Louie, Take a Look at This!

by Luis Fuerte

  I was at an impasse. I couldn’t find out about Huell’s condition, and I knew I had to respect his wish for privacy. I asked Ryan to keep me posted and to let me know if they ever needed anything. He said, “Okay, Louie, we’ll try to keep in touch.”

  I never heard back. Four months later, in early January of 2013, my friend Val Zavala, a spokesperson for KCET, called me to tell me that Huell had passed away. It turned out that he’d been battling prostate cancer for several years, but he was so private he just didn’t want people to know.

  The news was a blow, to say the least. It’s strange how you can feel so shocked hearing that someone you care about has died, even if you knew they were very sick, but I know that’s a universal experience. We are never prepared for someone to die.

  Grief overcame me. I was sad that Huell had died, and I was also sad because I never got to see him, to talk to him about what was going on and see if I could be helpful. I wished I could have had the chance to raise his spirits with remembrances of our adventures together on the road shooting California’s Gold.

  Val asked if I would come out to the new KCET studios in Burbank that day. She was planning to do a special program about Huell, and she wanted me to share stories about him and the shows we did. Phil was there, too, and he and I told stories and talked about Huell as we knew him. I was happy to be there and pleased that Val had thought of me to appear on the program, but it was also unsettling. The program had a finality to it. It was a confirmation that Huell was truly gone.

  After the special ended, I had the opportunity to meet with some of my old KCET friends who worked the cameras, sound, lights, and other technical work needed to produce a television program. They told me about the new studios, and we reminisced about the old times at the studio on Sunset Boulevard. Time sped by, as it always does when you’re enjoying company and good conversation, and I realized it was getting late. I said my goodbyes, to some for the last time, and left.

  The day had been long, and I was exhausted. Yet I will always cherish that day for giving me the opportunity to reveal, at long last, who “Louie” the cameraman was, and to share with his fans the happiness and sorrow I felt about the remarkable man named Huell Howser.

  EPILOGUE

  Well, that’s the story of my adventures and time with Huell Howser on California’s Gold and other television shows we did. I will always be grateful to Huell for the opportunity he gave me to be his cameraman, an experience that opened the door to the wonders of California and its people. Without him, I never would have had the chance to experience and enjoy all the things we discovered in the Golden State.

  Now and then, I get letters addressed to me in care of California’s Gold. Most of them are from viewers, sometimes viewers who are also professional photographers who want to tell me how much they have enjoyed my camera work, the way I shot particular episodes. I’m always grateful for those kind of letters, and to their writers who took the time to sit down and express their thoughts about the cameraman they have known only as the mysterious Louie.

  If you’d like to learn more about Huell, California’s Gold, and the other shows he did, I urge you to visit the Huell Howser Archives at the Leatherby Libraries located on the beautiful Chapman University campus in Orange, California. Huell left the body of his work to the university, including DVDs and tapes of many of his shows. As you enter the collection room, you’ll discover a wall that takes you on a journey of his life from the time he was a little boy to his later years. Elsewhere, you’ll encounter photos of Huell taken throughout his television career from Nashville to Los Angeles. Even pieces of his “found art” collection—objects he picked up during his travels in the desert—are on display. And his office is there too: his desk, chair, file cabinets, and schedule of shows on the wall, everything just as it was at KCET. You may reach into your imagination and see Huell sitting at his desk, dreaming up the next exciting California adventure to share with his audience.

  Before you leave, don’t forget to check the walls for the photo of Huell and me standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge right after our shoot. It’s on the cover of this book, and it’s one of my favorites.

  Luis receiving Huell’s honorary doctorate from Dr. James Doti, then president of Chapman University.

  About a year after Huell’s passing, I got a call from Ryan telling me that there was going to be an event at Chapman University to honor Huell with a doctorate degree. He asked if I’d be willing to go and accept the degree on his behalf. Of course, I said I’d be honored.

