Paul Colt's Blog, page 31
October 5, 2019
A Cowboy's Word is His Bond
A Cowboy’s word is his bond. Think about that in the context of today’s culture. How often do we look up to idols, icons and leaders only to find they say one thing and do another? It is yet another form of cultural deceit. ‘I tell you what I think I should; or what I think you want to hear’; but that doesn’t mean I back it up in what I do. Until I get caught. If I get caught, I apologize, cry, blame somebody or something else, claim I made a mistake and beg forgiveness. The mistake of course is getting caught.
We see this sort of behavior time and again from celebrities, politicians, athletes and all manner of media figures. What are young people learning from idols, icons and leaders who engage in behavior like this? Words don’t matter? Deceit and hypocrisy are acceptable as long as you get away with it? Where are the heroes who say what they mean and mean what they say? Where do we find stand-up role models who look you in the eye, shake your hand and give you a word you can take to the bank? Imagine a world with a little more of that. We’d all be better off . . . well maybe not trial lawyers.
Instinctively we still admire that brand of heroism we call trustworthiness when we encounter it. We just don’t encounter it as often as we once did. Neither do our young people. Where do they learn the value of making their word matter? Maybe we should let a bit of cowboy rub off on them by making our word a bond; and make sure our young people know it.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The Cowboy Code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is His Bond
RETURN TO FACEBOOK TO COMMENT
Ride easy, Photo-art by Jim Hatzell
Paul https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiddler...
We see this sort of behavior time and again from celebrities, politicians, athletes and all manner of media figures. What are young people learning from idols, icons and leaders who engage in behavior like this? Words don’t matter? Deceit and hypocrisy are acceptable as long as you get away with it? Where are the heroes who say what they mean and mean what they say? Where do we find stand-up role models who look you in the eye, shake your hand and give you a word you can take to the bank? Imagine a world with a little more of that. We’d all be better off . . . well maybe not trial lawyers.
Instinctively we still admire that brand of heroism we call trustworthiness when we encounter it. We just don’t encounter it as often as we once did. Neither do our young people. Where do they learn the value of making their word matter? Maybe we should let a bit of cowboy rub off on them by making our word a bond; and make sure our young people know it.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The Cowboy Code helps us show it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth
2. A Cowboy’s Word is His Bond
RETURN TO FACEBOOK TO COMMENT
Ride easy, Photo-art by Jim Hatzell
Paul https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiddler...
September 28, 2019
Cowboys Tell the Truth
Truthfulness is basic to honesty, yet we live in a society where truthfulness is often in short supply. We have institutionalized deceit in our culture. From the highest offices in the land to our mass media and social media, lying is an accepted form of discourse. If there is no penalty for lying what does that say about the value of honesty in our society? To an impressionable observer like a young person, it appears honesty is for suckers.
How are young people to learn the value of telling the truth when pop-culture, political correctness, fake news and ‘the end-justifies-the-means’ ethics all condone parsing words, shading meaning, spinning wrongs, twisting truth and ignoring inconvenient fact? It starts with parents who expect kids to tell the truth and have the courage to expose deceit wherever they find it. That’s a tough assignment these days when so much of society and media inundate kids with falsehood and deceit.
It helps if kids have heroes and role-models who reinforce the value of honesty. For many of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties our heroes were straight talking cowboys. They practiced a code of conduct that became quintessentially American. We revered and respected heroes who stood for honorable values. Who are the heroes our young people look up to today? Rock stars? Super star athletes? Cartoon characters? The video game actors under their thumbs? What code of conduct do these ‘role models’ stand for? Chances are when you catalog a kid’s heroes today, you won’t find a cowboy among them. Maybe we should hold a few up.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The Cowboy Code helps us find it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth.
RETURN TO FACEBOOK to comment.
Ride easy, Photo-art by Jim Hatzell
Paul https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiddler...
