Museum of Lone Pine Film History

Jill's Journal: The tiny town of Lone Pine has surprised us with all there is to do and see in the area. Today we visited the Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum of Lone Pine Film History. That’s a mouthful. Folks around here call it the “Film Museum.”

Compared to big-city museums, this place leaves a bit to be desired, but for a town of 2,000 people, it’s pretty spectacular. It focuses entirely on memorabilia from the hundreds of movies and t.v. shows made in the area. The girls loved the introductory film on the history of westerns made in the nearby Alabama Hills.

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans did a tremendous amount of filming here in Lone Pine. This is one of Evans’ outfits. Incidentally, although the benefactors behind the museum share the same last name as Rogers, it doesn’t appear they’re related to the western star.

A dazzling display of cowboy hats belonging to almost every famous film cowboy imaginable is on exhibit.

There’s plenty of saddles, this one from Gunsmoke…

…and lots of movie costumes, this one from Gunga Din…

…and plenty of other memorabilia, like this giant worm or otherworldly creature used in the Kevin Bacon movie “Tremors.” They had a trailer playing from this movie, which both scared and fascinated our girls. They were completely obsessed and Victoria couldn’t understand this was just a puppet, even though the stuff shown on screen looked pretty convincing. If they have nightmares tonight, this miserable creature and Kevin Bacon are to blame.

The girls checking out some Lone Ranger memorabilia…much more wholesome!

Erika absolutely loved this Lone Ranger soap from decades ago. She thought it was hilarious the soap could make a person "as bright as Silver."

Hopalong Cassidy did more filming here than anyone else.

This is the same car…

…shown in this scene from “The Trail to San Antone." Gene Autry’s stunt double jumped Autry’s horse, Champion, over the car with Peggy Stewart sitting in the back seat. Eighteen of Autry’s movies were filmed here in Lone Pine.

This 1930s-era Columbia Pictures film case was found in the Alabama Hills in 1983.

What more could horse-loving girls want than a couple of saddles to sit in? Actually, I won’t answer that, because they’d all like the ponies that might go under those saddles for Christmas. Madelyn would also like a kitten and Erika wants to raise quails right here on the RV. (She spotted a quail-hatching and -raising kit in a catalogue). We may have to revise those Christmas lists with a "no live animals" clause. Visiting the Film Museum with its focus on cowboys and their horses did nothing to quell the fire, but it did make for an enjoyable afternoon.