  It was quite a night. There were about two thousand people in attendance: fans, friends, and colleagues who gathered to celebrate Huell’s life and the imaginative and entertaining programs he had given them. They all loved him, and it was a beautiful thing to see.

  When the time came to present the degree, I was introduced as the Louie, Huell’s cameraman, and was asked to stand. I couldn’t believe what happened next: The audience stood and applauded, giving rousing cheers for me. I was taken aback. All those years, I thought they knew me only vaguely as the unknown guy behind the camera. But I realized that they also knew me as Huell’s shooting partner and friend.

  As I held Huell’s degree and witnessed the crowd’s reaction, I was overcome with the thought of how much this doctorate would have meant to him. After a while, I handed it back, so they could put it in the archives with many of his personal effects.

  I will never forget that day—how so many people came together to express an outpouring of love and gratitude for Huell Howser, who lives on in the hundreds of programs that continue to be treasured and aired on many television stations.

  OUR CALIFORNIA’S GOLD SHOWS

  This is not a complete guide to all the episodes—just the ones we did together

  1991

  201 Living History: Huell traveled to Fort Ross State Historical Park, where he experienced a nineteenth-century Russian community and he sailed aboard the Californian, the official “Tall Ship Ambassador” for the state of California.

  202 Central Coast: Huell visited San Luis Obispo and the surrounding area to see one of the state’s oldest motels, Pozo’s Saloon, Burgers, and Beers, and the Dunitas, the large sand dunes on the coast.

  203 LA to San Francisco Bay: Huell visited the famous South Central Los Angeles masterwork created by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia and then went to San Francisco to see how that city’s famous sourdough bread is made.

  204 Head for the Borders: Huell enjoyed the Horseradish Festival in Tulelake near the Oregon border and drove down south to see the sights and sounds of Mexico in Calexico. He did his best to survive in a phone booth with a bunch of freshly ground horseradish.

  205 Santa Cruz: Huell went to Santa Cruz to visit the famous beach boardwalk and the last remaining oceanside amusement park in California. He rode the old wooden roller coaster that zooms down its first dip at fifty-five miles per hour. That shoot was a bit trying, but I had a lot of fun capturing Huell enjoying the ride.

  206 LA Adventures: To get a feel of the many aspects of Los Angeles, Huell visited the La Brea Tar Pits; Encounter Restaurant at LAX, Grand Central Market in downtown LA; the UCLA buried bridge; and Little Tokyo to see a 100-year-old grapefruit tree that still bears fruit. This show was pretty much all over the place, as Huell had not yet gotten into the familiar California’s Gold style.

  207 Preserving the Past: Huell visited the town of Locke near Sacramento, founded and settled by the Chinese; traveled to Banning to hear ancient Cahuilla bird songs; then headed south to Vista to see antique farm vehicles and machinery in action. This show was actually the first California’s Gold that Huell and I shot.

  208 Traditions: Huell went to a Mexican rodeo in Ontario; then up to Stockton to see the Stockton Ports minor league baseball team that is thought to have inspired the poem “Casey at the Bat,”’ and from he was off to San Francisco to hear the Golden Gate Park Band.

  209 Trains: Huell celebrated train travel at Railfair ’91
at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento and took a scenic train ride in the Mother Lode country. This was Huell’s breakout show that set the standard for the rest of the California’s Gold shows.

  210 Ships: Huell traveled to Trinidad Bay to meet an artisan who creates canoes from redwood logs; visited the SS Polk, a ship whose hull is made of concrete; and then he sailed on a lightship that is actually a floating lighthouse.

  211 Natural Wonders: Huell visited the tallest tree in Redwood National Park; walked among gorgeous fields of poppies, his favorite flower, in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster; and climbed to the top of Morro Rock.

  212 Lost Sierra: Huell visited Downieville in the High Sierra for ski races; learned about the Mountain Messenger, the oldest Sierra newspaper; and checked out some heavy wooden skis worn by the gold miners.

