
Thriftway. It’s modeled on the
Dougy Center in Portland, the
only other such facility in the
state.
The four-person scram-
ble-style golf tournament col-
lected roughly $35,000 for
the growing center, said Tirza
Shaff er, Thadd’s Place pres-
ident and sister of Thaddeus
Cowan Thompson.
Thadd’s Place, established
just over two years ago, off ers
a variety of grief counseling
services. There is no charge for
the center’s services.
Michelle
Gibson,
a
licensed clinical social worker
with Thadd’s Place, told the
newspaper during the center’s
June 24 open house that that
her individual grief counseling
sessions have grown over the
last year and that she sees peo-
ple of all ages.
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle
See Golf, Page A14
Tirza Shaff er is the president of Thadd’s Place and sister of Thaddeus Cowan Thompson, who
the grief center is named after.