How are young people to learn the value of telling the truth when pop-culture, political correctness, fake news and ‘the end-justifies-the-means’ ethics all condone parsing words, shading meaning, spinning wrongs, twisting truth and ignoring inconvenient fact? It starts with parents who expect kids to tell the truth and have the courage to expose deceit wherever they find it. That’s a tough assignment these days when so much of society and media inundate kids with falsehood and deceit.
It helps if kids have heroes and role-models who reinforce the value of honesty. For many of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties our heroes were straight talking cowboys. They practiced a code of conduct that became quintessentially American. We revered and respected heroes who stood for honorable values. Who are the heroes our young people look up to today? Rock stars? Super star athletes? Cartoon characters? The video game actors under their thumbs? What code of conduct do these ‘role models’ stand for? Chances are when you catalog a kid’s heroes today, you won’t find a cowboy among them. Maybe we should hold a few up.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The Cowboy Code helps us find it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth.
RETURN TO FACEBOOK to comment.
Ride easy, Photo-art by Jim Hatzell
Paul https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiddler...
Cowboys Tell the Truth
Truthfulness is basic to honesty, yet we live in a society where truthfulness is often in short supply. We have institutionalized deceit in our culture. From the highest offices in the land to our mass media and social media, lying is an accepted form of discourse. If there is no penalty for lying what does that say about the value of honesty in our society? To an impressionable observer like a young person, it appears honesty is for suckers.
How are young people to learn the value of telling the truth when pop-culture, political correctness, fake news and ‘the end-justifies-the-means’ ethics all condone parsing words, shading meaning, spinning wrongs, twisting truth and ignoring inconvenient fact? It starts with parents who expect kids to tell the truth and have the courage to expose deceit wherever they find it. That’s a tough assignment these days when so much of society and media inundate kids with falsehood and deceit.
It helps if kids have heroes and role-models who reinforce the value of honesty. For many of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties our heroes were straight talking cowboys. They practiced a code of conduct that became quintessentially American. We revered and respected heroes who stood for honorable values. Who are the heroes our young people look up to today? Rock stars? Super star athletes? Cartoon characters? The video game actors under their thumbs? What code of conduct do these ‘role models’ stand for? Chances are when you catalog a kid’s heroes today, you won’t find a cowboy among them. Maybe we should hold a few up.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The Cowboy Code helps us find it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth.
RETURN TO FACEBOOK to comment.
Ride easy, Photo-art by Jim Hatzell
Paul https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiddler...
How are young people to learn the value of telling the truth when pop-culture, political correctness, fake news and ‘the end-justifies-the-means’ ethics all condone parsing words, shading meaning, spinning wrongs, twisting truth and ignoring inconvenient fact? It starts with parents who expect kids to tell the truth and have the courage to expose deceit wherever they find it. That’s a tough assignment these days when so much of society and media inundate kids with falsehood and deceit.
It helps if kids have heroes and role-models who reinforce the value of honesty. For many of us who grew up in the fifties and sixties our heroes were straight talking cowboys. They practiced a code of conduct that became quintessentially American. We revered and respected heroes who stood for honorable values. Who are the heroes our young people look up to today? Rock stars? Super star athletes? Cartoon characters? The video game actors under their thumbs? What code of conduct do these ‘role models’ stand for? Chances are when you catalog a kid’s heroes today, you won’t find a cowboy among them. Maybe we should hold a few up.
Popular culture comes and popular culture goes, but the cowboy way of doing things never goes out of style. There’s a little cowboy in all of us. The Cowboy Code helps us find it.
1. Cowboys Tell the Truth.
RETURN TO FACEBOOK to comment.
Ride easy, Photo-art by Jim Hatzell
Paul https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiddler...
