Chapter 32

At the studio Monday morning we had a kick-off meeting for Sir Nick. We would be working differently in this movie. We would be on set ten to twelve hours a day. My schooling would be worked in between my shots, the same with workout and coaching time. The day would start in costume and makeup at 6:00 a.m. and we would hope to be done by 6:00 p.m. at the latest.

The daughter of the ranch foreman who would be my love interest was coming from Central Casting. Actually, five young ladies were auditioning for the part. One each day this week, they would arrive at eleven o’clock to read lines for the camera. Then they would accompany me to lunch to see how we got along.

I was shown the girl’s pictures. I had no doubt which one it would be. There was Cheryl’s twin. Dark hair, those big eyes it was scary how much she looked like my Cheryl.

The meeting went till eleven as all the details of this movie were worked out. We would have to do several shots on location. For some scenes that needed to be done in the country, instead of a set, there was a ranch in Colorado we would be going to. It was called Easterly Ranch.

Mr. Wayne looked over at me. “It’s a small world Rick, its Clint’s place. When we did, ‘It Never Happened,’ we got talking and we had a scout go check the place out. The countryside really matches Johnson County, Wyoming.”

I did wonder why we didn’t go up the road to Johnson County, but who am I to understand the movie business.

The first young lady was too nervous and flubbed her lines badly. She was so upset her mother who was accompanying her took her home before lunch. It was a shame.

After watching the failed audition I went to makeup and costuming. As usual, the scenes were being shot in logistical order rather than in the linear story form of the movie.

Today was working on the scene were Sir Nick ropes a calf and finds out that his English saddle won’t work. English saddles don’t have saddle horns to tie the rope off. A calf fighting the weight of a horse is one thing. The strength of the human arm is another.

The hardest part of the scene was holding onto the rope long enough to show the strain, but letting it go before my arm was ripped off. The first three takes I let go too early. No one gave me a hard time about it. The fourth attempt I held on, too long and was pulled right off my horse. I was very fortunate that I wasn’t hurt.

That caused a hold up in production. They discussed having a stunt man performing what they first thought was a simple scene. While this discussion was going on I had a thought. Why not use a breakaway rope? Take a normal lariat and splice in a section with lower tensile strength. Have the strength such that puts some strain on the rider but breaks before they are pulled off the horse.

I brought that up to the prop manhandling the lariats. He thought for a few minutes and said come with me. Since they were still arguing about how to handle the scene I wouldn’t be needed.

I let the Assistant Director know that I was going to a workshop with a prop man. He had no problem since he could retrieve me with a runner if needed.

My trip to the workshop was my first but would be far from my last. It was better than I envisioned Disneyland to be. They could make or jury-rig anything. While I wasn’t a hand’s on mechanic I did love to see how my ideas could be brought to life.

The prop man, Raul Rodrigues, told me.