Meanwhile, Back at Corriganville

Corriganville, in hollow of the Simi Hills, rides back from reel history this month with publication of an article detailing the glory days of its namesake Hollywood stuntman and the Wild West fantasy world he created.

“The World’s Most Famous Movie Ranch: The Story of Ray ‘Crash’ Corrigan and Corriganville,” by William J. Ehrheart, is being issued by the Ventura County Museum of History & Art to mark the 50th anniversary of the ranch opening its gates to the public. The article, in a double issue of the Ventura County Historical Society Quarterly, is edited by Charles Johnson.

Corriganville was the site for 750 movies and 2,750 TV show episodes before fires destroyed its buildings in the 1970s. Now called Corriganville Park, the property is a nature preserve and hiking destination.

As part of its celebration, the museum will have a Western-style barbecue, open to the public, from noon to 5 p.m. May 8 (for price and other information: 653-0323). Groups working to preserve the Corriganville site and spirit will attend, as will Ehrheart, who will sign copies of the quarterly.

A letter carrier for 30 years, Ehrheart earned a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Fullerton in 1990, a year after he retired. In 1994, he was awarded a master’s degree in public history / historic preservation from Cal State Dominguez Hills. He has written about Southern California movie ranches and is an advocate for their designation as historic sites. Following are excerpts from the museum-published article and from other research by Ehrheart:

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May 1999 commemorates the 50th anniversary of the public’s first view beyond the wagon wheel gates of the Ray Corrigan Movie Ranch in eastern Simi Valley, a tilted landscape of weathered rock accentuated by huge boulders fringed by groves of coastal and California live oaks and surrounded by artesian springs and long-traveled byways. A historic Southern California landscape? A Hollywood dreamscape? Both. History, legend and fantasy all came together at the Ray Corrigan Move Ranch, known to the public as Corriganville.

One of approximately 40 movie ranches in Southern California that regularly provided scenery and sets for Hollywood’s classic movies and television productions, Corriganville was the only movie ranch that allowed the public to view its operations. Popular Western movie hero Ray “Crash” Corrigan provided scheduled Western entertainment that drew large crowds. Corriganville became as well known as Knott’s Berry Farm, attracting visitors from across the nation and even from overseas.

The founder and namesake of Corriganville was born Ray (not Raymond) Benard in a cottage on the grounds of the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. in Milwaukee, Wis., on Feb. 14, 1902. Here his father, Bernard A. Benard, served as caretaker. “Bernie,” his wife Ida and Ray eventually moved west to Denver, Colo..

Ray Corrigan arrived in Hollywood from Denver in 1922, looking not for work in one of the film studios but rather for Bernarr Macfadden, the naturist, who ran the Hollywood Gym and who printed publications on health and bodybuilding. Ray had a noticeable double curvature of the spine that detracted from his appearance, causing a loss of height and hampering his mobility. After a year’s course from Macfadden, Ray had the physique of a front-cover Adonis.

Now a capable body-builder in his own right, Ray worked for Macfadden as a director-trainer and was later invited to work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios’ gymnasium, improving the appearance of valuable movie stars and starlets like Ruth Chatterton, Joan Blondell, Joan Crawford and Dolores del Rio. . . . It was her husband, MGM’s art director, Cedric Gibbons, who gave Ray a two-year contract as a stuntman.

At the beginning of his career as a movie stunt specialist at MGM, he kept the name Ray Benard. During this same time, jungle adventure moves were gaining popularity. “King Kong” (1933) whet the public appetite for movies in this vein. Consequently, from 1934 until 1954, part of Ray’s Hollywood heritage was to portray gorillas in adventure, comedy and horror movies. Ray spent his free time in early 1934 studying the mannerisms of larger primates at the San Diego Zoo. Shortly thereafter, Ray Benard / Corrigan was encased in the hot and stifling interior of one of his five expensive, handmade gorilla suits, aping his way through classic Hollywood features. (His name was missing from the cast of characters in these features. It would have detracted, he believed, from his role as a Western hero.) In two films, “Come On, Cowboys” (Republic, May 1937) and “Three Texas Steers” (Republic, May 1939), Ray appeared as both ape and hero. Corrigan “monkeyed around” all through the 1940s and 1950s, playing a hairy opponent to the likes of Boris Karloff and the Three Stooges.

Ray stunted in 31 movies for MGM. He first accomplished aerial vine-swinging and underwater rubber alligator wrestling scenes for the studio, leaving “Tarzan’s” Johnny Weissmuller the surface-swimming chores. For MGM’s “Mutiny on the Bounty” (November 1935), Ray fell off a ship’s high yardarm, a stunt that killed an actor on a previous attempt.

