JACK ELLIOTT, WILD WEST CHRONICLES’S BAT MASTERSON, TALKS SEASON 6, PLUS BIRTHDAYS & MORE!

 

Jack Elliott as Bat Masterson in Wild West Chronicles

Photo by Morgan Weistling, courtesy INSP

Updated July2, 2026

Updaed July 5, 2026

Season 6 of INSP’s Wild West Chronicles is just about in the can – or on the chip, or whatever we should be calling it now. The series examines the lives of real-life westerners, from legends to the undeservedly obscure, through the eyes of lawman-turned-reporter Bat Masterson. He’s portrayed by Jack Elliott, and the show is exciting, entertaining and factually informative without being overtly educational. In other words, you’ll have fun, and you’ll probably learn something without intending to. 

With each episode built around a new character, Jack Elliott’s performance as Bat is the glue that holds the show together. Beyond his notable resemblance to the real man, Elliot is engaging, amusing, and brings an understated gravitas to the role: without showing off, you buy him as lawman you wouldn’t want to cross. About a week ago, I visited him on the Wild West Chronicles set, in a Western movie town near Chatsworth, and asked him how many times he’d portrayed Bat Masterson so far.

Bat (Jack Elliott) pounds the keys instead of the street

as he segues from lawman to journalist

(Courtest INSP)

 

Jack Elliott: I think this one we're shooting today is 63. By the end of the season we'll have 65.

Henry Parke: When you started in that role, did you think you still be playing him, six years and six seasons later?

Jack Elliott: No. Honestly, with the way most productions go, when we shot the pilot, I was thinking, this will probably be the last I hear or see of this character, and these people. Then when we got picked up, it was kind of a shocker, and then we just kept getting picked up. So every season you kind of think it might be the last one.

Jack Elliott between takes

(photo by Parke)

Henry Parke: Because in this business, usually it is.

Jack Elliott: <laugh>. Mostly it is, yeah. Gary (Tarpinian), our E.P. (Executive Producer) is really good about the statistics of how many shows go from season one to a season two, and it just drops progressively as each season goes by. It's a fraction of a percent of shows that even go to a season two, let alone a season six.

Henry Parke: Which raises the question of why does this one keep going on? Why has Wild West Chronicles not gone away, or jumped the shark?

Jack Elliott: For me it's just the fact that there's so many stories from the Old West. There's so many great characters, and moments that we can pull from. Even though it was like a 30-year period that the Old West was going on, so much happened, so much expansion in the United States. So many different big characters were alive. So I think just being able to pull from so many different places has kept it going. And then also the fans; people love this show. I get fan mail from Northern Ireland, from all over the world. One of my favorites was a gentleman in his twenties, and he wrote, I just wanna thank you. This show is what my grandparents and I bond over every week. We meet up on Thursday nights, we'll make dinner. We sit down and we watch Wild West Chronicles. So thank you for giving us a reason to get together. <laugh>. I think it kind of resonates with people. I also think the West, especially the true stories, that is our legacy as Americans. We haven't been around that long. So to have something that we can all kind of pull from, it resonates with people.

Director Michael Ojeda watching a take 

from the "video Village"

(Photo by Parke)

Henry Parke: When people recognize you, are there particular episodes that they want to talk about?

Jack Elliott: People love Doc Susie (Dr. Susan Anderson) which, as you know, is what, Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman was based on. Different episodes resonate with different people. A good friend of mine, a pen pal when I was a kid, became an elementary school teacher in New Orleans. She teaches history, and Wild West Chronicles has become a part of their curriculum. She said that a lot of the kids were blown away. Some black kids in her class had no idea there were black cowboys. So just kind of expanding people's world and what the West actually looked like, which is a lot of different folks.

Dr. Susie (Nicole Tompkins) treats an ailing Bat 

(Jack Elliott) in Dr. Susan Anderson: Frontier Medicine Woman

(courtesy INSP)

Henry Parke: Are people surprised that Bat Masterson is a real person?

Jack Elliott: Very much so. Because the life he lived was so epic, if you really dive into it, which I have. He was a renaissance man in the true sense of the word. He kept reinventing himself, kept trying different things. And I think that's kind of inspirational to people. It's almost too big for life. Some people can't believe, like you'd be a cowboy, and a lawman and all of these things for 40 years, and then move to New York, live on Broadway, write stories and hang out with Teddy Roosevelt. I think it's a little hard for people to believe.

Henry Parke: He's bigger than life.

Jack Elliott: Truly.

The real Bat Masterson

(Courtesy True West)

Henry Parke: As you've gone along, delving into Bat Masterson's life, what sort of things have influenced how you play him? What things have you picked up that widen your knowledge of him?

Jack Elliott as Bat

(photo by Morgan Weistling, courtesy INSP)

Jack Elliott: When I grew up, one of the things my dad and I bonded over was Westerns; we watched a lot of Western movies. So I definitely draw from that: it's in my genes at this point, the knowledge. As an actor, if you've got a body of material available, which Bat does, you just kind of go through it and take as much as you can. And little pieces will pop out. Like, oh, he was all about the truth. Oh, he really had a great moral compass. Just little things like that you kind of pull from and put in your tool bag as an actor. And then also, as an actor going into this, I was thinking, Bat is the through-line of this show. How am I gonna keep it interesting? How am I gonna be somebody that people are willing to come back to every week and watch? It's not like, oh, here's this guy again. It's like, oh yeah, here's that crazy uncle telling stories I can't wait to hear. You know? So for me, a big part of it is is that had to be somebody that people could relate to, that people found interesting and they looked forward to seeing.

Henry Parke: How about keeping it interesting for yourself, season after season?

Jack Elliott: For me, it has been very interesting, as an actor, to be able to sit with it, with him, for this long. It's like putting on a pair of boots. It's riding a bike again. It really has become part of my DNA. As an actor, I don't think you can separate yourself from the characters fully. I think your life informs the character as much as the character's life informs the character. So I definitely find myself having a little less tolerance for baloney, <laugh> a little more like ‘just the facts, ma'am,’ in my daily life. So I definitely, as the human being, Jack Elliott, I have pulled from Bat, inadvertently. But it's been such a gift. It's been really cool to get to know him. I've grown with Bat over the years.

Henry Parke: Over the years, as you have gotten to know him, have you had much input into the scripts?

An intense scene from Marhsal Garfias Faces the Mob, 

written by Jack Elliott

(Courtesy of INSP)

Jack Elliott: Yeah, actually I wrote a spec script just off the cuff a couple years ago. Because there was a character that I wanted to see portrayed in the show. And we didn't end up using that script, but it gave them an inkling that I knew what I was doing writing-wise, so they offered me a writing gig on season four. I got to actually do my research on John Wesley Harden, and then write an entire episode. I've written two now, but that's about as much input as you can ask for.

Henry Parke: You had pointed out to me that every episode you have a different guest star you're working with. Do you have any favorites?

From Doc Susie's Oath, Nicole Tompkins in her wedding gown

(Courtesy INSP)

Jack Elliott: You know, as a good father, you can't have any favorites, wink, wink, <laugh>. But Nicole Tompkins, who plays Doc Susie, is one of my favorites. She's been back for two or three episodes now. You know, good acting in a good scene is like sparring, like you're throwing a couple punches, they're throwing a couple punches. So to get to play with somebody like Nicole is always an absolute joy, especially when they come back multiple times. There's been quite a few actors that have come in and just kind of blown everybody's minds. Like, okay, this person is the character, and those always just make the best scenes to shoot, so much fun, because then you find little nuances in the scene. They're comfortable, they're killing it. They know their character, and then you can play with it within the scene and find nuances that you didn't even know were there.

Henry Parke: Anything interesting coming up in the near future?

Jack Elliott: Well, I'm always pulling and hoping for a season seven, and from the get-go, they've talked about a Bat Masterson movie. I keep prodding them with that.

The date for the beginning of season 6 of Wild West Chronicles has not yet been announced, so keep reading the Round-up for updates!

JUNE BIRTHDAYS!

I've had the privilege of interviewing three Western film icons who celebrated birthdays in June. Here are the links to read them. 

HAPPY 91^ST BIRTHDAY MONTE MARKHAM!

Here’s my interview with him from the Lone Pine Film Festival!https://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2025/06/happy-90th-birthday-monte-markham-heres.html 

HAPPY 86^TH BIRTHDAY TO MARIETTE HARTLEY!

Here's my True West interview with her!

https://www.truewestmagazine.com/article/hartley-of-the-west/

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON WOULD’VE TURNED 90!

Here’s my True West tribute to the Rhodes Scholar-turned music and movie legend, and my interview with him on the set of his final Western, HICKOK. That’s where I also shot the picture of him and his wife, Lisa Marie Meyers.  

https://www.truewestmagazine.com/article/kris-kristofferson-a-texan-at-oxford/

UPDATED 7-2-2026

MY RECENT RENDEZVOUS WITH A WRITER APPEARANCES

On the first Thursday of every month, I have the pleasure of joining Bobbi Jean Bell and Jim Bell on their weekly Rendezvous with a Writer radio program and podcast, for LA Talk Radio. They interview writers every week, with a special emphasis on Western writers, especially when I’m along. Here are links to my most recent appearances.

To hear and see about Bank Robber Henry Starr by Mark Archuleta, click the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/live/t8boskGzAww?si=OAVLrxqDlInKcuV1  

To hear and see about They Kill People by Kirk Ellis, click the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/live/vZ18j385-yE?si=-2_7efkHIZoort5s                       

On Thursday, July 2^nd, I was a guest once again for Bobbi Jean and Jim, and my frequent collaborator C. Courtney Joyner, with Cindy Mitchum, to discuss Them Ornery Mitchum Boys, a book about the lives of brother actors Robert Mitchum and John Mitchum, written by John, and re-published by his daughter, Cindy.  To see and hear the conversation, click the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/live/fKMXnrHoNSk

And for a change of pace, next Thursday I’ll be joining Bobbi Jean and Jim to talk with actress and author Kathryn Leigh Scott, who springboarded to stardom on the delightfully eerie 1960s soap opera Dark Shadows. We’ll be discussing her newest book, Dark Shadows Legacy, The Official 60^th Anniversary Book!

AND THAT'S A WRAP!

Please check out the July/August 2026 issue of True West! The cover story by Stuart Rosebrook is When Willie and Waylon Saved Our Country, and my film column, Willie and the Outlaws, takes a look at the Western movies that Waylon and Willie and Kris and Johnny made.

Much obliged,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright June 2026 by Henry C. Parke. All Rights Reserved. Not to be used for A.I. Training.

HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY MONTE MARKHAM! HERE’S OUR ‘GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT 7’ INTERVIEW, PLUS 'ELKHORN' RETURNS TO INSP OCTOBER 2!

 

Monte shooting low

Monte Markham, who in 1967 starred in the series The Second Hundred Years, is closing in on his first hundred! A busy actor on film and television since his 1966 debut on Mission: Impossible, and Debbie Reynolds’ co-star in 1973’s Broadway hit musical, Irene, he’s still very in-demand. But beginning in 1992, with son Jason Markham and wife Klaire Markham, Monte founded the independent documentary production company Perpetual Motion Films, and they have produced hundreds of hours of documentary television, including the first 10 episodes that premiered the landmark A&E series, Biography.

At 2022’s Lone Pine Film Festival, I had the pleasure and privilege of interviewing Mr. Markham onstage before the screening of 1969’s Guns of the Magnificent 7, speaking mostly about that film, and also about his first Western, 1967’s Hour of the Gun.  So much of our talk was punctuated by laughter, both Monte’s and the audience's, that I left the “laughs” in. I’m particularly happy that Monte shared a great story about the late Joe Don Baker.

 

Me and Monte against the Sierra Nevadas 

Henry Parke: Hello, I'm Henry Parke, Film Editor for True West Magazine, and we are so lucky to have with us one of the magnificent people of The Magnificent 7, Monte Markham. To put Guns of the Magnificent 7 in a historical context, in 1960, director John Sturges took his crew to Cuernavaca, Mexico, along with Yul Bryner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, and a script based on Akira Kurasawa's Seven Samurai, and made The Magnificent 7. It's a wonderful western and it made stars of James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn. It introduced Horst Buckholtz and gave Brad Dexter his best-ever film role. In 1966, The Mirisch Company sent director Burt Kennedy to Spain with a script by Larry Cohen, with Yul Bryner back as Chris, Robert Fuller in Steve McQueen's role of Vin, and Warren Oates, Simon Oakland, Fernando Ray, Emiliano Fernandez, and Rudolpho Acosta, to make Return to the Magnificent 7. It's widely considered to be, well, a movie, but nobody's best work. Then in 1969, working in Spain with a script by Herman Hoffman, Paul Wendkos directed what is clearly the best of the three sequels, and we won’t even discuss the remake, Guns of the Magnificent 7. George Kennedy, fresh from his Oscar win for Cool Hand Luke, played Chris, and as his right hand, in what would be the Steve McQueen role, the first of the new 7 he'll recruit, as you know, is Monte Markham. We're so fortunate to have him with us tonight. Monte, Guns was early in your film career, but not your first Western.

Monte Markham: No, the first Western was called The Law and Tombstone, and I was cast and got down to Mexico, and it was John Sturges directing. It was the sequel of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. They hated the name, because it would translate only to The Law and the Grave Marker in the European market -- that wouldn't have the same cache that Tombstone means in America. (Note: It was eventually retitled Hour of the Gun.) And that was just a hell of an experience. I gotta tell you. It was my first film; I had just come into town. I hadn't done any television, hadn't done any film, and we were in Torreon, Mexico and it was the first time anything was shot there. And in the cast was Sam Melville (as Morgan Earp), his first film; Johnny Voight (as Curly Bill Brocius), his first film; Frank Converse (as Virgil Earp), his first film. And we were surrounded with some of the finest character actors in New York and Hollywood. And it was such a great experience. Jason Robards playing Doc Holliday and Jimmy Garner playing Wyatt Earp. They became lifelong friends. It was a great time.

Monte in Hour of the Gun

Henry Parke: And of course, you played Sherman McMasters.

Monte Markham: Yep. He was the deputy sheriff out of Arizona.

Henry Parke: What was John Sturges like to work with?

Monte Markham: John was a very impressive and a very reticent man, a man of few words. He loved to party. Jason Robards was known to be in his booze. He was divorcing Lauren Bacall at the time. And he spent every night in the whore-house, not whoring necessarily, he just loved the company and he had a great time, <laugh>, and he drank a lot.

And the next morning, they'd be bringing him onto set with cucumbers on his eyeballs. It was an interesting time for all. We were all in the hotel dining room and having dinner. And Jason came in and said, “Hello everybody.” When he was not drinking, he was just the sweetest man in the world. "And John, " he said to Sturges, like a hurt boy, "I said hello to you on the street, and you didn't even acknowledge it." John looked at him and said, "I never speak to strangers on the street." Jason was so upset. But it (became) a joke between the two of them.

When I got the call to do the film, they said report to Los Angeles. And I had a great wife, a 2-year-old child, and I was off to Mexico. It was raining, I got a taxi, arrived at LAX, then a Mustang pulled up and spun around and stopped. Out stepped Lonny Chapman and Jason Robards and Bill Windom, drunk as coots. Got on board the plane and we flew to El Paso, Texas, had a brief news conference, and everybody was drinking the whole time. Bill Windom and Jason were wearing their wardrobe, and we flew to Mexico, to Torreon, on a DC 3 plane. We got off the plane and I ran down and said, "Hello." Mr. Sturges was standing there. And I’ll never forget the look on his face when Windom and Robards just crawled off the plane and fell down the stairs <laugh>. It was like that the whole shoot. But it was just very exciting, particularly for a young actor; just great.

Monte guesting on High Chaparral

Henry Parke: You'd also made a couple of TV Westerns, episodes of Iron Horse and Here Come the Brides. Did those, and Hour of the Gun help prepare you for Guns of the Magnificent 7?

Monte and Ed Begley on The Mod Squad

Monte Markham: Nothing really prepares you for any of that. You are all fans of Westerns, you love it, and we have the great Cowboy poems, and the writing, and it's all true: there's no greater fun. That’s when the stables were all working in Sun Valley, and the north section of the Valley; that's where all stunt men had their horses. And you want to understand that at that time, everybody had three horses. Jimmy Garner got James Stewart's horse, that was Henry Fonda's horse. Jimmy Garner had three horses, they were Buckskins. Jimmy didn't own them; the people running the studios had them. The stunts were all worked out there, at the barns.

And when I went to Hal (Note: sorry, I couldn’t decipher the last name), who was a good friend of somebody, and he introduced me, and we became great buddies. He said, come on out and we'll fix you up. And instead of having lunch I was trying to learn everything. I would learn how to jump over the butt of a horse, and mount this way, and mount that way. It was just wonderful. And Dustin Hoffman was training for Little Big Man. I remember him standing over in the corner learning how. He was just in from New York. He was working his butt off. It was great. There's the horse sequence where we get on and again, it was the American cowboy horses, the ones that we had down in Mexico, the ones that we didn't have in Spain. They'd be all over the place; they were agitated all the time.

George (Kennedy) runs up, says "Mount up," and I ran to the horse to mount, and boom, the horse ran away. <laugh> Paul (Wendkos), the director, was furious. We kept trying. And that horse would not wait for me. He said, “How are you doing?” Then, Boom. “Get away from me!” “Don't jump at me like that!” We had to tie the horse, and finally it took three different cuts to make it work so I could take off, and it was a nightmare for him. But it was just a different way of filming everything. I didn't get to jump on a horse after all that hard work. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. But, don't tell me I'm not having a good time. It was just great. Great.

Reni Santoni, Monte, George Kennedy, James Whitmore

Henry Parke: Had you seen the original Magnificent 7?

Monte Markham: Several times, as we all have. I remember Jimmy Coburn, and it was like, my God, who is that? And the various actors; McQueen! It was great. It was an honor to do the film. I felt very strongly about it. Madrid was like the hub, and we would drive out every day, 30, 40 miles to the different locations. It was four months and it was great preparation. Paul Wendkos was the great New York director. John Frankenheimer and he were competitors all the time. And Paul just never got the role of the director that he should have. And unfortunately, he died early.

But it was just a great shoot. Joe Don Baker, just a wonderfully spooky guy. We had a great time. In Madrid at that time, it was bullfighting season. Up until a certain young man appeared on the scene, bullfighting had really degenerated into corruption, et cetera. They would drop sandbags on the bull's back to weaken them. They shaved the horn, because the bull would think, I got you. Well, I thought I got you, but they took about an inch off his horn. They were cheating all the time. Then came a young guy named El Cordobes. Many of you here may remember the name and remember seeing some of his work, those of you that are into bullfighting. We had that to go to on Sundays, and it was just wonderful. I hated the picadors, I hated a lot of it, but it was really spectacular.

George Kennedy and Joe Don Baker in

Guns of the Magnificent 7

Joe Don bought a cape, and he wore that cape, <laugh> walking down the street. A guy would look at him on the street as they're passing, like, what? What the hell you lookin' at? Whatcha looking at? Whatcha looking at? And he had a stunt girl in Spain that he dated, and she wore like the first mini skirt. This is ‘68, and we'd be in the Great Plaza Ventas, the magnificent bullring stadium there. And he'd make his entrance in that cape and have a grand time and look around. Everybody -- whatcha looking at? Whatcha looking at? It was a great time. It was a crazy time. James Whitmore -- it was an honor to know James. He was one of the finest men and finest actors I've ever worked with, one of the finest human beings. The work that he started with actors and theater all over the country that's resonating to this day.

George Kennedy, he said, “Hell, what a stroke of luck! Yul Bryner decides he doesn't want to do it, and I’d just won an Oscar, and here I am.” And he was thrilled to be doing it. He said, “We're all doing cowboys and Indians, cowboys and Mexicans.” Frank Silvera; what a gift, what a man. Tragically, shortly after we made the film, he died installing a damned garbage disposal: electrocuted himself. Bernie Casey is a great artist. Had an incredible career as a painter. That was his first film. You aren't necessarily Los Angeles Rams fans, but you remember that was the winning team, and Bernie was a great wide receiver. So it was a thrilling, thrilling shoot.

Monte about to get his neck stretched

Henry Parke: As long as you talked about most of the 7, how about Reni Santoni?

Monte Markham: Reni, I didn't know very well. And he really was pissed off when I jumped off that horse and knocked him down. I just kicked him down and knocked him down, and he kept going, "You son of a bitch!" We never really got along. I would point out that Fernando Rey, the little dove, I don't know how many remember, but he was The French Connection, another great film. Fernando was a very elegant man and a very well-known Spanish actor and spoke beautiful English.

All 7 left to right: James Whtmore, Joe Don Baker, Bernie Casey

George Kennedy, Reni Santoni, Scott Thomas, Monte

Henry Parke: And as far as elegant, evil people, Michael Ansara as Colonel Diego --

Monte Markham: He was cool, very, very cool. Married to Barbara Eden at the time, but he had a good time in Spain.

Henry Parke: With all of the location work, was it a physically difficult shoot to do?

Monte Markham: I'd like to say yes, but it was just...no. It was great people, great locations. But I will say that for me, that first day of the shooting, me just being hauled out of the saloon and down the street. We fought, and guys got shot, and finally it was the end of the day. And it was this hot hot, day. The guys were sweating like pigs. The next day it was freezing cold. I remember Jimmy Whitmore, he was working on other scenes that day. And (to match how they looked the day before) a guy was spraying (water on everyone) And Jimmy kept saying, "Don't do that. Please don't do that. If you do that again I'm going to kill you." Each time, “Just one more time.”

The difference in location shooting is we had a lot of time off. As my character, Keno. I do some tricks; I do karate and all that. So there were three guys with me on the train. And one guy, Ray, they were making a joke. He had a straw hat on. Again, this is 1968, and he took off his hat, and he had long, I mean really long hair. And they called him El Indio. He fought bulls dressed as an American Indian chief, and he was well known. We had been working, working, working. They said his village is having a fiesta, and they invited me. He's gonna fight a bull, and we'd like you to join him in the ring, and be his assistant. And I said fine, that's great. 200 kilometers north of Madrid. They picked me up on Friday night at about nine o'clock, after shooting, and we drove all night. We got there about two a.m., went into the hotel. The next morning, they were singing and dancing in the street. It was like choirs. And in the middle of it is Ray Olo, the big barrel-chested guy. And so we go down, looked at the bulls. The bulls were not bulls, they were just big, big bull cattle. And it was for charity; in fact, the mayor was one of the guys to fight a bull. And Ray was gonna take one. So we got there. I was tall, blond hair, white shirt, marching with the crowd. They gave me brandy and we're having a great time. We got to the arena, and it was like something in Sun Valley in 1938. I stood there in the ring. And the first guy introduced himself, and then he got on his knees in front of the entrance and had the cape in his hand. And the bull ran out and ran right over, knocked him down.

Monte from the book Western Portraits,

photography by Steve Carver, written 

by C. Courtney Joyner

The mayor took on his bull, and he got hit several times. And he kept saying, "My God, the things we do for charity!" <Laugh>. So in comes Ray, and Ray had the full regalia on, and I've never seen the like of it. And the bull came and it was a big one. Big -- hell, about this high at the shoulder. And Ray had stripped off his vest, he ran toward the bull, and the bull was running toward him. He was running straight at the bull, nothing in his hands. And he did a vault over the bull!

I was thrilled. I stood up applauding, like it was a football game. So then they said, “It’s your time.” I went out and they gave me a cape, the lavender one with the yellow side. I’d watched them do it. So I stood like this, the bull's charging me. And I got mixed up to where I was, and the bull hit me and ran right over me, right across my chest <laugh>. I said, I must get up. And I did. And I ‘passed’ the bull. And then ‘passed’ him again. And I looked over at Ray, and he said, "Anytime you're ready. It's my bull." It was great. It was a great time, but my chest looked like hamburger.

Henry Parke: Do you have any favorite memories from shooting the film that you haven't mentioned yet?

Monte Markham: That was a big one.

Henry Parke: I should think so.

Klaire and Monte Markham

Monte Markham: Not a favorite, but my wife was able to join us for 10 days and we were able to travel around, but Franco was still in power. All around town you would see that everything was stopped and there'd be a parade of tanks, and Franco coming through town. There'd be a big event, and Juan Carlos, the son of the ex-King was being groomed. They knew he would take over and be King, and that's the only time Franco would have let it happen. But he seemed to be everywhere. More police than I had ever seen anywhere. We were in the massive -- maybe it was about the size of the Rose Bowl -- the famous Casa de Toros in Memphis. Before one of the fights, the picadors come out. But some guy in the crowd, he kept yelling something, and he was cursing; he was drunk and he was making comments. Everybody was very shocked and quiet. And then they started laughing, and he was going on, and all of a sudden a voice went -- (Shouting in Spanish). And that was one of the policemen. 150,000 people stopped in silence. There were several different kinds of uniforms. They took him away. It was something. I mean, you were safe (from crime). You could do anything. If I came back to my room, and I’d left my money laid out in denominations on the bureau, it was (untouched), because it was a pure dictatorship. And 50 years later, my wife and I, we went back and they'd removed Franco from where he was buried. (Note: Franco was originally buried at the Valley of the Fallen, a memorial built by the forced labor of his political enemies. In 2019 Franco’s body was exhumed, and was reburied in a regular cemetery.) So there was a mix of great memory of a great people, and the rise of really artistic bullfighting with Cordobes, and us being able to play-act like that and yet have such a great time and love each other. And I can't describe it more to you, how great the memory is and how great the opportunity was. You hear it from all the guests, but I truly am one of the most fortunate people who's ever been able to act. And I thank you all for that.

Henry Parke: We have a question from an audience member.

Audience Member: The Magnificent 7 theme song is pretty iconic. It's like the James Bond theme: everybody knows it. I'm just curious, when you guys were doing those group riding scenes, did you ever think about that theme?

Monte Markham: Every moment! <Laugh> Bernie Casey was a big man, and they needed to have a particular grey, a beautiful grey, for him to ride. And the first time we were all together, for those who will remember, we came over the hill. It was early morning, dawn, dew was on the mountain and a lot of grass. And we all come over, it's George and me, and then I hear, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" I looked over my shoulder, and Bernie's horse, that big grey, had just sat down on his butt and was sliding down the hill. <laugh>

And Bernie, it was all he could do to stay on. We did it twice more, and it still happened. And finally the sheepish wrangler said the horse had a saddle sore. But you always did (think of the theme). You remember in school, if you had a track meet, you’d tie a number on your back. I went to a sporting goods store, and I bought seven numbers. They set up another morning shot. We all came riding into camp. Long shot. So we're up there, we're over the mountain, and I'm passing out the numbers. George put on 1, I put on 2, and we had the music playing, we come over the mountain, they're riding in, riding in, riding in, Paul Wendkos saw it, "Very funny! Cut! Cut! Cut! " But yes, you always knew it; I'd even hum it sometimes.

INSP'S 'ELKHORN' SEASON 2 BEGINS OCTOBER 2ND

The INSP Channel just announced that season 2 of Elkhorn, their series about the young Teddy Roosevelt, will begin airing on Thursday, October 2nd. If you haven't seen it, it's quite a show, and good history. Mason Beals stars as the rising New York politician who suffered the double tragedy of losing his young wife and his mother in one night. In despair, he travels to the Dakota Badlands, where he begins the process of remaking himself as the vigorous outdoorsman we would come to know. Beals won Best Actor, and the show won Best Western TV Series in the Cowboys & Indians Movie and TV Awards. Here's a sneak peek!

And that’s a wrap!

I need to get this posted, and get ready for the interview I’m doing in a few hours with Alexander Nevsky about his newest Western, The Wide West!

To see my most recent other writings, check out the left hand sidebar near the top, where you’ll find links to my most recent articles for INSP, about Westerns at the Drive-in, and my 4 pieces in the May-June issue of True West, on different aspects of the miniseries American Primeval. And catch me on Thursday, July 3^rd, on the Rendezvous With a Writer podcast!

Much obliged,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright June 2025 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved