Kahana-The Untold Stories

by Ann Kennedy

  Whiskey Bill asks all of the bikers, “How many of you want to get paid to ride a bike in a Hollywood movie?”

  No one says a word. The bar is filled with dead silence.

  Red, one of the bikers, finally breaks the silence. “What’s the catch?”

  Whiskey Bill assures them that there is no catch. He tells them that the motorcycle scenes begin filming next week.

  At first, Kim thinks that Whiskey Bill is pulling his leg, but the look on his face tells him that the man is telling the truth. The other bikers aren’t as convinced. Wrangler says, “I’m not buying what you’re selling. You got to be a stuntman or have your S.E.G. card to work in movies.”

  Cowboy Crowe agrees with him. Duke, another biker, is suspicious. He asks, “So why do they want us?”

  Greasy Joe chimes in, “I’m not surprised. I was told that I have a pretty face and should be on the big screen.” Another biker heckles him as he shouts out, “Whoever told you that must have been blind!”

  Everyone laughs at this, except Kim. His comment was harmless, but it hits a nerve for Kim.

  Greasy responds, “My momma did, and mommas always know best.” The bikers break out into another round of spontaneous laugher.

  Then Duke asks Whiskey Bill, “Hey, man, is this movie deal for real?”

  Whiskey Bill takes another swig from his bottle. “It’s for real.”

  Killer James says, “I don’t get it. Why do they want us? None of us are actors. We’re bikers.”

  “Damn good ones, too!” Greasy shouts.

  All the bikers yell, “Hell yeah, we are!”

  Whiskey Bill hollers, “Quiet! Let me give you the lowdown. The film is The Wild One. It stars Marlon Brando. The movie is about badass troublemaking bikers, like us. The director, Stanley Kramer, wants to hire real biker gangs to play themselves. He wants it to be real. That’s why we got the call from the studio.”

  One of the bikers does a jig as he shouts, “Yeehaw! We’re going be stars in a big movie!”

  Then another biker asks, “How real does he want it to be?”

  Shrugging, Whiskey Bill answers, “All the casting director told me is what I told you. The director wants it to be real. I guess they want to have a reality movie.”

  One of the bikers shouts out, “We’ll show them some biker reality, all right!” Again, the bikers burst into thunderous laughter.

  Whiskey Bill asks them. “Are we all in?”

  Everyone, including Kim, says, “I’m in.”

  The following week, Kim and his biker buddies ride together to Columbia Studios Ranch in Burbank, California. They don’t need any costumes or bikes from the studio. Their own clothes and bikes are perfect! Everything is real. About an hour after they arrive, Marlon Brando rides to the set on his motorcycle. During the filming of the movie, Marlon Brandon spends a lot of time hanging out with the bikers.

  During the shoot, Kim begins hanging out a lot with Cowboy Crowe and Wrangler. Cowboy Crowe, who is small in stature, is a Native American from the Sioux tribe in North Carolina. Wrangler is a tall, good-looking cowboy from Texas. He usually wears a cowboy hat, boots, and a button-down shirt but today he is wearing his biker clothes for the shoot.

  One day when the three of them are shooting the breeze, Cowboy Crowe and Wrangler begin talking about a movie that they recently worked on. Cowboy Crowe says to Wrangler, “I’m glad that we both got some good whammies on that last shoot we did.”

  Kim interrupts them. “What are you talking about? What’s a whammy?”

  Chapter 15

  The Whammies

  Cowboy Crowe tells Kim, “Whammies are the best thing. Everyone wants as many whammies as they can get.”

  “It’s an upgrade,” Wrangler puts in.

  “This is what happened on Wrangler’s and my last shoot,” Cowboy Crowe explains. “First, the director wanted each of us to walk a horse into a scene. Then, the producers added a new action-packed scene, and they didn’t want us to walk the horses anymore. Instead, they wanted us to ride the big dogs hard and fast.”

  Kim is puzzled. “Why did they want you to ride big dogs?” he asks.

  Wrangler and Cowboy Crowe burst into uncontrollable laughter. Wrangler stops laughing and explains to Kim that Cowboy Crowe’s tribe calls the big horses’ big dogs. Then he says, “You’ll pick up more of Crowe’s lingo the longer you hang out with him.”

