Film homage Johnny Cash A Gunfight promo Old Tucson Arizona 1971 Metal Print

Johnny Cash. is doing a promotional video, on the main street of Old Tucson, Arizona, for "A Gunfight," co-starring Kirk Douglas. Much of Old Tucson, built in 1939 for "Arizona," starring Jean Arthur and William Holden, was destroyed in a 1995 fire.

This portion of the street was on the south end of the lot and escaped the devastation. Old Tucson was a recreation of Tucson in the 1860's. It has been since been rebuilt with no attempt to duplicate what had been leveled.

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...