'LONE RANGER' GIVEAWAY, PLUS COMPLETE GENE AUTRY TV REVIEWED

If you had told me that 2013 would bring a more controversial Western to the screen than the previous year’s DJANGO UNCHAINED from Quentin Tarentino, I’d have said you were crazy.  But 2013’s THE LONE RANGER, directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, ruffled more feathers than any other Western I can recall in decades.  As a matter of fact, Tarantino himself surprised many when he put LONE RANGER on his own ‘ten best list’ for 2013. "The first 45 minutes are excellent…   It was a bad idea to split the bad guys in two groups; it takes hours to explain and nobody cares.  Then comes the train scene—incredible! When I saw it, I kept thinking, 'What?  That's the film that everybody says is crap? Seriously?'"

There is one shameful omission in the film which I missed at the screening, but caught watching the BluRay: when the credits roll, nowhere are the names of Frank Striker and George W. Trendle, the men who created the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and in the case of Striker, wrote hundreds of radioplays refining the characters.  It is a disgrace that neither name appears on the screen, and should be remedied.

LONE RANGER is coming to home video this Tuesday, December 17^th, and the good folks at Disney have given the Round-up a pair of BLU-RAY/DVD/DIGITAL Combo-Packs to award to two lucky Round-up readers.  You’ll find the contest below, after all the review-type-stuff.  (If you want to skip to the contest, and read the rest of this later, I’ll understand.)

LONE RANGER Movie Review

Originally posted July 1, 2013

It looks like director Gore Verbinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and writers Ted Elliot, Terry Rossio, and Justin Haythe have done what no one else has managed to do in decades: make a new Western that will delight and satisfy die-hard fans of the genre and the characters, and introduce the form to a young and fresh audience who will hopefully want to come back again and again. 

Among the fine major Westerns of the last several years, 3:10 TO YUMA (2007), APPALOOSA (2008), and DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012) were rated ‘R’. TRUE GRIT (2010), like LONE RANGER, was ‘PG-13’, and featured a child protagonist in Mattie Ross, but there was no great ‘reach-out’ to a younger audience.  But ‘The Lone Ranger’, since its inception in Depression-era radio, through two Republic serials and 217 TV episodes and three feature films, has always been for kids, and this new version, as the same production team did with their PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN franchise, has built a movie that will draw in the interest of kids while exposing them to the classic elements of westerns, which have delighted audiences for generations, nay, for over a century. 

I know there will be classicists who will accept no substitutes for Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, and I can only tell them that they’re missing out on something they would thoroughly enjoy – a Western made with so much money that there is nothing left out because of budgetary restraints, made by people who have a clear love, respect for and knowledge of the genre, and who flex the art and craft they’ve honed for years.  Is it perfect?  No.  Will you love the best parts so much that you’ll forgive its imperfections?  Hell, yeah!  This is not a museum piece, it is living, breathing – sometimes hyperventilating – art that builds on the past without requiring a knowledge of the past to be appreciated.

The story opens, unexpectedly, at a carnival in San Francisco in 1933, perhaps not coincidentally the year The Lone Ranger premiered on WXYZ radio.  Will, a little boy with astonished and astonishingly large brown eyes, all dressed up in a cowboy suit and six-guns, is visiting a nearly-empty side-show, examining the stuffed bison and other displays, and jumps with surprise when an ancient Indian figure sitting outside a tepee, a crow atop his head, suddenly comes to life, and seeing the boy with a black mask on, addresses him as “Kemo Sabe.”  It is, you guessed it, Tonto, looking easily ninety.  They talk, the boy frightened at first, but soon fascinated, as Tonto tells him the story of his relationship with John Reid.  Soon the old Indian’s words take on visuals, and the story of how Tonto and John Reid met, and how Reid becomes the Lone Ranger, begins. 

Most of the story revolves around Promontory, Utah, and the upcoming driving of the golden railroad spike that will complete the laying of track for the Transcontinental Railroad, linking the East and West coasts of these United States together.  As a demonstration that peace and civilization have come to the frontier, railroad magnate Cole has ordered that the most despicable of villains, Butch Cavendish, already sentenced to die, be brought there by train, to hang.  Also being transported is a lesser criminal named Tonto.  A group of Texas Rangers are on the way to assist, while the Cavendish gang is on the way to thwart the law.  On the train is John Reid, a young lawyer from a family of lawmen, coming out west to reunite with his family. 

When all of these people with differing plans collide, you have one of the two tremendous train-bound extended action sequences that book-end the movie, and it is so beautifully constructed that it’s exalting to watch – it’s everything you’re hoping for, and more.  I hope it’s not a spoiler to say they don’t get to hang Butch Cavendish that day.  The hunt for Cavendish and his gang, and his hostages, and the search for an insidious conspiracy, drives the movie through two hours and twenty minutes of thrills, action and humor.

Much has been said, in anticipation of this film, about the diminishing of the Lone Ranger to build up Tonto.  That isn’t what happened.  Instead, the story is, as it always has been, about the creation of the man, the identity, of the Lone Ranger; but this time, it is told from Tonto’s point of view.  And it works – after all, Tonto is who he always is.  It’s John Reid who takes on the new identity, and telling the ‘why’ is the purpose of the film.  