  Crowe adds, “We went from walking big dogs to riding them. That was our whammy! It was a hell of a lot of fun, and we got more money!”

  Kim wants to know more. They tell him that they both have their S.E.G. cards. “What’s SEG?” he asks.

  Wrangler replies, “It’s the Screen Extras Guild.”

  Kim remembers that he had just heard Freddie talking about the Screen Extras Guild.

  “There’s a different pay scale for different acting jobs,” Wrangler adds.

  Crowe matter-of-factly tells Kim, “You also get more money by where you are positioned in a scene. On one of the Westerns I did, I had to stay in the background. The assistant director had me sitting at a table. Then, the director notices me. He looks me up and down and tells me to go stand at the bar next to the star. I was whammied! I got paid a lot more money because I was standing next to the star. Pretty sweet, huh? I went to see that movie, and there I was, as big as life on the big screen!”

  Wrangler tells Kim, “Me and Crowe are bikers and real cowboys. We ride a lot in the rodeos and make money. We also make money working as extras in movies and television shows, and (PAUSE) we make a hell of a lot of more money when we work as cowboy stuntmen.”

  Kim asks, “Is there a lot of work in it?”

  Wrangler, without hesitation, yells, “Hell yeah, there is!”

  Crowe validates what Wrangler just said. “It’s true. Everybody nowadays wants to watch Western pictures and TV shows. There should be plenty of work for us for a long time.”

  Kim reveals to them that he always wanted to learn to ride a horse. Crowe and Wrangler offer to give him some basic lessons in riding.

  Then Crowe spits some chewing tobacco out of his mouth and says, “Kim, there’s a lot more to riding as a stunt man than being someone who can just ride a horse. You have to be in the game to win it. You need to move to our neck of the woods. There’s lots of work here because most of the Hollywood movie ranches are here. The ranches were remolded to recreate the Old West.”

  With lots of enthusiasm, Wrangler interrupts to say, “Every time I’m in a western that’s on one of the location ranches, I feel like a cowboy living and riding in the old west.”

  Crowe elaborates as he tells Kim that the Chatsworth area offers the Hollywood producers authentic locations because of the rocky cliffs, rolling hills, green valleys, and canyons. There are also lots of dirt roads in Chatsworth where the cowboys and stuntmen ride their horses.”

  Wrangler adds, “Kim you can pick up a lot of pointers by watching them and getting to know them while you ride around the area.”

  “When I’m shooting on one of the movie ranches or riding the dirt roads in Chatsworth, the cowboy way attitude comes alive in me. I toughen up, get back on my horse, and don’t give up. I do the best with the cards that I’m dealt and give it all I’ve got.”

  Wrangler then shouts, “Yee Haw, it’s the cowboy way!”

  Kim is full of determination, when he responds, “I am going to do it! I’ll have a place in a week. I guarantee it!”

  Cowboy Crowe and Wrangler are happy about Kim’s decision. Crowe tells Kim that he can learn a lot by watching how the jockeys handle the horses at the race tracks.

  Wrangler makes another suggestion. “You also need to go to the rodeos to watch the cowboys ride. Kim, you can come with us when we go.”

  Kim is excited and says, “When can we start?”

  Wrangler responds, “As soon as you move to Chatsworth, we’ll get started.”

  A few weeks later, Kim moves to Chatsworth. He, Wrangler, and Crowe want to hook up,
but all three of them are busy making a living. None of them have as much time as they would like to spend with each other. Yet, Cowboy Crowe and Wrangler still manage to teach Kim the basic skills of how to mount and ride a horse.

  Then, at seven o’clock one evening, Wrangler and Crowe ride their motorcycles over to Kim’s place. They are excited as they tell Kim to jump on one of their bikes and ride with them down to the railroad tracks. Kim doesn’t miss a beat. He immediately gets on Wrangler’s bike.

  Wrangler tells him. “Kim, this is your lucky day! You’re getting a chance to see the Epper kids in action. They’ll be racing their father’s horses alongside a speeding train for fun. Then they’ll leap onto the train from their mounts. They’re great! They were born to ride.”

  Wrangler’s comment confuses and angers Kim. He reminisces about the times he had to run and hop on trains as a child. It was for survival, not fun.

