Movies filmed in Arizona, Movies filmed in America

Lifetime Movies produce some of the best stories I've seen on the tube, no kidding. Great stuff. BUT, ( you knew it was coming) none of it is filmed here. All Canada, or the UK.
     Understand, those two countries produce GREAT television. I have come to appreciate their new brand of television series and movies. Love them, check them out on On Demand, like Wallander.
     However, none of Lifetime is filmed here. I can't find ONE.
     Tucson, Arizona had been the sunshine capital for movie producers who loved the "clean, pure sunshine" - one told me so on location.
     " Do What YOU HAVE HERE? Clean, pure unadulterated sun light coming straight in to the
desert floor, unfiltered. Perfect for the camera."  That director - Claude Le Louche.
     No more movies here in Arizona, either? All have moved to New Mexico. They have cut taxes to the movie companies to the bone. So, when you see a western with dialogue spouting Arizona names?  Chances are, it's filmed in New Mexico.
     Reason, the Arizona government has taxed itself right out of the lucrative revenue it once had a lock on - good old fasioned greed.
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Ben Johnson, Academy Award Winning Actor

In the late 70's  I$ was the head of sales for an older Hilton  hotel in Tucson. Shooting westerns in our town was fairly common back then, and movie cowboys hanging around the lobby was a daily event.
      The "extras" were guys from town who driften in to the hotel. They seemed to know when a director of location manager would be around in advance of production, scouting out the place. We would be up to our hips in cowboys with guns, spurs tinkling, leather everywhere - even horses tied outside.
      One afternoon, I had a client or two in for lunch - I don't remember who, but coming out into the lobby for lunch, I bumped into a couple of cowboys by accident. They were a real nuisance by the second year, I grew impatient sometimes. Looking over my shoulder, I blurted out an " scuse me' as I shot past, and the guy was really sorry.
      He ran up to me, asking if he could do anything to make it up to me. It was Kurt Russell, the actor. I was non-plussed, glad to meet him, and bought him lunch. I can't remember who I left standing in the lobby, but one of my assistants took care of it. Russell was very pleasant. We talked movies, kids, life, stuff. I never saw him again. He was back years later shooting Tombstone, and that made him a huge star.
      One of my all-time friends, not stars was actor Ben Johnson. He won an Oscar for the Last Pictures Show as the movie theatre manager. I went to my office one "cowboy day" and found one of them on my office phone. I really lost it. He had his head down, had low over his forehead while he talked, I couldn't see who it was.
      I said, " hey, buster, can't you use one of the phones in the lobby? This is my office!!"
      Ben pulled his head up, a look of surprise and kind of chagrin on his face. " Oh, Gosh I'm sorry, I'll git rite off, " he said. I was floored.
      " Oh NO, Mr. Johnson, " I was flummoxed. " I didn't realize it was you - take ALL TIME YOU WANT....IT'S OK WITH ME....I'LL WAIT IN THE HALL.  And then, I withdrew until he was done.
     I bought him lunch, too. We talked for a little while. What a great guy he was. I told him about and the movie " One Eyed Jacks" in which he co-starred with Brando. There was a part there when
Brando says, " I'm gonna rip your arms off,"  and I told Ben, " you really looked like you believed him.
     Johnson said, " I did."
     ###

Petition for "REASONABLE" Gun Laws

In the Walmart Parking lot here in Tucson, the same one where there was a gang related shooting not a week ago, I was approached by a young Hispanic woman with a petition this morning.
    It is Mother's Day 2013.
    She says it is one in which she asks 5 questions ( all front loaded btw) with answers pre-supposed with answers leading to agree with "Reasonable Gun Law" conclusions of the Mark Kelly & Gabrielle Giffords Gun Control effort headquartered here in Tucson.
    Since her attempted assassination some time back by the delirious and nutty young man with a pistol, Mark Kelly has purchased an AR 15 and a handgun here locally, been photographed doing it, and now is organizing a nation wide movement TO BAN THE VERY WEAPONS HE JUST BOUGHT.
    I have stated previously I have no quarrel with Mark. Any man who shoots my wife in the face would drive me over the edge, so, his actions, - whatever they are - to me, are totally understandable.
    BUT, insofar as they affect the rest of us, no.
         LET'S BE CLEAR: the 2nd amendment says, "shall not be infringed." That is not very confusing. It is not how high, what color, who can and who cannot, what color you are, as long as you are an adult, a citizen, not a felon, you can own firearms.
         Period. " SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED."
         Let's get something else cleared up. The lunatic left often burst out in flamed with rantings like, - " whadda you want - a flame thrower, a bazooka, a tank?"  Those things are already ILLEGAL. Lastly, the much bally-hooed AR-15 is a scary looking gun but it is nothing more than a souped up .22 rifle. There are other long rifles more powerful that have been legal for decades.
         THE REAL QUESTION " REASONABLE GUN LAW ENTHUSIASTS" SHOULD BE IS THIS - we should want to pass laws that are effective. i.e. actually work.
          Back to the little girl in the parking lot. This is what she DID NOT KNOW:

