Brother to be in a movie
 

My baby brother, now age 66, was my birthday present on my 8th birthday. Still living on the family farm in California, answered an ad in the paper for actors and extras for a film that some grad students are making about the Modoc Indian War. He sent in a head shot and a resume and the filming will start the end of April.

It will be filmed on location of the Lava Beds National Monument, Mom was the head clerk there for over 20 years. It was the scene of the cold blooded murder of an Army General. I read the casting call and I think my brother should get the part of General Canby. The will be filming for less than a week, so this is not Hollywood. Nevertheless we are all very excited for him and plan to attend the premier.

How fun and exciting!

I bet everyone is excited about this. Here's a link I found about General Edward Canby:

https://www.americanhistorycentral.c...-sprigg-canby/

Wow, good for him. Doing things like that can make life interesting. An actor in the family!
if you look hard, you can see the back of me going up an escalator in Future World. the man next to me and i never turned to look at Peter Fonda or Blythe Danner. we were the only ones who did not look!! everyone else did!

That is fun news to read! Good for your brother. I was paid for being in a commercial for TV a few decades ago. If you are paid then you are eligible to be in the Screen Actors Guild. I have kept up my dues. Who knows one day I may decide to be an actor. LOL

Yes, this is all good fun for sure. This monument in the Lava Beds National Monument is just a few minutes from our house. We take the car as there are too many diamond back rattlesnakes along the way.

We are going to get a copy of the film (if possible) and then gather our flashlights, instead of a spotlight, then a red carpet, I have some yellow police tape, we will all dress up and file into my backyard where we can show the film, the premier!!! on the wall of the house. Seating for everyone, then a barbeque, gatorade all around, we will be too old for booze, and just make a gala affair.

We have no idea what part he will get. There were only 4 advertised for European descent and 4 for Native Americans.
Yes, I thought about the Screen Actors Guild, but since I graduated from University of California in 1968, my diploma is already signed by Ronald Reagan.

Oh how cool is this! You must let us know when the film debuts.

My oldest daughter was one of the many red shirts in the stadium in the movie Any Given Sunday. She said it was really fun, got a few glimpses of Al Pacino to boot.

My son was a sound engineer, and the most exciting thing was seeing his name in the credits!

Since we are of Scottish/English descent, he could only get a part that is US govt. cavalry. He would be the heavy and tell the Indians that.....no they can't move back to the ancestral lands. So.....

You might need a break from the Covid. So look up General R. E. S. Canby, read the account of the Modoc Indian War. There were 4000 U.S. Calvary and some 73 Indians. It's a very sad story. I used to ride my horse out there in the rocks looking for Indians. Never found any.

There were good and bad people on both sides. Let me give you some background from what I know of living there. I was born in 1946 and came there in 1949 as a 2 1/2 year old. The best book is by Cheewa Patricia James, Modoc the tribe that would not die. She is a descent of the Modoc named Shacknasty Jim, a very pretty lady who was a TV anchor at one point, now a motivational speaker and is still living.

There were 4 tribes that lived there: The Warm Springs, northern most, then the Chiloquin, then the Modocs that were on the California/Oregon border, then the Pitt River. There were a lot of other Indians around, but these are the tribes involved in this story. One could tell one from another by how they dressed, but each tribe had a personality. The Warm Springs actually changed sides and helped the U.S. Calvary catch Capt. Jack (Modoc). The Chiloquins were mostly alcoholics but a little on the holier than thou side. The Modocs were somewhat calm and usually the unwitting brunt of the other tribes schemes. But the Pitt Rivers were sneaky. They would dress up like Modocs and kill settlers, or rob wagon trains and then blame the Modocs. The surviving settlers would write to Washington, D. C. and demand that the U.S. Calvary come and get rid of the Modocs.

So Grant sent 4000 troops with instructions to remove the Modocs from their ancestral lands and make them live with the Chiloquins. They were enemies and had been forever. The Modocs kept asking to be sent back to the Lava Beds, but were denied, so they just escaped. Fighting broke out and it escalated to ambushing patrols. One, Lt. Harris was wounded, and word sent back to Philadelphia to his mother. She immediately went West to be with him, ridding on a train, wagon and finally a mule. The soldier died in her arms 16 days after he was shot.

Some of the more militant Modocs wanted their leader, Capt. Jack, to kill General Canby, and there is a whole story behind that. At a peace negotiation meeting, Canby was killed, the Methodist minister, Meacheam, who was somewhat bald, was in the process of being scalped, when one of the Indians yelled, Here come the soldiers. They really weren't coming then, but that scared away the militant Modocs who abandoned their horses. That gave the survivors time to minister to the preacher who had lost half his scalp. They offered him whiskey which he tried to refuse saying he belonged to the temperance bunch. Strange as it may seem, this man survived.

The Chiloquins rounded up all the Modoc's horses and took them back north. In 1956 my dad bought me a small grey mare that had come from the Chiloquin reservation. How many generations are there between 1873 and 1946 which is when this mare was foaled? Was my mare a Modoc Indian pony?

So I am concerned for my brother if he gets the General Canby part in the movie. I could go on and on, but if you are interested get that book.

How exciting for your family, battleaxe. Where do you live? We're in Alturas, so not far from the Lava Beds.

Such fun! My sister in law was an extra in Pretty Woman, and my cousin was a stunt speedboat driver in Madison.

This sounds so exciting for your brother as well as the entire family. I do hope you get to see it as soon as it is on the big screen.

I live in Northern Indiana now. Traded in the earthquakes, forest fires and volcanoes for a few tornadoes.

But General Canby is buried in Indianapolis. One of my dear friends lives with her Dad in Indy. They will go visit the grave which is not far from their house near the speedway. Canby's wife was from Crawfordsville, In.

I'm planning to try to get a copy of the film and have a premier here in Indiana. We will copy all the things they do in Hollywood, dress up, have a red carpet, block off the area with yellow police tape, and use our Amish/Hoosier style search lights (flashlights) waved back and forth in the trees. Fire up the Green Egg, and get the campfire going in the circle. By the time it comes out, maybe summer, the dahlias should be in full bloom, I raise them for competition, and the sweet corn can be ready and barbequed too. Maybe a projector showing the film on the side of the house and everyone bring lawn chairs. Special invitations, no squirrels allowed, last year I live trapped 36 of them and then hauled them out to a woods ten miles away. It did not put a dent in the population. This year they are already digging up the herb barrels.

Thanks, Battleaxe, I had always gotten the impression you were back east somewhere, but when you mentioned Modoc County, I thought maybe the "premier" you were going to do, was somewhere close to the Lava Beds.

Exciting! I still have the Social Studies textbook that has me credited as a consultant! The company asked me to review it for Texas students when I was the contact person on our campus!

Wonderful news and congratulations to your brother.