The original masked man and faithful Indian companion had little back-story, and these have been expanded, giving more heart and humanity and motivation to the characters, and not a few surprises.  John Reid still has a brother, Texas Ranger Dan Reid, but there is also a woman in his heart, who just happens to be, awkwardly enough, not his wife, but his sister-in-law.  We learn about John Reid’s background early on, but only discover the astonishing truth about Tonto as the story races along.  The mask is there.  The silver bullets are there, but while they were a minor part of the story of the original Lone Ranger, they take on startling significance in this telling. 

Johnny Depp’s characterization of Tonto borrows nothing from Jay Silverheels, which is good, because we don’t want an imitation, we want a performance, and we get it.  It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen Depp do before, diametrically opposed to his theatrical-to-swishy personification of Captain Jack Sparrow.  But it is still Depp, and his dramatic work, as well as his comedic timing, are spot-on as always.  More poker-faced then stoic, he reveals his emotions with his words and actions, almost never his expression.  Depp is virtually unrecognizable in his two distinct make-ups, as the young, and as the very old Tonto, and the masterful work by the make-up department under the direction of Joel Harlow is worthy of Oscar consideration.  Incidentally, Depp’s previous westerns are the highly regarded DEADMAN, directed by Jim Jarmusch, and last year’s animated RANGO.     

As the man who transitions from by-the-book lawyer to masked crime-fighter, Armie Hammer impressed as twins in THE SOCIAL NETWORK and as J. Edgar Hoover’s lover in HOOVER.  His look of doe-eyed innocence works perfectly with his character’s self-assured arrogance early in the story.  But in addition to the comedy, and he does play Costello to Tonto’s Abbott, he has a sincere believability which makes the pain of his many personal losses in the story moving to the audience. 

Striking British actress Ruth Wilson is effective as brother Dan Reid’s wife and mother of their son Danny (Bryant Prince), and projects that sort of inner strength we associate with frontier ladies.  She also has a lovely face for period stories.   James Badge Dale plays John’s more down-to-earth and down-and-dirty brother, Ranger Dan Reid, with the traditional restraint of the western hero, but with heart and courage.

Among the less likable characters is Tom Wilkinson as Cole, the railroad mogul more interested in profit than progress.  As Butch Cavendish, William Fitchner, star of the series CROSSING LINES, excels, portraying a character so revolting in his passions that I wouldn’t dare spoil things by giving it away here.  His make-up, including a hair-lip is, like Depp’s Oscar-worthy. 

Other performances of note include Helena Bonham Carter as Red, a madam with valuable information and an ivory leg.  Barry Pepper plays the dashing Fuller, a character modeled on Custer.  No stranger to westerns, he was Lucky Ned Pepper in the TRUE GRIT remake, and even turned up on episodes of both LONESOME DOVE spin-off series.  Saginaw Grant impresses as Chief Big Bear in a scene where the Lone Ranger learns about the earlier life of Tonto.  Mason Cook, who plays the little cowboy in the introductory scene is, surprisingly, a western veteran, having well-played a key role in last year’s WYATT EARP’S REVENGE.

Leon Rippy, who plays the key role of the tracker Collins, is disguised from his DEADWOOD fans (where he played Tom Nuttal) with a revolting spray of facial hair, gives a sometimes comic, sometimes emotional, and dramatically critical performance.  And though it’s just a cameo, it’s nice to see Western veteran Rance Howard as a train engineer.

From the moment the action moves from Depression San Francisco to the old west, the delights are many, with extra kicks for we western nerds.  The filmmakers express their reverence for Sergio Leone’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST frequently, and in a way that cleverly extends the honors farther still.   The building-of-the-railroad through Monument Valley echoes not only Segio Leone’s similar use of the location in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, but also reminds us that Leone was paying his respects to John Ford.  An early scene at a railroad station brings back not just the opening of IN THE WEST, but it’s homage to Zinneman’s HIGH NOON.  A later scene of growing menace in an isolated farm acknowledges not just IN THE WEST, but Leone’s love of George Steven’s SHANE.  For that matter, when a train-board revival meeting features, “We Will Gather At The River,” it’s not just a salute to Sam Peckinpah’s THE WILD BUNCH, but to John Ford and all of the other filmmaker who’ve used it.  And if you don’t know that guns will be drawn before the end of that hymn, then this must be your first rodeo. 

Are there some flaws?  Sure.  It’s funny when it should be, but sometimes it gets too jokey, and after you’ve been emotionally involved, you’re pulled out of the story by the silliness.  There’s a visit to ‘hell on wheels’, a traveling amalgam of sinful entertainments to entice the track-layers, that is amusing, but grinds the action to a halt for too long.   