  1992

  301 Gold Country: Huell drove to the Sierra foothills to join in the Bidwell Bar Day celebration at Lake Oroville; visited the landmark Red Church (St. James Episcopal Church) in Sonora; and ended with a look at the Annual Poison Oak show in Columbia. He had a lot of fun with the idea of a poison oak festival.

  302 A Closer Look: Huell explored the sand dunes near El Centro to look at the remnants of the old plank road that was laid from Imperial County to Yuma, and then he attended a reunion of the Army’s last mounted unit at Camp Lockett.

  303 Devil’s Jaw: Huell traveled to Lompoc to investigate a 1923 naval disaster that occurred in dangerous waters off the coast, and then visited Mission La Purisma Concepción. (We did this segment on the mission before we shot the California Missions series.)

  304 Singing Cowboys: Huell drove up to Victorville to meet Roy Rogers and Dale Evans at their Victorville museum; then he met Herb Jeffries who starred in African American Westerns in the ’30s; and he wound up the show by watching the Seventeenth Annual Black Cowboys Parade in Oakland.

  305 Blossom Trails: Huell traveled to Reedley in the Central Valley to see the fruit tree blossoms, but found only a few. So he ventured into “downtown” Reedley and found the Mennonite Quilt Center; sampled the Armenian delicacy called keyma, went to Uncle Harry’s Classic Meals; and witnessed the world’s longest-running pinochle game at the Camden Café. This show was a salvaged production, and Huell did an “amaaazing” job putting it together.

  306 Community Celebrations: Huell watched the Bok Kai Parade, California’s oldest parade; celebrated the world’s largest blossoming plant, a wistaria in Sierra Madre; and visited the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands.

  307 Buildings: Huell visited the old Carnegie Bayliss Branch Library in Glenn County; the Old Schoolhouse Museum in Twentynine Palms, the oldest building in Morongo Valley; and the Apple Pan in West Los Angeles, open since 1947.

  308 A Tale of Two Cities: Huell traveled to the Central Valley to visit Allensworth, a community founded by African Americans in the early 1900s; toured old and new Kernville; and finished up on the Kern River enjoying whitewater rafting. My strong swimming skills came in handy as I shot Huell just about every way I could in and out of the water.

  309 Things That Crawl in the Night: Huell explored the habitat of the kangaroo rat at the Carrizo Plain Natural Area in the Central Valley; then he went to the coast in San Pedro to experience a grunion run at Cabrillo Beach.

  310 Bodie: Huell made a thorough exploration of the old gold mining town that is the largest authentic ghost town in the Sierra Nevada.

  311 Mono Lake: Huell toured Mono Lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, and marveled at the tufa formations and scenic wonders of the beautiful body of water as he paddled its placid waters. Pretty pictures here.

  312 Nisei Parade and Little Tokyo: Huell discovered the history of the Japanese American community in downtown Los Angeles; celebrated the annual Nisei parade; and saw a traditional tea ceremony and beautiful bonsai and flower exhibits.

  On the Mono Lake shoot, 1992.

  1993

  401 Buried Treasure: Huell explored the old town of Guadalupe off the Central Coast and searched for the lost set of Cecil B. DeMille’s classic film The Ten Commandments, before traveling to the Sierra mining town of Allegheny in search of gold in a deep mine. Huell wore an Egyptian costume for the Ten Commandments part of the show.

  Huell in costume for the “Buried Treasure” episode.

  402 Historic Horses: Huell visited the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center at Cal Poly Pomona and saw purebred Arabian horses put through their paces; then he journeyed to Sacramento to watch an exciting reenactment of the Pony Express, as it was during its two years in the Old West.

  403 Islands: Huell rode a bouncing ski boat from Long Beach to Catalina in an exciting and pounding ski race to the island and back; he then toured little-known San Nicolas Island in the Channel Islands. My shoulder was injured from the constant pounding on the rough water, and I had to undergo therapy after the shoot.

