MR. MANNING GOES TO PRESCOTT!

Good Morning: When I was a pre-teen, my best friend's mother dropped us off at a small movie theater in Ohio to see the new Sam Peckinpah film, "Junior Bonner" starring Steve McQueen. This was quite an unusual film for Sam, who had a well earned reputation as a director of violent films. In fact, he had just wrapped filming in England with Dustin Hoffman in "Straw Dogs" and was eager to soften his image. Filmed in 1971 in Prescott, Arizona and released the following year the Cast included Ida Lupino (in her first movie role since 1966) as the long-suffering wife of Ace Bonner (Robert Preston) and mother of two sons, Curly (Joe Don Baker) and J.R. Bonner (McQueen). Steve is cast wonderfully as a veteran rodeo rider at the end of his career who returns to his hometown of Prescott to participate in an annual rodeo competition and try to piece back together his dysfunctional brother and estranged parents. The film failed to find an audience at the time. However, beginning in 2000, the film has experienced a resurgence and captures McQueen as a hold-out, the last of a breed "going down his own road" pulling a horse and trailer across the country to rodeo events and putting off the inevitable end of his career. I just had to visit the Prescott, Arizona filming location for the bar scenes last Sunday. So, I did.

What I left behind in Scottsdale was 70 degree weather for an overcast sky and a hail storm in Prescott. As I am wanton to do, I struck up conversations with the locals and visited a Native American Art Gallery. Here I am outside "The Palace" where many of the movies scenes were filmed (including the phone booth where Steve made out with Barbara Leigh during the bar room brawl). I didn't see Barbara nor the phone booth. But locals were tickled about my Annual Steve McQueen Film Festival and they were genuinely nice to me. I bought a meal and a Lemon Drop Martini (to toast a very sweet friend of mine) and eventually left for home. I missed the train depot where J.R. tells Ace that he's flat broke--a painful scene McQueen plays so well (rent the DVD). That train depot is now a Pizza Parlor. I'll roll the film's opening sequence next time. It meant a lot to me to come here and just walk around by myself as a huge fan of McQueen. He was magic!

First Outing for my Harley Davidson leather jacket (I knew it would be freezing in Prescott). A nice young lady who is an Oncology Nurse grabbed my camera and snapped this quite unexpectedly (The aforementioned Lemon Drop Martini awaits me in the background). I include it here because the coat--at least-- looks so damn good! I've dropped 5 waist sizes and could finally wear it comfortably. Hey, why not? Here is the bar where McQueen (and this was hysterical by the way) tried to make up with his brother (the Joe Don Baker character) for throwing him through a glass window. "You wana beer, Curly?" Baker decked McQueen off the bar stool I am sitting on. I still laugh hard at this scene whenever I watch my DVD of the movie. McQueen rubs his jaw and looks up from the floor and says, "Now would ya like a beer?" Have a nice weekend. I'll see ya soon. (I'm working backward up the Blogroll and I believe I'm on the "L-to-A"). Oh, by the way...I hope Neile McQueen Toffel forgives my misspelling of her full name on my Blogroll. But Blogrolling has been "out of service" and I cannot access it to make the fix. Sorry, Neile, I'll get to it as soon as the guys take the site down from the hoist. Quite embarrassing. My condolences to the young Nurse who lost her Dad to cancer in April. We talked a lot about Gunner and Trevor and she was a very kind person and also very knowledgeable about DIPG and Astrocytoma. I was very heartened by her sharing. She is on personal leave and I was very grateful for her taking the time to speak with me. Also, thank you to your hubby for not getting jealous. I encounter this a lot as a guy for some weird reason. But this man was a champ! My Best to You Both! ;-)


Cheers,
Michael