I saw the movie at Disney Studios, with an audience of other press and industry types, but mostly with families with exuberant kids who just ate it up.  The one criticism I heard the most?  “The Lone Ranger spends too much time being stupid.”  Dramatically, it’s logical to delay the transition from dope to hero for as long as possible, but for those of us who knew what must ultimately be coming, the wait was sometimes frustrating.  But don’t worry – you do get the William Tell Overture in the nick of time, and from that moment on the film is an enthralling gun-battle and two-train chase to the finish.   

Yugoslavian-born cinematographer Bojan Bazelli shoots like he’s been doing westerns all of his life.  Hans Zimmer’s score is big and grand as it should be, and while there are musical motifs that are a nod of respect to Ennio Morricone, they are nods, and not imitations. Art Director Jeff Gonchor was nominated for an Oscar for TRUE GRIT, and continues to do meticulous work, including the three trains and two towns which were all built from scratch.  Penny Rose, who has done the costumes for all of the PIRATES films, has a beautiful eye for westerns as well.  I’ve seen five big new summer movies in the past week, and THE LONE RANGER is miles ahead of all the rest!  Hi-yo Silver!  Away!

LONE RANGER – The Special Features

There are three featurettes included, all of them entertaining and informative.

ARMIE’S WESTERN ROAD TRIP lets the star provide an overview of the movie’s many locations – Monument Valley, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Comanche Country – and a sense of the challenges the cast and crew faced in each.

BECOMING A COWBOY details the ‘boot camp’ experience of the actors being trained with horses and guns for the film.

RIDING THE RAILS OF ‘THE LONE RANGER’ is the most interesting of all the special features, documenting the building of the trains, the laying of five miles of track, and the work of the gandy dancers who swung the sledges.

Additionally, there’s an amusing BLOOPER REEL, and a single DELETED SCENE, but like nothing I’ve seen before, as the scene is done entirely in 3D animation – fascinating!

THE CONTEST: MATCH THE ‘RANGER’ AND THE ‘TONTO’

Here’s what you need to do to win one of the two LONE RANGER BluRay/DVD/Digital sets!

On the left are numbered the names of the men who played the Lone Ranger, and on the right are lettered the men who played Tonto (I left out an unsold pilot version, but hopefully didn’t miss any others).  And no, it’s not a mistake that some of the ‘Tontos’ appear more than once.

Match the correct Rangers to the correct Tontos, and in an email, type them together (9J for example), include your name and mailing (snail-mail) address, and email your entry to swansongmail@sbcglobal.net  .  The first two entries I receive that do all of the match-ups correctly will win the LONE RANGER sets.  This contest is for readers in the domestic U.S. only – the discs wouldn’t play correctly in other regions anyway.  Good luck, Kemo Sabe!

1)Robert Livingston                                                                            A)Jay Silverheels

2)William Conrad                                                                               B)Chief Thundercloud

3)Brace Beemer                                                                                  C)Michael Horse        

4)Lee Powell                                                                                       A)Jay Silverheels

5)Clayton Moore                                                                                 D)Johnny Depp          

6)Klinton Spillsbury                                                                            E)John Todd

7)Armie Hammer                                                                                F)Ivan Naranjo

8)John Hart                                                                                         B)Chief Thundercloud

Winners will be announced in next week's Round-up!

THE COMPLETE ‘GENE AUTRY SHOW’ ON DVD!

A Home Video Review

One season at a time, Gene Autry Enterprises has been overseeing the restoration of THE GENE AUTRY SHOW.  It’s been a long-term commitment, a tremendous undertaking by the Timeless Media Group, Shout! Factory, and Gene’s own Flying ‘A’ Pictures Incorporated.  Now they’ve gathered all five seasons together and released them in a complete 91 episode, 47 hour set! 

Depending on your age, and where you grew up, these shows may be entirely new to you, or fondly remembered pieces of your childhood.  Either way, they stand up beautifully 63 years after the series first ran.  And the more I see of murky, shaky, duped prints, the more I admire the vision of Gene Autry, who acquired the rights to all of his movies and TV shows, to make sure that they were maintained in the highest possible quality. 

Gene spent more than two years studying the difference between movies and television before shooting his first episode, analyzing questions like what is the best way to show action on a tiny, blurry screen.  He concluded that his television movies would have less long-shots, more close-ups, and more side-to-side rather than head-on action.   

Why was Gene, just back from the war, eager to get into the new market?  In Gene’s own words, “Like everyone else in show business, I had become very much interested in the possibilities of television. And, in addition, I had a special reason for wanting to hit the video channels. During my three and a half years in the service, a whole new generation of children had been born. These youngsters are still too young to attend many movies (if at all), but they’re not too young to watch television. And in these days, cowboy fans, like charity, begin at home.”

Gene wanted to build a pipeline of new fans from the TV series to his films at the movie theatres.  But movie exhibitors, whose venues were disappearing with the competition of the new medium of television, were not at all pleased when he decided to make shows directly for TV.  Some even cancelled their contracts to play his pictures, saying no one would buy a ticket to see him when they could watch him on TV for free.  To show how different the show-biz world of the 1950s was from today, Gene correctly countered that by-and-large, only rural areas played his movies, while only big cities had TV stations, so his films and TV shows were serving almost completely different markets.  He further pointed out that his new Columbia-produced films were not getting the playdates they should, because exhibitors, to save money, were instead booking his pre-war Republic films, which he didn’t own (yet).

