INTERVIEW WITH JULIE ADAMS, UNIVERSAL’S QUEEN OF THE WEST, AT 3-D EXPO!

Van Heflin & Julie Adams in WINGS OF THE HAWK

Conducted September 7^th, 2013

For Hollywood, the 1950s and 60s were the era of the blonde bombshell.  But it was also a time of some striking brunettes, and few made a more lasting impression than the lady whose long black tresses and white one-piece swimsuit made her Fay Wray to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, Julie Adams. 

But Julie Adams was much more than catnip to a 3D lizard; a stunning beauty with a sultry voice that could portray sincerity or scheming, she always portrayed intelligence.  She was the thinking man’s western beauty, and her characters were rarely the type who just reloaded while her man fired out of the cabin window.  In at least fifteen Western features and dozens of Western TV episodes, she played the sort of strong three-dimensional women that previously only Barbara Stanwyck got to play – and sometimes she played them with Barbara Stanwyck!

And speaking of three-dimensional characters, she starred in two 3D movies, both of which are being featured in the WORLD 3D FILM EXPO III, which opened on Friday night at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, and will run for ten days.  CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON played on Saturday night, and on this Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm, WINGS OF THE HAWK will be shown.  This Budd Beotticher-directed classic is rarely seen in any version, and it’s been years since it played in 3D.   Miss Adams, who stars with Van Heflin in the film, will attend, and take part in a Q&A.  She will also be signing her autobiography, THE LUCKY SOUTHERN STAR – REFLECTIONS FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, which I will be reviewing here shortly.  In it she discusses, along with CREATURE, and her other films, all of her Western movies, and many of her TV appearances.

After some parts in early live TV, and before she became a contract star at Universal, she cut her celluloid teeth working in Westerns for the small independent, Lippert Pictures.  She graciously spent an hour talking to me until she had to rush off for her BLACK LAGOON screening.     

HENRY PARKE:  Miss Adams, it’s great to talk to you.  I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time, and oddly enough, I like your westerns even more than I like THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON.

JULIE ADAMS: Well that’s great, because I love doing westerns.  I loved seeing western movies when I was a kid, so my dream came true, and I actually got to act in westerns, and ride those beautiful horses. 

HENRY:  Before you started acting in them, what westerns did you like in particular?

JULIE:  I loved them all.  I went to Saturday westerns mostly, with different stars, but I was more in love with the horses than the actors.  I loved the stories, I loved the outdoors.  I just loved it all.

HENRY:  As far as I know, the first western you did was with Don ‘Red’ Barry, THE DALTON GANG, in 1949. 

JULIE:  You’re absolutely right.

HENRY:  Don Barry’s always been a personal favorite of mine.  What was he like to work with?

JULIE:  I loved to work with him; he was wonderful.  A very nice fellow, extremely polished in the western genre. 

HENRY:  You did a half dozen Westerns for an independent company, Lippert Pictures, in 1950.  I understand that they were shot simultaneously, with the same casts.  They’d do the saloon scenes for all six films, then the ranch house scenes for all six, and so forth. That must have been a crash course in acting.

JULIE:  Well, it was exciting.  Because we did six or seven westerns in just five weeks.  So it was exciting, and it was extremely concentrated.  It was great training for me, because you didn’t have time to think about things too much; just went and did it! (laughs)  I went out and took some riding lessons before I started.  Within the western genre, the horses that are trained for westerns are so easy to ride; you can guide them, and they respond to anything you do, whichever way you want to go.  Horses can really make you look good. 

HENRY: In 1952 you were under contract to Universal Pictures, and you starred with Jimmy Stewart in one of the legendary Stewart and director Anthony Mann collaborations, BEND OF THE RIVER.  Which was quite a substantial step up from Lippert.  What was Anthony Mann like to work with?

James Stewart and Julie in BEND OF THE RIVER

JULIE:  Anthony Mann was really a wonderful director.  He knew what he was doing, and he knew what he wanted, and he made you feel very secure.  You had a good man at the head of the chain.  Everything he directed you to do made sense.  He really knew the western genre so well.  I was very happy working with him; I loved doing BEND OF THE RIVER, and of course to work with James Stewart was great. 

HENRY:  The first action in the film is your character, Laura, getting shot with an arrow.  Which was really unexpected – you don’t usually shoot the beautiful people early; you shoot the little guys.  Laura is so tough and resourceful – much more than you expect western women of that movie era to be. 

