‘Rose Marie’ Rumors

The reason that Susan E. James didn’t hear about Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald and the film “Rose Marie” during her Lake Arrowhead boat tour (“Water & Ice,” Weekend Escape, Aug. 2) was that it was not filmed at Lake Arrowhead but near Lake Tahoe.

Although we do indeed have a Totem Pole Point, it was created for the movie “River’s End” (1930), starring Charles Bickford, and later used for the movie “Spawn of the North” (1938), whose cast included a young Henry Fonda.

The rumor about “Rose Marie” has been around since the 1950s, when an enterprising real-estate developer subdivided Totem Pole Point. However, it was a reporter with the Los Angeles Times who debunked the story in an article at that time.

We have had many great movies made at the lake, but “Rose Marie” was not one of them.

W. LEE COZAD

Lake Arrowhead

*

Your article on Lake Arrowhead indubitably did not do justice to this nearby, alpine-like area.

It failed even to mention the splendid UCLA Conference Center (an annual trek for so many Southern California families), the lovely Tavern Bay Beach, the July 3rd and 4th fireworks shows (at Lake Arrowhead and Lake Gregory), the walking trails lining the water’s edge or even the 100% perfect location of the local McDonald’s, the ideal place to soak up sunshine and vistas.

JOHN CARL BROGDON

Culver City