September 20, 2019
Reprise: A Cowboy Code
Some years ago I was asked to address the graduating class of a program for at-risk middle school kids. The program taught kids life lessons built around learning equine skills and studying the cowboy code; or code of the west as some call it. That invitation gave birth to this series. It’s the only series we’ve ever repeated on these pages. Why run it again you ask? Two reasons. The life lessons are timeless and as relevant to young people today as they were back in our day. The problem is, where do young people go to learn these values today? The second reason follows the first. There is a real hunger to impart these values today. Both times we’ve run this series, it reached over sixty thousand readers a week. Reasons enough to do it again.
I started organizing my thoughts for that little talk with some research. Imagine my surprise when I discovered there isn’t one cowboy code, there are lots of them. Like many of you, growing up my heroes had names like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone Ranger and more. Many of those heroes had their own version of the cowboy code.
Each code comprised a list of ten things that make up a cowboy way of doing things. While they had similarities, they were all different. That bothered me at first. How can you have a different code for every cowboy and still call it a cowboy code? It had to be the similarities. Ten things also struck me as a lot. Surely you could summarize the similarities in the various lists to come up with some more economical number than ten. I took six codes and lined them up side by side. The similarities in the six codes summarized into . . . ten things that make up a cowboy way of doing things. So much for economy. Moses ended up with ten too. I guess they’re all important.
My generation learned life lessons from family, home, church, school and those heroes who rode horses. I found myself asking: where do kids today learn those lessons? Sadly for many kids, home and family aren’t what they used to be. Broken homes and families are all too common. Religious influence has declined with church attendance. For too many kids, schools have deteriorated from respected educational institutions to day-care centers, featuring social promotion and participation academic standards. Kids drop out or find themselves on the threshold of graduation, unable to read or do basic mathematics.
Popular culture doesn’t offer up heroes as role models either. Kids get a steady diet of digital noise, from violent games, music and a culture that glorifies alcohol, drugs, sex and violence. They idolize celebrity in glamourous walks of life, who set examples by lying, cheating, stealing and every moral depravity the mind can summon; because it’s all cool. Anything goes. If it feels good, do it. What are the chances a kid is going to come out of that sewer with the kind of moral and ethical standards of behavior a civilized society is predicated on? Small wonder civil discourse is so coarse. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one worried about the problem.
Cowboys aren’t defined by boots and hats, or horses and cattle. You don’t have to be a cowboy to benefit from the cowboy code. The things that make a cowboy come from the heart. The cowboy way of doing things offers all of us life lessons we can use to navigate today’s cultural turbulence. Those who learn the code and live it, find there’s a little cowboy in all of us. With that in mind let’s use this series to look at the values that make up a cowboy way of doing things. If you’ve got a young person you’d like to share these musings with, feel free. They don’t have to be at-risk kids to benefit from positive life lessons.
RETURN TO FACEBOOK to comment.
Ride easy, Photo-art by Jim Hatzell
Paul https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiddler...
I started organizing my thoughts for that little talk with some research. Imagine my surprise when I discovered there isn’t one cowboy code, there are lots of them. Like many of you, growing up my heroes had names like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Lone Ranger and more. Many of those heroes had their own version of the cowboy code.
Each code comprised a list of ten things that make up a cowboy way of doing things. While they had similarities, they were all different. That bothered me at first. How can you have a different code for every cowboy and still call it a cowboy code? It had to be the similarities. Ten things also struck me as a lot. Surely you could summarize the similarities in the various lists to come up with some more economical number than ten. I took six codes and lined them up side by side. The similarities in the six codes summarized into . . . ten things that make up a cowboy way of doing things. So much for economy. Moses ended up with ten too. I guess they’re all important.
My generation learned life lessons from family, home, church, school and those heroes who rode horses. I found myself asking: where do kids today learn those lessons? Sadly for many kids, home and family aren’t what they used to be. Broken homes and families are all too common. Religious influence has declined with church attendance. For too many kids, schools have deteriorated from respected educational institutions to day-care centers, featuring social promotion and participation academic standards. Kids drop out or find themselves on the threshold of graduation, unable to read or do basic mathematics.
