“Ride the High Country” with South Pasadenan Joel McCrea

to be Screened at the Library with Special Guests on June 6

By Steve Fjeldsted

City Librarian, South Pasadena Public Library

Joel Albert McCrea was born in South Pasadena on November 5, 1905, the son of Lou Whipple and Thomas P. McCrea. Thomas was the secretary for the L.A. Gas & Electric Company. Both of Joel’s parents were of pioneer stock as Lou’s father, Major Albert Whipple had journeyed westward in a covered wagon in 1849 to establish one of San Francisco’s first hotels and Thomas’s father, Major John McCrea, escorted a stagecoach along with General Phineas Banning and fought the Apaches along the way. Joel was one of three children with a brother, John and a sister who later became Mrs. Eugene P. Ramsey. As a boy, Joel lived with his family in South Pasadena and enjoyed a normal childhood playing with his brother, sister, and cousins and “doing family stuff.”

Joel McCrea eventually went on to blaze a truly remarkable trail, appearing in 90 feature films over a 50 year period. By the time Joel retired after 80 starring roles during Hollywood’s Golden Age under his belt, he was declared “The Last of the Great Cowboy Film Heroes.” As an actor McCrae was known for his strength, realism, and dependability. Although he appeared in comedies, thrillers, adventures, and romances, westerns became his forte. McCrea was one of the very few actors who started as a lowly extra in the film business and rose to leading roles. Joel McCrea also became a real life cowboy who purchased and ran a huge working cattle ranch in the Santa Rosa Valley of Ventura County. Its boundaries encompassed a full third of the northern area of what is now the City of Thousand Oaks.

When Joel was 9 years old, the McCreas moved from South Pasadena down the Arroyo and settled in Hollywood. By age 13 he was movie struck. Not surprisingly, it was westerns that captured his imagination. Young Joel delivered newspapers and one of his customers was Cecil B. DeMille, who years later introduced him to the cast of “Union Pacific” as his former newsboy. Joel also had jobs holding horses for cowboy stars Tom Mix and William S. Hart. As a teen, Joel worked during the summers at King Cattle Company in the Tehachapi Mountains until he entered Hollywood High School. Although he earned good grades, Joel almost didn’t graduate because of the flu epidemic that had swept Southern California. In order to improve his attendance in order to graduate, Joel and a few other students were allowed to attend the Hollywood School for Girls, a private institution.

After joining the Santa Monica Beach Club where he played lots of volleyball, Joel became more resolved to get into films as an actor. He knew that performing in plays would help him learn the acting craft and gain experience. He enrolled at Pomona College which at the time had an excellent drama department. Joel played both lead and character roles there in a variety of productions. Another actor at Pomona College at the time who would also rise to stardom was Robert Taylor. A girl in one of the Pomona casts, Jeane Wood, was the daughter of director Sam Wood and she invited her father to the campus to see a performance. Sam Wood was directing a campus story for MGM and he gave McCrea an uncredited role in “The Fair Co‐ed.” When McCrea graduated from Pomona in 1928, MGM offered him a stock contract and he worked as an extra and in bit parts. Sam Wood utilized him in another campus comedy, “So This Is College,” but by then Joel was already thinking his acting career might be reaching a dead end. This was followed by MGM informing him they weren’t picking up his option. McCrea persisted and went to RKO, where he had a small role in a romance, “The Jazz Age” and then things finally began to fall into place.

In 1932 Joel was featured in “Bird of Paradise” which was directed by King Vidor. Along with Fay Wray he starred in “Most Dangerous Game, “a thriller that utilized many of the sets first used in “King Kong.” In 1933 McCrea met and married Frances Dee, a beautiful actress he first encountered on the set of “The Silver Cord.” Frances had acted in the Pasadena Playhouse and had once lived only a few blocks from the McCraes although they didn’t know each other at the time. Frances was a dark‐eyed brunette who quickly rose through the ranks at Paramount when Maurice Chevalier picked her to be his leading lady in “Playboy of Paris.” Their marriage would span 57 years until Joel’s passing on October 20, 1990. A marriage of that length is almost completely unheard of in Hollywood. The marriage produced three sons: Jody, Peter, and David.