After his two-year MGM contract expired, Ray soon evolved into supporting roles and later leading actor roles in budget adventure movies and serials for other studios. Prior to his promotion by Republic Studios to a Saturday matinee Western movie hero in September 1936, he filled a supporting role in the Gene Autry Western “The Singing Vagabond” (Republic, December 1935), filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth--on the east side of Santa Susana Pass. During a break in filming, Ray’s friend, actor Clark Gable from MGM, arrived to take him hunting. The duo proceeded west, over the pass. Ray had his first look at the Jonathan R. Scott cattle ranch at the foot of the Santa Susana (west) side of the grade. He saw past the clutter residents of the San Fernando Valley had deposited there and envisioned an active movie ranch that could equal or outperform the neighboring Iverson Ranch location, which had had its beginnings [about] 25 years earlier. The [Scott] ranch was for sale at $11,354, and Ray paid $1,000 down, plus payments of $1,000 a month. An era of Hollywood movie ranch history and, eventually, of rare public entertainment was about to begin.

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Corriganville was first and foremost a movie ranch and continued as such to the end of its working days. Ray realized that visitors to Southern California had universally expressed disappointment at not being able to view the inside workings of a Hollywood studio. Visitors at Universal Studios during the silent movie era could make all the noise they wanted, eating their 25-cent box lunches. That is, until the studio evicted them in 1928 with the advent of sound. Tourists would not reenter Universal until 1964, when the studio reopened for modest tours. During the 36-year interval, not one studio or movie ranch permitted the public to view its interior operations until Corrigan decided to invite them to his ranch. If Hollywood would drive out to Corriganville, so would tourists and Southern Californians for such a privileged opportunity.

Ray Corrigan, like Walter Knott, kept adding to his Western town--Ray for the production companies and later for the public, Walter for his chicken dinner patrons. Neither Corrigan nor Knott clearly realized their operations were becoming amusement or theme parks. Today’s corporate Knott’s Berry Farm claims to be the world’s first public theme park. If spokespersons were available for the now defunct Corriganville Movie Ranch, they could more authoritatively make the same claim. Knott’s bases its claim on the positioning of a pioneer hotel building from Prescott, Ariz., behind its restaurant in 1940, rather than the opening of the restaurant or purchase of their farm. Corrigan’s Western town began with the livery stable he erected in 1937, or even with the earlier ranch house. Corrigan was first to enclose his property, charge general admission, provide rides and add various entertainments and activities.

Ray decided to open his wrought-iron wagon wheel gates at the end of Smith Road to the public on May 1, 1949. He renamed the acreage the Corriganville Movie Ranch. On opening day the ranch was inundated with hundreds of cars, due to a promotion that offered free admission with the presentation of a specially printed Dixie Cup ice cream lid. Ray had to turn many visitors away.

As many as 10,000 visitors on a Sunday became normal, running as high as 20,000 for special events. In May 1953, Corrigan purchased the 60-acre Touvin Ranch, south of the Hall Turkey Ranch, increasing the ranch size to 2,000 acres. This gave him frontage on Los Angeles Avenue, now Kuehner Drive. The addition provided room for a five-lane entrance gate, unpaved parking for 20,000 cars and room for construction of a rodeo arena, grandstand seating for 4,000 and a food concession.

The arena scheduled not only rodeos but also Wild West, equestrian stunt and horse shows. Ray would have celebrity Western actors appear as grand marshals for each rodeo parade. The stunts at the arena included rescues from a burning stagecoach in motion, transfers, falls and remounts from a runaway stage, and an Apache flaming arrow attack on covered wagons. The Sunday afternoon rodeo was broadcast from Los Angeles television station KNBH in 1953 under the title “ ‘Crash’ Corrigan’s Round-Up.” Two earlier television shows organized by Ray were “ ‘Crash’ Corrigan’s Ranch” (KECA, summer 1950), a weekly children’s show, and “ ‘Crash’ Corrigan” (KTTV, April 1951), on which his son, Tommy, appeared. With the advent of the rodeo shows, Ray invited the public in on Saturdays as well. Corrigan had a large billboard image of the Silvertown Western street mounted next to the ticket office over the ranch entrance. It was captioned at the bottom for all to see: “Through these gates pass the world’s most famous people.”

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Since 1985, various Simi Valley citizens groups have been organized to promote Corriganville as a historic reminder of Hollywood’s earlier movie making days, and to recall the public’s enjoyable visits to the ranch. The first of these groups to appear was the Simi Valley Cultural Assn. Then came the Corriganville Preservation Committee, followed by the Corriganville Movie Ranch Restoration organization. Another group interested in promoting old Corriganville’s welfare is the Trail Riders of the West.

The memory of Corriganville is strong, kept alive by those who visited the movie ranch during the 18 years it was open to the public. Yesterday’s child visitors are today’s businesspeople, corporate executives and other interested parties. This potential advocacy group could be encouraged to support Corriganville’s rebirth through, among other options, structured giving plans. Visits to the ranch by Hollywood production companies anxiously looking for new vistas and additional sound stages could do wonders for the ranch’s progress. As the 50th anniversary of Corriganville’s public debut dawns, $6.4 million in reconstruction money still needs to be raised.

The grounds of Corriganville, with limited improvements in place, are now open to the public once more. Gone will be its former genial host, Ray “Crash” Corrigan, who often personally greeted his guests at the ranch entrance with “Howdy, pardner.” The present owners will have to proceed without the expertise, showmanship and public affability of our movie cowboy hero. Former visitors returning to Corriganville today, though, can tell them all about it. They’ve been there before.