• what the 2nd amendment actually said
• what the term slippery slope meant
• what the first amendment said
• what the initials on my cap meant (NRA)
• what the term "Gun Confiscation Meant"
• and when I told her, she freaked out, " oh,I don't LIKE that!!"

The S.S. World War II - the German side of the War, fun facts I'll bet you didn't know

Adolph's boys grew to about 200,000 around the start of the War and had little or nothing to do except be a pain in the ass to Jewish people and other folks that got in the way of the psychotic little corporal who wheezled his way to the top. ( Many of his generals, BTW, called him " the corporal" behind his back). Anyhow, the SS were his personal bodyguards b'cuz he didn't trust anyone. Alot of those guys really didn't WANT the job, but threats, intimidation, and " I'll kill your family " went along way to helping them to wear the uniform. Many top brass in SS, were DOCTORS, LAWYERS, college professors, a few surgeons, Human Resourse Managers from local German businesses and other like minded draftees who found themselves caught in the whirlwind of the insanity. True, some became nutballs and low-foreheaded knuckle draggers like Martin Borman who loved the killing, but research shows some HATED it, and some deserted by running away, others blew their brains out. In depth history reveals som SS officers went quietly man, disappearing early in the war, never to be found. Some appeared later, dead by their own hand, or killed by fellow Nazis in other countries. The old SS officers still hold yearly conventions today, somewhere in the Alps, quietly. One great story was one of the SS companies closest to Hitler that was being punished for some such infraction - His Stupidity-ness sent them to fight on the Russian front. They suffered horrendous casualties, but managed to survive. Hitler still berated them, ordering them to declass their unit from an honor badge he had awarded their whole brigade. They all became so incensed at the disrespect from Der Fuh, they took off all the presentation medals, dropped them into a LATRINE bucket full of excrement and shipped it back - direct to Hitler. No word as to the fate of his entire elite unit, but one suspects he left them on the Russian Front,to their demise, capture by the Russians, ergo to their deaths. ###

The Thousand Year Reich - Part XXVV11

The Englsh, bless their hearts, kept many of the captured German Generals and top command staff in secret during the war in somewhat luxury accomodgbugged their convesation. What appears to be solid evidence of war crimes and attrocities beyond belief, emphasis of BEYOND BELIEF, if that Churchill authorized the bugging, they got tons of exculpatory evidence, had enough to hang these guys ten X over, and at the end of the war, buried it. The scoop? Mixed, some of the Germans Generals actually DIDN'T know what was going on, some hated it, some refused to go along and walked out on purpose. Those that did, sat in this luxury prison in England and were shunned by some of the Nazi loyalists.It was a real mixed bag. Bottom line, as we say in the USA? So many of the prisoners were in the dark, geniunely upset, felt so guilty, contemplating suicide for communal guilt, that, at the end of the war, Churchill, buried the project and let most of them slide. Amazing, yes? One of the SS Generals was quoted as saying, " The Thousand Year Reich? OUR SHAME WILL LAST A THOUSAND YEARS, that is all we will get out of this!!" Perhaps he is right. Here we are almost 70 years after the fact, and as statistics indicate, 50 books (fifty) a month are published about World War Two. The interest (?) does not die. When I was a docent in the Tucson B-17g Museum, a woman screamed and cried the other side of the display. As I ran to give assisstance, I met her crumpled on the floor, crying. She pointed to one large picture on the wall, and a black and white crew photo underneath it. " That's my father's plane, " she sobbed " and that's his picture, he was 20 years old when he was shot down over Germany. I never got to see him, " she cried. ###