John Wayne's Alamo movie to be shown at original Alamo Village set

Escape San Antonio ^ | 3/10/04 | Larry Nolan

[laotzu]

Brackettville, TX…….Mark your calendar for April 3, 2004, make a reservation at Fort Clark Springs or Del Rio so you can be at the showing of John Wayne’s, “The Alamo” at the outdoor movie set where it was filmed! Ron (Opie Taylor) Howard might have produced his slick, new, and more historically accurate version but what an opportunity to experience the first ever showing of John Wayne's epic at Alamo Village.

This memorey of John Wayne sent in by William Abbott of San Antonio. “The Alamo” premiered at the Woodlawn Theater in 1960.

"The Frontier Club is or was upstairs above the main entrance to the Coliseum. They served drinks and steaks. You could get the worlds best hamburgers and probably the largest in the ones ever served anywhere. It was a private club where the SA elite went during the stock show and rodeo. My Grandfather, John Patton, was a member and he invited me in to meet the stars of “The Alamo” and eat dinner with them. John Wayne was bigger than life itself. I never forgot him and how polite he was to everyone. I was just a kid starting high school, but that made no difference to him. He treated me like a long lost son. Throughout my life, I never heard a negative thing about John Wayne or his family. Never heard of him or his family in trouble with the law or any involvement with drugs. He was a straight shooter and must have been one of the few honest people in Hollywood. You can’t say that about many people in Hollywood today. The only ones that comes to mind is Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, and Bob Hope (deceased)."

[laotzu]

God bless John Wayne, & Texas.

[shadeaud]

How many remakes of remakes are in the works.

[dts32041]

Yeah but he smoked and that makes him worse in the eyes of the "Meatheads" who run hollyweird today.

[Monterrosa-24]

My favorite movie portrayal of Crockett is in the film, THE LAST COMMAND, which is about Jim Bowie. What irks me to no end are the revisionists who insist that Crockett was captured alive and executed even though the authentic Mexican sources describe his yelling of deviance (the English was not understood but the tone was clear). The revisonists have a new source of doubted authenticity but they are putting it above all other sources and are not even open to debate and try to present the capture of Crockett as a case-closed fact. The authentic Mexican sources include a description of Crockett's (unusual)fur hat and its long fox tail (fox not racoon) and his body.

[vetvetdoug]

Brackettsville was the home of Ft. Clark and was named in honor of Capt. Albert Brackett, US Cavalry 1855-1863. The Alamo Village has been the location of many movies, Two For Texas, Bandelero, just to name two. It is thirty miles East of Del Rio, Texas on Highway 90 between Del Rio and San Antonio. The US Camel Corps had a stop at the Fort from 1855-1859. Happy Shahan was the owner of the ranch for years but I haven't a clue who runs it now. I had a great time when they filmed Bandelero getting to meet Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin, Andrew McGlagin (sp), "Red" Barry, and Andrew Prine. They mingled with the locals a lot since there just wasn't a whole lot to do there. Racquel Welch and the bunch even came to our high school dances.

[longhorn too]

How in the world did they pick Billy Bob Thorton to play the part of Davey Crockett in the new version is beyond me. He sure ain't no John Wayne!!!!!

[Stars N Stripes]

Ditto

[Chuckster]

Guess I'll be watchin' Wayne's version of "The Alamo" tonight on DVD. Always has been one of my favorite movies, even if it isn't perfectly historically accurate.

[SAMWolf]

Time to break out my Director's Cut version again.

[pepperdog]

Movies are still made at the Alamo set outside of Brackettville. I believe Mrs Shahan is still alive and runs the company. The most recent film (American) that I can think of is "Streets of Larado" which I think was a made for tv movie.

If you've never visited the Alamo set put it on your list of things to do--it is more like the Alamo than The Alamo. Last time I was there some folks from Europe were walking about and thought they were at the original Alamo.

There is a lot of old West history in Brackettville and on Fort Clark Springs, which is also worth a visit. The Fort has converted barracks to motel rooms so there are neat places to stay--really historic.