Situated on the grassy plains of Armstrong County, the picturesque Texas town of Claude has for decades enjoyed its reputation as “The Movie Capital of the Panhandle,” thanks to three films: “Hud,” “Sunshine Christmas” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”One of the best movies of the early 1960s was the acclaimed western, “Hud,” starring screen idol Paul Newman. Shot on location in Claude and nearby Goodnight, the Paramount Pictures film is a gritty black-and-white character- driven drama. Many residents of the area were involved and affected by the Hollywood hubbub over a period of several weeks in the spring and summer of 1962.The movie was based on Pulitzer-Prize-winning Texas author Larry McMurtry’s 1961 book, “Horseman, Pass By,” about the struggle of 1950s cattlemen dealing with challenging times. Newman plays antihero Hud Bannon, “the man with the barbed-wire soul,” opposite Melvyn Douglas as Hud’s kind-hearted father Homer, with Brandon deWilde as Hud’s impressionable nephew Lonnie. Patricia Neal plays devoted housekeeper Alma.Hollywood stars and scores of filmmakers arrived in Amarillo in May of 1962 and registered at the Ramada Inn on Route 66. Extra security was arranged to deter girls from driving through the parking lot looking for heartthrob Newman.Claude, a half-hour drive southeast of Amarillo down US 287, was temporarily renamed Vernal, and new signs identified streets and stores.Famed director Martin Ritt even changed the sign on Claude’s water tower to Vernal.