Popular culture doesn’t offer up heroes as role models either. Kids get a steady diet of digital noise, from violent games, music and a culture that glorifies alcohol, drugs, sex and violence. They idolize celebrity in glamourous walks of life, who set examples by lying, cheating, stealing and every moral depravity the mind can summon; because it’s all cool. Anything goes. If it feels good, do it. What are the chances a kid is going to come out of that sewer with the kind of moral and ethical standards of behavior a civilized society is predicated on? Small wonder civil discourse is so coarse. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one worried about the problem.
Cowboys aren’t defined by boots and hats, or horses and cattle. You don’t have to be a cowboy to benefit from the cowboy code. The things that make a cowboy come from the heart. The cowboy way of doing things offers all of us life lessons we can use to navigate today’s cultural turbulence. Those who learn the code and live it, find there’s a little cowboy in all of us. With that in mind let’s use this series to look at the values that make up a cowboy way of doing things. If you’ve got a young person you’d like to share these musings with, feel free. They don’t have to be at-risk kids to benefit from positive life lessons.
RETURN TO FACEBOOK to comment.
Ride easy, Photo-art by Jim Hatzell
Paul https://www.flickr.com/photos/fiddler...
September 14, 2019
The National Barn Dance
The National Barn Dance premiered on WLS Chicago in 1924. WLS had a monster AM signal that could be heard all across the Midwest and at night, all the way to Canada. The broadcast reach gave credibility to a ‘National’ claim to fame. The show in fact had national syndications with NBC from 1933 – 1946 and ABC from 1946 – 1952. It continued to air on WLS until 1960 when the station went to the Rock ‘n Roll format I remember listening to as a teen. The National Barn Dance moved to the other Chicago powerhouse WGN where it ran until 1968.
Besides longevity National Barn Dance had at least two distinguishing claims to fame. It was the forerunner of, and likely inspiration for, the Grand Ole Opry. The Barn Dance originated from Chicago’s Eighth Street Theater beginning in 1931. Though that setting never achieved the iconic stature of the Opry’s Ryman Theater both programs share something of a common bond.
The Barn Dance had a connection to Western films and eventually TV. The root of that connection – the singing cowboy. Rex Allen and Gene Autry were both National Barn Dance regulars before Hollywood wooed them away to the silver screen. Next came the ‘sidekick connection’ which started us on this side trip.
Rex Allen came up through the Barn Dance. He had sidekicks we covered in this series, Buddy Ebsen and Slim Pickens. Neither of them have roots in the Barn Dance. The sidekick connection with the National Barn Dance belongs to Gene Autry. When Hollywood decided that cowboys should sing they plucked Gene off the National Barn Dance program. When he needed a sidekick, one with musical talent seemed like just the ticket. The call went out to Barn Dance regular Smiley Burnette. Later they called up Pat Buttram. Pat worked with Gene briefly before hitching his wagon to Roy Rogers. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Next Week: Reprise: A Cowboy Code
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
Besides longevity National Barn Dance had at least two distinguishing claims to fame. It was the forerunner of, and likely inspiration for, the Grand Ole Opry. The Barn Dance originated from Chicago’s Eighth Street Theater beginning in 1931. Though that setting never achieved the iconic stature of the Opry’s Ryman Theater both programs share something of a common bond.
The Barn Dance had a connection to Western films and eventually TV. The root of that connection – the singing cowboy. Rex Allen and Gene Autry were both National Barn Dance regulars before Hollywood wooed them away to the silver screen. Next came the ‘sidekick connection’ which started us on this side trip.
Rex Allen came up through the Barn Dance. He had sidekicks we covered in this series, Buddy Ebsen and Slim Pickens. Neither of them have roots in the Barn Dance. The sidekick connection with the National Barn Dance belongs to Gene Autry. When Hollywood decided that cowboys should sing they plucked Gene off the National Barn Dance program. When he needed a sidekick, one with musical talent seemed like just the ticket. The call went out to Barn Dance regular Smiley Burnette. Later they called up Pat Buttram. Pat worked with Gene briefly before hitching his wagon to Roy Rogers. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Next Week: Reprise: A Cowboy Code
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
September 7, 2019
Matt Dillon
This post started out focused on Dennis Weaver’s sidekick role as Chester Goode. It was to be followed by a second post on Ken Curtis sidekicking as Festus Haggen. A funny thing happened on the way to this orderly little plan. We were reminded Matt Dillon had five different sidekicks over the shows two decade run.