JULIE:  I loved that, because I had done some of the Lippert westerns where the women were more – well, the guys were just looking after them.  I loved that she was that active, and could take care of herself.

HENRY:  Almost twenty years after that you were again starring with James Stewart in THE JIMMY STEWART SHOW. 

JULIE:  Oh yes!  Well, my idea of heaven was going to work with Jimmy Stewart every day for six months.  He was a wonderful actor and a wonderful man.  A charming person, very easy to work with and just so good at what he did.  He was a wonderful screen actor, or course.  I enjoyed it enormously.

HENRY:  How did you like Jay C. Flippen, who played your father? 

JULIE:  Jay was a great guy – funny and fun and great to work with. 

HENRY:  In real life, would you have had a hard time choosing between Jimmy Stewart and Arthur Kennedy?

JULIE:  (laughs)  Fortunately I never had to make that decision. 

HENRY:  HORIZONS WEST was the first of three exceptional westerns you starred in for Budd Boetticher, followed by MAN FROM THE ALAMO, and a film featured in the current 3D expo, WINGS OF THE HAWK.  Boetticher frequently used his male stars again and again, but not his leading ladies.  I’m wondering, what made you different, that he used you so often?

JULIE:  I don’t know; I guess he just thought that I fit into the Westerns very well.  And also, in one of them I did a great deal of riding.  I think he was impressed that I could do that.  We got along very well, very well indeed.  And I love to work, so we had a good time, and it was exciting.

Shades of LAURA -- Julie with her portrait

in HORIZONS WEST

HENRY:  In HORIZONS WEST, you’re married to despicable Raymond Burr. 

JULIE: (laughs) He was really a lovely man!

HENRY:  As with Jimmy Stewart, you later worked with him frequently on PERRY MASON. 

Julie guesting with Raymond Burr on PERRY MASON

JULIE:  I worked with him on IRONSIDES, too.  He was also with me on the USO Tour of Korea.  He was just wonderful.  I still get a lot of mail about THE CASE OF THE DEADLY VERDICT, the case that Perry Mason lost.  I was supposed to go to the electric chair, but they finally solved it at the last minute, so I didn’t have to get executed.  It’s a very popular episode in law schools – they all love that one! 

HENRY:  Like Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher was one of the giants of the Western.

JULIE:  Boetticher was fun to work with, because he was so into the action of it all, to make things exciting.  In other Westerns they’d take more time for the plot, and other things, but Boetticher loved the action, and I enjoyed that too.  He was a very good director for westerns, because he knew how to keep it going; keep it all moving.  You slow down, and people, viewers, drop out. 

HENRY:  In WINGS OF THE HAWK, how did you like playing a Mexican Revolutionary? 

JULIE:  I loved it!  (laughs) Only thing I didn’t like  was going to make-up and getting that black greasepaint put in my hair every day.  Bud Westmore did my make-up, and Joan St. Oegger did my hair.  The two heads of the department really fixed me up for that role.  So they wouldn’t have to dye my hair, she put black greasepaint in the edges of my hair, and pinned it back, and on top I had two black switches, so it looked like I had a lot of hair.  They were very very good in make-up and hair in Universal.  I loved the character, and I had a great outfit to wear – the clothes were great – and I got to go out with a wrangler.  At Universal they had wranglers to help people out.  And I rode Pie, the horse that James Stewart always rode; I got a great horse to ride.  I went on every day for three weeks.  And I learned to do running dismounts and all sorts of things on the horse.   So I had a great time. 

HENRY:  I believe that was your first 3D movie – there’re not too many people who have, like you, done more than one.  What challenges did the 3D process present? 

JULIE:  It was all up to the camera people.  As far as acting went, I felt comfortable because we played the scenes as always.  All the 3D problems had nothing to do with me; that was there problem, to make the 3D work.  But I enjoyed it as I enjoyed everything.

HENRY:  How did you like working with Van Heflin?

JULIE:  What a wonderful actor Van Heflin was – I loved working with him.  He was a charming man, and just a fine actor.  So I loved playing scenes with him; I liked him as a person. 

HENRY:  How did you like working with Glenn Ford in THE MAN FROM THE ALAMO? 

Julie and Glenn Ford in MAN FROM THE ALAMO

JULIE:  Once again, a real pro, and very good.  He was not, I don’t know, quite as loose and charming as some of the other actors.  But very good at his job, and I enjoyed working with him.  He was very good in the picture. 