  He says, “You want to watch a bunch of kids trying to jump on trains while riding horses? That would be suicidal for them, and it would be crazy for us to watch!”

  Wrangler and Crowe react to Kim’s comment by howling with laughter. Kim becomes defensive and demands to know what was so funny about what he said.

  Wrangler says, “Kim, all the Epper kids, Tony, Jeannie, Gary, Stephanie, Margo and Andy, are about our age.”

  Kim says, “So why are you calling them kids?”

  Wrangler answers him. “Their parents, John Eppers and his wife Frances, are both stunt legends. They had six kids, and every one of them is a stuntman or stuntwoman. They’re the royal family of stuntmen and women. You’re bound to run into one of the Eppers performing stunts on the Hollywood sets.”

  When Wrangler, Crowe, and Kim arrive at the railroad tracks, many stuntmen and people from the community are already there. The Eppers are on their horses lined up about fifty feet apart, alongside the railroad tracks. Then, in the distance, a loud horn is heard from a speeding train, and then the crowd becomes silent.

  The Eppers take off to race their horses alongside the train. Each one of them easily leaps onto the train. Some jump back into their horses’ saddles, and others wait to jump off the train until it clears all the running horses.

  The train quickly speeds down the tracks on its journey, and the crowd cheers. Everyone gathers around the Eppers to congratulate them. Kim is in the crowd. As he gets closer to the Eppers, he realizes that he has seen them a few times riding on the dirt roads by his home. A powerful desire overtakes Kim. He is determined to learn to ride like them.

  His intense desire springs from his dark, fearful memories of hopping trains to survive. He decides that he must overcome the ghosts of his past by riding a horse and learning to hop on any train with the precision of a stunt cowboy. He does not want to give his memories the power to control his future. He will not allow the painful experiences of his past to stop him from creating new memories.

  Wrangler tells Kim, “Everyone is going to Palominos. It is the place where all the stuntmen, country artists, actors, and cowboys hang out.” Hop on my bike. We’ll ride there together.”

  Kim is excited because he has just been invited into the brotherhood of stuntmen.

  Chapter 16

  Yakima!

  Later that week, Kim, Wrangler and Cowboy Crowe go to a rodeo. The rodeo riders are performing for a rambunctious crowd of people, who are jammed together in the stands. There is not a vacant seat anywhere. The lively audience is oblivious to the packed conditions because the outstanding performances totally energize them!

  The cowboys’ skillful riding, tie downs and roping, thrills the crowd. The rodeo clowns and the pick-up riders are also on their game. No one misses a beat. Throughout the night, the audience shows their appreciation with thunderous applause, whistling, and shouting.

  After the rodeo is over, the cowboys, rodeo crew, pick-up riders, and laborers return to the backstage of the arena. Wrangler, Cowboy Crowe, and Kim head towards the arena area too. Wrangler and Crowe know a lot of the rodeo cowboys and are always welcome to go backstage.

  Some of the cowboys are hard at work, others are drinking beers, talking, laughing, and crying about their performances in tonight’s show. Then a six-foot, slender, flashy cowboy walks out of the shadows and stops to congratulate one of the winners. Everyone backstage notices him, and they start whispering to each other. “Is that him?” Their whispers get louder and louder.

  Then someone shouts out, “Holy crap! It is him! He’s here!”

  Everyone gathers around this cowboy in hopes that they will get to talk to him. One man in the distance shouts, “You rock!” Another yells, “I speak for everyone here when I say it’s a real honor that you came to see our rodeo.” The sincere accolades continue for a while. The cowboy is friendly as he talks and jokes with many of the men.

  Kim whispers to Wrangler, “Who is that guy?”

  Wrangler says, “Yakima Canutt.”

  Kim asks, “What has he ever done?”

  Wrangler loudly replies, “What has he ever done? You’re no cowboy or stuntman if you don’t know about Yakima!”

  Kim is embarrassed as he looks around to see if anyone else heard what Wrangler said to him. He tells Wrangler, “I want to know, but tell me quieter. I don’t want all these guys here to know that I don’t know.”

  Wrangler pats him on the back and apologizes. Then he goes on to say, “He’s a world champion cowboy and rodeo rider. He was also the biggest silent film star of action-packed westerns. And, that isn’t all. He is a legendary stuntman, stunt coordinator and 2nd Unit Director.”

