Visitors walked around Ridgway Town Park Saturday and Sunday enjoying food, western vendors, county western music and talking with a few of Hollywood’s Old West stars.
“True Grit’s” Kim Darby returned to Ridgway after 39 years. She played the tough, spit-fire tomboy Mattie Ross alongside John Wayne in the 1968 filming of True Grit in Ridgway.
  
Advertisement |
Crawford didn’t have a role in “True Grit,” but played Luke MacDonald in “El Dorado,” a 1967 gun-fighting western with Wayne.
Hollywood sweetheart Angie Dickinson also made an appearance Saturday in Town Park, signing autographs and having dinner at the True Grit Cafe.
Her warm personality and soft smile as she walked through Town Park with a half dozen security guards, won over her fans.
“Dickinson is one of the real beauties — now I know she’s good inside,” said western sinner Peggy Malone, who had a chance to meet her idol Saturday.
Malone, a Fruita resident who was recently inducted into the Colorado County Music Hall of Fame, couldn’t resist celebrating Ridgway’s western heritage in a John Wayne fashion. One of two “cowgirls” that entertained while bands set up on stage, she used her guitar and a few yodels to get a dozen people dancing on the lawn, shaking maracas.
While many laid out on the grass to enjoy the music, others waited in lines for autographs from the stars.
Rich and Carol Fike, owners of the Museum of the Mountain West, east of Montrose, both waited their turns Saturday to meet Darby and Crawford. Both Wayne fans, the Fikes had an original 1969 “True Grit” lobby card signed by Darby for display at the museum.
The museum has other memorabilia from the filming of the movie. The shingles used on the set are now used on the front of the museum’s saloon.
Barb Morss, the event’s coordinator and Ridgway Area Chamber of Commerce president, said everything went smoothly, especially for having only 72 days to plan.
“Imagine what we can do with one year to plan,” Morss said, adding the event will get bigger and better in the future.
She has several ideas for next year, including more western poetry and storytellers. She’d like for the performers to have their own stage away from the music, with vendors in between. She said the vendors, camped under white tents in Town Park for the weekend, reported good sales and True Grit Cafe recorded selling 300 meals during a single lunch time.
Susan Prather, also with the chamber, was in charge of the 35 vendors which sold an array of western merchandise and food. For next year, she said she would like to encourage eventgoers to dress in western clothes with a costume contest.
Ridgway resident Todd Blevins didn’t need a contest to get into the spirit. Dressed as a second Colorado sergeant, he rode proud around the park on his horse, OB1.
“I’m just out having fun,” he said. He road about 1 mile from his house to town. “There’s a marvelous turn out.”
Around dusk, eventgoers curled up on blankets on Town Park’s lawn to watch “True Grit” on a large screen. Around 11 p.m., the park cleared out.
But the people with true grit were back again Sunday morning for a pancake breakfast, more music and western shopping before the end of what Morss hopes was the first of many True Grit Days.
Contact Kati O’Hare via e-mail at katio@montrosepress.com
• Be respectful of others, the writer and the subjects in the story.
• Be relevant. Keep your comments on point.
• See the guidelines for TalkAbout. Perhaps your comment is best for that community forum, available from the home page, instead of commenting on a particular story.
Comment posters are responsible for the opinions they express and the accuracy of the information they provide. We urge comment writers to treat this as a public forum where manners matter. We encourage a collegial, non-insulting tone. All readers comments must be approved by our staff before posting to the Web site. Be aware, in accordance with the Communications Decency Act and provisions upheld in judicial appeal, that you are responsible for comments posted on this Web site. Montrose Press is not liable for messages from third parties.
DO NOT POST:
* Potentially libelous statements or damaging innuendo.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults or threats.
* The use of another person's real name to disguise your identity.
* Comments unrelated to the story.
Opinions, advice and all other information expressed in montrosepress.com's reader comments represent the individual's own views and not necessarily those of the Montrose Press. Montrose Press does not endorse and is not responsible for statements, advice or opinions offered by anyone other than authorized Montrose Press spokespersons.
Thank you for your comments!