A14
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Hollywood
Outtakes
Continued from Page A1
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
beginning to step out from under the long shadow
cast by his screen idol father, Kirk.
The cast also featured a number of veteran
character actors, including Will Geer and Ellen
Corby, who would later team up again as Grandpa
and Grandma on the long-running television
series “The Waltons.”
The movie’s other big star — and an object
of fascination for local residents — was Major
McTavish, the elderly, milk-loving lion that
watches over Napoleon and Samantha on their
wilderness adventure.
Extras and stand-ins
By all accounts, the fi lming of “Napoleon and
Samantha” created quite a stir in Grant County in
the summer of 1971, and quite a few people who
lived here at the time have vivid recollections in
connection with the movie.
Marvin Gibbs was 14 years old that sum-
mer 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 fi lmmakers wanted to use him as an
extra in a scene where Whitaker, as Napoleon,
and Geer, who played his grandfather, are walk-
ing out of a movie theater (the Canyon City Fra-
ternal Hall, made over as the Grantville Theatre
in the fi lm).
“They come out the door and as they’re com-
ing 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 eff orts.
“I made more in one day than I did in two
months delivering papers,” he said.
Bob Armstrong, the former owner of Solu-
tions CPAs in John Day, had just moved to
the area from California with his family. The
12-year-old Armstrong was one of the many
local residents who lined up at the park in Can-
yon City to apply for work with the production.
His red hair and freckles got him a job as Johnny
Whitaker’s stand-in.
But don’t look for him in the movie — he
never appears on camera.
“The biggest role for a stand-in was to be
on the set while they got all the lighting and
the camera angles and the camera movements
set before they brought the actors out,” recalled
Armstrong, who’s 63 now. “When everything
was set, I would go in the background and they
would fi lm with Johnny.”
The Armstrong family’s horse, Sam, got more
screen time than Bob did. Sam appears in one of
the movie’s early scenes as Charlie, a horse that
Napoleon bribes with jellybeans in exchange for
a ride with Samantha.
Not long afterwards, Carol Rudishauser
bought the horse for her two young daughters,
Cindy and Lori.
“Both my children learned to ride on Sam,”
said Rudishauser, 88.
The same qualities that made the big bay geld-
ing a good fi t for her girls made Sam a natural for
the part in “Napoleon and Samantha,” she added.
“They needed a horse for those two kids to ride
that was gentle and well broke, and he fi t the bill
perfectly.”
Random facts about
“Napoleon and Samantha.”
Jodie Foster was attacked by one of the lions
used in the production and was carried briefl y in
its mouth. According to the World Entertainment
News Network, she developed a lifelong case of
ailurophobia (fear of cats) as a result.
The part of Samantha was Jodie Foster’s fi rst
movie role. Her previous credits included a num-
ber of TV commercials and a role on “Mayberry
RFD.”
Co-stars Ellen Corby and Will Geer went on to
play Grandma and Grandpa in the popular TV
series “The Waltons.”
The fi lm received one Oscar nod. Composer
Buddy Baker was nominated for an Acade-
my Award for Best Music, Original Dramatic
Score. (The winners that year were Charlie
Chaplin, Raymond Rasch and Larry Russell for
“Limelight.”)
The fi lm had at least two promotional taglines:
“Two runaways and a guardian lion lost in the
wilderness … an incredible adventure!” and “As
they steal away, they’ll steal your heart.”
Four paintings by Grant County artist Linda
Deardorff were displayed on the walls of a cabin
in the movie. She was paid $40 a week for the use
of the artworks.
Around the time “Napoleon and Samantha”
was being made, there was a move to merge the
towns of John Day and Canyon City. One local
resident proposed that the conjoined communi-
ties be named Grantville, the name of the fi ctional
town depicted in the fi lm.
Sources: imdb.com, WENN, Blue Moun-
tain Eagle, wikipedia.com
Movie mania
Even people who weren’t involved in the mov-
ie’s production got caught up in the excitement.
Grant County Emergency Management Coor-
dinator Eric Bush was just 6 years old when
“Napoleon and Samantha” came out. He remem-
bers 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 fi lmed up behind her house,”
said Bush, now 56. “I remember my mom point-
ing out places and saying, ‘Hey, that was fi lmed
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 fi lmed around here.”
Michael Johnson, home from his freshman
year at Oregon State University, got a job work-
ing for the production company in the summer
of 1971. Then 19, he was assigned to assembling
props and helping to stage scenes, mostly for inte-
rior shots.
He got to know several 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 actually 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.
“Will wanted the fun of being noticed. So we
went to the movie so he could create a stir by climb-
ing out of the car and making his way to the con-
cession stand for popcorn. And boy, did he ever!”
Some people got front-row seats to the pro-
duction, such as the residents of two houses used
in several key scenes in the movie.
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
The Tom and Jerry Mosgrove house on Hill-
crest Road in John Day fi lled the role of Saman-
tha’s house in the movie and was the site of inten-
sive fi lming 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 amazement as they got out all
their equipment,” said Liberty, 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 suspicious grandmother, played
by Ellen Corby, calls the police.
“Michael Douglas got arrested on my front
porch while I watched from my upstairs bed-
room,” said Liberty, now 65 and living in Hood
River.
The fi lmmakers wanted a number of diff er-
ent camera angles to record the seemingly sim-
ple scene and even set up rails for the camera to
run on as it tracked the running policemen, and
the directors required multiple takes for each cam-
era shot.
“The cops had to run in many times and arrest
him at the door,” Liberty recalled. “They’d do it
over and over again until they got it perfect.”
