In 1910, Author, Peter B. Kyne penned a novelette for The Saturday Evening Post called "Bronco Billy and the Baby", a derivative version and retelling of the story of The Three Wise Men in an American western context. In 1915, Essanay Film Company, released an interpretation, Broncho Billy and the Baby, filmed in Niles, CA that would become the first of a seven film series based on a screenplay by Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson. (not without controversy - See newsletter)

Additional versions were produced in 1916, 1919, 1930, 1936, 1948 (Celebrating 75 Years in 2023) and a TV version in 1974.

While the silent era versions are certainly classics, it is the 1948 John Ford version, a second run by Ford at filming The Three Godfathers that Western film fans and Ford aficionados most remember. Distributed by MGM, directed by Ford and starring John Wayne, Harry Carey Jr., Pedro Armendariz, and Ward Bond, the film was shot in and around Lone Pine. A first-rate Western, critics comment that the film was "masterfully directed by the great John Ford and resulted to be a marvelous retelling of Peter B Kyne's saga dealing with three desperate men who take a newborn baby in the desert after they come across a dying woman and her infant child."

Interesting characters, wide-open space and dramatic moments, this classic picture ranks as one of the most sentimental of John Ford's work. It was well photographed by Winton Hoch and filmed in Technicolor, on location in Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, Carson & Colorado Railroad, Owens Valley, Death Valley National Park, Mojave Desert, Zabriskie Point and RKO Encino Ranch Los Angeles, California. Ford dedicated the film to the star of his first version of The Three Godfathers Marked Men filmed in 1919, Harry Carey.

Enjoy our March Newsletter

Lone Pine celebrates 75th Anniversary of John Ford's

THE THREE GODFATHERS

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