  404 Joshua Tree: Huell traveled to Joshua Tree National Park to see the world’s tallest, oldest, and most interesting-looking Joshua trees; then he visited with a man who grew up on a ranch in what is now the national park. Huell loved the desert and doing shoots there. He had a home not far away.

  405 Our State’s Front Yard: Huell visited the marvelously landscaped gardens and grounds of Capitol Park in Sacramento and discovered its beautiful flowers and plants, and he toured Memorial Grove, a grove of trees taken from the battlefields of the Civil War.

  406 Mariachi: Huell traced this old Mexican tradition from its beginnings in Jalisco, Mexico, to the present-day mariachi scene in Los Angeles; enjoyed the music of the world-famous Mariachi Los Camperos; and ended his musical journey with the student mariachi band at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. I loved the way he said “mary-achi.”

  407 Golden Gate Bridge: In one of his favorite California’s Gold adventures, Huell saluted the striking bridge with a grand aerial tour around it, before going up into the structure to its windy top for a grand view of San Francisco and the Bay Area; he also talked with some of the original builders of the bridge and a painter who had the endless task of painting the bridge. This was my favorite California’s Gold shoot and the most technically challenging—and rewarding.

  One of our many desert shoots.

  408 Angel Island: Huell toured the largest island in San Francisco Bay and explored its little-known history as a military installation and a detention center for Chinese immigrants from 1910 to ’40.

  409 World War II: Huell explored a huge German-made crane at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard that was brought to America after the war, and he looked at the history of the 1942 shelling by a lone Japanese submarine of the Ellwood Oil Fields in Santa Barbara.

  410 Amboy: Huell traveled to the Mojave Desert in the heat of summer to explore the old Highway 66 town of Amboy; he also explored the huge Kelso Dunes and climbed the extinct Amboy Crater. I almost passed out in the heat climbing up Amboy Crater. It was 115 degrees with no shade. The things I did for Huell.

  411 Hard to Get to: Huell (and I) trekked a long distance up into the White Mountains to see bristlecone pines, the oldest living things on earth, and he visited beautiful LeConte Falls, set deep and remote in Yosemite Park. Huell loved nature, and being high up in bristlecone pine country was heaven for him.

  412 Terra Cotta: Huell toured the 118-year-old Gladding, McBean pottery company in Lincoln, near Sacramento, and discovered that it is the only remaining large manufacturer of architectural terra cotta in the United States. This is the one and only time that I fell while shooting a show.

  1994

  501 Water under Pressure: Huell explored Malakoff Diggins State Park to see old hydraulic gold mining in the Sierra foothills; then got over to Calistoga to view the Old Faithful of California geyser, one of three in the world.

  502 Jack London: Huell visited Beauty Ranch, the former home of the famous author Jack London in the Valley of the Moon in Sonoma, which is now part of Jack London State Historic Park.


  503 California Companies: Huell toured two companies with roots in the Gold Rush: the Studebaker Car Company, which started out making wheelbarrows the miners used; and the original Levi Strauss & Company plant in San Francisco, where he saw one of the first pairs of jeans.

  504 Wings over California: Huell crossed the channel and took a flight with the Pigeon Courier Service at Avalon on Catalina Island; then he visited the Twentynine Palms Air Academy and took to the air in a glider. I got to fly, too.

  505 California’s State Parks: Huell traveled to the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area in the Mojave Desert to see Mitchell Caverns Nature Preserve; then he visited Indian Grinding Rock State Historic Park to see ancient Miwok grinding pits.

  506 California Flowers: Huell visited Daffodil Hill in the Gold Country to see fields of the delicate flower; then he journeyed to the ranunculus fields at Carlsbad Ranch near the coast; and finished at the California Poppy Reserve in the Antelope Valley. I believe of the three flowers we shot, Huell loved the native poppies the most.

  507 San Luis Obispo Train: Huell enjoyed the centennial celebration of the railroad coming to town as the citizens re-created the events exactly as they occurred one hundred years ago, and then rode a period steam train into San Luis Obispo.