NM on Film

EAVES MOVIE RANCH

- Bonanza Creek Ranch
- Cook Ranch and the Silverado Set
- The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
- Eaves Movie Ranch
- White Sands National Monument
- Zia Pueblo
When you climb the plank steps to the boardwalk flanking the saloon, bank and mercantiles of the Western town J. W. Eaves built nearly 30 years ago, you feel you've placed your feet on 1870s milled pine. As you make your way down the walkway and peep into a storefront, an unshakable feeling of disorientation creeps up every once in a while - your inner voice saying, "but this has to be a real town." A town real in the sense of lived in, peopled with sooty blacksmiths and cautious bankers, nosy shopkeepers and worldly bartenders. An occasional glimpse of a false front reminds you that this is, after all, a movie set. You may then find yourself trying to contain a runaway imagination, yet you've entered the world of make-believe, and it's only doing its job.

Creating illusion is what the art of film is all about. The group of Hollywood professionals who made the Eaves set were not only skilled craftsmen and women, they were artists who created a believeable world by the power of imagination - a world that has sustained its sense of magical persuasion over the course of three decades. It's evident that the watchful eye of owner J. W. Eaves, and his persistent faith in the strength of the local film industry, underlie the set's longevity.

"They come and go, and I just stay with it. I've been at it 40 years," Eaves resolved. Those years include long periods of sluggish film activity. "It hasn't bothered me because I didn't make my living that way." He came to New Mexico from Texas and established a livelihood in the trucking industry and cattle ranching. In 1957 he bought a sprawling ranch south of Santa Fe and soon thereafter had his first taste of Hollywood when they used his distinctive ranch house as a location for the short-lived television series Empire in 1962.

Several years later, Eaves was working at the windmill pond near his home when a man walked up. He was a producer from Columbia Pictures who asked about using the ranch for a film. "He said, 'I like what I've seen of this ranch and I've seen enough. I want to lease it for a year.' I thought he was kidding," recalled Eaves. When he heard the daily rate the producer offered as a location fee, Eaves told him he had a deal. "I figured out right quick how much money that was, and I was still running my cattle and horses."

It set the stage for the first major production at the Eaves Ranch, Where Angels Go . . . Trouble Follows, a film that brought Rosalind Russell and Robert Taylor to New Mexico. The following year, 1969, Gene Kelly approached Eaves about the possibility of building a Western town set for the movie he was to direct, The Cheyenne Social Club. They agreed to split the costs, with Kelly (from National General Pictures) paying half to build the town. It took five months to build, including the construction of power lines and roads. The film is, to this day, a standout among Eaves' many recollections, largely due to its stars Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, along with director Kelly.

"They were really friendly, and I got to visit with them a lot." His voice filled with admiration as he described their naturalness in front of the camera, and how genuine and sincere Stewart and Fonda were in person. The same praise is held for John Wayne, who starred in Chisum the year following. "He just plays himself in the movies," Eaves said of Wayne. "He was a real nice fella, real calm. I don't think he ever acted, he was just that way."

This appreciation for genuineness, the real thing, comes up often while Eaves reminisces, as when he recalled Larry Kasdan directing scenes for Wyatt Earp. "I remember one night it was snowing like hell," Eaves said. "I kept thinking Larry Kasdan would shut down the filming. He never did." The next day Eaves told Kasdan he was the only person who had shot there in bad weather. Kasdan asked him if, as a rancher, Eaves took care of his cattle and horses in bad weather. "He told me, 'The sun doesn't shine all the time on a rancher, and it doesn't shine all the time in the movies. I like to make it just the way it is,' and he does," Eaves remarked. "It was beautiful to see the snow falling in the movie."

Nighttime snowfall in a frontier town - elegant simplicity, the real within the make-believe. J. W. Eaves might say that's just the way a Western should be.