Real Ronstadt Trivia
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Post by Real Ronstadt Trivia on May 1, 2017 13:48:02 GMT -5
Last night we watched the Sidney Poitier film Lillies of the Field - from 1963 on TCM. Did you know it was mainly filmed on Linda Ronstadt's childhood/family home and ranch on the borderlands in old TUCSON, Arizona?
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Post by 70smusicfan on May 1, 2017 20:34:05 GMT -5
Wow - Had Linda Moved On By Then? I would think a movie filmed on my father's "Ranchette" starring Sidney Poitier, that won a number of Oscars (although filmed in only 14 days supposedly), would be mentioned at least a couple of times in passing during Linda's time in the spotlight - either by Linda herself in her memoirs or asked of her during an interview in the '70s & '80s. New question for the next LR appearance?
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Post by erik on May 1, 2017 20:47:50 GMT -5
Quote by 70smusicfan:
As that film was made in 1962-63, again on what still remained of her family's ranch, and since Linda still lived in Tucson (up until, I think, close to the end of 1964), she likely knew about it. But to my knowledge, nobody has ever asked her even once about it.
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Post by the Scribe on May 1, 2017 22:35:53 GMT -5
I recall there being a tv interview (Today Show?) back in 1962 in Linda's families past. I thought it odd at the time because Linda was not quite famous and just a young teen at that time. It fits in that maybe the family was interviewed about the movie being filmed on their land. Just a guess on my part.
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Post by the Scribe on May 1, 2017 23:00:23 GMT -5
The house looks familiar and may be Linda's childhood home on Prince Road.
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7jOnBDMKLhNVTrbocOX2RopFh_f4BMKE
Tucson, Poitier scored with ‘Lilies of the Field’by Corky Simpson on Sep 12, 2003, under Living
Citizen Staff
By CORKY SIMPSON
csimpson@tucsoncitizen.com
Various John Wayne horse operas notwithstanding, the finest moment in Tucson’s filmmaking history may well have been 40 years ago with the production of “Lilies of the Field.” The man who helped sell the city as the location, and who fed and housed the cast and crew, remembers the experience fondly.
“It was a lot of work, but there were some awfully nice people involved, and it turned out be an award-winning movie,” Clarence L. “Stubby” Ashcraft said.
“Lilies” won for it star, Sidney Poitier, the Oscar for best actor in 1963. The film also won accolades at the Berlin Film Festival.
“I didn’t get to know many of the actors involved because I was too busy taking care of them, as well as the cast and crew of the pilot film for the television show, ‘The Fugitive,’ at the same time,” said Ashcraft, who at the time was manager of the old Santa Rita Hotel.
Now 85, Ashcraft retired some years ago as events and facilities coordinator at the University of Arizona.
“At the time, movie and entertainment people would only stay in a union hotel,” Ashcraft said. “That’s why they stayed at the Santa Rita. It was the only union house in town.
“Over the years, all the movie people, musicians from the big band era and other entertainers stayed there.
“The Santa Rita had really gone after the (movie) company. Nick Hall had been the manager, but he transferred to California. Harold Ashton and Jack Goodman, 50-50 partners in the hotel, offered the job to me.”
Ashcraft took the baton and won the race.
“When we were successful in getting ‘Lilies of the Field,’ I took the producer-director, Ralph Nelson, to see what he thought of this location I had found,” Ashcraft said.
“It was about a mile from where I lived, just off Sabino Canyon and Cloud Road. There was an old estate-type structure on the property, pretty well run down, and I knew the guy who was part owner. He made arrangements for Nelson to use that property as the location.”
Poitier plays a black, ex-GI handyman who stops at a dusty, desert mission to ask for water for his station-wagon’s radiator, and is recruited by a group of nuns to build a chapel – or, in the dialect of the domineering German mother superior (played by Lilia Skala), a “shapel.”
Nagged and tricked throughout the process by the mother superior, Poitier, as Homer Smith, finds within himself the strength and ability to build the chapel.
“The interesting thing about ‘Lilies’ is it was a very cheaply produced movie,” Ashcraft said. “Almost all of the artists and others involved, took a pay cut to make it.”
In fact, Poitier took no salary at all. He took a percentage, instead, and hit the jackpot.
“Lilies of the Field” makes a strong statement for faith, tolerance and dogged perseverance.
Talented Tucson actress Francesca Jarvis, who played one of the nuns in her first movie, said the director, Nelson, played the role of Harold Ashton, who, in addition to the Santa Rita Hotel holdings, owned the Ashton Construction Co.
“There had actually been a Mr. Ashton in the original script,” Jarvis said. “And when Ralph found out there really was, and is, an Ashton Construction Co., he used his equipment in the film.”
