While the sun and sand and horse pies are similar to what they were decades ago, the players in what was one of Tucson’s biggest forays into TV production have changed a bit.

“We did the pilot for ‘The High Chaparral’ in 1966 and started production the following year,” says Don Collier, a Tucsonan who played one of the lead roles. 

Collier celebrated his 81st birthday last week. He and other cast and crew members of “High Chapparal” also gathered for a reunion and to reminisce about the former NBC TV series that was shot at Old Tucson from 1967-1971.

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“High Chaparral” was created by David Dortort, who had previously created the successful “Bonanza” series for NBC. “High Chaparral” was set in the Arizona Territory in the 1870s and revolved around a ranch run by John Cannon, played by Leif Erickson, and brother Buck Cannon, played by Cameron Mitchell.

“I stumbled into acting and never really got serious about the movie business,” Collier remembers, despite the fact he made it his lifetime’s work. Collier played the ranch foreman, Sam Butler

“It’s déjà vu all over again” according to “High Chaparral” producer Kent McCray, also 81. “Old Tucson looks almost the same as when we were filming here. More than 65 percent of the Chaparral shows that ran over four years were filmed in Arizona and this was our home base because it had a ranch house, a main street, a Mexican square, and we used all the settings on a pretty regular basis. Although the days of Western movies are pretty much over, I hope this location doesn’t ever fold.”

Ted Markland, who played the part of a ranch hand named Reno, remembers the early days of filming in July and triple-digit temperatures when spectators would collapse in the stifling summer heat. “We were young and strong and we had a ball,” he says.

One of the lead characters in the series was Manolito Montoya, the brother of love interest and eventual wife to John Cannon. Henry Darrow played the part. Born Enrique Delgado, he began acting at California’s Pasadena Playhouse in 1958. Now 76, Darrow says “High Chapparal” was the jump-start to his career.

“I had worked a lot of Westerns - ‘Cimmaron Strip,’ ‘Wild Wild West,’ ‘Gunsmoke’ - when David Dortort picked me out,” he said. “The 1960s was the era of Western films. Warner Bros. had several shows, like ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ and ‘Rebel.’ ‘Big Valley’ and ‘Gunsmoke’ went on forever as did ‘Bonanza.’  We came along in the late ‘60s and had a lot of fantastic guest stars like Kurt Douglas and Barbara Hershey before the era ended and we were replaced by doctor and sci-fi shows. I don’t know that a Western could make it in today’s society.”

There is someone who thinks Westerns still have a place — he’s 88-year-old Bob Shelton, who founded Tucson’s version of Hollywood in the Desert, remains closely involved with efforts to regenerate the film industry here and is working behind the scenes to make that happen. 

“Interest has been expressed from parties who would like to see Old Tucson revitalized to include everything it used to be with an upgraded contemporary image,” Shelton says. “If we can get the right people interested in Tucson as a location, Old Tucson will benefit from that as an active motion picture center, not just for an occasional Western, but a studio to accommodate all kinds of films, a facility with sound stages, editing capabilities, and post-production.

“Part of the reason the local film business went into a slump is the loss of the Old Tucson soundstage (in an April 1995 fire) and the spirited drive we used to have to bring the movie industry here. If you want bears, you need to go where bears are - and we used to really go after it. I knew a lot of folks at Paramount and MGM who were planning productions and I’d jump on a plane to California, knock on doors and ask them to take a look at us. We need to start making those direct pitches again. We need to wake up the industry to show them what we can do for them.  You’re dead in the water if you don’t make that kind of effort to attract the jobs and cash influx that movie making brings.”

As a film production venue Arizona is facing increased competition from such places as New Mexico that aggressively goes after the business with a variety of incentives and it seems to be working.

The Albuquerque Journal this month reported “It looks like the film business is rebounding and returning to pre-crash levels, although not like the 16 films we once had shooting in the state — all at the same time — in 2007. The industry looks as healthy as it did in 2008, before the economy tanked (and) it looks to be a busy winter for the film business in New Mexico.”

Officials with Old Tucson are working on a half-dozen projects that might see action.

Along those lines, while “High Chapparal”cast and crew discussed what used to be, Shelton had one foot in the historical past as he moved the other foot into the future. “Despite the disappointments and the decline, I remain optimistic.”

Lee Allen is a Tucson-based freelance writer.