Dina Merrill

A Two-Fisted, No-Nonsense Lone Pine Hero

By Ross Schnioffsky

Akey focus of the 2022 Lone Pine Film Festival will be the acknowledgement of the fine Hollywood career of the versatile and virile Rod Cameron. Panhandle (1948) and Stage to Tucson (1950) are two of his best films and both contain significant scenes shot in the vicinity of Lone Pine.

NOTE: Salome, Where She Danced (1945) although often listed as a Lone Pine film, only contains a snippet of Alabama Hills scenery.

Occasionally films shot in the Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine, refer to the glorious landscape to emphasis a key point in the film’s plot or back story. In Panhandle (1948) one of Rod Cameron’s (John Sands) best films his murdered brother’s fiancé (played by Cathy Downs) shows him his brother’s grave. This excellent film directed by master Lone Pine director Lesley Selander is one of Rod Cameron’s best films. The brother, a newspaper man, was gunned down by a gang of nasty characters led by chief villain Reed Hadley, who has Napoleonic aspirations to control the territory. In the film Cameron plays a reformed gunman who is compelled to strap back on his guns and find the killers of his brother.

For folks like me who have become obsessed with the films of Lone Pine film moments like this one from Panhandle are very moving — particularly when rendered with Cameron’s sensitive performance under the superb direction by Selander, working closely with experienced Western cinematographer Harry Neumann. Also interesting to note: future top-flight director Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther, The Great Race, etc.) co-authored, co-produced and co-stars in this motion picture. Buck Rainey succinctly described Rod Cameron as follows:

His mere screen presence practically fulfilled the Zane Grey ideal—and it was so effortlessly convincing.

Cameron, exuding virility, succeeded in making a two-fisted hero plausible and likeable, and he was every inch the symbol of probity, courage, and wholesomeness that his parts usually demanded. — Heroes of the Range: Yesteryear’s

Saturday Matinee Movie Cowboys, 1987.

Born Roderick Cox on December 7, 1910 in Calgary, Alberta, Rod was the son of a strict and religious mechanical engineer who forced young Rod to learn Bible verses. He spent his pre-teen years in Toronto, attending public schools and, like a lot of kids, worked as a delivery boy and sold newspapers on the street corner.

His father died when he was 12, leaving his mother, younger sister, Catherine and himself in financial difficulties. This resulted in a move to an uncle’s in New York City. The family eventually settled in White Plains, New York, where Rod finished high school. Times were tough for Rod and his family. He later often said that he didn’t have a childhood, as he was always working after school to support the family. On numerous occasions in later life, he was spotted giving generously to the street corner Salvation Army Father Christmases. As well, Cameron made many personal appearances for a variety of charitable organizations such the Boys Club of America and groups aimed to treat alcoholism.

Because of his height, Rod was a natural for basketball and played both center on his school basketball team and tackle with the White Plains semi-pro football squad. He was also an accomplished swimmer and high diver. He dabbled in amateur theatrics, but since boyhood was impressed by the heroics and glamor of joining Canada’s distinguished redcoats. Unfortunately, due to a youthful injury, he failed the physical examination. The Mounties, in this case, didn’t get their man.

Spurred by the Mounties’ rejection, Rod set out to prove he was in top physical condition. The hardest job he could find was Dialogue:

Dusty Stewart: This was our valley.

John Sands: Man could do a lot of thinking here.

Dusty Stewart: This is Will’s favourite spot. He’s down there.

Dusty Stewart (Cathy Downs) takes John Sands (Rod Cameron) to his brother gravesite.

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that of a sand hog (caisson laborer) in tunnels being constructed under the Hudson River. Caisson laboring is difficult manual work in a large watertight chamber, open at the bottom, from which the water is kept out by air pressure, with construction work being carried out under water. The construction work is often dangerous and requires the pouring of tons of concrete.

The Depression had Rod working many different jobs of the few that were available and he was always grateful for the opportunity to work. Now an expert concrete man, Rod ultimately went to work for the Metropolitan Water District in California to build a tunnel near Palm Springs.

Rod, like everyone else in California, became interested in working in the movie business. Executives at Paramount saw his potential and signed him to a stock contract. His surname was changed to Cameron which was a family name on his mother’s side. He landed some assorted bits and small parts at Paramount, including a very small part in Stagecoach War, a Hopalong Cassidy Western. Despite what was later circulated by studio publicity departments, he was never a stunt man or double for well-known actors such as Fred MacMurray. His contract required that he do lot of tests wherein he would throw lines at the actors or actresses being tested. This experience and his many roles as a stock player contributed significantly to his acting education.

