Report from Santa Fe; Jeff Berg

The National Education Association of New Mexico, an organization of professionals who believe that investing in public education is an investment in our state's economic future. And by a grant from the Healey Foundation, Taos, New Mexico. Hello, I'm Lorraine Mills, and welcome to Report from Santa Fe. Our guest today is Jeff Berg. Thank you for joining us. Oh, thank you for having me. It's nice to be here. But I have been waiting for your book for some time. This is something he's heard. He just has a new book called New Mexico Filmmaking, and what would you say the subtitle might be? If I had my way, there'd be a colon on there that says, like, short history of New Mexico made movies. Well, nobody has done this. Have they?

No, that's why I wanted to put that on there. But my publisher is in South Carolina, so they didn't quite understand what I had in mind. Well, it's such a fascinating story, and we'll show a clip in a minute. It starts in 1898, when one of Thomas Edison's people stepped off the train and filmed the film is led a school, Indian school, but it goes up till now, and we know what a big, of what a major impact the filmmaking industry has in New Mexico. How many films roughly do you think, since it began in 1898, have been shot or partially shot in New Mexico? My count, if you count all of the short silent films, things that are currently in production and anything that's been partially shot in the state over an hour long is just over 800 right now. These are the ones that are just the ones that are over an hour long. Yeah, that doesn't count anything like less than, like, 50 minutes or less, short films that have been about, I can imagine, how many short films have been shot here, commercials, but feature films and TV episodes of an hour length are longer, there's over 800.

Wow. Of course, it's only half an hour show, so we won't make the cut, but the other reason is that we're going to focus on some of the earlier ones. I think most contemporary New Mexicans know about Easy Writer and Breaking Bad and Loan, what Loan? The Loan Ranger. The Loan Ranger? Oh, yes, yes, yes, all of those. So we're going to focus on some of the earlier ones, and tell me a little about your background and how you came to this. It kind of started about 15 years ago when I was living in Las Cruces. It was my second, third time in New Mexico back in 2001, and I go on to the farm in Ranch Heritage Museum for a visit one day, and I learned a lot, and it was a fairly fascinating museum, but when I was there, I also noticed that I had this great auditorium that held about 200 people, it had capability to show DVDs and at the time VHS, and a nice, somewhat nice sound system, and they weren't using it hardly for anything, and I thought, hmm,

movies. I've always wanted to show movies somewhere that I program myself, and these guys needed some rumps and seats here, shall we say, for this nice facility. So I approached the then historian, a guy named Bob Hart, who readily jumped on the program. He'd had another volunteer at the museum wanting to show B. Westerns at the time, an older gentleman who wanted to show B. Westerns, the old Bob Steele, you know, text writer, junior kind of things, and so Bob set up a program where I would do one Saturday, the other gentleman who would do the next Saturday would alternate. It was a big success from the first show, and though my first movie was not a New Mexico movie, we had like 40 people show up for that movie, which in terms of a single screen like that is pretty good, especially in Las Cruces, where it's hard to get the word out sometimes. So we went on with that, and sadly the gentleman was doing the B. Westerns passed away, so I went to a weekly program, and when I was doing that, I started doing research on movies

that were made here, and I was like, oh man, there's like all these things I never knew about, because I'd seen minlogues of B. Field War and some of the lusterings and things, and it was like an endless list, and so I started compiling more and more titles that I could use and doing stories when I could, for Duarest publications about it, and it just kind of grew from that. The series was like the museum's biggest, most successful event at the time, after I became weekly, we had a study audience, but I later pulled out one to a different venue where I could show a little bit more diverse film, so I just knew Mexico things. Well you have a program called Real New Mexico, or EEL, tell me about that. Yeah, that was founded by some friends of mine a couple of years ago, Diane Thomas and Bill O'Sher, and they made it a very New Mexico centric, and they mostly showed like unsold our new films that were made by New Mexico filmmakers, and they kind of run out of material,

and then they run out of time, and Diane had her own book come out, which really put a cramp on their time, and her book's been very well received. So after a few months, slaps, I thought, hmm, maybe I can pick that up and do it, and so I've been doing that myself now just over for just a few years, it's a monthly series, it's out at La Tienda, in El Dorado, not the greatest venue, but with all the competition here in Santa Fe, it does pretty well, so. Good, good. And you do some writing, too, for you have a column, and? Yeah, I do film reviews for the Las Cruz's Bulletin, and I just became the freelance film writer for the ABQ Free Press, and I'm also on a online site called Critic Wire, which is part of IndieWire, which covers independent films around the country. Ah, good. Yeah. Well, let's go back to the beginning. Okay. You're going to start and show a clip, and if it looks battered and beat up, it was filmed in 1898, so do not expect high-quality, high-resolution, but it was, as we said

