Billy Jack Goes to Washington Snapshots - Part 1

I haven’t shown much of ‘Billy Jack Goes to Washington‘ or talked much about it, so I’m going to make up for it this week. I’ll focus on a whole collection of snapshots taken by Delores Taylor.

‘Billy Jack Goes to Washington‘ was a remake of Frank Capra’s film classic ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington‘ starring Jimmy Stewart. BJGW was an update that took place in current day (1977) and focused on corruption in the nuclear industry. The film had many well known stars (which we’ll see in following days), many carryover characters from previous Billy Jack films, and a few newcomers. One newcomer was Lucy Arnaz, the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Although Lucy had grown up on TV and had probably been in front of a camera more than any person on the film, she’d never made a movie before. BJGW was her first. Lucy turned in an amazing performance as the effervescent and all-knowing Saunders.

In these photos Tom Laughlin is chatting with Lucy on the front lawn of Tom and Delores’ home in Brentwood, California, where many of the scenes were shot (low location fees and big tax write offs!).