Hollywood on the Rio Grande

INTRODUCTION

- Introduction
- Hooked Forever
- Innocent in the Velvet Jungle
- The Commission of Doubt or
  What the Hell do we do Next
- Stinky Flies in the Gourmet Soup
- One for the Money, Two for the Show
- The Wrap Without Bow Knots When theater manager Lou Gasparini and newspaper columnist Chuck Middlestadt drove from Albuquerque to Santa Fe with an idea for then governor, David Cargo, they were not fully aware that this trip was the beginning of a small miracle, but it was. The concept of a governor actively heading up a New Mexico Film Commission was enthusiastically agreed upon by the fated three.

The commission was formed, meetings were held and approaches to Hollywood discussed. Then it was discovered that Charles Le Maire (two-time Oscar winner for costume design, in his late seventies and retired to Santa Fe) and myself were the only two on the committee who knew anyone personally in Hollywood to call.

Outside the committee the idea was met with skepticism, and ridiculing statements and remarks were made: "I wanna be in pictures." "Hey, make me a star?" "Is New Mexico gonna have an official casting couch?"

Ignoring this fine mist of doubtees, Middlestadt and Dick Skrondahl, writer/photographer, were making press releases to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety - both show-biz Bibles. Locally, Ralph Looney, a commission member and associate editor of The Albuquerque Tribune, was touting in print at least once a week the possibilities of economic gain for the state. The Albuquerque Journal would soon join in. We had convinced a few people to come from the film capital to give New Mexico a look. By now the project was about seven months old.