Rio Grande Southern #20 - The Hollywood Version
| August 05, 2020 03:24PM |
In 1949 Rio Grande Southern #20 was selected to play the leading role of "Emma Sweeny" in the Hollywood comedy-western-musical "A Ticket to Tomahawk." She was given a studio prop costume, colorful paint and her own full-sized stand-in. "Emma Sweeny" starred alongside veteran song-and-dance man Dan Dailey, Academy Award-winning actress Anne Baxter, and future screen legend Marilyn Monroe. The film was shot around Durango and Silverton.
While the human stars are long gone, the real #20 is alive and well at the Colorado Railroad Museum and her "Emma Sweeny" incarnation has been acquired by the Durango Railroad Historical Society and restored for display at Santa Rita Park in Durango. For decades, 20th Century Fox has declined to release the film on video, DVD, or as part of the restored and remastered BluRay series of Marilyn Monroe films. Hopefully that will change now that Disney has acquired the Fox holdings.
Learn more about the 50+ films made on the Colorado and New Mexico narrow gauge lines in "Hollywood's Railroads, Volume Three: Narrow Gauge Country, available at [www.cochetopapress.biz]
While the human stars are long gone, the real #20 is alive and well at the Colorado Railroad Museum and her "Emma Sweeny" incarnation has been acquired by the Durango Railroad Historical Society and restored for display at Santa Rita Park in Durango. For decades, 20th Century Fox has declined to release the film on video, DVD, or as part of the restored and remastered BluRay series of Marilyn Monroe films. Hopefully that will change now that Disney has acquired the Fox holdings.
Learn more about the 50+ films made on the Colorado and New Mexico narrow gauge lines in "Hollywood's Railroads, Volume Three: Narrow Gauge Country, available at [www.cochetopapress.biz]
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.