One thing that set THE GENE AUTRY SHOW apart from its competitors was that the episodes were approached as self-contained mini-movies.  In THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, THE LONE RANGER, or HOPALONG CASSIDY, the identities and relationships of characters were always the same.  In Autry’s series, just like in his theatrical movies, Gene could be a lawman or a ranch hand or a well-known entertainer, and sidekick Pat Buttram could be an old compadre, or someone he just met.  Sometimes Pat is the sheriff who hires Gene as his deputy!  It made for a wider variety of story possibilities.  And also consistent with Gene’s features, there is always music, a not preachy but clear core of morality, and comedy supplied by Pat Buttram, who is very .  And there’s plenty of fighting and riding action, what Gene Autry Enterprises President Karla Buhlman calls ‘the five minute rule’ – that’s the maximum time allowed between fistfights!

The shows often do feel like a very tight little movie rather than a TV episode, and the casts are peppered with actors who had worked with Gene in features, or would star in the shows he produced.  Dickie Jones, who would star in both THE RANGE RIDER and BUFFALO BILL JR. series; Gail Davis, who would do a number of features with Gene before he cast her as Annie Oakley; Myron Healy, a smug villain with more than 300 acting credits; Denver Pyle; SUPERMAN villain Ben Weldon; Abbott & Costello’s ‘Mike the cop’, Gordon Jones; and Harry Harvey, who almost always the sheriff both to Gene, and in Roy Rogers’ town of Mineral City.  There are also actors just starting on their career ascent like Denver Pyle, and Lee Van Cleef – in the season 3 episode, Gene beats Lee within an inch of his life!

In addition to about six episodes per disc, most of the fourteen discs include a special feature selected to place the shows in a historical context.  Among the entertainments are photo-galleries of Gene on vending cards; Gene starring in MELODY RANCH RADIO SHOWS; a photo gallery of Gene’s 1953 tour on England; and Gene’s movie trailers. 

And even if you’ve bought all of the individual seasons, there is one disc you do not have.  Back in the 1970s, in order to raise money to buy the rights to some of his features, Gene sold off the rights to the four other TV series he produced.  Although Autry Enterprises no longer owns them, the bonus disc includes two episodes from each of those series, all of them period westerns.  ANNIE OAKLEY, starring Gail Davis, was the most popular of Gene’s other productions, especially with girls who loved that Annie was the hero, and in charge, without anyone needing to comment on how unusual it was.  She was also beautiful.  THE RANGE RIDER starred Jock Mahoney and Dickie Jones, two of the best horsemen and stuntmen in the business.  The shows were non-stop action, and thrilling to watch.  Dick Jones followed up as BUFFALO BILL JR., which was more small-kid-aimed, but still a lot of fun.  THE ADVENTURES OF CHAMPION starred Gene’s horse, with 12-year-old Barry Curtis as the only kid who can ride him, and former ‘Red Ryder’ Jim Bannon as his dad.  There is a pair of episodes from THE GENE AUTRY SHOW as well.

If you’re an adult watching for your own enjoyment, you can watch the shows any way you want – binge-view a season, watch them chronologically, jump around randomly.  After all, each show stands up well on their own.  But if you’re going to show them to kids, I have a suggestion: start with season five.  While all the rest of the shows are in black and white (except for two from season one), the thirteen episodes of season five are in beautiful color.  Over the years I have introduced literally thousands of schoolkids to Laurel & Hardy, when a class had worked hard all day, and had earned a treat for the last twenty minutes of the school day.  But I learned that I had to use the colorized versions – they simply wouldn’t look at black and white.  But once you’ve got them hooked – on Gene or Laurel & Hardy – they’ll not only watch black & white, they’ll even listen to the radio shows! 

After re-reading the above, I fear I have shortchanged Pat Buttram, who is Gene’s sidekick in the series.  Pat was a very bright and clever guy, and seamlessly mixing ‘dumb-guy’ humor was a wry, observational wit.  Incidentally, there was one time during season one when Pat was nearly killed by a prop cannon.  For the next several episodes actors Fuzzy Knight, Alan Hale Jr. and Chill Wills took turns donning Pat’s duds and filling in for him (you can learn more about this HERE  in my review of PAT BUTTRAM, ROCKING CHAIR HUMORIST).

If you’re looking for a highly enjoyable way to spend forty-seven hours, I highly recommend THE COMPLETE GENE AUTRY SHOW.  And if you’d like to learn more about Gene Autry, and how he ran his business, please read my interview with Gene Autry Enterprises President Karla Buhlman HERE .

KARL MAY – HITLER’S FAVORITE COWBOY!

Once again I have to thank Karl Tiedemann, who never misses a thing on BBC radio.   Here’s a half hour podcast about the world’s most popular western writer, German 19^th century author Karl May.  Virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, everywhere else he’s the King of the Cowboys.  Here’s the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jz22h

ENNIO MORRICONE TO MAKE U.S. DEBUT IN MARCH!