In the early 50’s Denis Weaver had a nascent acting career withering on the vine with an assortment of day-jobs to feed his family. In 1955 he landed the role of Chester Goode as sidekick to James Arness’s Matt Dillon. Chester gimped into the role with an affected stiff leg to enhance his secondary character. His work as Chester received the 1959 Emmy for Best Supporting Actor. Weaver left the show in 1963 to pursue a wider range of career opportunities. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Dodge City Trail of Fame and a place in the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. An environmentalist and philanthropist Weaver died of cancer in 2006.
Weaver’s departure from the show opened the sidekick revolving door. Burt Reynolds joined the cast as “half-breed” blacksmith Quint Asper. He played the role from 1962 to 1965 bridging Weaver’s departure and the arrival of Ken Curtis as Festus. Along the way the sidekick spotlight was shared with Roger Ewing as Thad Greenwood (’66-’68) and Buck Taylor, Dub Taylor’s son, as Newly O’Brien (’67-’75).
Ken Curtis found his way into the role of the irascible back county Festus Haggen following four guest appearances in the series. He came to the role with quite the resume. Son-in-law by one of his marriages to legendary director John Ford, Curtis played roles in Ford classics including Rio Grande, The Searchers, The Horse Soldiers, The Alamo and How the West Was Won. His Festus grated our ears with a fingernails-on-the-blackboard scratchy, nasal quality voice Curtis created. In real life, Curtis sang with the Tommy Dorsey band and the Sons of the Pioneers where he hit it big with the classic Ghost Riders in the Sky. Ken Curtis has his place in the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. He died of a heart attack in1991.
Next Week: National Barn Dance
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Ride easy,
Paul
In the early 50’s Denis Weaver had a nascent acting career withering on the vine with an assortment of day-jobs to feed his family. In 1955 he landed the role of Chester Goode as sidekick to James Arness’s Matt Dillon. Chester gimped into the role with an affected stiff leg to enhance his secondary character. His work as Chester received the 1959 Emmy for Best Supporting Actor. Weaver left the show in 1963 to pursue a wider range of career opportunities. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Dodge City Trail of Fame and a place in the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. An environmentalist and philanthropist Weaver died of cancer in 2006.
Weaver’s departure from the show opened the sidekick revolving door. Burt Reynolds joined the cast as “half-breed” blacksmith Quint Asper. He played the role from 1962 to 1965 bridging Weaver’s departure and the arrival of Ken Curtis as Festus. Along the way the sidekick spotlight was shared with Roger Ewing as Thad Greenwood (’66-’68) and Buck Taylor, Dub Taylor’s son, as Newly O’Brien (’67-’75).
Ken Curtis found his way into the role of the irascible back county Festus Haggen following four guest appearances in the series. He came to the role with quite the resume. Son-in-law by one of his marriages to legendary director John Ford, Curtis played roles in Ford classics including Rio Grande, The Searchers, The Horse Soldiers, The Alamo and How the West Was Won. His Festus grated our ears with a fingernails-on-the-blackboard scratchy, nasal quality voice Curtis created. In real life, Curtis sang with the Tommy Dorsey band and the Sons of the Pioneers where he hit it big with the classic Ghost Riders in the Sky. Ken Curtis has his place in the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. He died of a heart attack in1991.