Liberty said his mother took the money the
family received for the use of their house and
threw a party for the cast and crew. Over the
course of production, Liberty added, he some-
times hung out with Johnny Whitaker and Jodie
Foster at the nearby Mac’s Motel (now the John
Day Motel) where they were staying. One night,
he said, precocious 8-year-old Jodie borrowed his
guitar and played a protest song she had written.
“That was fun, to be a part of it,” Liberty said.
“Even though you weren’t on the screen, you
were right there.”
Gerald and Jessie Lewis’ house on Rebel Hill
in Canyon City was used to represent the home
where Napoleon lived with his grandfather (Will
Geer). Like the Mosgrove house, it was used for
exterior shots only. For interior scenes, the pro-
duction crew erected sets in the gymnasium at
Grant Union High School, which they used as a
soundstage.
“If you listen to the movie, you can hear an
echo when they’re talking,” said Tracy Bird, the
Lewises’ daughter.
Bird is 66 now, but she was a freshman in high
school when the movie was being fi lmed, and she
can remember all the girls mooning over Michael
Douglas.
“Of course, we all thought he was very
good-looking because he looked just like his dad,”
she said.
Bird can still recall how excited people were
about the movie being fi lmed in their midst, and
how the production seemed to give the whole
community a lift.
“It was a wonderful time in Grant County,” she
said. “It was good for people’s attitude, it brought
money into the county — which we didn’t have
a lot of at that time — and it brought notoriety to
our county.”
She also recalls meeting a lot of the stars of
the movie and thinking what nice, down-to-earth
people they were, and then following their careers
with interest as they all moved on to other roles
after “Napoleon and Samantha.”
“It’s always neat when you get to see some-
one you’ve only seen on TV or movies,” she said,
“because then you feel like you’re part of their
world — and not only that, but they’re part of
your world, too.”
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
Canyon City resident Randy Gillam, left,
during the Thadd’s Place benefi t dinner Satur-
day, June 25, 2022.
Golf
Continued from Page A14
The biggest addition to Thadd’s Place over
the last year, Gibson said, has been cancer sup-
port groups. She said the support groups are
available for the patients as well as their family
members.
The groups, Gibson said, are led by trained
volunteers who have some connection to grief
on a personal level, which allows them to better
relate to those in the group.
Gibson pointed out that grief is not limited
to death.
For instance, she said when someone is diag-
nosed with cancer, they grieve many losses to
their health and physical ability.
“It is a lot of loss, and you lose the life you’ve
had before,” Gibson said.
That is just one example of a diff erent form
of grieving, she said. Another can be the grief
felt by a family member of a drug addict or
alcoholic.
“They are still alive,” she said, “but there’s
no relationship because they’ve made some of
those choices.”
Bob Cowan Thomas, the owner of Chester’s
Thriftway in John Day, said his reasons for open-
ing Thadd’s Place were twofold. Not only did
he, as a grieving parent, want to honor his son’s
memory, but he also, as a grandfather, wanted his
grandson to have a supportive outlet and a place to
grieve.
“(A place to grieve) was something I needed
really bad,” he said, “and it was something my
grandson needed. I just wanted to make it a less
sterile environment and wanted people to feel
comfortable in a diff erent environment.”
For more information about the services
off ered by Thadd’s Place, call 541-620-2572.
TOURNAMENT RESULTS
The Thadd’s Place Golf Tournament ended
in a three-way tie for fi rst place with a
score of 56.
Teams:
Ken Ellison, Boe Ellison, Andy Ellison and
Andy Radinovich.
Brad Armstrong, Mitch Saul, Alex Fin-
layson and Colt Carpenter.
Sheldon Lenz, Garrett Lenz, Austin Ranft
and Dylan Porter.
All three teams donated their prize money
back to Thadd’s Place.
Coffee Break!
56. Hotel chain
58. A team’s best
pitcher
59. Extracts from
various sources
60. Indefinite
period of time
CLUES ACROSS 24. Orthodox Jews 39. Private school
in New York
1. Basics
26. Actor Harris
40.
Israeli dance
4. In a new way
27. Wild cherry
41.
Electron volt
10. __ Paulo, city 28. Participate in
42.
Adjusting
democracy
11. Jailhouse
48. Duct by the
12. Expresses
30. Opposite of
bladder
surprise
begins
50. Small burger
14. Trigraph
31. A Brit’s mother
51. Begin again
15. A small stream 34. Set of moral
52. Unstuck
16. Dissimilar
principles
53. Jai __, sport
18. Promote
36. Very fast
airplane
54. Get free of
22. Gives a boost
23. Lawmaker
37. Czech river
55. For instance
21. German
expressionist
painter
25. What drives
you
29. N. Vietnamese
ethnic group
CLUES DOWN
31. Gold coin used
in British India
1. St. Francis
of __
32. Have deep
affection for
2. Supported
33. Ponds
3. United in
working
35. Breaks be-
tween words
4. It cools your
home
38. Hairstyle
5. Predicting
6. Irritated
43. Family of iron
alloys
7. Popular talk
show host
44. Sidelined in
bed
8. Fabric edge
45. Many couples
say it
9. A resource for
employees
12. Broadway’s
Jackman
13. Small water
buffalo
17. City of Angels:
__ Angeles
19. Asteroids
20. Tailless
amphibians
WORDS
ACCELERATION
AIRTIME
ASCEND
BARREL
BENTS
BOOMERANG
BRAKE RUN
CARS
CHAIN
CIRCUIT
CORKSCREW
CUTBACK
ENCLOSED
ENTHUSIAST
HEADREST
INVERSION
LAPBAR
LIFT
LOOP
PLATFORM
RESTRAINT
STEEL
TRACK
WOODEN
41. Print errors
46. Brazilian
hoopster
47. Allman
Brothers late
frontman
49. German city
56. One hundred
grams (abbr.)
57. One billionth
of a second
(abbr.)
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