Jarvis said Nelson was “the most organized man I have ever seen. We’d do one, two or three takes and that was it. Ironically, the most takes involved Ralph, himself, as Mr. Ashton. Ralph was nervous – and I think he went up to 15 takes.”
PHOTO CREDIT: FRANCISCO MEDINA/Tucson Citizen
CUTLINE: Clarence “Stubby” Ashcraft shows a copy of “The Lilies of the Field.” The 1960s movie of the same name was based on the book and was filmed in Tucson.
PHOTO CREDIT: Citizen file photo
CUTLINE: Sidney Poitier (above, at right) won an Oscar in 1963 for “Lilies of the Field.”
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Post by the Scribe on May 1, 2017 23:18:00 GMT -5
Thank you Guest in Texas for that information. Back at the time of filming Linda's house was on the edge of the desert but fast forward 50 years later the town/city grew up around it and crossed over the house much like the Mexican border did 50 years or more before that. Sadly I believe the house was torn down and that ancient tree that we can see in the RS interview Heartbreak On Wheels is also gone. The Ronstadt Transit Center is now at that location. (I believe)
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Post by the Scribe on May 1, 2017 23:29:52 GMT -5
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Post by ron w on Oct 21, 2020 12:03:46 GMT -5
The Ronstadt Hard ware building was where the Transit Center is now. Was for many years .
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Post by eddiejinnj on Oct 21, 2020 16:07:34 GMT -5
Welcome, ron w to the forum!!! It's easy to join us Linda lovers. Thanks for your input. We have discussed that here on the forum. Is it still called the Ronstadt Transit Center? eddiejinnj
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Post by MokyWI on Nov 6, 2020 14:46:31 GMT -5
Another movie that was filmed near the Ronstadt’s home was a movie called Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice from 1969-1970. It stared Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon. Good movie too.
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Post by eddiejinnj on Nov 6, 2020 16:00:35 GMT -5
In 1963, as erik said, Linda would have been home still. She graduated Catalina HS in 1964 and then did the fall semester in college then sometime in '65 she bolted for her music career. eddiejinnj
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Post by erik on Nov 6, 2020 18:49:26 GMT -5
Quote by eddiejinnj:
Linda was probably more than a little aware that Hollywood had an interest in her hometown even growing up, because of the presence of Old Tucson, the studio complex in the desert on the west side of Tucson that was built for the 1939 Western ARIZONA, and the very vivid desert landscape that served as the backdrop for Westerns, from 1948's RED RIVER all the way up to 1993's TOMBSTONE. And big-time folks have shot films there, including John Wayne (working with legendary director Howard Hawks); Paul Newman (he played an Apache half-breed in the 1967 film HOMBRE); Lee Marvin (MONTE WALSH); and Charlton Heston (1976's THE LAST HARD MEN). Apart from the landscapes around Durango, some thousand miles to the south in Mexico, Tucson and the desert of southern Arizona were (and still are, in places) a perfect backdrop for many a sagebrush saga.
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Post by PoP80 on Jun 6, 2021 15:49:18 GMT -5
I'm watching Lillies of the Field on TCM and paying closer attention to the Tucson scenery and Ronstadt real estate. It's a wonderful film, regardless of any connections to Ronstadt roots...
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Post by Biff McFly on Jun 7, 2021 1:05:57 GMT -5
The 1st episode of The Fugitive (TV series) was filmed in Tucson. The beginning of Part 1 of the final episode of The Fugitive was also filmed in Tucson. They wanted to bookend Dr, Kimball's search for the one armed man.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2021 5:45:04 GMT -5
Quote by eddiejinnj: Linda was probably more than a little aware that Hollywood had an interest in her hometown even growing up, because of the presence of Old Tucson, the studio complex in the desert on the west side of Tucson that was built for the 1939 Western ARIZONA, and the very vivid desert landscape that served as the backdrop for Westerns, from 1948's RED RIVER all the way up to 1993's TOMBSTONE. And big-time folks have shot films there, including John Wayne (working with legendary director Howard Hawks); Paul Newman (he played an Apache half-breed in the 1967 film HOMBRE); Lee Marvin ( MONTE WALSH); and Charlton Heston (1976's THE LAST HARD MEN). Apart from the landscapes around Durango, some thousand miles to the south in Mexico, Tucson and the desert of southern Arizona were (and still are, in places) a perfect backdrop for many a sagebrush saga. All the western town scenes in "The High Chapparal" were filmed in Old Tucson. The HC ranch in the story bordered on Sonora in Mexico where the Montaya ranch owned by Don Sebastian Montoya, Victoria's & Manolito's father, lived. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2021 9:39:40 GMT -5
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