earlier, one of the men who worked for Thomas Edison got off and filmed a simple scene of children coming in and out of the Indian school, but it's the first piece of film ever shot in New Mexico. Let's take a moment and look at that. Well, so that was the beginning of it all. It was. Nice plot to that one, too, huh? Yeah, yeah. Well, at least they went back in. Exactly. And so you divide your book up in kind of eras, the silence in the 20s and the 30s and the 40s.

I'm so interested in a lot of the iconic films. When we think of great films, a lot of them were filmed here. There's one I just want to show a still from to the grapes of wrath. Part of it was shown here. Can you tell me a little about what was filmed here in New Mexico for the grapes of wrath? Graves of wrath used several sites in New Mexico, and it's also one of the very few films to actually use Route 66 for anything. I've got a film clip series that I did on Route 66 movies, and I did that. I discovered that grapes of wrath was shot partially in Tukamkari, partially around Gallup, and partially right near the Arizona border as well. It was mostly what's called second unit shooting, which means that the real stars, like Henry Fonda and such, probably did not come to New Mexico, but they used a lot of long shots and doubles for the people that were in the scenes to make, you know, make them make you think that they were actually here. And it's probably the biggest time, it's certainly the biggest title film that was shot in the state.

There was others before that, a handful of them along with a bunch of silent films. But grapes of wrath might be in some of the iconic films in that way, so. Yeah. One that was less iconic, but was very good PR. Let's talk a little about some of the great film stars at that time. For example, Gene Autry, we're going to look at a film called The Sons of New Mexico that was filmed in 1949, and he gives a plug to the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, let's just take a moment and look at Sons of New Mexico with Gene Autry. You're from New Mexico Military Institute, aren't you? Yes, sir. Fine school. If I had a boy, that's where I'd like him to go. You're pretty proud of it, sir. Maybe I missed a door handle, but I bet another ten I can make that officer take his cap off. That's a bet. If you're ever in Roswell, what? Who's ever got that air rifle, pop me, too. They're over there in those trees. Let's go get them, follow me.

And off they go, galloping into the sunset. So Gene Autry, was he actually here for that? No. Again, they were using second unit people for the most part. If you look at that clip closely, the whole clip that whole scene is two young men that are shooting at Mr. Autry in the cadets are actually in California, so they have a really good, long, powerful rifle there. Autry, you notice in the beginning of the clip there, it might have been a long, if you see the long whole clip, it's like a long shot of the truck coming down a dirty road, a dirt road in the Roswell area. And then it's like a, Autry's in us on a set somewhere with for the most part. So he never came to New Mexico, this is only in Mexico-related film, but he did come out for the premiere of the film, which was shot, it was in Albuquerque and was a huge hit for him. It was one of his best films, they say, even though if you look at it now, it's like really that one of his best, but it's a good little drama.

It's got some nice scenes of NMMI and with the Roswell area in it as well. Good, good. So the next year, in 1950, Errol Flynn, this is a shot of him from a movie called Rocky Mountain, and Errol Flynn was about the top of the heap at that time. Tell me about Rocky Mountain. It was, when I was a kid, it was one of my very favorite westerns and every time I came on TV no matter how late I tried to sneak out of my room to watch it, Flynn was a Hollywood bad boy and this film was supposedly supposed to help him revive his career, although it really didn't because of his own behavior and such. He was still the bad boy on the set of this one, but it's a western that's got some truth to it worth him playing a military officer coming to New Mexico territory to recruit for the New Mexico Army that was going to try and retake the call about a golfer, try

and take the call about a goldfields, and while Flynn was here, his co-star, a woman whose name I said to you. Patricia Wifford? Wifeord? Wifeord. Wifeord? Yeah. He met her and the director of the film knew that Errol had an eye for the ladies and so when they were filming, he had one end of the motel or hotel where they were at, which I think was the El Rancho in Gallup. He was at the other end. However, it didn't work because they ended up probably going around the back and having romantic interludes. He dumped his girlfriend and ended up marrying Mrs. Wyman a short time later. The film has some really great actors in it that became bigger, character actors like Slim Pickens. Slim Pickens? Yeah, who used to live in New Mexico? The guy that recorded the song, one-eyed one horn flying purple people leader, he's in the film.

