When Hollywood Came to Wharton, photo collection in Wharton County Junior College Library. (original) (raw)

by Robert G. Cowser

Ido not regret sending the photographs my brother R. L. took of Lee Remick and Steve McQueen to the college library in Wharton. Nor do I regret sending photos my brother took of Horton Foote to Mr. Foote in New York. But perhaps I should have taken copies of the photos before I sent them away. After my brother died in 1987, I took the photos from one of his albums and kept them until a few years ago.

| One clear day in 1964, R. L., who was a member of the faculty at the junior college in Wharton, took his camera with him to a rice field outside town. There the crew of "Baby, the Rain Must Fall" was busy filming the movie. The script was based on Horton Foote�s play "The Traveling Lady", which Foote adapted himself. A native of Wharton, he came home to oversee the production. R. L. took photos of Lee Remick striding across the field in tandem with her co-star, Steve McQueen. Remick is wearing a straw hat with a bow under her chin. McQueen�s expression reminds us of the strong-willed characters he often played in such films as "Bullitt". R. L. also took two photos of Horton Foote, who squints his eyes in the bright Texas sunlight. | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | |

It is not surprising that R. L. would visit the set more than once that fall. When he and I were growing up on a farm near Saltillo, we went to the movies whenever there was an opportunity. These opportunities were rare, but they came more often during the summer than during the school year. If our father had business in Sulphur Springs, fifteen miles away, R. L. and I had a chance to ride to town with him and take in a matinee at one of the three theaters. Although I did not keep copies of the photographs R. L. took that day near Wharton, I remember them vividly, and I take pleasure in reflecting on what pleasure it must have given him, the consummate movie fan, to visit a movie set.

It gives me pleasure to know that patrons of the Wharton County Junior College Library can look at photographs taken on the set of one of Horton Foote�s films.

� Robert G. Cowser
"They shoe horses, don't they?"

Guest Column, December 13, 2009
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