Next Week: National Barn Dance
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Ride easy,
Paul
August 31, 2019
Raymond Hatton
Raymond Hatton’s filmography lists five hundred films dating back to silent pictures. Talkies put a damper on his career until he caught on as Rusty Joslin in Republic Pictures B Western series The Three Mesquiteers. That series was one of my favorites as a kid growing up. Republic did fifty one films in the series from 1936 to 1943. Hatton appeared in nine films in 1939 and 1940.
The series featured a trio of cowboys, Stony Brooke, Tucson Smith and comedic sidekick Lullaby Joslin for most of the series. Actors playing the parts revolved over time. Stony Brooke was played by Bob Livingston (29 films), John Wayne (8) and Tom Tyler (13). Stony Brooke is my earliest memory of The Duke. Hatton played opposite Wayne in two films, replacing Lullaby Joslin with Rusty. Ray Corrigan played Tucson Smith in those films before Duncan Renaldo”s Rico Rinaldo replaced the Smith character for seven films with Taylor in the Stony Brooke role. Following Hatton’s Rusty films Tucson Smith and Lullaby returned played by Bob Steele (another of my boyhood favorites) and Rufe Davis respectively.
Hatton appeared as Rusty in Wyoming Outlaw with John Wayne (’39), New Frontier with John Wayne, The Kansas Terrors, Cowboys from Texas, Rocky Mountain Rangers (’40), Covered Wagon Days, Pioneers of the West and Heroes of the Saddle. The Three Mesquiteers revived Hatton’s career. He went on to do other notable Western films including Tall in the Saddle with John Wayne (’44), West of the Rio Grande, Gunsmoke (’45), Silver Range as Tucson Smith (’46).
Raymond made the jump to the small screen later in his career with guest appearances on some of the top Western series including, The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Maverick, Cheyenne, Tombstone Territory, Bat Masterson, Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke and Whispering Smith.
Raymond Hatton passed away October 21, 1971 at the age of 84. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Next Week: Matt Dillon (Yeah, I know he’s not a sidekick; but wait . . .)
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
The series featured a trio of cowboys, Stony Brooke, Tucson Smith and comedic sidekick Lullaby Joslin for most of the series. Actors playing the parts revolved over time. Stony Brooke was played by Bob Livingston (29 films), John Wayne (8) and Tom Tyler (13). Stony Brooke is my earliest memory of The Duke. Hatton played opposite Wayne in two films, replacing Lullaby Joslin with Rusty. Ray Corrigan played Tucson Smith in those films before Duncan Renaldo”s Rico Rinaldo replaced the Smith character for seven films with Taylor in the Stony Brooke role. Following Hatton’s Rusty films Tucson Smith and Lullaby returned played by Bob Steele (another of my boyhood favorites) and Rufe Davis respectively.
Hatton appeared as Rusty in Wyoming Outlaw with John Wayne (’39), New Frontier with John Wayne, The Kansas Terrors, Cowboys from Texas, Rocky Mountain Rangers (’40), Covered Wagon Days, Pioneers of the West and Heroes of the Saddle. The Three Mesquiteers revived Hatton’s career. He went on to do other notable Western films including Tall in the Saddle with John Wayne (’44), West of the Rio Grande, Gunsmoke (’45), Silver Range as Tucson Smith (’46).
Raymond made the jump to the small screen later in his career with guest appearances on some of the top Western series including, The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Maverick, Cheyenne, Tombstone Territory, Bat Masterson, Wanted Dead or Alive, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke and Whispering Smith.
Raymond Hatton passed away October 21, 1971 at the age of 84. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Next Week: Matt Dillon (Yeah, I know he’s not a sidekick; but wait . . .)
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
August 24, 2019
Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan was a dentist by training. He met his wife Mildred in dental school. He stumbled out of amateur acting into the role of a dentist for the film Texas (’41). That finished him as a molar-mechanic. One hundred films later, he never looked back.
Thirty-six of his films were westerns. They included some high profile classics. He appeared in Shane, Destry, The Comancheros, Ride the High Country and McLintock!, among others. It seems he suited roles casting him as a doctor and a judge as those occupations show up again and again in his filmography.
