Lone Pine's Western Movie Museum
Eastern California Attraction on Highway 395 Well Worth a Visit
The mint-condition memorabilia, housed in the purpose-built Beverly and Jim Rogers Museum of Lone Pine Film History, make it one the finest small museums in the US West.
Movie fans may be surprised to learn that the world’s finest western film museum isn’t in Hollywood or Los Angeles. It’s in the perfect location at Lone Pine (population under 2,000) in eastern California’s Owens Valley.
In the glory days of cowboy movies, about 400 films were shot in the nearby Alabama Hills area, which lie between Owens Valley and the Sierra Nevada range. In these hills, Roy Rogers found his horse, Trigger, the Lone Ranger rode with his faithful Indian guide, Tonto, and dozens of other cowboy stars rode their horses off into the sunset.
Museum History
You’ll find the museum – it opened in 2006 – on U. S. Highway 395 at the south end of town. Outside the entrance, a larger-than-life horse is tied to a hitching post. Inside the 10,500-square foot facility, an extensive collection of western movie memorabilia is artistically displayed .
The project got its start when Jim Rogers, owner and CEO of Sunbelt Communications, first attended the annual Lone Pine Film Festival. A western movie fan and memorabilia collector, the Las Vegas philanthropist decided to donate his collection and one million dollars toward building a museum in which to exhibit it. The Lone Pine community provided the land.
Exhibit Highlights
Hundreds of framed movie posters decorate the museum walls. Costumes worn by top stars like Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers are contained in cases throughout the museum, along with other artifacts from their movies. Two mint-condition vintage cars -- the Plymouth coupe that Humphrey Bogart in the role of Roy “Mad Dog” Earle drove up to Mt. Whitney and the Buick Eight convertible that Gene Autry jumped his horse over – are also displayed.
The Roy Rogers section showcases such items as a copy of “Roy Rogers Riders Rules “ and an armchair upholstered in Roy Rogers and Dale Evans-themed fabric. The hat section includes those worn by such western stars as Barbara Stanwyck, Tom Mix and Tex Ritter. The costume wardrobe features everything from a beaded dress to leather chaps. Movie milestones, including the first film starring a singing cowboy, are also among the exhibits.
Non-Western Movies
The hills provided backdrops for non-western films as well as cowboy shoot-‘em-ups. Among mainstream movies made in the area were Samson and Delilah (1926), Lost Horizon (1937), Gunga Din (1939), Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and Star Trek V (1989), and the museum displays memorabilia from them, too. One of the most impressive of the science fiction exhibits is a giant worm from Tremors (1990).
And There’s More
A large gift shop near the museum entrance contains various souvenir items such as t-shirts, stuffed animals, books about western stars, CDs, sheet music and original 78 rpm phonograph records. It’s also the place to buy reproductions of movie posters, western wear and jewelry. Area scenes painted by local artists, which are displayed in three areas of the museum, are for sale, too.
The 20-minute film chronicling the history of the western movie (presented every half hour in the museum’s 75-seat theatre) provides information that adds greatly to the museum experience. The film begins with the silent movies of the 1920s and continues on through the talkies that began in the late ‘20s and remained popular until the early 1960s. The last few minutes of the production show scenes from present-day non-western movies and the more than 100 commercials that have been filmed in the Owens Valley.
The museum is open Wednesday through Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, go to lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.
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