Back in October of 2009, many of us followers of the great maestro of the Italian cinema – especially of the Leone spaghetti western – were crushed when, due to health concerns, Morricone had to cancel his Hollywood Bowl performance.  Now, under the sponsorship of TCM, the brilliant composer with over 520 scores to his credit, will have his first United States tour in March, starting with an appearance at the Los Angeles Nokia Theatre on March 20^th, followed by a New York appearance three days later.  It’s not yet clear whether more dates will be added.  He will be working with a 200 piece orchestra and choir.  It’s not something you see – or hear – every day.  You can learn more HERE 

  .

‘BILLY JACK’ STAR TOM LAUGHLIN DIES AT 82

Just as I was about to post, I got word that Tom Laughlin, writer, director and star of the BILLY JACK movies of the 1970s, has died.  A self-made filmmaker and movie star, Tom loved Westerns, and in addition to the contemporary BILLY JACK films, where he played an American Indian with martial arts skills, he also appeared in THE MASTER GUNFIGHTER, THE LITTLEST HORSE THIEVES, and did a cameo as a member of the Butch Cavendish gang in 1981’s LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER.  I had the pleasure of hearing him and his wife and partner Delores Taylor talk about their lives and careers in October 2012, when he was honored with a SILVER SPUR AWARD.  You can read what he had to say, and the rest of the article, HERE .

THAT’S A WRAP!

I had a terrific time Saturday morning, being a guest on the ‘AROUND THE BARN’ chatting with these charming ladies – Roy Rogers’ and Dale Evans’ granddaughter Julie Fox Pomilia; host Nancy Pitchford-Zhe; Gene Autry Enterprises President Karla Buhlman; and OutWest purveyor and host Bobbi Jean Bell, on KHTS 1220 AM in Santa Clarita.  We discussed Gene Autry, what’s coming in the Round-up, and we heard a lot of Gene’s great Christmas music.  I was given a pair of delightful Gene Autry Christmas CDs, and my wife and I loved listening to them as we drove to and from a Christmas party that night.  It doesn’t begin and end with RUDOLPH and HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS – there’s also FREDDIE THE LITTLE FIR TREE, and many more.  Bobbi Jean has them all HERE 

If you missed AROUND THE BARN, or if you want to hear it again and again (and who can blame you?), I’ll be posting the link as soon as the Podcast is available.  

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2013 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

SILVER SPURS SPARKLE!

15^TH SILVER SPURS

 

They pulled it off!  It was touch and go there for a while – I’d talked to Robert Lanthier, President of the non-profit REEL COWBOYS, a few times during the previous week, and he told me that ticket sales were so slow that they’d have to cancel the event if things didn’t pick up.   “We have 166 tickets left to sell.  This is for charity, for quadriplegic veterans, for families of veterans.”  Every year the REEL COWBOYS chooses a different charity to support with their banquet, and this year it was the MVAT Foundation. 

 

Robert Lanthier with a 101 year-old WWII Veteran

 

 

When I arrived at The Sportsmen’s Lodge on Saturday night, there wasn’t an empty seat in the entire Empire Ballroom.  I perused the silent auction offerings, noting western jewelry and art, sports memorabilia, several items related to honoree Rex Allen, and my particular favorite, a braided hairpiece worn by Iron Eyes Cody, complete with feathers.  I put a bid for CHAMPIONSHIP RODEO, a board game created by rodeo star and costume designer Nikki Pelley, and the evening’s festivities got off to a fast start.  Erwin Jackson and The Canyon Riders performed.

 

Boyd Magers, author of many books on the western film, spoke about Republic’s last great singing cowboy, Rex Allen; how he’d been thwarted in his performing career until he could save up $75 to have a surgeon correct his one crossed eye. Rex not only had a successful movie career, but starred on TV as FRONTIER DOCTOR, and had probably his greatest success narrating more than a hundred documentaries and TV episodes for Walt Disney.  Boyd then introduced Rex Allen Jr., who took the stage, singing and MC-ing the program.  Rex Jr. talked about recording his hit, LAST OF THE SILVER SCREEN COWBOYS with his dad, and with Roy Rogers.  As they were listening to the playback, Roy started laughing, and Rex Sr. asked him why.  “The older I get, the more I sound like Gabby Hayes.” 

 

Next to take the stage was Bo Hopkins who made his first film appearance, indelibly, as Crazy Lee in THE WILD BUNCH.  Born William Hopkins, his first big stage success was in a production of Inge’s BUS STOP, and he took the name ‘Bo’ from his character.  He was there to honor Robert Loggia, known to younger audiences from SCARFACE and THE SOPRANOS, and who I’m proud to say starred in the first film I wrote, SPEEDTRAP.  But he made his first big impression on audiences in Disney’s NINE LIVES OF ELFEGO BACA, playing the real-life gunman and lawyer, one of the first Hispanic characters to be the lead on American television.  (If you, like me, haven’t seen this character in quite a while, you can see a ten minute clip from the first episode HERE.)  Loggia said, “It’s great to be part of the gathering.  The brethren; and the ladies.”  To the crowd’s surprise and delight, he sang beautifully in Italian. 