But it's a really tight little nice, nice little western. Well, speaking of the El Rancho, for people, film buffs, who come to New Mexico or live in New Mexico, it's really worth going to Gallup and seeing the El Rancho. It was the hotel motel where most of the movie people stayed and in their lobby, this beautiful lobby, they have pictures of everybody who stayed there, autographed to them and it's just a wonderful pilgrimage on the history of film in New Mexico. It is. Now, in 1954, came an absolutely iconic film called Salt of the Earth. Before we look at it, tell us a little about it. Salt of the Earth was, as one of the longest, most interesting histories of any New Mexico-made movie. It was also one of the first that was almost entirely shot in the state, as filmed in the Silver City area, the cast, the crew that tried to put it together, they had horrible time doing so because some were members of the Communist Party at the time, some were considering

companies as the Communist Party at the time, and as during the McCarthy era, of course, Macon 53, 54, and they had this endless issues with that. It became a huge social issue film. It covers women's rights, Hispanic rights, union labor issues, and just everything you could possibly think of in a real, positive, reaffirming way for the people involved in those things. And of course, it was seen as like a threat to mainstream society, so it was banned for a while. Some of the prints were confiscated when people tried to play it. That's debatable, where it first finally appeared, whether it was in Silver City at a drive-in or San Francisco or New York, so there's three different possibilities there. All of the actors, except for Will Gear, were in the lead actress, the woman lead actress, were not real actors, such as there were people who actually lived there in part took

in the strike that the film was based on. Yes, true. And now in Silver City, there are people still living who were like some of the political figures at the time of the strike and who were participated in the movie and so, but let's take a minute and look at the, this is a 1954, the salt of the earth, and this is a scene where the women, there's been an edict. The court said that the minors couldn't strike, so the women did a picket line. And then the sheriffs tried to run them down and break up the picket line, but those women were pretty indomitable. They were. Let's just take a minute and look at that scene. What about these? I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it. I can't help it. Are you happy? Are you happy?

I can't help. I'mなので. I can't. I can't. I can't. Hey, thank you. This is fast. I'm a great performance. Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! Get back! And that actress who so triumphantly raises that shoe in the air

having beaten the gun out of the sheriff's hand and they just peel out of there. It's very, very powerful. But about that time a Governor Dave Cargo started the first film commission in any of the 50 states. New Mexico had the very, very first tell us about how that came about. From my research which was extensive because I didn't find much to go on when I started doing this. Governor Cargo was approached by some gentlemen, businessmen mostly in Albuquerque and a couple of writers and a couple of reporters who had the idea of doing a film commission or a film office here in the state. And he jumped on the bandwagon immediately, got support from all the businessmen that were initially involved along with your friend and my friend Max Evans, the noted author and frequent guest on your show. Mr. Evans became very involved in the film commission

which the film office itself was kind of loosely started around 67 or 68. They were very successful in getting producers and crew and cast to come here. They went to Hollywood and they pursued it. They had meetings with different studio heads and different actors and directors and they got a lot of westerns here at first and a lot of like for the times like low-budget kind of hippie movies you might kind of say. Some of which are intentionally funny, some are unintentionally funny. But they also got films like Easy Rider which was partially shot here. The Cheyenne Social Club which Jimmy Stewart was involved in as a star in Henry Fonda as well. And it's just kind of really really grown from there. Well we're speaking today with Jeff Berg about his book New Mexico Filmmaking. I was reading in Dave Cargo's autobiography that as soon as people mentioned to him about a film commission

he thought of Max Evans right away. Max had done the rounders and he became a close friend of Sam Peckinpaugh. He had a book actually just come out last year called Going Crazy with Sam Peckinpaugh. So Max made the track back and forth from New Mexico to Hollywood and got so many films. I mean it is amazing to go from just a modest amount to we were just a booming locale for film. And we have both of those gentlemen Max Evans and Dave Cargo to thank for that. Definitely yeah that was one of the what I consider like the second high point of New Mexico Filmmaking. The silent era was pretty successful because of partially because of Tom Mix being in Las Vegas. Then it was pretty dead until the 50s when there was a Gallup when Gallup was discovered. And many many Westerns were shot in Gallup during the 50s and then this was like the next period after that. And Max again was very intricate and making that happen for the state.

