An Aerial View Of San Xavier Mission Tucson Arizona Postcard C. 1960's-2013. #3 Acrylic Print

In September 1967 the NBC series "The High Chaparral" was first aired on the network. The NBC affiliate in Tucson, KVOA, carried the David Dortort produced Western. All the exteriors were filmed at Old Tucson located some 15 miles northwest of San Xavier.

I worked for KVOA and covered the motion picture beat. To promote the series NBC sponsored a press junket as journalists from across the US were flown into the city.

A lavish lunch was held in the inner courtyard at the mission. Hung on each chair was a light brown, cloth saddle bag filled with cast photos, their biographies and production notes on the show.

I kept my saddle bag for years slung over my bathroom door. Over time it faded so badly I eventually threw it out.

"High Chaparral" aired until 1971, when NBC pulled the plug claiming the stars wanted too much money. The show was still in the top 20 ratings.

Fanatical fans of the program will fly in from as far from Australia for a...

I first became obsessed with photography and motion pictures while growing up in post WW2 Manila in the Philippine Islands in the late 1940's/early 1950's. Film noirs were a particular influence. But my first love remains the theater. I acted in numerous amateur productions from 1958 to 1978. In 1979 I earned a MA in drama from the University of Arizona; earlier getting a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, where I co-founded the first film society on campus and ran it for four years. While at the U of A, I studied with the master black and white photo essayist W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) the last year of his life. I am the last person cited in Jim Hughes' definitive biography of Gene, as I wrote about attending his final...