12/18/2025
Another Tuolumne County film!
Arthur Krim of United Artists agreed to finance "Bound for Glory" (1976) on the basis of director Hal Ashby's reputation, even before a star had signed on.
Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson both turned down the role of Woody Guthrie. Richard Dreyfuss was considered. Tim Buckley was going to be offered the part but died of a drug overdose. Ashby interviewed David Carradine but turned him down, in part because he felt Carradine was too tall. However, over time he reconsidered. "He had the right rural look and the musicianship," said Ashby. "And he had a ‘to hell with you’ attitude."
Ashby later said Carradine's "to hell with you" attitude did cause him some problems during filming. "Once, when we were doing a scene, some migrant workers marched by. David started marching with them. By the time we found him, he was two miles away; and he had held up shooting for three hours.”
The railroad scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railroad. Ashby wanted a "big" freight train for the movie, as opposed to the shorter trains commonly used in filmmaking. The railroad assembled a train of 34 freight cars. Scenes taking place on the Texas panhandle that did not include views of a locomotive were filmed near Stockton, California, using diesel locomotives. Scenes showing locomotives utilized three steam locomotives owned by the Sierra Railroad, and were filmed in and around Oakdale, California, and the roundhouse scenes were filmed at what is now Railtown 1897 in Jamestown, California.