Buchanan did a lot of TV in addition his role as Red Connors, sidekicking for William Boyd’s Hoppalon Cassidy. He had the title role in the Judge Roy Bean series. See what I mean about playing a judge. He made guest appearances in a host western series including, Wanted Dead or Alive, Bat Masterson, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Maverick, The Rifleman, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke and The Virginian to name a few.
Edgar Buchanan might be best remembered as Uncle Joe Carson on Petticoat Junction (222 episodes), Green Acres (17 episodes) and the Beverly Hillbillies (3 episodes). Buchanan passed away April 4, 1979 at age 76.
Next Week: Raymond Hatton
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Ride easy,
Paul
Thirty-six of his films were westerns. They included some high profile classics. He appeared in Shane, Destry, The Comancheros, Ride the High Country and McLintock!, among others. It seems he suited roles casting him as a doctor and a judge as those occupations show up again and again in his filmography.
Buchanan did a lot of TV in addition his role as Red Connors, sidekicking for William Boyd’s Hoppalon Cassidy. He had the title role in the Judge Roy Bean series. See what I mean about playing a judge. He made guest appearances in a host western series including, Wanted Dead or Alive, Bat Masterson, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Maverick, The Rifleman, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke and The Virginian to name a few.
Edgar Buchanan might be best remembered as Uncle Joe Carson on Petticoat Junction (222 episodes), Green Acres (17 episodes) and the Beverly Hillbillies (3 episodes). Buchanan passed away April 4, 1979 at age 76.
Next Week: Raymond Hatton
Return to Facebook to comment
Ride easy,
Paul
August 17, 2019
Dub Taylor
Walter Clarence Taylor Jr. collected his ‘Dub’ moniker as a kid when his pals cut him a ‘Walter-break’, calling him double-u for short. Short eventually shortened to Dub. Who knows, if he’d scored a ‘Dub-ya’, he might have been president. Dub got his acting start in vaudeville. He took a trip to L.A. in 1938 to play in the Rose Bowl as a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team and decided to stay after the game to try his hand at film.
In 1939 he was cast in a role for the film, Taming of the West that would define his early career. Cannonball began as comic sidekick to Bill Elliott’s Wild Bill Saunders, later Wild Bill Hickok. The pairing would go on to do thirteen films together before Tex Ritter moved it as Elliott’s co-star for the film King of Dodge City. Dynamics of the Cannonball role changed with that pairing. Dub moved on, taking Cannonball with him.
Dub next found Cannonball paired with Charles Starrett’s Durango Kid at Columbia. Dub and Cannonball would move on to Monogram Pictures in 1947 for a two year run of sixteen films. Dub’s filmography lists fifty-two films in which he played Cannonball. No doubt the sidekick we fondly remember.
The fifties saw Dub appear in film and on television. In film you could find him in a variety of Western character roles ranging from clerks to cooks and a couple semi-sober sawbones. His TV appearances included a run as Alan Hale Jr.’s fireman on Casey Jones. Hale would later go on to skipper the S.S. Minnow on Gilligan’s Island. Other TV appearances included episodes of 26 Men, Cheyenne, Death Valley Days and The High Chaparral.
In the sixties Dub caught on with Sam Peckinpah for Major Dundee (’65), The Wild Bunch, Junior Bonner, The Getaway and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The little screen brought comedic appearances on The Andy Griffith Show, I love Lucy, Hazel, The Cosby Show and Hee Haw.
Dub Taylor fathered Buck Taylor who sidekicked for Matt Dillon as Newly O’Brien on Gunsmoke. Dub Taylor passed away in 1994 after suffering a heart attack.
Next Week: Edgar Buchanan
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Ride easy,
Paul
In 1939 he was cast in a role for the film, Taming of the West that would define his early career. Cannonball began as comic sidekick to Bill Elliott’s Wild Bill Saunders, later Wild Bill Hickok. The pairing would go on to do thirteen films together before Tex Ritter moved it as Elliott’s co-star for the film King of Dodge City. Dynamics of the Cannonball role changed with that pairing. Dub moved on, taking Cannonball with him.
