TV cowboys of the 50s

B

Bruce in West Oz

New member
No, I'm not reopening this old thread.

While researching for something else at work, I came across this brilliant photo, and I just had to share it with you all (especially the OFs and OFsIT).

Cheyenne Bodie, Matt Dillon, Paladin, Flint McCullough, Bret Maverick and Vint Bonner -- all together in one final shootout.

I can't for the life of me figure out how this server shows photos on-line, so here's the URL

http://pathfinder.com/photo/gallery/popular/cap16.htm

Of them all, only Vint Bonner is an unknown to me -- my guess is Australia never picked the show for transmission.

But the others -- wow! That's my youth in one photo. Amazing.

Cheers

B
 
It was nice to see Flint McCullough from "Wagon Train" again. On any Friday night you could find me and my brother, propped in front of the TV, ready for another episode.

Too bad they didn't include Rowdy Yates from "Rawhide", played by a young unknown fellow named Clint Eastwood.
 
Speaking of the old westerns, does anyone remember “Chester” (Dennis Weaver?) in Gunsmoke? He was the deputy before Festus. One famous scene when he for got to limp.----- Corrections welcome.
 
No correction jeffer, you're dead on.
Has anyone else seen James Drury at any gunshows? He looks the same now as when he was The Virginian. Heck, he hasn't even changed clothes in thirty years. ;)

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Gunslinger

TFL End of Summer Meet, August 12th & 13th, 2000
 
Does anyone remember a western called "Sugarfoot?" It would have been in the late 50s or early 60s. I vaguely remember the show, but don't recall who played the lead.
 
The lead character in the TV series Sugarfoot was played by Will Hutchins which aired from 1957-1960 on ABC Sunday nights. This series was based on the motion pictice of the same name with Randolph Scott as the lead character which was released in 1951.

Steve Mace

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After today, its all historical
 
Man talk about old memories. I remember "Restless Gun" well, but I would never have remembered that the character was Vint Bonner.

jeffer - One of favorite memories of my youth was meeting both James Arness and Dennis Weaver. Gunsmoke had been on for about a year. They came to our Boy Scout meeting at the Irvine Ranch in Orange County, CA. (Back when there was a ranch and the county was mostly orange groves.) There weren't many of us there, so we had a lot of "face time" instead of one of those "Hi kids! Gotta run." type of things. They were both very nice guys and not at all stuck up like some actors when they have to meet the hoi polloi
 
And as a sort of a tie-in to the WW-II Vets thread of last week, James Arness was darn near killed at Anzio. Took a round in his hip, as I recall, and in the old 'Gunsmoke' series you could, at times, note that he'd swing his leg around in a way to cover up the fact that it never fully healed.

Owen
 
Roy and Dale Rogers, the Cisco Kid, the Lone Ranger, Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates on "Rawhide," along with the guys who played the trail boss and the cook, Gene Barry as Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp (played by ?), Steve McQueen in "The Bounty Hunter," Chuck Conners as the Rifleman . . .

Thanks Bruce.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ledbetter:
Wyatt Earp (played by ?), Steve McQueen in "The Bounty Hunter," [/quote]

Hugh O'Brian played Wyatt Earp. He was also the faro dealer killed by John Wayne in the gun battle at the end of "The Shootist," Wayne's last film. And Steve McQueen played bounty hunter Josh Randall in "Wanted, Dead or Alive."

Yes, I'm over 40. Over 45, in fact.
 
And who can forget Richard Boone (self-described as having a face "like 40 miles of bad road") as Paladin - the gunfighter who dressed up for dinner every night, quoted Homer, and traveled to San Francisco every fall to see the lastest Shakespeare production.

Man, they really had script writers in those days.

Or Chuck Conners as The Rifleman, a show that included a comment on gun safety or marksmanship in every episode. In one episode, he took his son to the local gun shop to visit and chat about which rifle/caliber would suit the son best for learning and shooting for the table.

Look for these on the new Fox Family Channel, or sometimes they show up on the new Action Network (which also shows reruns of "Combat" for all you guys who remember Sgt Saunders and his trusty Thompson.
 
David R.--Thanks for the memory.

Strayhorn: "Man, they really had script writers in those days."

Yeah, you got that right. All we've got now is pretty young faces with no values whatsoever.

[This message has been edited by Ledbetter (edited May 23, 2000).]
 
Oweno, re Jim Arness and his WWII wound, and his subsequent limp on "Gunsmoke." As the series went on, he had more and more trouble with it. Finally, he could barely ride, and many times, when he was supposed to ride in a scene, you'd see him get on his horse, "Dr. Ross," (jokingly named by a Gunsmoke writer, Ron Bishop,) then there'd be a cutaway, and then you'd see his stunt double riding away.

I've also met Arness, and he is a very pleasant and likable man. J.B.
 
Seeing Strayhorn mentioned "Combat!", one of my faves:

A couple of "Did you knows" about the guns:

• Kirby's BAR was a genuine WWII veteran, in full working order, but with a restrictor for blank firing.

• Lieutenant Hanley was originally supposed to have carried Saunders' Thompson. However, he had first choice, and was/is a hunter and reloader, so he took the M1 carbine, knowing it to be lighter. After the show finished, he had it deactivated and kept it, even though it was registered to the Culver City, CA, Police Department.

• Vic Morrow hated guns -- any guns. He also hated the Thompson and bitched about having to carry it around -- it was "too heavy". So, unless you see him actually firing, what he's carrying is a custom-made wooden prop that only weighed a couple of pounds.

• The Thompson hated being choked down and often jammed, causing Vic Morrow to teach the rest of the cast some brand new, four-letter expletives.

Information from http://www.jodavidsmeyer.com/combat/main.html

B
 
When I need my cowboy fix The Western Channel is only a remote away :cool: It's one of the Encore Channels. Just watched Hoppy save the day once again yesterday.
 
Dennis Weaver wasn't my favorite cowboy type but his show "McCloud" about a modern western lawman in New York(?) produced one of the funniest scenes I can remember. McCloud was interviewing a crime victim, who said something like "The guy had a .45 and I wasn't going to argue with him" To which McCloud exclaims "A .45? You mean like this?" and then he whips out his single action Colt and almost shoves it in front of the guys face. The victim looks at McCloud and says, with distain,"No, a REAL one, like the army issues!" I was rotflmao! Unfortunatly, westerns are seldom seen on the tube these days, all that self-reliance, honesty, and other positive behavior by the good guys just isn't "politically correct" I guess.
 
you guys forgot The Plainsman starring
Michael Ansara, and Lawman with John
Russell. The Zane Grey Theater, and
Stories of the Old West with Will Rogers jr. were interesting too. I think it was John Russell?
 
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