Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood took viewers back to the 1960s and featured some celebrities and important names from the decade, among those George Spahn, owner of a ranch used to film various westerns and later by the Manson “family” as their home – but what happened to George and Spahn Ranch? Following the steps of his 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino told an alternate version of 1960s Hollywood in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, with a combination of fictional and real-life characters.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood follows actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his best friend and stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), who had worked together for years, but as Hollywood’s golden age neared its end, so did their careers, and they struggled to remain active and relevant. Their stories were intertwined with that of Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), and the film also included other big names, such as Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) and Steve McQueen (Damian Lewis), and acknowledged the existence of Charles Manson (Damon Herriman) and his “family”.
After taking a hitchhiker to Spahn Ranch, Cliff Booth came face to face with the Manson family and realized they were no good when he learned they took over his friend’s ranch, where he used to work while filming Bounty Law. George Spahn and his ranch are some of the real-life characters and places Tarantino included in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, but their presence was brief and the film didn’t mention what happened to him and the legendary ranch.
In Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, George Spahn (played by Bruce Dern) is a very old man who is nearly blind and doesn’t do much other than sleep and watch TV. After insisting on talking to him, Booth is let in by “Squeaky” Fromme (Dakota Fanning), and though Spahn struggles to recognize him, he ends up dismissing his concerns. Spahn doesn’t appear again nor is it revealed what happened to the ranch after that encounter, but as Spahn was a real person, history has the answer.
Spahn Ranch was used as set for westerns, mostly B-movies and TV shows, and some of the rumored titles to have been filmed there are The Lone Ranger and various episodes of Bonanza. In 1969, at the age of 80 and going blind, George Spahn allowed Charles Manson and his followers to move in rent-free in exchange for labor, with them doing daily chores and running the horse-rental business, which kept them (and Spahn) afloat. While there, one of Spahn’s employees was killed after a physical confrontation with Manson and because his followers believed he reported them to the police – Spahn, of course, was unaware of why he disappeared. The Tate-LaBianca murders were allegedly planned at Spahn Ranch, and following the arrest of Manson and company, Spahn wasn’t charged nor accused of any role in their crimes.
Spahn lived for five more years after that and lived in North Hollywood, though he was later admitted to the Sherwood Convalescent Hospital in Van Nuys, where he died in 1974 at the age of 85. As for Spahn Ranch, it was destroyed by a wildfire in 1970, and the land is now part of California’s Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park. Sadly, George Spahn and the ranch are remembered for their association with Manson and his group, rather than for their work in the entertainment industry.
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