It’s time to kick-off Movies Under the Stars with a great movie that was filmed partly in the Kern River Valley. It is titled The Real Glory and was produced in 1939. It stars Gary Cooper, in an exciting story about American involvement in the Philippines during the wake of the Spanish-American War. You might be surprised to learn that parts of the Kern River Valley are a jungle in the Philippines and the Kern River supplies water to Philippine villages. We have a souvenir from that old movie in our Movie Room, an old, beat-up military rifle that fell off an overturned raft into the Kern River during filming. Later, when the river was down and the movie company long gone, two of our local boys, Bill Burlando and Del Mar Price retrieved the rifle and eventually brought it to our museum.
This movie is totally fictional but it is loosely based on actual events. I’ll explain some of it before the movie. These old movies produced right here in our Kern River Valley are super fun to watch to see what parts of our valley we can recognize. There will be one free movie per month through the warm season, so mark your calendar, Wednesday, June 12, starting between 8:15 to 8:30 (when it gets dark enough to show). Popcorn is still a nickel and sodas are 50 cents. Admission to the movie is free. See you at the Pack Station behind the Museum!
–Ron Anderson