Dub next found Cannonball paired with Charles Starrett’s Durango Kid at Columbia. Dub and Cannonball would move on to Monogram Pictures in 1947 for a two year run of sixteen films. Dub’s filmography lists fifty-two films in which he played Cannonball. No doubt the sidekick we fondly remember.
The fifties saw Dub appear in film and on television. In film you could find him in a variety of Western character roles ranging from clerks to cooks and a couple semi-sober sawbones. His TV appearances included a run as Alan Hale Jr.’s fireman on Casey Jones. Hale would later go on to skipper the S.S. Minnow on Gilligan’s Island. Other TV appearances included episodes of 26 Men, Cheyenne, Death Valley Days and The High Chaparral.
In the sixties Dub caught on with Sam Peckinpah for Major Dundee (’65), The Wild Bunch, Junior Bonner, The Getaway and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The little screen brought comedic appearances on The Andy Griffith Show, I love Lucy, Hazel, The Cosby Show and Hee Haw.
Dub Taylor fathered Buck Taylor who sidekicked for Matt Dillon as Newly O’Brien on Gunsmoke. Dub Taylor passed away in 1994 after suffering a heart attack.
Next Week: Edgar Buchanan
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Ride easy,
Paul
August 10, 2019
Pat Buttram
Maxwell Emmett “Pat” Buttram planned to follow his father’s footsteps into the Methodist ministry. While in college, a little amateur acting and local radio led him down a different path. That path took him to the National Barn Dance program on WLS in Chicago where he too performed with Gene Autry. National Barn Dance might have been ‘Sidekick U’ for all the careers it launched into film. We may have to revisit the program at the end of this series.
The 40’s found Buttram in Hollywood cast as sidekick to Roy Rogers. Roy had no shortage of sidekicks in those days. Pat didn’t last long. He caught on with Barn Dance buddy Gene Autry and did more than forty films with the singing cowboy. When Gene moved to TV, Pat went along. Together they did more than one hundred episodes of the Gene Autry Show. Gene also had a radio show, Melody Ranch with a spot for Pat.
Buttram closed out his acting career playing Eustace Haney on the CBS sitcom Green Acres. The show ran from ’65 – ’71. He also did some animated voice work for Disney, capitalizing on a voice that by Pat’s lights, never finished puberty.
Pat married twice, the first ending in divorce after ten years. His second marriage to actress Sheila Ryan lasted until her death. They had one daughter. Active in Republican politics, Pat did some speech writing for fellow actor, Ronald Reagan. Pat Buttram died in 1994 at 78. He made it home to the Methodist Church near his family home in Alabama where he is buried. You can find his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Next Week: Dub Taylor
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Ride easy,
Paul
The 40’s found Buttram in Hollywood cast as sidekick to Roy Rogers. Roy had no shortage of sidekicks in those days. Pat didn’t last long. He caught on with Barn Dance buddy Gene Autry and did more than forty films with the singing cowboy. When Gene moved to TV, Pat went along. Together they did more than one hundred episodes of the Gene Autry Show. Gene also had a radio show, Melody Ranch with a spot for Pat.
Buttram closed out his acting career playing Eustace Haney on the CBS sitcom Green Acres. The show ran from ’65 – ’71. He also did some animated voice work for Disney, capitalizing on a voice that by Pat’s lights, never finished puberty.
Pat married twice, the first ending in divorce after ten years. His second marriage to actress Sheila Ryan lasted until her death. They had one daughter. Active in Republican politics, Pat did some speech writing for fellow actor, Ronald Reagan. Pat Buttram died in 1994 at 78. He made it home to the Methodist Church near his family home in Alabama where he is buried. You can find his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Next Week: Dub Taylor
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Ride easy,
Paul