 

Bo Hopkins and Robert Loggia

 

Terry Moore, best remembered as the gal-pal of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, and particularly busy in westerns, big-screen and small, in the 1960s, took the stage next, to honor Anne Jeffreys. “I am so happy to be here among you, to introduce who I think is the most beautiful woman in the world.  She’s been in show business forever because she started as a teenager.  She was a Powers Model, and she studied opera.  She’s sung Tosca.  She’s a great actress and a great singer.”  Terry went on to say that Anne had been in a musical review when she was spotted by Nelson Eddie and Jeanette MacDonald, and appeared with them in I MARRIED AN ANGEL.  Then she was signed by Republic, did FLYING TIGERS with John Wayne, and her contract was bought by R.K.O.  “While she was doing KISS ME KATE at the Schubert, there was this gorgeous actor, Robert Sterling, playing in the theatre next door.  They met, fell in love, and six months later, they were married.”  

 

Anne Jeffreys with a 101 year-old WWII Vet

 

They starred together in the wonderful TOPPER series, and frequently worked together in other shows.  They were married for 54 years, until his death, and it is astounding to look at this beautiful woman and realize that she is not only still acting, but she will turn ninety in January.  They ran a clip of her singing in a western, and rather than waiting for her introduction, she came out on stage.  “I was backstage, and I couldn’t see what they were running.  But I died in both of them, didn’t I?  I never got the man; he either ran off with somebody else, or was killed, and killed me at the same time.  It’s such an honor to be honored.  The era of the cowboys, it will come back.  It has to.  It’s history.  It’s wonderful history, too.  I think I did twelve westerns; eight of them at Republic, a couple at R.K.O.  One with the swimmer; what was his name?  He was blond and very handsome.”     

Other voices shouted ‘Johnny Weissmuller!’  I shouted, ‘Buster Crabbe!’  (Okay, so I’m a show-off. BILLY THE KID TRAPPED, PRC,1942.) 

“Buster Crabbe!  Anyway, I feel very closely connected to Western films.  I grew up, really cut my eye-teeth doing a series at Republic with Gabby Hayes and Wild Bill Elliot. I learned a lot of things from doing those westerns.  First of all, the girl was never important at all.  My back was always to the camera while the fellows were frolicking or shooting or whatever they were doing.  I learned to wiggle my hair-ribbon in the back to get attention.  It was a school, really a wonderful school.  And young people don’t have that today.  It’s a different world. 

 

“Gabby Hayes, if you didn’t know him, was very different from the characters he played.  He was a dude.  He’d wear a tailored black suit with striped pants, beard shaved off, and he had shoes on instead of boots, and he had his teeth in, so you wouldn’t know him.  He was a wonderful man, and it was a great pleasure to work with him.  I also worked with him when I went to RKO on TRAIL STREET and RETURN OF THE BAD MEN.  Same cast; same horses; same script, just about. 

 

“I was going to tell you a story about making one of the movies at Republic, I think it was WAGON TRACKS WEST. I’m not sure; I did eight of them.  I was playing an Indian girl; my name was Moon Hush.  With my blonde hair – of course I had a wig on.   I entered the commissary with my headband on and my fringe and everything, sat down at the counter for lunch.  My agent came in and sat down beside me, and had no idea who I was at all.  He said, ‘Would you pass me the sugar please?’  I said, ‘If you pass-um me salt.’  Then I laughed, and he laughed, and he knew who I was. 

 

“I was out there in the hot sun at the back lot at Republic.  And I had on my Indian outfit, with the headband and the fringes.  It was not too comfortable – it was a dusty, dusty place.  I was sitting there, reading my script.  And a cowboy sneaked up behind me, and tied my fringe onto the chair.  So I hear, “Okay, you’re on!”  And I’m tied to the chair!   And as I ran across the set, I had powder in my moccasins because it was so hot.  And as I ran, white puffs came out of my shoes.  They called me White Cloud after that, instead of Moon Hush. 

 

“I got back at them.  It was so hot that day, and the prop man, he had fires going, and fish hanging on things.  So I took one of the fish, the smoked herring – pretty smelly – and I wrapped it, and I hid it in the prop box.  For three days they were looking for that fish.  ‘I can smell it -- where is it?’  ‘Where is it?’  ‘Hah-hah-hah!  You tie my fringe, I get even with you!’  They were wonderful days; wonderful times.  I hope that they will do more westerns again, and soon.  And all of you will be here to work (on them).  I’m delighted to see all my cowboys looking so shiny, bright, young and happy.  I’m so delighted to have this.  I had a Golden Boot, and now I’ve got a Silver Spur to go with it!”

(If you’d like to see Anne in a western, click HERE to see her and Robert Sterling in the JULIE GAGE STORY episode of WAGON TRAIN.

