E.R. Hickson

Biography

E.R. "Ernie" Hickson grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where he was born on September 2, 1892, and began acting in high school, where he excelled at set design. He joined a theater troupe as a set designer and traveled throughout the United States with them. Reaching the West Coast in 1922, he sought employment in the movie business, earning his first (and only) credit as a screenwriter on "Western Days" (1924). The film was directed by John Ford's older brother, Francis Ford, who also had a co-starring role in the silent horse-opera. Hickson's future was settled when he was hired by Trem Carr Productions in 1931. The production company belonged to B-movie impresario Trem Carr, an Illinois native who abandoned an early construction career for the movies in the mid-1920s. Carr subsequently entered into a partnership with W. Ray Johnston, another Midwest native, who distributed Carr's films through his Rayart Pictures Corp. Carr and Johnston formed Syndicate Pictures in 1928, with Johnston as president and Carr as vice president. Syndicate specialized in low-budget B-Westerns, some of which starred Tom Tyler. Its first offering, The Chinatown Mystery (1928), featured Hickson's old mentor Francis Ford in an acting role. After turning out 14 pictures over three years, Syndicate was reorganized as Monogram Pictures in 1931, again with Johnston as president and Carr as production chief. Carr took out a five-year lease on land in Placerita Canyon near Santa Clarita, CA, to shoot his westerns. A filming site frequently used by cowboy stars William S. Hart, Tom Mix and Harry Carey, Placerita Canyon had first been used as a location by Carr in 1926. Hickson, Carr's artistic director and set designer, built the sets at the location. A talented craftsman, Hickson was also a western history buff and collector. His knowledge of the Old West and his collection of Western memorabilia enhanced the verisimilitude of Carr's horse-operas. Using vintage lumber, Hickson built a western street with complete buildings featuring interiors rather than just facades. Producer Paul Malvern worked at the location after he learned the business from Carr as a production manager. Hickson designed the sets for some of the low-budget oaters Malvern made for his Lone Star Productions, which were released through Monogram. Both the Monogram and Lone Star movies used writer-director Robert N. Bradbury, who frequently cast his son Bob Steele as the lead. The movies made at the canyon set made Steele a star in the B-Western movie genre and are available on DVD. Another future star who got his start in a Lone Star production filmed at Placerita Canyon was Bob Steele's Glendale High School buddy Marion Morrison, who would go on to fame at Republic Pictures as John Wayne. Wayne appeared in many productions shot at the ranch from 1933 to 1935. Bill Bradbury, Steele's twin brother, dubbed Wayne's singing voice when he appeared as "Singing Sandy," the original singing movie cowboy. Stuntman Yakima Canutt, who lived in the area, was employed by the unit, as was George 'Gabby' Hayes. Monogram had amassed a considerable film-processing debt at Consolidated Film Laboratories, which was owned by Herbert J. Yates. Knowing that Carr and Johnston wanted to expand their operation, and finding a novel way by which they could discharge the debt he owed them, Yates convinced another poverty-row producer, Mascot Pictures' Nat Levine, the creator of the singing cowboy genre, to join him in forming a new studio, to be called Republic Pictures Corp. The company was incorporated in 1935 through the merger of M.H. Hoffman's Liberty Pictures, Monogram Pictures, Levine's Mascot Pictures and Malvern's Lone Star Productions. Johnston was appointed president but Yates was actually in control. Johnston, who feuded with Yates from the beginning, was soon replaced by the more pliable Levine, who had brought Msscot, and future Republic, star Gene Autry to the new studio. Autry's first movie lead was Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935), which was shot primarily on the Placerita Canyon lot. By 1938 Autry was a big enough star to command $6,000 for the first two pictures and $10,000 for subsequent pictures in his annual contract. Johnston, who had had enough of Herbert Yates, left Republic in 1937 to restart his old studio as Monogram Productions Inc,, while Carr and Malvern had departed for Universal. Levine had been bought out for $1 million, which he lost at the racetrack within six weeks. Hickson had acquired 10 acres of land to the west of the lot, and in 