HENRY:  You co-starred six times with Rock Hudson, four of them westerns.  How did you like working with him?

JULIE:  Rock Hudson was a pal, a great friend.  We worked together in BEND OF THE RIVER, where Rock and Lori Nelson and I were the young people, and after that there was such a big audience reaction that they put Rock and me together in THE LAWLESS BREED as the stars. 

HENRY:  With Rock as John Wesley Hardin. 

Rock Hudson and Julie in THE LAWLESS BREED

JULIE:  I had great fun playing a dancehall girl.  I got to have sort of a drop-shoulder thing, and I was serving up drinks at the bar to men, and that was fun.

HENRY:  Universal seemed very careful to give you really good wardrobes all the time.  Your clothes are just so striking.

JULIE:  For that we have to give credit to the Universal people, to Rosemary Odell, who designed most of the clothes – and they made them right up in wardrobe.  They did a great job; that wonderful department.  They made sketches of the costumes, that were submitted to the producer and the director and me, and then they were custom-made. 

HENRY: Hugh O’Brien had supporting roles in three of your westerns before WYATT EARP made him a star.  Did he seem to have star-potential back then?

JULIE:  In those days, we never thought about that exactly, when we were working.  I wasn’t a big star in it: I was the girl in it, and Hugh always did his job well, and later I was delighted when he got a show of his own.  Hugh O’Brien actually was with us at the MAN FROM THE ALAMO screening at The Egyptian back in February.  He’s got a good part in ALAMO; he’s a good actor. 

Julie's pinned with a flaming arrow in

THE STAND AT APACHE RIVER

HENRY:  After CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, you started branching out into many other kinds of stories that were not Westerns.  Were you glad to get out of a rut?

JULIE:  Because I grew up as a kid loving westerns, I never felt that I was in a rut when I was in a Western; I felt very much at home, and had a good time doing it.  But I was also delighted to expand my genre, to work in other kinds of films, with other kinds of actors.  I just plain love to work.

HENRY: In the fifties and sixties you guest-starred on many western series – CHEYENNE, MAVERICK YANCY DERRINGER, BONANZA, BIG VALLEY, THE RIFLEMAN, THE VIRGINIAN.  Were any particularly memorable? 

JULIE:  The three that really stand out are Nora, in THE RIFLEMAN, where I play a mysterious woman from McCain’s – that’s Chuck Connors – past.  There was The Courtship episode of BONANZA, where I’m engaged to Hoss briefly, before they find out I’ve got a gambling addiction.  I had scenes with each of the BONANZA stars, interrogating me.  They didn’t want me to marry Hoss and gamble away the Ponderosa! Then there’s The Emperor of Rice episode of THE BIG VALLEY.  I’ve got a showdown with Barbara Stanwyck, in a basement fire, coming through the smoke.  I was pushing Barbara Stanwyck around.  Those three kind of helped me break out of that ‘good girl’ image at I had in the Universal westerns. 

HENRY:  How did you like Chuck Connors?

JULIE:  I liked him a lot; very good at his job, and a really nice fellow.

HENRY:  Aside from those three, were there any western TV shows that were particular favorites?

JULIE:  I did two MAVERICKs with Jack Kelly that were fun. 

HENRY:  Was the pace of TV production a lot faster than feature work?

JULIE:  Well, of course, but there was really not a lot of difference, because I prepared the same way all the time.  I tried to get the character as fully developed as I could, whoever she was.  And so I’d just kind of take it in stride. 

HENRY:  In 1959 you starred opposite Joel McCrea playing Bat Masterson in THE GUNFIGHT AT 

DODGE CITY.  What was McCrea like to work with?

JULIE:  I can only say it was absolutely wonderful, because he was such a pro at what he was doing.  So you could completely relax, and just play your part.  He was very much at home in the western genre, and he was so good.  I guess I just loved to work, and I was very lucky I worked with so many good people.  Joel McCrea was the real McCoy – he was just what you saw on the screen.  Very handsome, and fun to work with.  I met his grandson, Wyatt McCrea, in Arizona this past March.  A very sweet guy who loves westerns, too. 

Julie with Elvis in TICKLE ME

HENRY:  I understand you did a movie with Elvis.

JULIE:  TICKLE ME.  I run a dude ranch, and he works at the dude ranch.  It’s like the boss and the secretary: I called him into my office and chased him around the desk.  What a delightful young man.

