Fess Reynolds’ Place (1977)
by Bryce Martin

Lebec, Calif. -- Fess Reynolds trains various animals here. He has a dingo that has dropped a stick at my feet from its mouth and is looking up at me as if I should know what to do next. I’m watching Reynolds as he has Frosty, a full-grown Brahma bull, tethered and walking in a circle. The working area is much like a large pit. The ground is totally devoid of vegetation and sloped on the outsides at a back angle all the way around. You name the animal and he has probably trained one here for movie work. Frosty is a minor movie star himself. I toss the stick with a strong throw, thinking the dingo may lose sight of it. Reynolds talks to me as he keeps Frosty moving slowly. I don’t know what the regimen amounts to. Some of his animals were used years ago by car dealer Cal Worthington for his late-night TV ads featuring his “dog Spot,” who was hardly ever a dog, but a tiger, camel or some other animal. Reynolds is a common sight in the area, running animals up and down the highway from Hollywood movie sets to his ranch and back and forth. He became a traffic hazard of sorts because of all the gawkers. He said the California Highway Patrol ordered him to quit hauling lions on his flatbed truck going down Highway 99. The dingo returns the stick back at my feet and returns its arrogant stare at me. I look at the stick and it appears to be the same one. As I reach to pick it up, the dingo’s head darts some toward my hand. I pick up the stick and really fling it this time. Reynolds mentions how his son Jug played the role of Little Beaver in Red Ryder movies, replacing Robert Blake (known then as Bobby Blake). As Red Ryder’s sidekick, Little Beaver was a lovable little Navajo boy whose catchphrase was “You betchum, Red Ryder,” a phrase often uttered in my neighborhood and schoolyard in the early 1950s when old cowboy reels filled our TV screens. (Blake portrayed Little Beaver for all the Republic features from 1944-47 with Bill Elliott as Red Ryder. Don Kay "Little Brown Jug" Reynolds followed as the last movie Little Beaver with Jim Bannon as Red Ryder for Eagle-Lion films.). The elder Reynolds, who is short and stocky, looks like one of the many crusty sidekicks that cowboy movie stars in all those low-budget affairs always had, has another son called Sled who lives nearby and who also trains animals for movie work. All of his boys, I don’t know how many, have been involved with rodeo, movie stunt work, and animal training most of their lives. The dingo drops the stick again. I bend to pick it up and he clamps his teeth on my hand. Not hard enough to break the skin, but a crushing pressure nonetheless. I pull my hand up as it releases its bite. I toss the stick for the last time.

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