1936, upon the expiration of Carr's lease, it was decided to move the sets to a new location on Hickson's property. He used a team of horses to move the western buildings down a dirt road to the current location of Melody Ranch at Oak Creek and Placerita Canyon roads. The new set was approximately a half-mile from its former location. At the new lot Hickson created a self-contained western town with nine permanent homes, a bunkhouse and corrals for the crew and the wranglers and their horses, and a restaurant. He acquired more land and eventually expanded to 110 acres. In addition to the main street the lot featured a country schoolhouse, an Indian village, a Mexican street complete with hacienda, a pioneer settlement featuring a log cabin, a stage relay post, a trading post and an old-time store that could double as a drug store, general store or hardware store. There were also barns and corrals for the animals and to serve as sets. The production facilities provided to film crews included power, lights and cable. Hickson also supplied the producers with props to dress the sets. In 1940 Carr had returned to Monogram as a studio executive. The Hickson ranch, now known as Monogram Ranch, served as Monogram's "home" studio, though other production companies, including Paramount, RKO and Republic, rented the facilities. Thirty movies were shot at the ranch in 91 working days during 1940, requiring 14,400 hours of set preparation and involving 7,000 movie company employees. The stars shooting there that year included William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy, singing cowboy Tex Ritter and John Wayne. Sightseers were allowed to visit the ranch on Sundays, and 5,000 made the pilgrimage that year. In 1941 Hickson officially renamed the lot "Placeritos Ranch" after the local canyon. The lot was also used for shooting pictures other than westerns, including the Boris Karloff horror film The Ape (1940). The outdoors work for nine Monogram films featuring Bela Lugosi were shot at the ranch from 1941 to 1944. Westerns continued to be the bread and butter at Monogram, however, and low-budget horse-operas were churned out with Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson. Former A-list actor Johnny Mack Brown was signed by Monogram in 1943 and made over 60 pictures in 10 years at Hickson's movie ranch. Brown became one of the top 10 money-making western stars at Monogram. Despite all this activity, though, Monogram's days were numbered. After Trem Carr died in 1946, Steve Broidy took over and formed Allied Artists as a subsidiary to distribute the studio's more prestigious pictures. Low-budget production was terminated in 1952, and Monogram ceased to exist in 1953 when Broidy renamed the studio Allied Artists. By 1964 Allied Artists had left the West Coast for New York City. Hickson himself died on January 22, 1952, but his ranch survived him and the death of the B-Western genre. Gene Autry, who had gone on to break the movie exhibitors' Top 10 list of biggest-box office attractions and was a multi-millionaire from his own Flying A Productions, radio show, traveling road show and top-10 recording career, bought the property from Hickson's widow, Bess, exactly a year later, on Jan. 22, 1953. Autry renamed the property Melody Ranch, after one of his best-selling songs, and continued to run the property as a movie-making location. Two of Flying A's own television shows, Annie Oakley (1954) with Gail Davis and Buffalo Bill, Jr. (1955) with Dickie Jones, were filmed there, as was CBS' long-running Western TV series Gunsmoke (1955). The ranch also served as a pasture for Autry's famous movie horse, Champion. Autry had planned to erect a western museum on the ranch to house his collection of Western artifacts, but a fire burned down part of the property on August 28, 1962. None of the ranch's employees or its horses were hurt, but many priceless artifacts were lost. Aury did eventually open his museum, called The Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage, in 1988 in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. Among the films shot at Placerita Ranch/Monogram Ranch/Melody Ranch were My Little Chickadee (1940) with Mae West and W.C. Fields, Wichita (1955) with Joel McCrea and Last Man Standing (1987) with Bruce Willis. The ranch is now owned by Andre and Renaud Veluzat, who bought it in 1990 and continue to offer its facilities to production crews. HBO's series Deadwood (2004) is shot there. in 2004 the Santa Clarita Planning Commission approved plans for building a 45-foot-tall, 16,000-square-foot sound-stage at the ranch.