Reverend Leonard Eilers (June 23, 18981996), the "Preachin' Cowboy" or the "Christian Cowboy," was a traveling storyteller, preacher, and short-lived actor and Hollywood cameraman who established North Rim Ranch, also known as Eilers Ranch, in the San Fernando enclave of the San Fernando Valley in 1942. His camerawork included Victor Fleming's 1928 Abie's Irish Rose and Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 version of The Ten Commandments. Early life Eilers was born in Dodge, Nebraska and was nine months old when his father died. He was then raised by his grandmother in South Dakota until his mother remarried, from which point he went to live with his mother and stepfather on a Nebraskan farm; they later moved to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was inspired from a young age by a Wild West show in which there were rope tricks performed; this informed his interest in becoming a bonafide cowboy, an interest he began pursuing as a 17-year-old on the Laramie plains; at Frontier Park, Wyoming; and Diamond Ranch in Rock River, Wyoming, followed by time spent in Denver, Colorado and Nevada. Career Bringing his skills as a cowboy to Hollywood, Eilers began appearing in films, primarily Westerns, not long after his move to California in 1922. However, Eilers found that Hollywood was full of "1,000 other cowboys like me," so he took to waiting tables and eventually transitioned to work as a cameraman, working under contract with Paramount on films such as Victor Fleming's Abie's Irish Rose and Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 version of The Ten Commandments. A piece of his writing on the technical aspects of photography equipment survives in a June 1927 Popular Mechanics issue. Eilers eventually soured on the lifestyle demanded of movie business participants, turning to a synthesis of his passion for his skills as a cowboy and his devotion to Christianity to make his living. He attended the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA) for two years, graduated, and helped build Hollywood's First Presbyterian Church, marrying the church secretary, Frances Keables, in 1926. They had two biological children, Leonard Eilers, Jr., and Joy Eilers (b. Feb. 13, 1934), and foster children. He began evangelizing, disseminating publications under the umbrella of Round-Up For God, with leaflets like "Go West, Young Man," "Breaking Into the Movies," and "Sing As You Ride." He also began touring the United States and Europe with his rope tricks, stories,