WORLD 3D FILM EXPO III CONTINUES AT THE EGYPTIAN

The festival of 3D movies which began on Friday night with John Wayne in HONDO will continue through next Sunday night – ten days and nights of things flying at you from the screen!  Of particular interest to Western fans is TAZA – SON OF COCHISE, on Wednesday, at 4:15 pm.  This Douglas Sirk – directed western stars Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, and Rex Reason. 

And of course, on Friday, at 3:30 pm, WINGS OF THE HAWK, directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Van Heflin and Julie Adams will screen – and Julie Adams will be there to answer questions, and sign her book – see details in the interview above.    To see a complete schedule for the Expo, go HERE.

‘FISTFUL OF DOLLARS’ SATURDAY SEPT. 14^TH AT THE AUTRY

As part of the Autry’s ‘What is a Western?’ series, the film that rejuvenated an aging and ailing genre, Sergio Leone’s ‘A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS’ will screen at 1:30 pm.  While in much of Europe, the original ‘DJANGO’ was the more celebrated, it is impossible to overstate the influence of ‘FISTFUL’, and the Man in Black trilogy as a whole, on American and European Western films.  There is virtually no Western film to come after, including the work of Sam Peckinpah  and Don Seigal, that was not measurably affected by Leone.  Incidentally, on October 12^th, they’ll screen ‘FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE’, and on November 2^nd, ‘THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY.’  While you’re at the Autry, check out the IMAGINATION GALLERY, with many artifacts on display relating to Leone, Clint Eastwood, and their films.

AND THAT’S A WRAP

That’s it for this weekend’s Round-up.  If you’re in L.A. this week, I urge you to check out the 3D Expo, and FISTFUL at the Autry.  The chance to see movies the way they are meant to be seen, on a big screen, with a 35mm print, are getting more and more rare.  Don’t pass ‘em up!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright September 2013 by Henry C. Parke – All Right Reserved

 

WEST OF THE PODCAST

(Updated Thursday 12/2/2010 see SCREENINGS - LITTLE BIG MAN)
About a year ago at this time, I had just finished reading THE GIFT OF THE MAGI to a 4th grade class, and I told them that its author, O. Henry, was also the creator of The Cisco Kid. It’s the sort of dumb thing I often say to kids – it means as much as telling them, “Aristophanes also wrote ‘The Clouds.’” But to my surprise and delight, a girl said, “Really? I love the Cisco Kid!”
“Where have you seen the Cisco Kid?” I asked.
To my yet greater astonishment, she replied, “I haven’t seen him. I love the radio show. My dad has a collection of them, and when we go on driving trips, he brings them along and plays them.” If you’ve never heard radio drama, or if you have kids who haven’t been exposed to it yet, it’s time.

I’m a big fan of old time radio, or OTR, as the aficionados call it. I mostly listen in transit – on tape or CD, depending on what the car in question plays – and the biggest problem I have with it is the cost. Good collections, which I’ve reviewed in the past and no doubt will again, generally cost $29 and up – a considerable investment for shows I’ll only listen to once – at least only once every few years.

But the good news is that a tremendous amount of great OTR programming – including great Western programming – is available absolutely free online. If you have an iPod, iPhone, or any other gadget that can play mp3 files, you’re good to go – I’ll tell in a moment how to hook yourself up. The reason that these shows are available for free is that most radio shows were never copyrighted: they’re in the public domain. In fact, many radio shows were performed and broadcast live, and never professionally recorded at radio stations; they’d be lost if they hadn’t been copied by fans with amateur equipment.

One of the great podcast-sharing benefactors is known as ‘Botar’ – if you search that name on-line or in the iTunes Store podcast directory, you’ll find a ton of shows, including some of the best Westerns. He told me, “My grandfather used to read through Louis L’amour novels like they were candy. I grew up in Denver, Colorado, and all my kin live in Nebraska, so I do have a little western blood in me. Tales of the Texas Rangers was one of the first OTR series that I fell in love with. Then I started listening to Fort Laramie, and thought that it was the greatest.” It didn’t hurt that, as a child, he’d spent time in both Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Each series he found he liked better than the one before. “Then I found Six Shooter, started listening to Frontier Gentleman, then Have Gun Will Travel. And now I’m sixty shows deep into the 480 episodes of Gunsmoke, and I think it was the best OTR series ever.”

