I have switched my night time viewing to Youtube!

I have switched my night time viewing when I am in bed from Netflicks to Youtube. It seems that various knuckleheads post entire episodes of my favorite old time TV shows on Youtube. Usually it is a foreigner so there might be subtitles in Spanish or German or something but that is fine. I got a new pair of Blue tooth wireless headphones so I just put the ipad on the dresser and put the ear plugs in and listen away until I fall asleep.

There are a lot of great shows available. The Munsters. Car 54. Bewitched. Gunsmoke. Bonanza. And the one I have been watching from the beginning of the series. "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp." It is perfect for me. Just enough to keep my interest but slow enough that I can just nod  out and fall asleep. Highly recommended.

RIP Maverick!

Whose you're favorite Western Actor

Whose you're favorite Western Actor of all time:

Jack

Claude

Hank

Ben

Hey I figure why not pick from "real" western actors. (all misspellings are made just to annoy Sixty)

Hey I am just a Rebel....no not the poofter from the TV show!

More and more I don't want to listen to anybody. Don't tell me what to do. Don't tell me not go outside. Don't tell me how many guns I can have or how many bullets.

I have been taping all these shows from METV and we have been watching them at night before we go to bed because there were not a lot of new stuff on. One of the shows we taped was "The Rebel" starring Nick Adams as Johnny Yuma. An old western that I used to watch as a kid.

One thing. This show is really gay. I mean really, really gay. Like East of Eden or whatever gay movie Adams was in with Sal Mineo and the guy who died in the car crash.

So I don't want to be that kind of Rebel. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It is just not my speed.

If only I could live in North Fork instead of Brooklyn.......

I could just figure out a way that I could just shoot the people who annoy me. Lucas could always figure a way to get the problem to draw on him....and then he would blast him.

Life was a lot simpler then.

I just go where I'm kicked.

I have been reading some biographies of one of my favorite directors Sam Peckinpah. The best of them is "Sam Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage."

It details Sam's life. He was a legitimately tough guy and he really liked to party. He had an artistic vision but he was forced to continually compromise in every sense of the word. He hated it and made movies like "The Killer Elite" where he told you what he thought about it.

But as tough as he was he compromised. For money. Like we do.

He had a saying. "I'm a good whore. I go where I'm kicked."

I have been taking comfort in that lately.

The Hour of the Gun

The wife went off to be with her two girlfriends who had lost their husbands last month. A couple of the girls got together to spend some time with them to try to cheer them up as best they could in the face of such tragedy. So I was left all alone on a Saturday night for the first time in a long time.

I could of called up some friends to hang out or go out for dinner but I just wanted to relax. So I got a pizza and a six pack and turned on the TV. And of course I picked a Western to watch.

They had "Hour of the Gun" on demand which was the 1967 film by John Sturgis with James Garner as Wyatt Earp and Jason Robards as Doc Holiday. It was a sequel to "Gunfight at the OK Corral" made about ten years later without Kirk Douglas or Burt Lancaster. It covers the same ground as the Kurt Russell vehicle "Tombstone" which is always being replayed on cable these days. It was basically about the aftermath of the shootout and how the Earp's hunted down and murdered their opponents in the Tombstone political wars. The supporting characters were always fun like a young Jon Voight and Robert Ryan as Ike Clanton. It is the typical anti-septic fifties Western even though it was made in the sixties. You could watch it while munching down your pizza and drinking beer and not miss a beat if you didn't pay attention. It got reviews at the time as a "gritty" and "realistic" drama because it didn't show Wyatt Earp as totally the hero and Doc was a drinker and loser but it was really very tame. Even the version that would up as the "Tombstone" made in 1993. I would have loved to see what Walter Hill would have done with this material.

I think we will see another movie covering the Gunfight at OK Corral. They make a movie about it every decade we are do another one soon.

Flashback: Gratuitous bathtub photo horse trough edition.

