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William S. Hart (1864-1946) http://tinyurl.com/WmHart

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Mexican Wine

From My Life East and West, 1929.

Reader: Daniel Maloney

Movie stars are infamous for their rowdy behavior, and history tells us they've always known how to paint the town red—even before Hollywood was much of a town to paint.

William S. Hart, one of the early stars of Western films, recounts the boisterous scene on location after a film crew discovered a fake freight car filled with wine.

I never knew who put it there, nor who was responsible for it, but ninety-seven million gallons of the finest Mexican wine ever made from grapes was in that car. Where it was going, I do not know. I only know it never arrived there, and that enough wine was siphoned out of that oil car to irrigate the Mojave Desert. . .

For two whole days and nights the carnival lasted. The streets of the town became a public dance hall. Innocent and harmless, yes! But to those who knew not the way of the cowboy—menacing. The more timid citizens telephoned to San Bernardino, forty miles away for help. The sheriff and twenty deputies, all armed to the teeth, arrived on a special train. They did not need guns. They needed husky men and stretchers.

Hart starred in dozens of Westerns throughout his career, and his 1929 memoir, My Life East and West, tells of the silent film star's experiences in Hollywood.