“Ride the High Country” with Joel McCrea to be Screened at the Library with Special Guests on June 6

Joel Albert McCrea was born in South Pasadena on November 5, 1905, the son of Lou Whipple and Thomas P. McCrea. Both of Joel’s parents were of pioneer stock: Lou’s father, Major Albert Whipple had journeyed westward in a covered wagon in 1849 and Thomas’s father, Major John McCrea, escorted a stagecoach, fighting the Apaches along the way. Joel had a brother, John, and a sister, Lois. As a boy, in South Pasadena Joel enjoyed a normal childhood playing with his brother, sister, and cousins and “doing family stuff.”
 
Joel McCrea eventually went on to blaze a remarkable trail, appearing in 90 feature films over a 50 year period. By the time Joel retired after 80 starring roles during Hollywood’s Golden Age, he was declared “The Last of the Great Cowboy Film Heroes.”  As an actor McCrea was known for his strength, realism, and dependability. Although he appeared in comedies, thrillers, adventures, and romances, westerns became his forte. McCrea was one of the very few actors who started as a lowly extra in the film business and rose to leading roles.  
When Joel was 9 years old, the McCreas moved from South Pasadena down the Arroyo and settled in Hollywood. By age 13 he was movie struck.  Soon Joel became resolved to get into films as an actor He later enrolled at Pomona College which had an excellent drama department. A girl in one of the Pomona casts, Jeane Wood, the daughter of director Sam Wood who was directing a campus story for MGM and he gave McCrea an uncredited role in “The Fair Co-ed.”   By 1932 Joel had garnered his jobs as an extra and in bit parts. In 1934 he starred with Barbara Stanwyck, who he would later accompany 5 more times. In 1933 he met and married actress Frances Dee an actress who had acted in the Pasadena Playhouse and had once lived only a few blocks from the McCreas, although they didn’t know each other at the time. In 1935 he made “Barbary Coast” which had some western elements. Later that same year he starred alongside his wife Frances in the big budget western, “Wells Fargo.”
 
Joel McCrea’s career reached its zenith in the 40s with Alfred Hitchcock’s “Foreign Correspondent” (1940), “Sullivan’s Travels” (1941), a classic Hollywood spoof directed by Preston Sturges, and as the long-haired, mustachioed “Buffalo Bill” (1944).  For Paramount McCrea garnered top billing in the title role of the Technicolor version of “The Virginian” (1946). From this point on McCrea would only play western roles. McCrea made 17 westerns in the 50s, all of which were successful at the box office.
 
In 1958 Joel abandoned films to co-produce and star in the NBC-TV series “Wichita Town,” but it only lasted one season, McCrea surprised many when he decided to return to filmdom as a villain alongside old friend Randolph Scott for director Sam Peckinpah  in ”Ride The High Country” (1962).   It was the film that put Peckinpah on the map and it featured a stellar supporting cast of Mariette Hartley, Warren Oates, Edgar Buchanan, and James Drury. Now it’s considered one of the last great movie westerns. In 1992 “Ride the High Country” was chosen by Newsweek as “The Year’s Top Film” and Time had it in their Top 10.
   The free event will be presented on June 6 at 7 p.m. in the Community Room at 1115 El Centro Street by the South Pasadena Public Library, the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library, and Poets & Writers, Inc. with funding from the James Irvine Foundation. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.  Master of Ceremonies will be acclaimed Cowboy Poet, Larry Maurice who will also be introducing the film with Wyatt McCrea, one of the grandsons of Joel and Frances. Wyatt and Larry will team up to conduct a Q & A along with David Lyons, the son of the film’s producer Richard Lyons, who will also be providing a professional projector and a giant screen. Larry Maurice will perform some of his cowboy poems too. No tickets or reservations are necessary. Special thanks to Warner Bros. Pictures.