 On The Line -- Issue 658 -- October 26, 2007  Online News and Views of Life in San Benito County with Herman Wrede Published by HollisterOnline.com -- Copyright 1995-2008 HollisterOnline.com
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On The Line -- Issue 658 -- October 26, 2007 Online News and Views of Life in San Benito County with Herman Wrede Published by HollisterOnline.com -- Copyright 1995-2008 HollisterOnline.com
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In the 210 years since the Mission San Juan Bautista was founded, the town that was named for it and grew up around it has seen many changes and experienced many events from battles, earthquakes, droughts and pestilence.
It also has known many historic people, from John Charles Fremont and Helen Hunt Jackson to Luis Valdez. The beauty of the area surrounding it and the sense of history that has seen the preservation of many of its pre-Victorian buildings has drawn artists by the score. Many professional artists live and/or work in the community today. It also has attracted the attention of Hollywood over the last seven decades. Leo Carrillo, a cultured man from one of California's oldest families, was well underway in his motion picture career, often as the comical Mexican sidekick to the hero, was struck by San Juan's charm when he visited it during the Depression of the 1930s. He was taken with the beauty and historic significance of the Mission and sought an audience with the pastor. Carrillo said he would like to do something to help the Church and the community. From that meeting an idea was conceived and the following year was manifested with the aid of many of his Hollywood colleagues. He and James Gleason, one of the most popular character actors of the time, formed two polo teams to compete against each other during San Juan's annual Fiesta-Rodeo. Many of the townspeople were jobless and some did not have two nickels to rub together but they cheered again and again as the horsemen rode and made goals in a rich man's sport. Other Hollywood luminaries donated prizes for competitors in other sports and every year some actors and actresses traveled to San Juan to join in the fun. Among the most popular was the child star, Jane Withers. She was often cast as Shirley Temple's nemesis and her appearance on screens around America brought boos -- except in San Juan Bautista where she was immensely popular and roundly cheered every time she played on the screen. Alfred Hitchcock also fell in love with San Juan and shot there at least twice. The second time was when it was an arduous process for businessmen and moviemakers to gain entry into Fidel Castro's Cuba. Someone pointed out that the mountains around San Juan bore an amazing resemblance to Cuba's Oriente Province where some of the film's action was to take place. It as said that Hitchcock immediately accepted the idea, and moved in for the shooting. Seward Bartley of the Free Lance in Hollister was the main photographer and reporter then and was overjoyed for the opportunity to see the director and cast of the movie in action. He got Hitchcock's permission to roam the set -- "Just don't get in the way of any action" -- and returned to the newspaper with many, many pictures, far more than could he used to accompany his article. Hitchcock's biggest connection with San Juan had been made more than a decade earlier, when he laid many of the scenes of "Vertigo" there in October 1957. Its stars, James Stewart and Kim Novak, were immensely popular, and the news that some scenes from the movie were to be filmed there caused a sensation in the old town. After advance scouts and managers has come and gone, Hitchcock, the cast and crew arrived to a great downpour of rain. Even though shooting was delayed, many residents crowded the restaurants and cafeterias hoping to see Hitchcock, Stewart or Miss Novak. When the rain ceased long enough for filming to begin, hundreds of people got as close as they could to the action. Some were selected as extras, and others came as spectators. Gene O'Neill of Hollister was among the latter. "I remember in the livery stable shot that Stewart was called upon a number of times to say, ?Well, that's a horse'," O'Neill recalled years later. "The scene looked fine to me but apparently Hitchcock wasn't satisfied. After each take, make-up people checked is face again." Following the completion of "Vertigo." San Juan was on tenterhooks until the picture was released. When it appeared on the screen San Juan residents gasped. There was the plaza, the livery stable and surrounding buildings but the Mission has a bell-tower rather than the old familiar Methodist-type spire that had crowned it since the great earthquake of 1812 hastened its completion. "Vertigo" did only average business for awhile but over the years grew into a near-cult film. It was always popular in San Juan and the San Francisco locations used in the picture. But it grew in status through the decades and many moviegoers consider it among Hitchcock's finest. A year ort so ago some San Juan residents noted that its 50th anniversary was nearing and made plans for a celebration. Hitchcock and Stewart had since died but an invitation was sent to Miss Novak, now in retirement in Carmel. She declined but the town went n with plans for a three-day weekend celebration. It began on Friday, Oct. 5, with a showing of the film. The weekend events included another film, a documentary by Harrison Engle, "Obsessed With Vertigo," and a memorial mass. Other local links to one of its stars are not generally known. Jim Sleznick, who has so endeared himself to his fellow residents that San Juan held "Jim Sleznick Day" in 1996 and to the entire county that he was named Man of the Year in 2006, is a modest person. But if you can get him to reminiscing about his education he might tell you that he went to college in his native Illinois and that among his classmates was an attractive young woman named Marilyn Novak -- the "Kim" came later after she went to Hollywood. The late Warren Hain was also a modest man despite a brilliant record as a combat pilot in World War II, and a long list of community service. One day in the mid-1950s he was called upon to officiate at a wedding, that of Frances Gumm and Sid Luft. She had used her birth name rather than her stage name of Judy Garland. Years later, he was asked again to officiate at another wedding, this time for a veterinarian and his fiancee in Carmel. So, on March 12, 1976, he united Dr. Robert Malloy and Kim Novak in the bonds of holy matrimony. |
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