Cannon from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly traced to Spanish museum

Cannon from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly traced to Spanish museum

Enthusiasts track down weapon used to fell fleeing Eli Wallach amid preparations for 60th anniversary of film’s release.

Clint Eastwood in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly with the 1873 Manchester-made cannon.

Six decades after Clint Eastwood nonchalantly used a cigar to light its fuse and fell a fleeing Eli Wallach, the Manchester-made cannon that appeared in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly has been rediscovered in a museum in south-east Spain.

The artillery piece was tracked down by the Sad Hill Cultural Association, a group of volunteers dedicated to restoring the graveyard near Burgos, northern Spain, built for the climax of Sergio Leone’s seminal spaghetti western.

Below: Clint and Sergio on location with the Cannon

After coming across images of the cannon in a book on the film, the association set about trying to trace some of the weapons used in preparation for the 60th anniversary of the movie’s release later this year.

The 75mm cannon, made in Manchester by Whitworth in 1873, was one of the antique arms lent to Leone’s production team by the Spanish military. After filming it was returned to the army museum in Madrid. There it languished on outdoor display until 2010, when the museum and its collection were moved to Toledo.

A few months ago, Diego Montero, treasurer of the Sad Hill Cultural Association, visited the Toledo museum to look for the cannon. Further research led to the south-eastern Spanish city of Cartagena, where Montero discovered a group of retired soldiers had restored a 19th-century British cannon from the local military history museum.

Below: The cannon before restoration, in the military history museum in Cartagena, south-east Spain.

“A few days ago we wanted to check the photos from the book against a more detailed photo, so we wrote to the director of the Cartagena museum, and he sent us a closeup photo of the top of the cannon and of the piece’s number,” said Montero. The serial numbers matched. “The museum had no idea that they had the cannon that was used in the film. We told them that we were going to put out a press release because we knew that a lot of people would be interested – and they’d get loads of visits.”

The city council is certainly keen to use the cannon’s fame to draw more visitors. It posted on social media on Monday: “Did you know that one of cinema’s most famous cannons is in Cartagena and that you can visit it for free?”, with the post accompanied, inevitably, by Ennio Morricone’s genre-defining theme.

The museum’s director, Lt Col Ernesto Terry, said the cannon’s fame was already causing a stir. 

“We had no idea this was the cannon from the film,” he said. “It’s been crazy and I’ve been talking about it non-stop to the media and to people who have been ringing to ask me about it. It’s been madness and we’ve had a lot more visitors.”

While the Sad Hill Cultural Association would love to borrow the cannon and temporarily reinstall it in the Burgos landscape, where it last stood 60 years ago, its protected heritage status means that will not be in time for the anniversary.

“The bureaucratic procedures are very lengthy, and we don’t have time,” said Montero. “But we’ll definitely try to do something in the future. Maybe we can get hold of the piece and at least bring it to Burgos, because there’s a military museum there.”

Below: Video of the restored Cannon as it is today

Our kind thanks to Kevin Wilkinson

PALE RIDER rare bus stop 1985 poster of Eastwood by C. Michael Dudash, sells for big money!

PALE RIDER rare bus stop 1985 poster of Eastwood by C. Michael Dudash, sells for big money!

An Original Vintage Unfolded Bus Stop Movie Poster (measures 48" x 70" [122 x 178 cm]) went through the roof this week in an auction. It attracted 24 bids and peaked at a staggering $ 2,700.00.

Description: Pale Rider, the classic 1985 Clint Eastwood cowboy western ("...and hell followed with him."; "This summer a stranger will ride into town..."; a very loose remake of Shane, with a mysterious "preacher" showing up in a small western town and protecting the inhabitants from bad guys) starring Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Christopher Penn, Richard Dysart, Sydney Penny, Richard Kiel, Doug McGrath, and John Russell.

Overall Condition: good. There are two vertical tears in the top background area and one in the middle right background area, but they don't affect the image or printing. There is tiny paper loss in the upper left border. There are some pinholes in the borders and some creases and scuffs scattered in the poster. 

Think I’ll have to stick with my quad for now!  

WHERE EAGLES DARE at The Astor Theatre New York, March 12th, 1969.

WHERE EAGLES DARE at The Astor Theatre New York, March 12th, 1969.

The Astor Theatre, opened on September 21, 1906 with Annie Russell starring in a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. It was built and operated by producers Wagenhais and Kemper, at the corner of Broadway and W. 45th Street, seated 1,600 patrons and was considered one of Broadway’s premier venues for decades among the top actors of the era who aspired to play its stage.

Located just next to the Hotel Astor, and later surrounded by theatres like the adjoining Victoria Theatre on Broadway, and on W. 45th Street, the Morosco Theatre, Bijou Theatre and the first Helen Hayes Theatre (which opened as the Folies-Bergere, but quickly became the Fulton Theatre). The Astor Theatre was designed by George W. Keister, who decorated its interior in simple-yet-elegant Greek Revival style.

Red, gold and ivory were the original predominant colours. Outside, the five-floor building, which also contained shops and offices, was a blend of Neo-Classical and Second Empire styles, including a bronze-domed tower at the entrance at Broadway and W. 45th Street.

In 1912, Sam Harris and George M. Cohan took over the Astor Theatre, continuing legitimate fare (except for a 1913 presentation of the hit motion picture “Quo Vadis”) until 1916, when the theatre was acquired by the Shubert Bros., who would run the Astor Theatre until the Depression.

During the times when there were no legitimate bookings, motion pictures were also screened. Starting in 1925, movies replaced live entertainment on a permanent basis at the Astor Theatre, and remained so for the remainder of its existence.

By the 1940’s, the Astor Theatre was the theatre that MGM premiered its big-screen Technicolor musicals and Epic movies including Where Eagles Dare, and remained so for over a decade. The New York premiere of Warner Bros. “East of Eden” starring James Dean was also held here on March 9, 1955.

In 1959, a radical modernization of the Astor Theatre to the plans of architect John J. McNamara resulted in a dramatically stark-looking interior, with all of its original decor torn out in Favor of expanded orchestra seating. Modernistic murals on its side walls and the removal of the boxes and its set of balconies, replaced by a smaller, single balcony.

The gilded proscenium arch was removed to make way for a huge curving wall-to-wall screen. The exterior was also greatly simplified and its original facade covered by a wall of marble, and given a rather plain, boxy marquee.

The Astor Theatre was closed 54 years ago last week on May 30th, 1972 with “Hannie Caulder”. Walter Reade Theatres said it was due to maintenance problems with the air conditioning, and not long afterwards, both it and its neighbours, the Victoria Theatre, the Helen Hayes Theatre, the Bijou Theatre and Morosco Theatre, were all earmarked for demolition to be replaced with an office tower. Plans were delayed, however, and as preservationists fought for nearly a decade to keep the theatre’s standing, the Astor Theatre’s old lobby was used for retail space.

In 1982, however, despite the valiant efforts of preservation organizations, the Astor Theatre and its four neighbours were razed to construct the Marriott Marquis New York Hotel, which contains its own legitimate theatre venue.