So you talked about these movies sort of glorified hippie movies. In 1988 Milago Beanfield Moore based on a novel by John Nichols was filmed here. And of course we all know everyone who is in that. But let's just look at just a little little clip of it when the old man gets up. It's just him and the old Adobe and then sitting in this wonderful wreck of a pickup is a figure that represents death. But let's just take him in and then look at that. I'm not even sick. You don't look so hot to me. You can get yourself out of here. Take a easy vehicle, you should have a little more respect for your elders. How do you know I didn't come here to help? Nobody around here needs help.

Relax, amigo. Relax. It's your town that's dying. And so death tells him, it's not you I'm after, I think your town is dying. And then it goes through those amazing adventures about water and politics. And it is one of my favorite favorite movies. One other film clip that we just want to show. The landscape. I want you to talk about New Mexico landscape. And how much that's brought us in terms of this. Let's look at Sarah Femme Falls from 2007. This is beautiful landscape, but it is stark. It is desert-like. It is extreme. You see this lone figure on the horseback going across the desert with those distant mountains. The scale is so huge. And that was filmed around Lord's Burg.

Yeah, partially around the playas in Lord's Burg. The movie was, there's amazing similarity between parts of Death Valley in California. And the playas around Deming and Lord's Burg. So that's seen, that whole scene where you see the whole thing. You can't really tell, but part of the shot in Death Valley, part of the shot on Lord's Burg. Part that you're showing, I'm pretty sure is. Oh, it's the mountains. If you've ever driven down in the southeast corner of the state, you'll recognize these mountains. Let's take a bit. A minute and look at Sarah Femme Falls with Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosland. Let's look. Blessed be the Lord, my strength.

He teaches my fingers to fight. And my hands to warm. Yeah, man. Okay. Well, I get thirsty just looking at that. It is huge. But what about our other canyons and what about some of our other topography? I'm in my research for this, which was again extensive because nobody had written anything down. That I have found yet anyway, hardly. I think one of the reasons, like back when I'm back to the 50s once again, and the Gallup area being really popular for Westerns, I think it has the vision that a lot of directors that might have been from California or who knows where saw as being the West.

It has mountains that's dry. It has small cactus, red rock state park where it's hugely popular for shooting. There's a scene in the Rocky Mountain that you'll see where Earl Flynn and his men are charging. And you'll see that same exact spot, like five or six other Westerns as well. So I think that part really helped the openness that we maintained this day. It's good for shooting now. Areas like the playoffs around Lord'sburg should be utilized more often, I think. Areas around the Roswell or Artigia or Portalis or whatever. They have a great openness. There's a film called Silent Tongue that Sam Shepard made around the Roswell area, about 15 years or so ago, which just utilizes the openness of the eastern plains to the max. And then speaking of max, we go to the northeast corner of the high-low country kind of area, where Max Evans hung out. Again, beautiful country a little bit different than the eastern part.

But again, it has this magical quality to it. Yes. Well, unfortunately, we're almost out of town. Out of time, the incentives, it's so important that people realize what happened when we started offering tax breaks and incentives for people to film here. Perhaps we might have to leave that for another show, but just give us one sentence about the difference that made for us. It really helped pick things up during the 90s or as a few things that were shot here. And then when Governor Johnson introduced the incentives and going to Richardson picked up on it after Mr. Johnson loved office, it just became a huge, huge thing. There's been over 200 productions made here since the incentives came in like, you know, 15 years ago or so. The latest figure I found was that, which from 2010 through midnight 2014, movies brought $1.5 billion to this estate. And that includes things like motel bills, restaurant bills, rent cars, jobs, 15,848 jobs, film jobs were part of that.

And it also brought in 103.6 million dollars in state and local taxes for productions as well. So how can we turn our back on the importance of the film industry? Exactly. I want to thank you. Our guest today is Jeff Berg. I'm so happy that you finally have this book out in New Mexico filmmaking a history of filmmaking in New Mexico. Available everywhere. Available everywhere. Thank you so much. Thank you, Lorraine. I really, really appreciate it. You bet. And I'm Lorraine Mills. I'd like to thank you our audience for being with us today on Report from Santa Fe. We'll see you next week. Past archival programs of Report from Santa Fe are available at the website, Report from Santa Fe dot com. If you have questions or comments, please email info at Report from Santa Fe dot com. Report from Santa Fe is made possible in part by grants from the members of the National Education Association of New Mexico, an organization of professionals who believe that investing in public education is an investment in our state's economic future.

And by a grant from the Healey Foundation, Tos, New Mexico. You