WHAT CAN HAPPEN IN A SMALL TOWN, EVEN A MOVIE????

It all started out when I first blogged about Christian Bale being in my hometown some time ago, and what the heck was that all about?  He visited the waste water treatment plant where a friend of mine works and then was spotted in Starbuck's locally.  The town was abuzz and then a friend of mine saw Rachael McAdams at a little downtown cafe one morning at breakfast, weird we thought.  

 Then there is a casting call for our town and also in Tulsa and Oklahoma City to be extras in a movie to be filmed here in our area.  Several people I know went to audition, but it was an unnamed project and no details were given.

Then speculation broke out when Ben Affleck showed up all over town with his beautiful wife Jennifer Garner, children in tow.  

They campused our short block to look at houses to film in and around.  My neighbor took the film scout into her home to see if they would be interested in using hers to film in.   She said they took lots of photographs of the neighborhood.  She was so excited!

A lot of people thought wow, they are doing Pioneer Woman's love story to Marlboro Man, but I did not think it was related to this since Christian Bale had been here before Ree's movie project had been talked about.  Then Pioneer Woman posted that it was in fact not her story, but her brother had gone to audition and got a call back.  You see Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, is a local girl from my town also.  This is the town where she grew up until she went to college, then came home met Ladd and married.  I know her parents when I see them, and she was a little ballerina at the same time as a friend of mine back in the day.

 

During the Indian Summer Festival they were filming at the Pow Wow the night my mom and I attended, but we really did not think much about it.  I thought they were just doing a promotion piece for the festival for tourism.

 

 They were filming all around my 87 year old mom and she was getting irritated because they were in her line of vision filming Olga Kurylenko and she was there to see the Indian dancers!  Oh my goodness, I am surprised she didn't give them a piece of her mind.  I was watching some of that while I climbed up to the top of the bleachers to take photos of the dancing.

Olga Kurylenko

 

My mom was sitting right in front of this.  Who knows she might be an extra by pure luck

The papers started reporting on movie starting to shoot and then it all got going.  Here are some of Ben on our downtown street taken by a local woman who was lucky to have her camera with her.

 

 They have been filming around town and in Pawhuska also.  One of the local  ranch lady Frances Gardner got a paid part at 92 years old.

 

The funny thing last week was the newspaper had on the front page for us to leave them alone while they are the streets of our lovely town filming!  It cracked me up, what do they expect?  Yes, there are people who want to see movie stars in their town and might want a autograph and a picture but all in all we are a respectful bunch here in Oklahoma, we are not like home grown paparazzi here! 

Our friends from the UK (Aberdeen Scotland) were here in town and Richard thought it was a joke we were telling him that they were filming a major movie in Bartlesville!   He heard it again when he reported into work here at ConocoPhillips, so he then had to believe us! Then as the week progressed they were all around town this week and even in the hotel our friends were staying in.  On the last night that our friends were here we saw them filming at the Romine house, so Angela got to see that happening before she left.

 

The project is still unnamed and it is reported to be an epic love story about a fisherman who works at the waste water treatment plant, and that is all I know about the plot.  Odd sounding story line if you ask me......

but I am excited for it to come out so I can see my town and some people I know in the big lights!  They could have the Premier here too when they are set to release it!

 

So I guess exciting things can happen to a small town in Oklahoma!

This is a report from the Tulsa World below:

 

Ben Affleck, Rachel Weisz Starring in Terrence Malick's Next?

August 12, 2010
Source: The Wrap, TulsaWorld.com
by Alex Billington

What the heck is Terrence Malick up to? Although we haven't even seen his latest film, The Tree of Life, which no one knows when we even will see it or even what the heck it's even about, that's not stopping the filmmaker from starting work on his next film. The Wrap reports that Malick has already begun casting and location scouting for his latest currently untitled project. Oscar winners Ben Affleck and Rachel Weisz have reportedly joined the cast and interesting reports from various remote shooting locations are starting to trickle in, too. This is that same "romance" project announced in February at the Berlin Film Festival.

In that original announcement, Malick's next project was described as a "romantic drama" and a "powerful and moving love story." But as anyone who's seen Malick's work knows, referring to one of his films as just a "romance" isn't exactly accurate, as there's always a lot more depth to them. Christian Bale, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams

and Olga Kurylenko were all announced originally, but word is that Affleck is replacing Bale, and Weisz may just be joining (not replacing anyone). Production is scheduled to begin the first week of October in Oklahoma, which is where some odd celebrity reports have been popping up recently as well.
Our friends at AICN point out that TulsaWorld.com recent published an article saying that Ben Affleck

and his wife Jennifer Garner were spotted at a local store in Bartlesville, OK buying fishing supplies. Malick grew up in Bartlesville and apparently Christian Bale and Rachel McAdams

were also spotted in the same area last year, scouting for this exact Malick film, which is why it makes sense that Affleck has replaced Bale and is out getting familiar with the area as well. Affleck apparently told an employee at the fishing shop hat he was filming a movie in Bartlesville, playing a fisherman, and needed to buy some fishing equipment.
Considering Malick's projects are always very secretive, that's about as much as we'll probably know about this until he finishes editing it some two or three years from now. It's always interesting to learn about the next project from someone as incredible as Terrence Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The New World), but I'm more interested in figuring out when we'll finally get to feast our eyes on Tree of Life. We'll keep you updated on anything related to Malick and his two upcoming films, so stay tuned here.

Longhorns and Cowboys, Dewey, Oklahoma

Dewey had their Western Heritage Parade and Wild West Show last weekend. 

I thought this little team of donkeys and wagon were adorable!

 

to see the rodeo photos click below



The One Armed Bandit Rodeo Enertainers 

Opps, they were getting a little out of hand .....

and those horns were longer than most that you see....

especially since we were at eye level...

Mom and my friend, Linda

Bartlesville, Indian Summer Festival

Bartlesville is host an inter tribal Indian Art show and Pow Wow in each year in September.  I always like to go and it is a good opportunity to see friends who I don't bump into on an everyday basis.  It is very colorful and this year the weather was really hot, but no rain so that was good.

 

 

 

 

The Princesses were all so very beautiful in their native dress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the fancy dancers!

DEWEY, OKLAHOMA (INDIAN TERRITORY) PAST AND PRESENT

My girlfriend's dad's truck Eli's Hog Hauler

 The photos above were taken this August at the Dewey Antique Car show at the Dewey Hotel. 

Veranda of the Dewey Hotel before statehood when it was Indian Territory

 

History of Dewey, Oklahoma

Dewey, Oklahoma is located approximately 49 miles north of Tulsa in Washington County. Dewey is about 15 miles south of the Kansas border.
Jake Bartles started the city of Dewey (which was originally part of Indian Territory, allotted to the Cherokee Nation) back in the 1890's after moving his general store from Bartlesville. During the move of the store, the Bartles family also began building the Dewey Hotel, which was completed in 1899. Dewey became a thriving community thanks to oil drilling, and was officially chartered December 8, 1905.
Today Dewey, Oklahoma sits quietly enjoying its role as a small town in the northeastern part of the state. If you drove through Dewey today you might find it hard to believe that for almost 20 years, the community was known around the world for its annual roundup. "The Dewey Roundup," as it was called, occurred every year for three days over the 4th of July holiday.
The event was foremost a contest of cowboy skills with prize money given to the winners, but other things happened as well. Airplane demonstrations were given everyday. Car and horse races, boxing matches, and Wild West shows filled the arena north of town. The Roundup began as a reunion for town founder Jake Bartles and his friends from the Civil War. It soon, however, turned into much more than that. After the first Roundup in 1908 Jake's son Joe made the event an annual affair, and so the tradition began.
So many people flooded into Dewey beginning in late June that special railroad tracks were built just to handle the traffic. Lodging was so impossible to find that people camped out in the yards of nearby houses or strung hammocks between building columns.
Every year the Roundup promised something special for those attending. Bulldogging from an airplane occurred in 1915, while in 1919 all of the prize money was issued in the form of solid gold coins minted especially for the event. Legend has it that the Dewey Roundup was the inspiration for the now famous Calgary Stampede and that a train car of Roundup officials from Dewey traveled to Canada to oversee the creation of that event.
The Roundup was an unofficial measure of one's skill as a cowboy. If you did well at Dewey then you knew that you were one of the best in the country. Ropers, riders and bulldoggers made their way to Dewey each year from almost every state in the union putting their skills, reputations, and sometimes careers to the test. Western movie stars were discovered and hired at the Roundup, and many a ranch hand got his first job based on his performance there. The Roundup is a piece of cowboy history, and many people from Dewey still remember the chaotic three days occurring every July. The Great Depression of 1929 put a stop to the Roundup, and the collapse of the mammoth grandstands in the 1930s signaled the end of any hope for a revival. It was in this week of 1908 that the first Dewey Roundup took place, starting a tradition and creating memories that would live on for decades.


Tom Mix served as town Marshal in 1912. He later became a world-famous silent film adventure actor. Dewey is home of the Tom Mix Museum and hosts an annual Tom Mix Festival and Wild West Show in September. The Tom Mix Museum serves as the city's Visitor Information Center.
The Dewey Portland Cement Company was most beneficial to the city. Owner Don Tyler not only benefited the local economy with Dewey Portland Cement, but was able to build the Washington County Fairgrounds, Library, the school gymnasium, and a community center. Several houses in the city are made with Dewey Portland cement. Dewey also had concrete electrical poles, some of which are still being used. Dewey had paved streets and sidewalks before most cities did!


Attend the city of Dewey

Western Heritage Days Parade

September, 18, 2010

3 PM  
Dewey's Tom Mix Festival and Wild West Show are coming up September 18 and 19. The events together make up Deweys Western Heritage Weekend.

Saturday's entertainment will include music, gun fights, children's games, an antique tractor show, great food and other vendors, tours of the Tom Mix Museum and haunted Dewey Hotel Museum, and a western parade - complete with a longhorn cattle drive through downtown Dewey!

Sunday's activities start with the "Sermon on the Mount" (horse-whispering), a chuck wagon breakfast, and moves on to more food vendors, gun fights, live music, Prairie Song tours, and culminates in a Wild West Show featuring the One Arm Bandit and other western acts!

For more information about any of the activities, including the overnight cattle drive, here are the contacts:  Parade, Craig Epps 337-3379 (or pick up a parade entry form at City Hall); Cattle Drive, Rod Nicholas 534-1809; Vending applications, Nick Brown 534-7428. 

Dewey continues to be a thriving community today.  I am proud to say that this is the town that I grew up in!

The Brave One

Our resident doe has twins again this year but they don't usually get up close enough to the house to photograph, and when they do I am asleep (I sleep late) or it is too shady in the evening with the trees. 

 

This one seems to be the brave one and he was up posing for some time the other evening. 

cute little cuss!