Day: July 31, 2015

Yesterday, a conversation with Janet took some unexpected seques and led to a bit of a discussion about a circa-1961 summer job that my brother Dennis and I had.  We worked at the Fat Jones Stables, a sizable ranch in North Hollywood.  Fat Jones was a supplier of horses, mules, donkeys, goats, bison, camels, almost any other four-legged beast you could imagine, as well as related equipment and vehicles.,  to the movie and TV industry.  My job was in the paint shop, helping restore old buckboards and stagecoaches.

Fat Jones himself would come around daily in his chauffeured limo, and the ranch would often receive drop-in visits from actors seen in Hollywood westerns of the time.

The above photo is sourced here:

http://www.westernclippings.com/treasures/westerntreasures_gallery_20.shtml

I could only find a few references, mostly on cowboy movie nostalgia sites, like this following …

Apparently Fat Jones Stables no longer exists:
https://stevesomething.wordpress.com/category/fat-jones-stables/

Some remnants:
http://www.sageandsky.com/fatjones.html

See comment of Mike Milstead (grandson of Clarence “Fat” Jones) at bottom of page:
http://horsefame.tripod.com/actors.htm

Here is a reminiscence from a descendant of Fat Jones (from http://www.angelfire.com/film/horsefame/hollywoodhorses.html):

—– Hollywood horses Updates —–
Fat Jones stable – Hollywood Horses
COMMENTS & INFO from: Nancy Sue
– December 2008 –
You asked for some Fat Jones Stables info. I stayed there with Ben & Carol Johnson. Uncle Ben’s line was that when he first brought horses out to California for Howard Hughes’s movie called “The Outlaw” he saw a pretty girl sitting on the fence, that was Auntie Carol, the rest became history. Whenever I showed up, “Fat” would hand me a ream of paper and lots of sharpened pencils to sketch the horses there. I used to ride a little red mare that was branded with Quien Sabe brands from shoulder to hip. She was marked like Man o’War, and was my favorite to ride. I also rode Peanuts a bay horse. Worked with Cochise (who was killed), as well a riding Dunny Waggoner (Lorne Green’s Bonanza horse) leading the fretful Chubby (who if separated from Dunny would throw fits). Soldier, Goldie, Buster (a pinto that was given to Johnny Jones), Blue (that belonged to Jimmy Cagney), Mexico (Rober Culp’s horse on Trackdown), Blanco (did a painting of him) Black Diamond and Steel. I have pictures of Blanco, Black Diamond and Steel. I was the only person on the place that could turn my back on Black Diamond. And did it in front of Uncle Ben, that’s how I got the reputation. Then I also got to ride Zane the brahma, that was used in the movie Greatest Story Ever Told. All in all, my memories of Fat Jones Stables were and are wonderful.