Film Benefit Gives Simi’s Cowboy Lore Full Rein

A dozen people sat in the flickering twilight of a Simi Valley theater shortly after noon Wednesday issuing gasps of vicarious pain as the Lone Ranger, or perhaps his double, leaped down a sandy slope and crashed into the back of a fleeing murderer.

They weren’t about to explain what lured them into the theater for a whole day of B Westerns. There wasn’t time to talk. As soon as the Lone Ranger galloped off the screen, “The Nebraskan” came on, starring Phil Carey and Roberta Haynes.

No one got up to leave. They had bought their passes and taken their provisions of popcorn and sodas and were settled down for a day of sand, sweat and true grit.

This was day three of the Southern California Classic Film Festival, an event created by the Simi Valley Cultural Assn. to raise money for a performing arts center planned for the city.

Festival Dedication

Seizing upon Simi Valley’s most notable bit of indigenous culture, the group dedicated the festival to Ray (Crash) Corrigan, Western movie star and creator of Corriganville, the 2,000-acre movie ranch near Santa Susana Pass.

All films at the festival show either Corrigan or his movie ranch.

Hundreds of Westerns and adventure films were made amid the rugged, boulder-and-oak strewn hills of Corriganville from the 1930s to the 1960s.

In 1948, Corrigan opened the studio to the public as a Western amusement park with movie-making rodeos and stunt-man gunfights. It remained an amusement park until Corrigan sold the property to Bob Hope in 1965.

Hope changed the name to Hopetown, but there wasn’t any hope for Corriganville. A year later, he closed it, and soon after a fire destroyed most of the movie sets. Corriganville has lain fallow since then.

Plans for Development

Corrigan died in 1976. Today, a developer plans to build a community called Hopetown on the ranch.

This weekend, the Simi Valley Cultural Assn. plans to revive the spirit of the place.

To cap the film festival, the group will hold a Corriganville Chili Cook-Off Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the ranch, off Keuhner Drive on the eastern edge of Simi Valley. Admission is $1.

In spite of the modest turnout for the films--one organizer said evening attendance was about 30--promoters of the festival hope thousands will show up for the cookout.

Country bands will perform throughout the day. Many of the stars who made their films at Corriganville will return for the day.

Corrigan’s son, Tom, will be there, too. He grew up in Corriganville and performed in the shows.

‘Youngest Bull Rider’

“My dad used to bill me as the youngest bull rider. At 7 years old, I used to come out of a bull chute on a full-grown Brahman bull,” Tom Corrigan said. “I didn’t ride him, but I tried.”

Tom Corrigan doesn’t promise to try again Saturday. But he does plan to do some of the things they used to do in Corriganville.

“I’m going to have stunt men out to re-create the ‘Gunfight at OK Corral,’ the most famous battle in Western history,” he said.

Meanwhile, Corrigan and Corriganville live on in film. They can be seen as they were on the final day of the festival, starting at 12:30 p.m. today at the Simi Mann 6 Theater.

Showing will be “Trigger Trio,” “Trail of the Silver Spur,” “Ambush at Tomahawk Gap,” “Northwest Trail,” “The Texas Rangers,” “Streets of Laredo” and several episodes of the television series “Undersea Kingdom.”

The truly addicted can take in 10 hours of sand and sweat and true grit for $5.