By ALINE MOSBY
PIONEERTOWN, Calif., Nov. 30.
(UP) ā The wild west not being so wild anymore, a western movie company is turning this desert village into a permanent Cowtown.
This Hollywood version of the good, old days started out to be a resort for western movie stars with millyuns. Even the stores of the tiny one-street town were built in old-fashioned western style to make oatburner heroes feel right at home.
Then the picture company discovered the place, leased it, and made it one supercolossal movie set.
Pioneertownās great white father is Producer Philip Krasne, who moved his company here for keeps to make āCisco Kidā thrillers. How you canāt tell where real life ends and reel life begins.
The entrance to the village has a sign, āPioneertown Is This-A-Way.ā Next sign: āHorseless Carriages Aināt Aloud On Mane St.ā Even Producer Krasne discreetly parks his Cadillac off the dirt street.
Krasne &Co. get chow at the Golden Stallion, which serves such unwestern dishes as eastern oysters at prices that would shock Mike Romanoff. This eatery also has 50 cent slot machines and āWild Westā tunes like Dorothy Lamourās āOne Roseā on the juke box.ā
Down the street are āTrigger Billās Shooting Gallery,ā āPioneertown Gazette,ā āLikker Barn,ā etc. the āRed Dog Saloonā has swinging doors, supplemented by the ordinary variety, and a beat-up unplayable piano for atmosphere.
These places will be used as movie sets, and in between are propped real false-front sets imported from Hollywood. The towns 300 pre-Hollywood residents will get in the act, too. The barber who runs the āKlip āN Kurlā place will play barber for āCisco Kid.ā The town electrician will work the klieg lights; the Red Dog bartender will act movie bartender.
āIāll import just stars like Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carillo,ā explains Producer Krasne, who rules his wild west domain in cigar, bow-tie and finely tailored frontier pants. āMost will settle down here, so I wonāt have to pay their expenses of commuting 125 miles from Hollywoodā
Heās making a home himself, he added, out of a building marked āNellās Ice Cream Parlor.ā
In Hollywood heād pay an extra $40 a day when his company was on location. Here he hires local citizens for the standard $15.50. Pioneertown doesnāt have smog or airplanes to louse up scenes, either. And Krasne built a sound stage for indoor shots.
āIāll make this the Hollywood of the westerns,ā he says. āGenuine wild west town.ā