In 1934 McCrea co‐starred alongside the two actresses he would go on to work with the most, Barbara Stanwyck, who he accompanied 6 times, and Miriam Hopkins with whom he made five films. In 1935 he made “Barbary Coast” which had some western elements with its story of San Francisco’s Gold Rush days. In 1937 McCrea was the first leading man to portray Dr. Kildare in “Internes Can’t Take Money,” and later that same year he co‐starred with his wife Frances in the big‐budget, authentic western, “Wells Fargo” in which he played a troubleshooter for the railroad company building the transcontinental railroad. McCrea closed out the decade with another hit, DeMille’s “Union Pacific” in 1939.

Joel McCrae’s career reached its zenith in the 40s with Alfred Hitchcock’s “Foreign Correspondent” in 1940, “Sullivan’s Travels” (1941), a classic Hollywood spoof road film directed by Preston Sturges, and as the long‐haired, mustachioed “Buffalo Bill” (1944). For Paramount McCrea garnered top billing in the title role of the Technicolor version of “The Virginian” (1946). At this point some considered McCrea too old for the part at age 46 because Gary Cooper was much younger when he appeared in the black and white original in 1929. From this point on McCrea would only play western roles. As McCrea would later write in the Introduction to “The Great Cowboy Stars of Movies and Television” by Leo Miller, published in 1979, “I am proud to have been a Western actor; would be proud to act again in any good western as long as it represents what the Westerns of old represented: Americana. McCrea made 17 westerns in the 1950, all of which were popular with movie fans and successful at the box office. These included “The Outriders” (1950), “Saddle Tramp” (1951), “Lone Hand” (1953), and “Border River” (1954).

In 1958 Joel abandoned films to co‐produce and star in the NBC‐TV series “Wichita Town,” but it only lasted one season, McCrea surprised many when he decided to return to filmdom as a villain alongside old friend Randolph Scott for up‐and‐coming director Sam Peckinpah in ”Ride The High Country” (1962). After first reading the script McCrea and Scott agreed to switch parts, allowing McCrea to play the good guy once again. It was produced by Richard Lyons and featured a terrific supporting cast of Mariette Hartley, Edgar Buchanan, and James Drury. It is widely considered one of the top westerns of the 1960s and served as a fitting swan song for Randolph Scott. In 1992, “Ride the High Country” was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress and deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Harry Sherman once said of McCrea, “Joel is the greatest natural western star since the old days of Tom Mix and William S. Hart. He has authentic background, and he’s the first natural horseman I’ve ever seen. No trick rider, understand? Just a guy who knows how to sit on a horse with grace and authority.”

Joel McCrea’s early ambitions included owning a cattle ranch. But they were delayed until he made enough money to buy one. In the 1930’s, on the advice from Will Rogers, Joel decided to have something to fall back on in case acting didn't work out. He bought and established a working ranch in the Santa Rosa Valley area of Ventura County, California. Joel and Frances then built their home and raised their boys there. In the late 50s and early 60s parts of the ranch were sold. Approximately 280 acres are left of the original ranch. In 1995, the McCrea family put together an agreement with the Conejo Recreation and Park District for it to acquire the property through a donation. All the buildings on the ranch are on the National Register of Historic Places and are being preserved for eventual sharing with the public. The Joel and Frances McCrea Ranch Foundation was formed to assist in the fundraising efforts and to honor the legacy of Joel and Frances while supporting the Conejo Recreation and Park District in the rehabilitation and preservation of the ranch.

Master of Ceremonies for the free screening of “Ride the High Country” in the South Pasadena Public Library Community Room on June 6 will be acclaimed Cowboy Poet, Larry Maurice. Introducing the film will be Wyatt McCrea, one of the grandsons of Joel and Frances and the son of David McCrea. At the conclusion of the film Wyatt and Larry will be conducting an interactive Q & A with the audience. Larry Maurice will perform some of his cowboy poems as well. Larry has been honored with the "Lifetime Achievement in Cowboy Poetry Award" from the prestigious National Cowboy Symposium. In 2000, Larry received the coveted "Will Rogers Cowboy Award" for Cowboy Poet of the Year.

The Library event is presented by the South Pasadena Public Library, The Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, and Poets and Writers, Inc. with financial support from the James Irvine Foundation. Special thanks to the Joel and Frances McCrea Ranch Foundation, David Lyons, Scott Gandell & Anneline De Croos/South Pasadena Mercantile, and Videotheque. The film is appropriate for all ages and refreshments will be served. The Library Community Room is located at 1115 El Centro Street. No tickets or reservations are necessary. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.