Rod left Paramount and was picked up by Republic, Hollywood’s top serial studio of the era. He was selected to play Rex Bennett, American undercover agent, in two serials, G-Men vs. the Black Dragon and Secret Service in Darkest Africa, both filmed in 1943. These were two of the slugging-est Republic serials ever made – and they were extremely popular, particularly with Rod was a robust and believable screen hero. As a result, not only did Rod’s take-home pay increase, but he began winning fairly good roles from Universal, United Artists and MGM. After his performance in Gung Ho (1943) he signed a long-term contract with Universal.

Universal now saw the “tall in the saddle” Rod Cameron as ideal for their series Westerns. When it was announced in 1944 that he would replace Tex Ritter as Universal’s new cowboy star, fans were delighted. Fuzzy Knight provided the comic interludes, Jennifer Holt filled the necessary female role in three of the six films, while Ray Whitley and his Bar-6 Cowboys did the musical segments. Vivian Austin who starred in the first two said of Rod: “Rod was the exact opposite of Don Barry. Rod never lost his temper, very quiet. I liked him a lot.”

Overall the series was relatively successful. But it was still wartime and leading men were at a premium. Cameron was soon tapped to star opposite Yvonne De Carlo in two biggies - Salome, Where She Danced (1945), and Frontier Gal (1945), with Rod and Yvonne spending time outside of office hours.

Salome prompted a deluge of fan mail which alerted the suits at Universal that their Rod was possible box-office magic. The following film, Frontier Gal, a lusty, glorified Western produced for mass audience appeal, saw his fan mail sky-rocket, impressing studio heads enough to give Cameron the lead as detective in screwball comedy, The Runaround (1946) with Ella Raines and Broderick Crawford. This was another boxoffice success and the film was one of Rod’s personal favorites, saying he’d had the most fun on this film. Pirates of Monterey (1947) with Maria Montez was next and, in this film, he successfully breaks away from “type” and does some fine swashbuckling complete with riding, swordplay, more action and a dose of lovemaking. The film established Rod as a star of real importance. His name was starting to appear on top box-office lists and his fan mail jumped to over 2500 letters a month.

Next for Ron was a screen reunion with Yvonne De Carlo in River Lady (1948), boasting he made as much money on this one as he would have in a year as a contract player at Universal.

Rod’s career was now going places. And, fortunately for Lone Pine Western fans, he goes to Allied Artists where he makes the aforementioned sepia-toned Panhandle (1948).

Cameron did not often talk about the directors and producers he had worked with. His reminisces were more often about stuntmen, leading ladies and wrap parties. Yet, Cameron’s positive Panhandle experience with Blake Edwards led to the also well-received Stampede released in 1949. Rod thought very highly of Blake Edwards, later reflecting that because Edwards was an actor first, as a director, he could give actors direction from the actor perspective. Rod believed that it was obvious Blake Edwards would do well – which, of course, he did, becoming a major force in Hollywood. Classics like Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and was the triple-threat writer/director/ producer of the Pink Panther series of movies are just a fraction of his oeuvre.

Panhandle has a lot going for it. Besides the glorious Lone Pine vistas, it has some clever plot touches, with a gang of nasty heavies led by a reptilian Reed Hadley. Also included is a romantic triangle, featuring both Anne Gwynne and Cathy Downs vying for the hero. “It was an action-packed picture, filmed in Sepia Tone and perhaps the last really good film I made.” Also unusual in a Western is a delightful scene early in the story when Rod and Anne are engaged in a little frisky but innocent horse-play wrestling on the floor.

The ten years from 1945 to 1954 were probably the virile star’s most successful and he certainly was at the peak of his popularity. He was signed to lucrative contracts with Allied Artists, Republic and Twentieth Century-Fox. His better westerns included Belle Starr’s Daughter (1948) The Plunderers (1948), Brimstone (1949), Yaqui Drums (1956), and Stage to Tucson (1950). There were usually abundant quantities of shootin’, fightin’, chases, and climatic confrontations between Cameron and the bad guys and the films most likely ended with the hero victorious and the good-looking girl in his arms.

This was not quite the case with Stage to Tucson, Rod’s other Lone Pine adventure. At the film’s end, it’s younger co-star Wayne Morris who gets to embrace attractive Kay Buckley. A battle of the ages sub-plot running throughout the film has the older Cameron and Morris slugging it out for the affections of fresh-faced Buckley. At the end, Rod does get a peck on the lips from the older Sally Eilers.

The creative team behind Stage to Tucson made very clever use of the magnificent Alabama Hills. Set during the Civil War, a stagecoach is hijacked by an outlaw gang posing as Confederate sympathizers. The stolen coaches are then sold to the Southern forces. The whole operation causes a great deal of fuss to Union communications. The bad guys have constructed an invincible iron-cladded coach which they use to ram and corral the good-guy coaches in tight and rocky canyons – marvelous use of the Alabama Hills - greatly enhancing the film’s plot. This action was filmed near the Lone Ranger Canyon.