 

The next presenter was Wilford Brimley, who prior to his acting career had been a wrangler, blacksmith, and a bodyguard for Howard Hughes.  Rex Allen Jr. revealed that Brimley came to film and TV shoeing horses, and as a riding extra.  “We were doing a charity rodeo in Abilene, Texas.  And I was sitting on horseback, next to him; we were doing the grand entry.  I’d been in Abilene for about three days, and I hadn’t seen him at the hotel.  So I said, ‘Mr. Brimley, are you staying at the hotel?’  ‘No.  I’m staying in the horse trailer.’  ‘In the horse trailer?’  ‘Yuh.  I just move the horse outside, put in some new straw and stay in the horse trailer.  I don’t want to stay in a hotel.’  He is a wonderful, wonderful man, a credit to western films and to the film industry.  He is an all-American cowboy.  He is a good man.”

 

Wilford Brimley

 

Brimley took the mike and commented, “If b&llsh*t was honey, this place would be swarming with bees.  They tell stuff about you, and you don’t even recognize yourself.  There’s a kid out here, going to get a prize for being a stuntman.  Now (Rex Allen Jr.) said I used to be a stuntman – let me get that straight.  I never was a stuntman.  I was an extra, a gilley.  I worked every day for twenty-two dollars and five cents, and went up from there.  This kid is and was and always will be a stuntman.  They tried every way they can to kill him.  This kid is one of my kids, and I’ve got ‘em spread all over.  But I don’t love any of them any more than I love Clifford Happy.  Come out here, son.” 

 

Clifford started by thanking Wilford Brimley, who had braved storms in Wyoming to be there.  And he paid tribute to his parents, who are both Rodeo Hall-of-famers.  His father had started as a rodeo pick-up man, “…pick-up buck horses, take the cowboys off them after they’d had their eight-second ride.”   He went on to supply horses to the movies.  “I was proud to watch my mother, father and sisters trick-ride.  Because of (my mother’s) athletic ability, and nerves of steel, she worked many westerns back in the day, as well.  I grew up watching westerns faithfully, every Saturday, with Roy Rogers, Rex Allen, Hopalong Cassidy.  After watching all my cowboy shows, out the door I’d go, catch my own mare, Sadie, ride her down through the dust, chasing every gangster around, with my Red Ryder BB-gun.  Hard to believe that some twenty years later I’d meet the girl of my dreams, marry her, and raise two little cowboys.  Sean and Ryan are third generation stuntmen.  They’ve both just worked on LONE RANGER, DJANGO, as well as COWBOYS & ALIENS.  So yes, they’re still making westerns.”  Happy was working around movie sets to support his family, and raise rodeo entrance fees, when a stuntman he was visiting broke a leg doubling for Andrew Prine.  That stuntman recommended Happy to take over, and that was the start of his career.  He went on to do stunts in THE LONG RIDERS (the famous horse-crashing through the windows scene), SILVERADO, NORTH AND SOUTH, THREE AMIGOS, GERONIMO, and many more.  “It’s not all sunglasses and autographs, as you know.  We are not daredevils.  We calculate all our stunts so we can get up and do it again, and again.”  He was doubling Tommy Lee Jones on LONESOME DOVE, and Tommy Lee began asking for him.  “I’ve been very blessed by Tommy’s generosity, requesting me on twenty or twenty-five shows.  Without the many stunt-coordinators that put their faith in me, I would not have had the many opportunities that I have been given.  They’ve helped me to make my career successful and satisfying.  I’ve literally lived my Saturday daydreams, playing cowboys and Indians, bank-robbers and rustlers for thirty-five years now.  I am humbled by this Silver Spur Award, and I want to thank y’all.  With hundreds of channels to choose from, I find myself looking back to my faithful Western Channel.  For you see, cowboys truly are my heroes.”

 

For a change of pace, next onstage was Tombstone Tony Redburn performing a remarkable gun-spinning and dancing routine, to Will Smith’s WILD WILD WEST which must be seen to be appreciated, which is why I’m including a link to a previous performance HERE. 
 

 

Tombstone Tony

 

Next onstage was Ben Murphy, who shot to fame in 1971, playing opposite Peter Duel in the delightful ALIAS SMITH AND JONES series.  If you haven’t seen it in a while, you can see the pilot HERE. 

 

Having not seen Murphy in quite some time, I was delighted to see the seventy-year-old actor looking just as he did in the 1970s, except for an elegant head of white hair.  Murphy recounted that when he and Duel were doing the series, they would save the blanks for the takes, and just say ‘Bang!’ for the run-throughs.  But sometimes they would rehearse so much that they’d forget, and say ‘Bang!’ for the takes.  Murphy was there to honor the writer, director and star of the BILLY JACK movies, Tom Laughlin, who was there with his costar and wife of 58 years, Delores Taylor.  “When I was a young actor, Tom Laughlin used to invite me to his home to play tennis, which he did for a lot of us.  And after a day of tennis we would watch films in his home; he was very gracious that way.  And he seems to me to represent that great mythic western cowboy.  The man who comes into town, quiet, but if you push him into a corner, he will fight.  And he will protect those weaker than himself.  Part of that western lore.  And Tom mentally created that in his role as Billy Jack, but as a filmmaker he was an inspiration to a lot of us because he did it his way.  He bucked the system.  He made the picture with his money, his way, and he proved them wrong.  He got it done.  It is my honor: Tom Laughlin.”

 

Delores Taylor, Ben Murphy, Tom Laughlin 

 

He received a tremendous standing ovation. Having not been on the screen in more than three decades, it is startling to see Laughlin as an eighty-year-old man.  But though he appeared frail, and his voice was soft, he had plenty to say.  “Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I really want to, first of all, begin my gratitude by quoting Abraham Lincoln.  ‘All I am, or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.’  I was a very precocious chick, reading in the second grade 6^th and 7^th grade books.  I read a biography of Lincoln in 7^th grade.  And I’m quoting that first line eighty years later.  The reason is, all I’ve ever done, all the luck I’ve had, success I’ve had, I owe to my own dear wife and life partner standing here.  We recently celebrated our 58^th wedding anniversary.  And never, in that time for one second did we think of divorce.  Murder, yes, but never divorce. 

 

“I want to thank my good friend Ben for that wonderful, wonderful introduction.  My gratitude to all of you in this society for honoring; but it wasn’t me, it was us.  We have been an unbelievable joined-at-the-hip partnership in everything.  Every movie, every script, every acting (role).”  Delores took the microphone for a few moments and echoed those sentiments.

 

Delores Taylor, Tom Laughlin, Louis Gossett Jr.

 

For the final tribute of the evening, Academy Award winner Louis Gossett Jr.  took the stage to honor Bo Svenson.  Speaking of great actors of the past, Gossett noted, “…there’s a pride in working with the Jack Palances, the Sidney Poitiers, George C. Scotts, the Paul Newmans, the James Deans – they all had one thing in common.  That they wanted to do what they did to perfection.  They were never satisfied.  They work constantly, trying to hone their scenes on a daily basis.  I just witnessed that experience a few weeks ago in Canada, with a young Swedish hockey player, who came to America and (worked on) stage and western film, and captured my attention and respect.  He applies himself on a daily basis.  He asked me to give him this award.  And I agreed, because of his life, because of his art, and because he’s taller than me.  Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Bo Svenson.”     

 

 

Bo Svenson

Mr. Svenson took the stage.  “I didn’t know what to expect from this evening.  As a kid, I always had a dream.  I wanted to come to America.  And here I am.  I spent six years in the Marine Corps.  I’ve been married to Lise since 1966.  I attribute the longevity of that to the fact that I’m absent a lot, and that she has a very poor memory.  So thank you all very much for a, for me, very worthwhile evening.”

 

Dick Jones

 

Strolling around the ballroom I spotted a number of actors who were there not to perform but to enjoy the evening:  Martin Kove, Dan Haggerty, RANGE RIDER and BUFFALO BILL JR. star Dick Jones, Johnny Whitaker, Cliff Emmich, weapons expert Anthony DeLongis, DEADWOOD regular Ralph Richeson. 

 

Anthony DeLongis and Martin Kove

 

 

back row, Clifford Happy, Wilford Brimley, Anne Jeffreys, Delores Taylor,

Bo Svenson, Louis Gossett Jr.; in front, Tom Laughlin, Ben Murphy

 

One of my personal favorites, Tom Cook, who played Little Beaver to Don Barry’s Red Ryder in the Republic serial, directed the event from start to finish.  It was a great evening, and Red Ryder would have been proud.

 

Tommy Cook signed my RED RYDER box!

 

AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS MARKETPLACE AT THE AUTRY

 

November 3^rd and 4^th, Saturday and Sunday, the Autry will again host over 180 Native American artists – there’s no other show anywhere in Southern California that features this range and volume of Indian art.  Don’t miss it! 

TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!

And speaking of TCM (okay, nobody was), have I mentioned that the segment I was interviewed for is now viewable here?






 

THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepreneur 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 permanent 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 Hollywoodwestern, 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.



WELLSFARGO 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.





WESTERN ALL OVER THE DIAL



INSP’s SADDLE-UP SATURDAY features a block of rarely-seen classics THE VIRGINIAN and HIGH CHAPARRAL, along with BONANZA and THE BIG VALLEY. On weekdays they’re showing LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, BIG VALLEY, HIGH CHAPARRAL and DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN.



ME-TV’s Saturday line-up includes BRANDED, THE REBEL and THE GUNS OF WILL SONNETT. On weekdays it’s DANIEL BOONE, GUNSMOKE, BONANZA, BIG VALLEY, WILD WILD WEST, and THE RIFLEMAN.



RFD-TV, the channel whose president bought Trigger and Bullet at auction, have a special love for Roy Rogers. They show an episode of The Roy Rogers Show on Sunday mornings, a Roy Rogers movie on Tuesday mornings, and repeat them during the week.



WHT-TV has a weekday afternoon line-up that’s perfect for kids, featuring LASSIE, THE ROY ROGERS SHOW and THE LONE RANGER.



TV-LAND angered viewers by dropping GUNSMOKE, but now it’s back every weekday, along with BONANZA.


And that's it for this week!  And please, if you have any events that you think belong in the Round-up, please let me know!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Material Copyright October 2012 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved