Web Board To Close

I am sad to report that on October 31, 2019 the Lee Van Cleef Web Board will close.  This decision was made by YourWebApps.com, and is impacting all of their customers.

The Lee Van Cleef Web Board was launched in early 1998, and was the first online community where LVC fans could interact and share their passion for all things LVC.

Traffic to the board has decreased significantly in recent years with the rise of Facebook and similar communities.  TheBad.net has a Facebook page that can continue the legacy of the web board.  You can find it here

Meanwhile take a last visit to the Lee Van Cleef Web Board, and marvel at the simpler times of the internet.

This change will not impact this blog or TheBad.net webpage.  Thank you for the 21 years of support!

Fan Recollection - Meeting LVC at the Mall

The following is from a series of posts from the Lee Van Cleef Web Board posted by Mario in 2010. 

I had the very fine experience of meeting Lee once when I was young, I was sitting in a mall in Oxnard California called the Esplanade. I was about 14 at the time. I was enjoying a box of carmel popcorn when this gentalman asked if he could sit. I said sure. He then asked if it would be ok if he smoked his pipe. That's when I got a really good look at him and said "you look like Angel Eyes from the cowboy movies" He replied "I had better,My name is Lee Van Cleef. I am Angel Eyes" I introduced myself to him and we started to chat about Alot of things. I asked him what was he doing at the mall ,He said he liked to buy his tobacco good at the Tinder Box smoke shop that was next to the see's candy store. I sat there in amazement and listened to every word he said. We even laughed at something I had said. I can remember he had a very good sense of humor. He was very easy going and could make you smile with his laugh. Well after about 45 min my family came out of the Sears store and it was time to go. I shook his hand and said goodbye.My family asked who that was I was talking to ,I told them and they didnt know who he was,But then they also didnt watch any westerns either.  

It was around late 75 or 76 I think, He was dressed in a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows and one of those funky matching hats that Tom Landry used to wear. He looked more like a school teacher than a cowboy gunslinger. But it was that face that a LVC fan could recognise anywhere. It's funny I remember why we both started to laugh. Prior to sitting on the bench I had just purchesed a inner tube for my bike at sears and when he asked why I was there I showed him my old inner tube that I had rolled up in my jacket pocket, The new one was in the bag. Well when I pulled out the old inner tube he laughed when he saw ther must have been 35+ patches on it. As he laughed I said Yeah I know it looks like something from the beverly hillbillies Huh which made him and I laugh harder till my eyes got all watery. As he laughed he said why did you wait so long to get a new one,I replied thats what my dad said and he laughed even more. We had a pretty good time for those few minutes. I shared some of my carmel corn with him. At first he said no thanks ,Then I said Aww go on ,you know you want some it's good stuff!. And that was it. The only star I ever had a conversation with and I'll never forget it. He was very cool.

I'll always remember that afternoon how we laughed so hard together

While I do not have any contact info for Mario, a special thanks goes out to him for sharing his recollections to the LVC community!

LVC Yearbook Photo

Thanks to some digging by some folks at the Lee Van Cleef Web Board, we have Lee's yearbook photo from Somerville High School in 1943!

Grand Duel - A Behind the Scenes Recollection

The following is from a series of posts from the Lee Van Cleef Web Board posted by Bob Clark in 2009.  The photos included are from a web album he posted to the board.

Bob's full album here-
http://gallery.me.com/bobbyclark#gallery

In 1972 I was a young Lieutenant stationed in Italy and through a myriad of flukes got the chance to play a small part in "The Grand Duel" along with one of my NCOs. I played the Deputy Sheriff who tries (unsuccessfully ) to stare Lee down as he gets out of the stagecoach to walk into Gila Bend. My greatest line was "Let him go Bill, he's jsut another one of them vultures". What an experience. Lee was a true gentleman, and great to talk to. I remember, he preferred a certain pipe tobacco that was not easily found in Italy, but I was able to get him a good supply at the Post Exchange.

 

X Brands was Lee's double, and a wonderful guy. I remembered him from Yancy Derringer. Jess Haun played "Big Hoss", the Andy Devine type stagecoach driver. Jess was from the Indianapolis area and sent off to WWII, met and married a French lady, and did many films and TV, both in Europe and the States. I have great candids of Lee and I in filming and X,Jess and I between takes if there is any interest. It was truely a great experience and one that I treasure to this day.

It seems tio be the fullest version and contains scenes not in any of the otehrs I have seen. As an example, they filmed me laying down against a rock or something and said that would be shown during the credits. None of the other verisons I have seen have the full credits and leave that portion out.

My portion of the film was shot in Uliveto Terme, a little town outside Pisa, but I understand that much of the interior was done in Rome and the later scenes after the stage left Gila Bend were filmed outdoors near Rome, I think.


The scripts had several names and were available in multiple languages. One of the bounty hunteres was from what was then Yugoslavia and spoke Croation. A lot of Italian was spoken as you would imagine, and our scripts were in English. 

I did not see the film until the late 1970s, and have found several VHS tapes over the years, but now have the "Wild East" DVD, absolutely the best I've seen. Love the music.

While I do not have any contact info for Bob, a special thanks goes out to him for sharing his recollections to the LVC community!