On the family side, Rod married Angela Alves-Lico in 1950. He had met the 24-yearold film hopeful when he went to her rescue earlier that year after a minor car accident. They had a son, Anthony Roderick, however the marriage was not a lasting one, ending in divorce in 1954. The tabloid papers made a lot of the fact that Rod “went home to mother”— his wife’s mother, that is—after the breakup. It developed that he had more in common with his mother-in-law than with his wife and married Dorothy Alves-Lico in 1960. This prompted one of his former directors, William Witney to publicly state that Cameron was “the bravest man that he had ever seen!” The marriage to Dorothy was a happy one and the two remained married until Rod’s death, more than twenty years later.

Rod Cameron was one of the first motion picture stars to make the move to television and starred in a total of three syndicated series. City Detective (1953-1955), playing the part of police lieutenant Bart Grant of the New York City Police Department. State Trooper (1956-1959) found him in Nevada as Rod Blake, chief of the Nevada State Troopers. This series was the most popular and Rod’s favorite but he believed the best scripts were those written for City Detective. The third and least popular of the trio was Coronado 9 (1960-

Rod with his first wife, Angela Alves-Lico

1961). The background for this series was the San Diego-Coronado Peninsula. Cameron played Dan Adams, a retired naval officer turned private investigator.

For over twenty years Cameron guest starred in various television programs as Pepsi Cola Playhouse, Studio 57, Fireside Theatre, Loretta Young Show, Star Stage, Crossroads, Laramie, Tales of Wells Fargo, Burke’s Law, Perry Mason, Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre, Bonanza, Iron Horse, Name of the Game, Alias Smith and Jones, Adam-12, and Hondo. This is a formidable list of quality TV shows and reflects that Rod was in high demand right up to his retirement in 1978.

Whether wearing a detective’s trench coat or a cowboy’s Stetson, Rod Cameron was a unique performer. He always conveyed a quiet, rock steady calm combined with subtle virility. Whether on television or in the movies, he was always greatly admired by his co-workers. Stampede leading lady Gale Storm said: “Rod was a wonderful fellow. He and his wife were friends of ours.” He would always strive to be professional, do his best and give his best performance even if he found himself in a shonky production or with a lousy script, as with the The Last Movie (1976) or in unfamiliar locations, as with his spaghetti Westerns. He took his work very seriously but was frustrated to never fully escape the “cowboy” tag. Later he did enjoy playing the detective as he felt that offered him more dramatic range and for this reason he particularly enjoyed the opportunity to play the heavy. To some he may have appeared dour but in real life he had a great sense of humor and probably would have enjoyed acting in comedies.

Rod Cameron was an intelligent, active and vital man who was well-read and possessed an enormous lust for life. His interests and passions reveal a full life away from filmmaking and show that he saw himself as more than a matinee movie cowboy hero. At the end of Panhandle we hear Rod singing in fine voice as he walks off into the rain. He was, indeed, an accomplished musician who taught himself to play piano, accordion, guitar and the lute. He was also an excellent artist who taught himself to carve wood and create intricate metal sculptures, some which were kinetic in nature and required a good basic understanding of engineering principles. Later in life, he moved away from Hollywood and his final home was a lakeside residence on Lake Lanier in Georgia. There he built a boat to sail on the lake. He named the boat “Dorothy” after his wife.

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Sailing on the Deux Rex.

I am very grateful for the assistance of Tony Cameron, Rod’s son — who provided the personal family information and family photos used in this article.

Thanks, Tony!

— Ross Schnioffsky

Dorothy and Rod.

Some of Rod’s artwork.

Rod projected a powerhouse image on screen and he was like that in real life. He had a great love for sports both as an athlete and as a fan. He was a champion skeet shooter and trained in judo and boxing. He enjoyed playing golf and was a member of the Los Angeles Country Club. And being a Canadian he loved ice hockey. He developed a strong appreciation for the foreign (to him) game of baseball as his son, Tony, grew into a fine professional player. He loved the outdoors especially fishing, skiing and camping but his great passion, other than his family, was sailing one of his very trim yachts.

Rugged Rod Cameron, who was never overly flamboyant, has proved to be a durable screen cowboy. His best movies have not dated and they are still enjoyed by Western fans whose movie taste runs to action and adventure, with an extra dose of romance. His manly screen characterizations alongside his impressive athletic physique make him a prominent member of that great posse that includes Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea and Audie Murphy who made wonderful movies in the Lone Pine area and helped keep the medium-budget Western film alive. 1