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>Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 19:20:55 -0700
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>From: "Brian W. Kenny" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: more yellow...
>MX TOWN WHERE `EL WAYNE' ONCE ROAMED WISTFUL FOR HOLLYWOOD COMEBACK
>04/18/98 09:07PM BY JULIE WATSON ASSOCIAED PRESS WRITER
>CHUPADEROS, Mexico (AP) _ Used to be gun fights and barroom brawls were
>almost daily events in this bone-dry cow town. Those were the good old
>days: Rustlers dropped dead in their path. It rained when the skies were
>clear. Best of all, John Wayne always came to the rescue. ``John Wayne
>spoke bad Spanish but he stopped to talk to everyone anyway,'' said
>Francisca Egure Flores, 65, a veteran movie extra and shopkeeper in this
>farming village where more Hollywood westerns were filmed than any place in
>Mexico. `He was a beautiful person. He did more for this town than anyone.''
>``El Wayne'' sauntered into Chupaderos in 1965 and turned the hard scrabble
>town of 600 into a movie set. For more than 30 years, folks have lived out
>of a Hollywood false-front, frontier town. But it's been five years since
>Hollywood filmed here. The last time, the star John Candy died of a heart
>attack. Today the surrealistic town seems sad and confused. The butchery
>sells anything but meat. The church is a storage shed, although locals
>still make the sign of the cross as they pass. And the only thing left
>inside the ``Livery'' is the local Alcoholic Anonymous chapter. ``They
>ripped down our town and rebuilt it with each filming,'' said Manuela
>Flores, 36, a former movie extra who sells candy behind a butchery facade.
>``But we never complained, because it meant everyone in town made good
>money.'' Incessant winds now pound the rickety balcony on the Prairie Lands
>Hotel and Restaurant built for Wayne's 1969 ``Chisum.'' Its faded sign
>``Rooms to Share'' hangs sideways. Durango state's career as ``Land of
>Movies'' began in 1954 when director Robert Jack, of ``Zorba the Greek''
>fame, found its striking desert terrain perfect for ``White Feather,'' a
>shoot-em-up starring Robert Wagner. Durango served as backdrop for more
>than 116 movies during the height of Hollywood westerns in the 1960s and
>'70s, state tourism officials say. Crews were attracted by the state's few
>paved roads and power lines, its clear sunny skies, its non-union work
>force. Residents of Chupaderos eagerly accommodated the crews. They turned
>off blenders, stopped talking _ even held their dogs mouths shut _ to keep
>all quiet during filming. ``One time we couldn't get a rooster to shut up,
>so someone came over and shot it,'' Flores said. Wayne filmed six movies
>here, including: ``The Sons of Katie Elder'' with Dean Martin, ``The War
>Wagon'' with Kirk Douglas and ``The Undefeated'' with Rock Hudson. ``El
>Wayne'' last visited Chupaderos in 1973 to shoot ``Cahill, U.S. Marshal.''
>He died in 1979, and within a few years so did Hollywood westerns. Since
>then, Durango has struggled to keep its spotlight. In 1992, the governor
>opened the Office of Cinematography to lure film crews. This month, a movie
>festival will celebrate 100 years of cinema. Mauricio Almarez, 67, passes
>most his time on the creaky porch of the ``Livery'' reminiscing with his
>buddies about running past Burt Lancaster, Shelley
>Winters or Ernest Borgnine as Indians or Mexican soldiers fighting the
>white men. They talk about fake blood, fake rain, how many chickens John
>Candy ate, and the old Mexican cowboy tunes Wayne sang to himself in
>mispronounced Spanish. For them, it has been hard realizing that Hollywood
>endings are not always happy. Apart from the declining movie business,
>Chupaderos suffers from a five-year drought burning up northwestern Mexico.
>Corn and bean crops lie shriveled in the fields. Skinny cows stagger by the
>splitting faux storefronts. Flores misses when she could escape such
>hardship by transforming herself from an homemaker with listless hair to a
>long-locked maiden in a gown fought over by burly cowboys. She and her
>husband worked in nearly every movie that came to town. ``El Wayne'' even
>laid the brick tiles in their home's entryway. ``They made us feel like we
>were someone important,'' Flores said. Last year, Tom Berenger's ``One
>Man's Hero'' was shot in Durango state. The crew never visited Chupaderos,
>but folks here remain hopeful their star will rise again. ``Hey,'' yelled a
>pot-bellied cowboy on a ten-speed bike galloping over a rocky road. ``Tell
>Hollywood we're waiting with open arms.''
>