(pictures, top to bottom: Gunsmoke cast, William Conrad, Geirgia Ellis, Howard McNear, Parley Baer - as they looked doing the show; as we imagined them; Raymond Burr in his Fort Laramie days; John Dehner in his radio guise; John Dehner onscreen; James Stewart doing a radio show with Roy and Dale; James Stwart in Winchester 73; Young Buffalo Bill poster; two more Chiefs from the series)

Why did he get involved with podcasting? “My website evolved out of frustration at the amount of money ‘they’ charged for OTR CDs, and the free but incomplete and low quality OTR shows available in the early days of ‘peer 2 peer’ (i.e. napster, etc.) sharing. So I keep my site free of charge, and use podcasting to keep OTR listening and collecting as painless as possible.”

For those not familiar with those series mentioned – all of which are available as free podcasts, Tales of the Texas Rangers is a western crime series, based on Texas Rangers files, and starring Joel McCrea as Ranger Jayce Pearson. Six Shooter, starring James Stewart as Britt Ponsett, is a sometimes serious, sometimes light-hearted series about a man famous for his speed with a gun, but who tries not to use it. It later moved to television as The Restless Gun, starring John Payne. Have Gun Will Travel went the opposite direction: already a popular TV series starring Richard Boone, a radio version was created, starring John Dehner in the role of Palladin. Frontier Gentleman had the unusual premise of following a reporter for the London Times as he travelled across the American west, writing his column. This series also starred John Dehner, who rarely tried to sound British, but settled for ‘classy,’ which is how he always sounded. Fort Laramie starred pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr as Lee Quince, Captain of Cavalry at the Fort, and was pretty dark, adult western stuff.

How do you get the shows? Go to the iTune store and click ‘podcasts.’ In the search window on the upper right, type the title of the show of your choice, followed by the word ‘botar,’ and you’ll be directed to a page where you can choose from at least forty shows from each series, whether you wish to get single episodes, several, or to subscribe and get them weekly – if they’re currently being posted weekly. If you have an iPhone, you need to purchase an ap that’ll cost you two bucks, but that’s it. Otherwise, just like all podcasts, they’re free.

If you’re looking for a wider mix of shows, shows for the whole family, or the classic Gunsmoke, you’ll need to search for programs provided by a company known variously as Radio Nostalgia Network and HD Productions. They offer a regular podcast of Cisco Kid, and one of The Lone Ranger. And of course, they offer the finest of all Western radio series, Gunsmoke, with Matt Dillon portrayed by William Conrad, considered by many (like me for instance) to be the best radio actor of all time. Under the title Western Wednesdays is a wide variety of shows, from Roy Rogers to Tom Mix to Gene Autry, and a host of others. Often you can’t tell what you’re getting until you’ve downloaded it, but that’s part of the fun. They’ve also recently added a few TV episodes, from Wagon Train and Stories of the Century, an early Republic series. Under the titles Wagons West and Cowboy Theatre you’ll find other varied western selections.

I’ve focused on the two outfits who put out the most western shows, and whose material I’ve listened to for a few years. But there are others, and it’s worth searching around, especially if you have a specific want that’s hard to find. For instance, if you want to listen to William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy, the bad news is that no one is doing a regular podcast. But the good news is, if you search under ‘Hopalong Cassidy podcast’ you’ll find 35 individual episodes posted by different outfits.

So happy listening, and if you give OTR podcasts a try, let me know how your experience was.

RFD-TV CONTINUES ROY ROGERS FLICKS WITH ‘YOUNG BUFFALO BILL’

This Saturday, December 4th it’s Young Buffalo Bill (1940), again directed by the great Joe Kane, and featuring Gabby Hayes, and a tale of dubious Spanish land grants. And there’s still another airing or two of this week’s West of the Badlands (aka Border Legion). Dusty and Dustin continue their hosting duties from Mickey Gilley’s Theatre in Branson, and the program wraps up with musical clips of Roy and Dale, and Dusty and the High Riders performing.

And because it’s not too late to correct problems in future episodes, I’m going to make a couple of suggestions. First, giving the cast and crew at the beginning helps get you in the mood, but they’re giving so much of the plot away that, unless you plug your ears and yell (like I do), you’ll know so much going in that there’s no sense in watching it. Second, considering that almost all the commercials are selling Bullet and Trigger gear and subscriptions to the RFD-TV magazine, is it also necessary to have additional ads for those subscriptions running, during the movie, on the bottom of the screen, for minutes at a time?