  Then Kim hears someone in the crowd shout out to Yakima, “I saw Ivanhoe a couple of times. It was great! Me and my wife are going back to see it again. You are the man!”

  Yakima smiles, tips his hat, and tells him, “Thanks.”

  Cowboy Crowe has worked for Yakima in the past and is excited and anxious to go over and talk to him. He walks towards him, looks over his shoulder, and tells Kim and Wrangler to follow him.

  As they get closer to Yakima, they see a young, pretty cowgirl talking to him. It is obvious by her mannerisms that she is awestruck at being in his presence. They hear her saying, “I’ll never forget Gone with the Wind or you. Your stunt doubling for Clark Gable was truly amazing. I loved the scene where you drove a one-horse carriage through the burning streets of Atlanta.”

  Cowboy Crowe approaches Yakima and says, “Did you hear what John Wayne said about you in his latest, magazine interview?”

  Yakima says, “What is my good friend saying now?” Crowe replies, “John Wayne credited you as the model for his cowboy character that he portrays in all of his movies. He said that the way he talks and walks in his films is all Yakima.”

  Wrangler is too excited to stay silent any longer.

  He tells Yakima, “I am eternally grateful for ‘the pass’ that you created for fighting scenes. Before you created the pass, we had to duke it out. We had to land our punches on the other fighter’s face and body. All of us stuntmen had to suffer a lot of bruises, sprains, and broken bones.”

  Kim whispers to Crowe, “What’s the pass?”

  Crowe explains to Kim that Yakima convinced a director to place the camera at an angle, so it would look like John Wayne’s fist hit his opponent. Then Wayne’s punch would pass by without ever striking him. The pass is now a standard shot in all the Hollywood movies.

  Kim then overhears a group of cowboys talking about the thrilling stunts, fights, and stage coach scenes that Yakima has directed. Everyone agrees that he is the best and he is tough to work for on a set. Most of them believe that Yakima’s toughness stems from the fact that he is extremely safety conscious, and he is always on the alert that not even the smallest, safety infraction gets past him.

  Crowe introduces Yakima to Wrangler and Kim. Wrangler tells Yakima, “I want to thank-you personally for all the things you did for us, stuntmen.

  Then Crowe says to Wrangler, “I liked how he figured out a way to relea
se a team of horses on the same spot every time. Safer for the horses and us, cowboys too.”

  Yakima replies, “The movie producers like the things I’ve done. They have less accidents on their sets. But you know what they really like?”

  Crowe, Wrangler and Kim, wide eyed and in unison ask, “What? What do they really like?” Yakima says, “Well, boys, what they really like is that I save them time shooting and that helps them to stay on schedule and within their budget.”

  Crowe continues, “What about the crupper mount?” Kim looks puzzled because he has never heard of a crupper mount.

  Wrangler sees the confusion on Kim’s face and responds, “Kim, Yakima perfected the crupper mount with a flying mount. The crupper is a piece of tack used on horses to keep a saddle or harness from sliding forward. It makes it easier and safer for us stuntmen to leap frog over the horse’s rump into the saddle, no matter how fast the horse is running.”

  Crowe, Wrangler, and Kim are intently listening to Yakima tell the story of how and why he developed the crupper mount. Then a young, obnoxious cowboy pushes his way through the crowd to talk to Yakima. When the cowboy reaches him, he takes a swig of whiskey from his flask.

  He tells Yakima that his name is Blake Hardon. He claims that that there is not a horse he cannot break. He also brags that he is one of the best bronco riders that Yakima will ever meet.

  Yakima responds, “Mr. Hardon, what do you want from me?”

  Blake answers, “I want to ride for you in your movies. I figure, I can also get some training from you.”

  Then Yakima replies, “What can I get from you?”

  Blake answers, “I’m a dare devil. I can do anything, and I will do anything. I can always make you and your pictures look good.”

  Yakima responds, “Cowboy, that is good to know, but I am not in the market for daredevils. Get hired by someone else, and then you can make me sorry that I did not hire you.”

  Blake is outraged by Yakima’s comment. At that moment, a few of Blake’s friends walk up to him and grab his arms to take him away. As they leave, they apologize to Yakima for Blake’s bad-manners.