(Revised)


Tasha Khoury realized one of her dreams of stardom when she was
offered the lead role in a Western movie set in the 1870s period, Trail
Ridin' Mama, to be filmed on cattle ranches in the Flagstaff, Arizona
area. The main production site would be Waterfall Canyon Ranch, a
combination tourist attraction and working ranch.  The movie plot was
 a story about a frontier woman searching for her missing cowboy husband, who had disappeared while on a cattle drive. It would be directed by epic film specialist C.B. DeFille and assistant director George "Gopher"Gutz. Although Tasha had limited acting experience and could not even ride a horse, the financial backers and the production company felt she was enough of a celebrity to draw an audience.

Alan Quickman also had business in Arizona, secret business. He had been instructed to investigate the suspicious activities of Florian da Silva, a wealthy Brazilian who owned the massive Diamantina Ranch near Flagstaff as well as a manufacturing company in the city.
Da Silva was known to be involved in the international underworld, but his criminal activities in Arizona were so well hidden that Alan hardly knew where to begin.

Nevertheless, Alan devised a scheme whereby he could investigate Florian in an unobtrusive way: Alan, himself a renowned actor, and every member of the SSC would go undercover in Arizona by getting jobs with the Trail Ridin' Mama movie. Since Diamantina adjoined Waterfall Canyon, and since Florian had given permission for some filming to be done on
Diamantina, this would put Alan and the SSC in a perfect position to spy on Florian. An added benefit was that they could keep an eye on Tasha and any new Suleimanite schemes she might devise.

Tasha and her entourage set off on a road trip from Nevada to Arizona, admiring the sights along the way. Tasha bought a Native American Horsehair Wedding Vase at a trading post, and when it was accidentally broken she discovered an old map of a gold mine inside. She asked Garth and Fred to get more information about the map.

Alan and the SSC arranged to rendezvous in Flagstaff, then attend the casting call at Waterfall Canyon.  All of them, plus several young men who showed up, were cast in the movie: Alan as gambler Philip Faraday, and the others as cowgirls, cowboys, outlaws and the sheriff.  Beth Hunter was cast as Tasha's stand-in and stunt double. A well-known actor, Erick
Schwize,  was cast as the Native American scout. Regarding the undercover operation, Erick had been recommended to Alan for his skill in criminal investigations.

Meanwhile, Florian da Silva and his foreman Faustino Carvalho discussed the disappearence of the German art forger Hans Richter, a man well known to Florian. A hit contract was put on Hans when someone in the organization discovered that he had passed secrets to Alan.  Hans was last seen alive near the border of Austria and Slovenia. Florian, who ranked high in the organization, had tried to stop the assassination but did not know whether Hans had survived.  Faustino informed Florian that Alan's spy
group was at Waterfall Canyon, though he did not know Alan's purpose.

Frank Delgado, owner of Waterfall Canyon, supervised the frenzied building of Old West sets for the movie town of Red Bluff. It included a saloon called the Wild Card, where Dame Kate had been invited to perform. Large numbers of movie people streamed onto the ranch and rented the tourist cabins, an operation managed by Frank's wife Elena.

Beth met a new man who was interested in her, cowboy stunt rider Sam Sackett. He was hired as a stunt double for the lead male actor and would also be the horse stunt coordinator. Sam's main job was to train Beth and the other actors to do trick riding stunts, including mounting a moving horse, firing rifles accurately from horseback, dangling upside down by one leg from the saddle, and falling off a horse without being injured. The budding romance was encouraged by Sam's good friend, the senior citizen cowboy Willie Bellaire. Sam, a tough instructor, immediately began working the actors to a frazzle.

Tasha began flirting with her co-star Daniel Marcus, who disliked her and dreaded the prospect of having to kiss her on camera. She also began complaining about everything: her costumes weren't sexy enough, she needed more coffee breaks, and she objected to some parts of the script. She insisted that she couldn't convincingly act as if she were in love with Daniel's character unless he was a man in uniform. Since director C.B. DeFille was very fond of Tasha and agreed to most of her demands, scriptwriter Leggy Barber was forced to change the character from a cowboy to a U.S. Cavalry officer. Tasha's only redeeming quality, as far as the cast and lower level crew are concerned, was that she liked animals. She was kind and friendly to the Australian Shepherd dog, Calamity, who had a part in the movie too.