Also on RFD-TV Wednesday Dec. 1st at 12:30 pm on Equestrian Nation, you can see Roy Rogers in one of his last interviews.


INDIAN CHIEF CIGARETTE INSERT CARDS

Here are the next two cigarette insert cards in the set I started running last week. The actual cards measure 1 ½” by 2 ¾ ”, and are the ‘Celebrated American Indian Chiefs’ collection, from Allen & Ginter of Richmond, Virginia, and date from 1888. The cards are so beautiful that I’ve decided to share the fifty-card set with the Round-up readers, two at a time. I hope you enjoy them.

D. W. GRIFFITH SCREENING

Monday, November 29th, the Academy will present GRIFFITH IN CALIFORNIA – HOLLYWOOD’S EARLIEST FILMS FROM A CENTURY AGO at the Linwood Dunn Theatre. The bad news is that the show is sold out, but the good news is that there are always some no-shows, and people who show up early usually get in. For more details, CLICK HERE.

SCREENING - 'LITTLE BIG MAN' AT THE NEW BEVERLY THURSDAY

In tribute to the late Arthur Penn and the late Dede Allen, the New Beverly Cinema will screen a double bill of BONNIE AND CLYDE and LITTLE BIG MAN. They play at 7:30 and 9:45 respectively. I have great respect for both filmmakers, loved Bonnie and Clyde, but much as I enjoyed Chief Dan George, I absolutely despised Little Big Man. But hey, it's all subjective.

THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepeneur Gene Autry, and designed by the Disney Imagineering team, the Autry is a world-class museum housing a fascinating collection of items related to the fact, fiction, film, history and art of the American West. In addition to their permenant galleries (to which new items are frequently added), they have temporary shows. The Autry has many special programs every week -- sometimes several in a day. To check their daily calendar, CLICK HERE. And they always have gold panning for kids every weekend. For directions, hours, admission prices, and all other information, CLICK HERE.

HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first Hollywood western, The Squaw Man. They have a permanent display of movie props, documents and other items related to early, especially silent, film production. They also have occasional special programs. 2100 Highland Ave., L.A. CA 323-874-2276. Thursday – Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for adults, $3 for senior, $1 for children.

WELLS FARGO HISTORY MUSEUM

This small but entertaining museum gives a detailed history of Wells Fargo when the name suggested stage-coaches rather than ATMS. There’s a historically accurate reproduction of an agent’s office, an original Concord Coach, and other historical displays. Open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Admission is free. 213-253-7166. 333 S. Grand Street, L.A. CA.


FREE WESTERNS ON YOUR COMPUTER AT HULU

A staggering number of western TV episodes and movies are available, entirely free, for viewing on your computer at HULU. You do have to sit through the commercials, but that seems like a small price to pay. The series available -- often several entire seasons to choose from -- include THE RIFLEMAN, THE CISCO KID, THE LONE RANGER, BAT MASTERSON, THE BIG VALLEY, ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, and one I missed from 2003 called PEACEMAKERS starring Tom Berenger. Because they are linked up with the TV LAND website, you can also see BONANZA and GUNSMOKE episodes, but only the ones that are running on the network that week.

The features include a dozen Zane Grey adaptations, and many or most of the others are public domain features. To visit HULU on their western page, CLICK HERE.

TV LAND - BONANZA and GUNSMOKE

Every weekday, TV LAND airs a three-hour block of BONANZA episodes from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They run a GUNSMOKE Monday through Thursday at 10:00 a.m., and on Friday they show two, from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m.. They're not currently running either series on weekends, but that could change at any time.

NEED YOUR BLACK & WHITE TV FIX?

Check out your cable system for WHT, which stands for World Harvest Television. It's a religious network that runs a lot of good western programming. Your times may vary, depending on where you live, but weekdays in Los Angeles they run DANIEL BOONE at 1:00 p.m., and two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.. On Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. it's THE RIFLEMAN again, followed at 2:30 by BAT MASTERSON. And unlike many stations in the re-run business, they run the shows in the original airing order. There's an afternoon movie on weekdays at noon, often a western, and they show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

That's it for now, pards. I've got a few interesting things cooking for the next few report, but I'm not gonna jinx myself for talking about them before they're a done deal.

Henry

All Contents Copyright November 2010 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved