Volume 3, No. 5. March 14, 2003
New
Arrivals
It’s
twin shows!
Old
Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona, announces the arrival of The Three Amigos
Ride Again! and Western Movie Magic, March 7, 2003. Measurements:
nine professional actors/dancers/singers/stunt performers, four technicians,
three horses and two park guests.
The measurements above tell only two-tenths of the story. The stunt show Three
Amigos Ride Again! and the special effects, live/video, audience participation
show Western Movie Magic are the last two—and most ambitious—of
six new shows to open at Old Tucson over the past four weeks. Combined with
four shows held over from the winter season, that’s 10 shows a day utilizing
the same nine performers in various guises and talents.
The only stage show repeated twice during the day is Western Movie Magic
in the park’s Grand Palace Saloon, but at least the cast and crew get a
little help from a phantom participant and two audience members. Old Tucson
is a former working studio where more than 400 movies and television shows were
filmed, and as a theme park it remains famous for its stuntmen in street gunfights
and saloon girls in cancan lines. Western Movie Magic is revolutionary
for the park in weaving Old Tucson’s history and current acting team into
a visual feast for today’s park guests.
After a video of Old Tucson-set scenes from a dozen Hollywood movies—beginning
with 1940’s Arizona, running through Young Guns II and ending
with 1994’s Lightning Jack—the cowboys and saloon girls dance
into the saloon to a honky-tonk tune. A bartender, sparring with a piano-playing,
door-slamming, gun-shooting ghost, gives a few quick stories of John Wayne,
Michael Landon and other stars who filmed extensively at the park. The barkeep
then turns the floor over to a 1930’s style Hollywood director who premiers
a new film which uses green-screen technology to fuse two of that day’s
park guests into a film starring Old Tucson’s current staff. The film,
"Dumb Guns," is so full of punning pot shots at famous movie scenes
and lines, one 30-second speech is comprised almost entirely of 18 famous film
titles. The two guest stars get to keep a copy of their movie after its exclusive
showing in the saloon.
“One of our plans is to do more shows using movies that have been filmed
here,” said David Girton, Old Tucson’s vice president of operations
and general manager. “That’s what the people want, and it’s going
back to our roots.” The new slate of shows is the first time the park has
taken such a tact, with a stunt show based on characters from TV’s The
High Chaparral filmed at Old Tucson in the 1960s, and another stunt show,
The Great Tucson Bank Robbery that is actually a reprise of a street
show at the park featured in the 1974 Charles Bronson film Death Wish.
The Three Amigos Ride Again! is the latest example, a stunt show reprise
of the 1986 Steve Martin-Martin Short-Chevy Chase movie featuring three bandits,
three horses, three women and, of course, the Three Amigos dressed in authentic-looking
mariachi-style Three Amigos wear. “It’s a great comedy we thought
we could use to show off our stunts,” Girton said. And one thing this stunt
show has that few other movie-based stunt shows can claim: this one is presented
at the same location as the movie that inspired it was shot.
Amigos’ debut last Friday under desert-blue skies had some misfiring
microphones, but the humor, action and acting elicited a steady string of giggling
from an audience representing the whole demographic gamut. The same day, Western
Movie Magic’s two first-day showings also endured a few technological
glitches, but “Dumb Guns” itself instantly entered the annals of one
of the funniest films ever filmed at Old Tucson Studios, based on the first
audience’s reaction.
In that Girton has accomplished more than he set out to do; he not only brought
Old Tucson lore to the fore of his stage shows, he made Old Tucson history with
the stage shows themselves.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved