(UPDATED 6/5/2013 -- See Roy Rogers section of 'Howdy, Kids!!' review, Tom Mix screening)
Those of us who grew up in the post-World War II
baby boom had, unquestionably, the best TV childhood of any generation. There is a reason that people of several
generations still watch shows like SUPERMAN and LEAVE IT TO BEAVER: they really
were as good as you remembered, and not aimed down to you, but rather geared to your interests. Some series whose genres have fallen out of
favor have disappeared – CAPTAIN GALLANT and RAMAR OF THE JUNGLE are still good
campy fun, but kids of today would have no idea what to make of a Foreign
Legion or Jungle series.
Among the shows that have stood the test of time,
not surprisingly, are those in that most American and most cinematic of all
genres, the Western. Now the good and
very hip/edgy folks at SHOUT FACTORY have put together a delightful sampler, a
three DVD, twenty-four episode, ten hour collection of cowboy favorites. It includes episodes from a dozen favorite
series, as well as a pair of fascinating unsold pilots. Entitled
HOWDY KIDS!! – A SATURDAY AFTERNOON WESTERN ROUND-UP, the word ‘afternoon’ is a
misnomer, as the whole point of these shows – from a parental perspective – was
to keep the kids busy and quiet on Saturday ‘morning’, so grown-ups could catch
up on their sleep. Shout Factory has selected very well, and watching them will spark
fond memories from those of us who grew up with them. They’ll also serve as a great introduction to
children and grandchildren – and decode a bit about their parents’ and
grandparents’ psyches – when the youngsters see them for the first time.
Early TV benefited tremendously from the training
ground of Republic Pictures. Many of the
directors, writers, editors and other crew members and character actors who had
learned to perform their crafts with slick, stylish efficiency at the little studio
in the San Fernando Valley, quickly found their services in demand all over the
small screen. This was particularly true
for one of the very best series of the day, THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, whose TV
episodes were like a really good Republic Western without the excessive musical
padding. But Roy, who was still under
contract to Republic for seven pictures a year, was forbidden by the studio to
do a series. The court battle over Roy
doing the series, and Republic airing his movies, went on for years. When the prairie fire burned itself out, Republic
ran the movies, and Roy starred in his series, but he never appeared in a major
studio film again, and his lawyer, Art Rush, always thought Roy had been
blackballed as too difficult. Premiering in 1951, husband and wife Roy Rogers
and Dale Evans spent seven years and 102 episodes in Mineral City, as friends
but not spouses, with Roy as a rancher and unofficial lawman, Dale running the
coffee shop, and Roy’s old pal from The Sons Of The Pioneers, Pat Brady – he of
the Jeep named Nellybelle – as Dale’s
dishwasher and Roy’s sidekick. The shows
also featured Trigger, “Roy’s golden palomino… and Roy’s wonder-dog, Bullet,”
and horse and dog were frequently called upon to carry a message or untie Roy’s
hands. Roy had a very natural acting
style that has aged well when others have dated, and his shows often had more
plotting, riding, and rough-and-tumble fighting than the others. A modern-day Western series, this is the sort
of show, mixing horses and stagecoaches with Jeeps and telephones, that forever
confused the kids of my generation, who believed that if we could only manage
to get out west, we could wear six-guns and rob stagecoaches. Of the two episodes included, THE SETUP is
only the third one of the series, centering around a feisty old-lady trapper
who won’t sell her land, and the crooks who are willing to shoot her, or have
her declared insane to get her property (kinda edgy for a kid show). The second episode, BAD NEIGHBORS, is from
the 4th season, and features the rarely seen Post Cereals credit sequence.
No one knew more about making quality B Westerns for
a price than Gene Autry, who had preceded Roy at Republic – Roy actually had
been promoted to stardom to replace Gene, who had gone off to war. Gene Autry produced THE GENE AUTRY SHOW from
1950 to 1955, starring in 91 episodes.
But he also produced several other series under his FLYING A PRODUCTIONS
banner, four of which are represented in THE HOWDY KIDS!! collection. ANNIE OAKLEY stars beautiful Gene
Autry-discovery Gail Davis as ‘Little Sure-shot,’ although the series bears no
relation to her actual life. Annie, her kid
brother Tagg (Jimmy Hawkins) assist Deputy Lofty Craig (Brad Johnson) in
protecting their little town of Diablo, and there is plenty of action, though
more of the shooting kind – Annie’s specialty – than fisticuffs. No surprise that Annie was a favorite among
girls – she was better with a gun than any man, but never lost her humor or femininity. All of the Autry shows were well-produced,
and with a varying range of locations.
In addition to Gene’s own Melody Ranch, Vasquez Rocks, Iverson’s Movie
Ranch, Pioneertown and the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine are frequently seen.
There were 78 episodes of Autry’s THE RANGE RIDER produced
between 1951 and 1953, and while Gene drew on the Republic directors and
stock-company of villains, the series’ greatest assets were its charismatic
stars, Jock Mahoney as The Range Rider, and Dickie Jones as his young sidekick,
Dick West. In addition to being good
actors, they did all of their own stunts – and there was an astonishing amount
of trick-riding, leaping on and off of horses, diving through windows and the
like. Starting under his birth-name of Jacques
O’Mahoney in the mid 1940s, Jock had stunt-doubled for dozens of stars before
becoming a star himself. Jones was a
trick-rider and roper from the age of four (!), and at six was hired by Hoot
Gibson to perform in his rodeos. In
addition to his work on-camera in westerns, serials and Our Gang comedies, Dick
had starred on radio as HENRY ALDRICH, and for Disney voiced the title
character in PINNOCHIO. The episode BULLETS AND BADMEN features ANNIE
OAKLEY-hero Brad Johnson as a villain.
Like his movies, Gene Autry’s shows often dealt with social issues, and
the episode CONVICT AT LARGE examines an ex-outlaw’s attempt to go straight
when few want to give him a chance.
After RANGE RIDER rode off into the sunset, Dickie Jones
was back in another Autry series, BUFFALO BILL JR., playing the title role of a
young Marshal – with little or nothing to do with the real Cody, senior or
junior. Little Nancy Gilbert played his
forever-in-trouble kid sister Calamity (what can parents expect when they give
a kid that name?), and Harry Chesire
was Judge Ben ‘Fair ‘n’ Square’ Wiley, who is saddled with raising the two
whippersnappers. This show is what used
to be called a ‘haircut’ (gender switch) on ANNIE OAKLEY, and was very popular,
if not quite up to the RANGE RIDER standard; but it was full of the sort of
riding and fighting and shooting action you expected from Dickie Jones. One included episode focuses on a town
milliner who is fingering likely candidates for robbery. The other details a search for a treasure
buried by Jesse James.
Gene Autry even tried to build a series around his
famous horse in THE ADVENTURES OF CHAMPION, which ran for one 26-episode season
in 1955/56. Set in old Arizona, it
starred Barry Curtis as Ricky North, the only person ‘Champion the Wonder Horse’
would obey, with Jim Bannon, a former Red Ryder, as Ricky’s dad, and a German
Shepherd named Rebel, who could have been Bullet’s brother. It’s a nice series, some of it directed
beautifully by old pros like Ford Bebee, who was helming Westerns in the silent
days, and knew how to tell an animal story with minimal dialogue. Perhaps it didn’t ‘click’ because it focused
more on boy than horse, and Curtis, while a good actor, was saddled with a
character so earnest that he made Timmy from LASSIE seem like a juvenile
delinquent. With the show cancelled, he
went on the next year to play Van Heflin’s son In 3:10 TO YUMA.
FURY started the same year as CHAMPION, and ran for
five seasons and 116 episodes. Fury was
a beautiful but wild stallion, and Bobby Diamond played Joey Newton, the only
person Fury would obey (sound a little familiar?). Following the great TV tradition, Joey was an
orphan, adopted and raised by Jim Newton (Peter Graves), and they lived on and
worked the Newton Ranch with crusty old sidekick Pete (William Fawcett). Fawcett, a Ph. D., who taught theatre at
Michigan State, started acting on film and TV right after the war. Among his 274 screen credits were every
single series included in HOWDY, KIDS!!
-- except for ADVENTURES OF
CHAMPION. Originally planned as a prime-time series,
Peter Graves was furious at first, when they switched its time slot to Saturday
morning. A modern-day Western series, with
superior acting and production, the episode KILLER STALLION is the first after
the pilot, and involves a case of mistaken horse-identity, and Joey’s fight to
save Fury from being put down for stampeding other horses. SCORCHED EARTH could have been a boring
p.s.a. about forest fires in less talented hands, but instead is very exciting.
Two series made a direct transition from radio to
television: THE LONE RANGER and SERGEANT PRESTON OF THE YUKON. Both are credited as created by George W.
Trendle, although many insist that LONE RANGER was truly the creation of head
writer Fran Striker. Brace Beemer played
the daring masked rider of the planes on radio, but a younger and more fit man
was needed on-screen, and Clayton Moore was perfect. A busy but undistinguished actor with an
unusually distinctive voice, his portrayal came alive when the mask went on,
and he made an indelible impression as the Lone Ranger. Jay Silverheels, a Mohawk, played his
faithful Indian companion Tonto, and although his dialogue was written to make
it clear that English was his second language, his characterization was subtle
and memorable. And they didn’t
soft-pedal the racial elements; until they learned better, many white folk
started the episodes addressing Tonto as “Indian,” as though he didn’t have a
name.
Coming with a tremendous backlog of already-produced
half-hour stories, the shows at first relied heavily on adapting radio scripts,
as can be seen in THE RENEGADES, episode 8 of the first season. This caused them to be rather stiff and
stilted. Actor Gerald Mohr, who spoke
those well-remembered words from the opening – “…Return with us now to those
thrilling days of yesteryear! From out
of the past come the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver! The Lone Ranger Rides again!” – voiced much un-needed
and distracting narration that was carried over from radio. But by episode 11, SIX GUN’S LEGACY, they had
cut back noticeably on the exposition. The
production values are high in these early shows, with plenty of location work,
and a bit of stock footage thrown in.
Later on the series became famous for cutting corners. Dick Jones who, in addition to starring in
THE RANGE RIDER and BUFFALO BILL JR. guested on the LONE RANGER, recalled that
the camera was mounted on a tripod in the back of a truck at all times, so they
could change set-ups that much quicker.
SERGEANT PRESTON came to television six years later,
in 1955, but was even more radio-tied
and stiff than LONE RANGER, and Richard Simmons portrayed Preston with an ‘1890s
melodrama’ broadness that was a distinct, and quirky, part of the show’s
charm. One of the few shows shot in
color – the LONE RANGER didn’t get color until near the end of its run – it was
still one of the most old-fashioned, and the episode CRIME AT WOUNDED MOOSE features
a horde of masked bandits that look like they’re right off of a WEIRD TALES
pulp cover. Did I mention that Preston is ably assisted by
his lead sled-dog, “…his wonder-dog Yukon King!”
THE CISCO KID, produced by ZIV Television, was shot in color, which contributed greatly to the
series’ value and longevity. When O.
Henry created the Cisco Kid in his short story THE CABALLERO’S WAY, the Kid was
a pretty rotten villain, and his image had been continually scoured and
polished ever since. By the time that
Duncan Renaldo, who had played him in some movies for Monogram and United Artists,
was playing him again for television, Cisco was “O. Henry’s Robin Hood of the
old west!” Or more properly, as Duncan
described him, Don Quixote, with Leo Carrillo as Pancho, the Sancho Panza
character. Like the Lone Ranger, they
didn’t shoot bad guys; they shot the guns out of their hands. Much of the pleasure of this series is the
charm of the two stars, who had been in the movies for decades. Leo Carrillo, who had started at the tail end
of the silent era, and had played Pancho opposite Renaldo in the United Artists films, was over seventy
when he began the series, but put in a tremendous amount of work in the sun and
in the saddle. Duncan Renaldo’s background
was as mysterious as any movie (read my article about him HERE http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2010/08/amazing-adventures-of-duncan-renaldo.html),
but he’d had a long career at Republic,
and had written some movies as well.
Their chemistry on-screen was a joy.
Marcia Mae Jones, who starred with them in the GHOST TOWN episode, told
me that they were terribly competitive, and always concerned about who was
getting more close-ups, but that
never came through to the audience. Incidentally,
as many of these series were syndicated over the years, cuts were made to allow
for more ads. I’d seen GHOST TOWN
several times, but only with this version have I finally seen the first four
minutes, which not only sets up an otherwise unintelligible plot, but also
features moving scenes with Cisco and Pancho nearly dying of thirst in the
desert. The series lasted for seven seasons,
ending in 1956, and produced 156 episodes, which were re-run for decades. The stars’ identification with these
characters was complete, which was fine with both men. After playing Pancho, Leo Carrillo only did
two TV guest shots before he died in 1961at the age of 80. Duncan Renaldo died in 1980, at the age of
76, and never played another character onscreen again.
In 1955, when Bill Williams finished starring in 103
episodes of THE ADVENTURES OF KIT CARSON, he said he never wanted to hear the
name ‘Kit Carson’ again. I’m with
him. I’m not saying it was a terrible
series, but it wasn’t very good. The
shows tended to be static, with way too much time spent talking in interiors,
and not enough plot or action. The
biggest weakness was Williams himself, who was very handsome, but a lox. Ironically, his sidekick, El Toro, played by
Don Diamond, had all the personality that the star lacked. Although actually a Russian Jew from New York
City, Diamond excelled at playing Mexicans, and was also a regular on Disney’s ZORRO series before winning his
best-remembered role as Crazy Cat on F-TROOP.
El Toro’s obsession with the ladies makes for trouble, and in the
episode THE DESPERATE SHERIFF, about a new and unsure lawman, and a prisoner
who must be held when there is no jail cell, the femme fatale of the piece is
no less than Movita, Tehani of 1935’s MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, and later the first
wife of Marlon Brando.
Although Kirby Grant had done many films, playing
Mounties and cowboys and foils for Abbott and Costello, the role of SKY KING
defined his image as much as The Lone Ranger did Clayton Moore, and he gloried
in it. In fact, after eight years and 72
episodes, once the show ended in 1962, Grant never played another character
onscreen again. Unlike the ‘in between’
shows like ROY ROGERS, SKY KING was as modern as a modern-day Western could be,
and lots of fun, with Sky flying his Cessna, ‘The Songbird,’ all over the west
to save the stranded and track the lawless.
With him was his adorable, if often ditzy, niece Penny, played by Gloria
Winters, and probably half of the episodes involved getting Penny out of some
harebrained trouble. But to be fair,
Penny could also fly to the rescue when given the chance. The featured episode, BULLET BAIT, centers on
a wedding being held at Sky’s Flying Crown Ranch, until gangsters kidnap the
groom and threaten the bride.
THE RIFLEMAN is the oddest choice of the set,
because even though, like CHAMPION, FURY, and BUFFALO BILL JR., it focused on a
boy, rather than being a Saturday Morning show, it was an ‘Adult Western’ in
the mold of GUNSMOKE, and made by some of the same tough characters, including
writer and director Sam Peckinpah. In 168
episodes, from 1958 to 1963, Chuck Connors was widower Lucas McCain, Johnny
Crawford was his son Mark, and the two shared a ranch just outside of North
Fork, New Mexico in the 1880s. Although Lucas was as good with his modified
Winchester as Annie Oakley was with her guns, it couldn’t have been more
different: Lucas avoided showing off his gun whenever possible, yet almost
always ended up having to kill someone, something that was rarely featured,
especially on-camera, on the Saturday morning shows. In the featured episode, DAY OF THE HUNTER, Lucas
must deal with charming but sinister mountain-man John Anderson, who is
determined to force Lucas into a duel, and cruelly manipulates Mark into making
it happen. It’s much darker than you’d
ever have on a Saturday morning show, but very good, until a scene at the end
which I won’t give away, except to say that it is not merely bad, but
laughable, in a series in which you would never expect it.
Rounding out the set are a pair of unaired pilots
that run the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous. To take the ridiculous first, THE ADVENTURES
OF RICK O’SHAY, with no connection to the same-named comic strip, starred Steve
Keyes, with sidekicks Bob Gilbert and Ewing Brown. The plot, if you can call it that, involves
kidnapping, and characters so stupid that they agree to take part believing it’s
a practical joke. While some of the
outdoor photography is better than adequate, the acting is embarrassing, and
the tech work, especially indoors, is horrible, reminiscent of the worst junior
high school play you’ve ever seen. The
only name worth mentioning is director Oliver Drake, who was a fairly good and
prolific screenwriter but a very poor director. (We do owe him a debt of thanks
for co-writing STUNT MAN: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF YAKIMA CANUTT.)
On the sublime side, THE ADVENTURES OF RED RYDER,
created as a comic strip by Fred Harman, had been a hit in the newspapers, then
on radio. Republic made a very good and popular serial starring Don ‘Red’
Barry (that’s where he got ‘Red’), and Tommy Cook as his Indian orphan
companion Little Beaver. This was
followed by a long series of Republic
features, first with Wild Bill Elliot, then with Allan ‘Rocky’ Lane as Red, and
always with Bobby Blake as Little Beaver.
The last big-screen Red Ryder was Jim Bannon of THE ADVENTURES OF
CHAMPION, and in 1951, when this pilot was made for a possible TV series,
Bannon was back, and turning on the charm in a big way. While the mystery boy who played Little
Beaver – billed as ‘himself’ – was not up to the Cook or Blake standard, the
rest of the cast was exceptional. Lyle
Talbot was the main villain, trying to engineer the rustling of cattle
entrusted to Ryder’s care. Olive Carey,
widow of Harry Carey and mother of Harry Carey Jr., played ‘The Dutchess,’ the
wealthy lady Red works for. Kenneth
MacDonald was the man who knew too much to live! Robert J. Wilke, one of the West’s best
grinning badmen had a wonderful knock-down drag-out saloon brawl with Red; and
Dick Curtis, another top-shelf swine, has a bullwhip duel with Red! Director Thomas Carr, a master of Western
action, and director of many of the best SUPERMAN shows was at the helm. The tight script was penned by Charles
Belden, who’d written many Westerns, and many of the best Charlie Chan
pictures. It’s thoroughly entertaining,
and I’m amazed it didn’t sell.
Incidentally, in 1956, another pilot was shot, featuring Allan ‘Rocky’
Lane as the redhead, and it didn’t sell either.
I thoroughly enjoyed HOWDY KIDS!!, and I’m sure
anyone of an age to remember some of the shows, or anyone who wants to know
more about kid television, will enjoy it as well. Sadly, this sort of kid-centered action entertainment,
a direct descendent of the Saturday matinees with serials and B Westerns, did
not last long. As actors, justifiably,
began demanding a bigger piece of the action, production budgets, though infinitesimal
by today’s standards, soared, and live action was soon dumped in favor of
cheap-to-produce cartoons. But boy, it
was great while it lasted! HOWDY, KIDS!! is priced at $19.98, and
available from the Shout Factory HERE.
5 GEORGE O'BRIEN WESTERNS ON TCM STARTING TUES. A.M.
Turner Classic Movies will show five George O'Briens starting this morning at 5:45 a.m., Pacific time, interspersed with other movies. They are MARSHAL OF LOST MESA (1939), BULLET CODE (1940), LEGION OF THE LAWLESS (1940), PRAIRIE LAW (1940) and TRIPLE JUSTICE (1940). And later in the afternoon they'll show Tim Holt in ROBBERS OF THE RANGE (1941).
DOUBLE INDEMNITY SATURDAY AT THE AUTRY
Don't know quite how it'll fit into 'What Is A Western?', but Billy Wilder's film of Raymond Chandler's screenplay from James M. Cain's novel is so close to perfect that it's a must-see regardless. Prior to the screening, there'll be a talk by Glynn Martin, executive director of the Los Angeles Police Museum, discussing L.A.'s importance to
films noir. It's at 1:30 pm, and did I mention it stars Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson?
TOM MIX – SELIG FILMS SATURDAY AT THE EGYPTIAN!
On Saturday, June 8th, at 7:30 p.m. in
the Speilberg Theatre at the Egyptian, a program of silent Tom Mix westerns,
all produced by Col. Selig, will be presented.
Part of the Cinemateque’s ‘Retro Format Films’ series, all of the prints
being shown are 8mm film, possibly the only format in which some still
exist. There will be several shorts,
including “An Arizona Wooing” (1915, 23 min.), “A Bear
of a Story” (1916, 13 min.) and “Roping a Bride”
(1916, 11 min.), followed by the feature JUST TONY (1922), all shown with a
live piano accompaniment by Cliff Retallick.
If you’re not familiar with film pioneer Col. Selig, you need to read
Andrew Erish’s excellent book, COLONEL WILLIAM N. SELIG – THE MAN WHO INVENTED
HOLLYWOOD. Here’s a link to my
mini-review – I’ll have a more extensive one, and an interview with the author,
shortly: http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2012/12/luke-parrys-third-goodnight-for-justice.html
OUTDOOR EVENTS
As Summer comes along, there are more good things to do out-of-doors. Please send me your Western events anywhere in the world, and I'll be happy to share them!
JUNE 8-9 17TH ANNUAL INTER-TRIBAL POWWOW, OCEANSIDE
On Saturday and Sunday, arts and crafts, food, dance performances, and drumming, at the San Luis Rey Mission grounds. (760)-724-8505.
http://slrmissionindians.org/www.slrmissionindians.org/Home.html
JUNE 8 JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION, EARLIMART
Entertainment, speakers, food and drink, puppet shows and tours of the historic buildings of Allensworth. Allensworth State Historic Park. (661) 849-3433
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21298
THE WRAP-UP
That's it for this week! If you are a regular Round-up reader (or Rounder), you know that I've interviewed a number of actors, directors and writers of Westerns, but this past Wednesday I had my first opportunity to interview a film composor, Randy Miller, who composed the soundtrack for
YELLOW ROCK, which has just been released on CD on the Intrada label. I'll have that soon. Have a great week!
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents Copyright June 2013 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved
