MEMORY MOTEL Dow Hotel and Dow Villa Motel Lone Pine, California BY AUDREY T. HINGLEY

ou might be surprised to discov- although sci- lms like Tremors have had er how many lm bu s drop by their moments here, too. Star Trek V: e Lone Pine, California, looking Final Frontier (1989) was lmed here. So for worms. were parts of Django Unchained (2012) and Sandworms. the scenes that featured the estate of Maximus YTruly tremendous ones. in the Roman blockbuster Gladiator (2000).  ey’re diehard sci- fans, you see—or, at Dow sold the hotel in 1957 to Mr. and Mrs. the very least, they’ve cultivated a fondness Joe Bonham and Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Turner. for the 1990 creature-feature-cum-eat-’em-up A er their parents’ deaths, the Bonham western Tremors. You can tell who they are, daughters, Jeanne Willey and Lynne Bunn, because they tiptoe around the landscape as if bought out their parents’ partners and took there’s a mean annelid the size of a Mack truck over the Dow Hotel in 1978.  e restored burrowing beneath their feet.  at’s what hotel boasts  y rooms; an additional forty- Tremors was about, a er all—huge, horrid, two rooms are in the property’s updated and hungry things that terrorized a frontier adjacent motel sections. town in the Sierra Nevadas. And it was lmed Anchored by a distinctive staircase and right here in these here hills. massive stone replace, the hotel lobby fea- Indeed, odds say many of the cast and crew tures walls lined with framed photographs members stayed at the Dow Hotel and Dow of famous guests, autographed pictures, lm Villa Motel, located along Highway 395 memorabilia, and vintage hotel photos.  e in the shadow of Mt. Whitney. And they old key box, originally at the front desk check- weren’t the rst. Beginning with Roscoe in area, dates to the 1920s and is on display in “Fatty” Arbuckle’s 1920 silent lm e the lobby.  e hotel retains the distinguished Round Up, Lone Pine became a popular air of its Hollywood heyday, when guests such commercial here for Great Western Bank. destination for Hollywood lmmakers. At as Robert Mitchum and William Boyd (who He was everything you hear about him— the foot of the Sierra Nevadas and only 170 played Hopalong Cassidy in sixty-six lms) so kind and generous with his time, and so miles from Hollywood, the area’s streams and stayed here. Restored rooms are named for handsome! distinctive rock formations provided perfect Hollywood stars and boast themed décor— “Robert Downey Jr. stayed here [when crusty backdrops. A man named Walter Dow among them the John Wayne Room, where he was lming 2008’s Iron Man]…he stayed realized early on that production compa- the actor stayed less than a year before his pretty much to himself, riding his bike all nies required lodging. He opened his hotel death, and the Roy Rogers Room, a two- over town. He le his bike behind, and when in 1923. room suite dedicated to Rogers. we called about it, it wound up being donated More than four hundred productions have “Lynne and I [grew up working] the phone to a local auction.” since been lmed in or around Lone Pine. switchboard when the movies came to town,” In addition to hikers and travelers com- Western lms remain the dominant genre, Willey recalls. “John Wayne lmed his last ing from nearby Death Valley or passing through on their way to Yosemite National Park, guests at the Dow o en visit Lone Pine’s Museum of Western Film History just down the road.  e museum houses set pieces from Star Trek and Roscoe Arbuckle’s belt from e Round-Up. And yes, you’ll even nd an original monster sandworm used to lm Tremors displayed prominently inside. Have a good look at the hideous thing.  en go back to the Dow Hotel and Dow Villa Motel and try to get some sleep. 

AUDREY T. HINGLEY is a Virginia-based freelance writer and a Roadside Contributor to AMERICAN ROAD. Historic image from Frashers Fotos postcard. Tremors theatrical poster, Universal, 1990. Modern photos from Dow Hotel & Dow Villa Motel • 310 South Main Street • Lone Pine, California 93545 • (760) 876-5521 • dowvillamotel.com the Dow Hotel.

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