To beat the cold we are going out west to the Gratuitous bathtub photo horse trough edition.

Can you guess who this lovely might be? One of the Duke's favorite leading ladies she starred in one of the seminal westerns of all time.

Smile when you say that partner.

In a thread about "The Man who shot Liberty Valance" our fellow Western and Wayne officiando An Edjamikated Redneck said...

I love the lessons in this movie; especially the way the shooting of Valance comes about.

Tom could have taken Valanace out at any time, and both of them knew it; consequently Valance kept his head when Tom were Tom was concerned.It was the pending shooting of Stoddard that caused, not to step out and face down Valance man to man as the code required, but to shoot him from ambush, so Stoddard could look good to the girl, teh girl Tom loved.

He broke the Code to keep the girl happy, something that wouldn't have happened had Tom stepped into thr street.And then he admits to the Pilgrim that he shot the man form ambush.

I have always finished that movie wondering; did he really shoot Valance, or did he make up the story to keep Stoddard in the race for represenative?Not that Tom wasn't capable of the shot, but was he capable of the ambush?

I have a slightly different take on this. You see John Ford had met many of the actual cowboys who had lived during those days. Hell Wyatt Earp was hanging around Hollywood until the twenties so Ford got some first hand accounts of what it was really like in the West. The men who built empires and cattle ranches were hard men. They didn't have fancy notions about a "code" and you have to meet out in the street face to face and that Hollywood bullshit. Most violence was spontaneous and messy. A lot like the fights in the TV show Deadwood and the violence there rang true. A straight up gunfight was pretty unusual. Certainly facing a guy out in the street with the whole town hiding behind water barrels and fence posts. The actual historical murder of Wild Bill Hickok was a case in point. Jack McCall just walked up behind him and blasted him in the head. That was the norm not the exception. The murder by Dan of the one eared outlaw on the stairs was also more the way it was. He just pulled out his blade and slit his troath. If you read historical accounts you would be amazed at the number of shots fired and missed in these "gunfights." I think the violence in the West has a lot more similarity to drive-bys by the Crips and the Bloods then it does to the beginning of "Gunsmoke."

My favorite "Gunsmoke" episode didn't even have Matt in it. It starred Buddy Ebsen as an old mountain man who's daughter or granddaughter was raped by a band of outlaws passing through. Newly was covering for the Marshal so he goes on the trail of these outlaws but the old mountain man ( a Jim Bridger/Kit Carson style figure) is always one stop ahead of him killing those guys one at a time. No fuss. No muss. No big show. Like shooting pests. Or killing bugs.

One of the most interesting discussions of this is in a book by Louis Lamour called "Bendigo Shafter." I highly recommend it to Western Fans. Now Louis Lamour practically patented a lot of Western Cliches so I don't claim by any means that his stuff isn't mostly Hollywood. But in this book the hero, "Bendigo Shafter" is a lawman who is stalked by an old mountain man and outlaw called Stacy Follett. He is a regulator and assassin who regularly shoots people in ambush. His eventually decides not to kill Shafter and they actually become friends. But his discussion of these themes is very interesting and worth the look. It is my favorite book by the dean of Western Writers.

In the end, I think Tom did kill Liberty Valance and the newspaperman just got it wrong.

Remember: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Or as Tom Doniphon would say: "The only thing worse than a journalist, is a lawyer who becomes a Senator and steals my girl."

Pilgrim, hold it.

Tom Doniphon: [Valance has tripped Rance in the diner, causing him to spill a tray of food] That's *my* steak, Valance.
Liberty Valance: [laughing] You heard him, Dude. Pick it up.
Ransom Stoddard: No!
Tom Doniphon: Pilgrim, hold it. I said you, Valance; *you* pick it up.
Liberty Valance: Three against one, Doniphon.
Tom Doniphon: My boy, Pompey; kitchen door.
[Valance looks and sees Pompey at the door holding a rifle]
Floyd: I'll get it, Liberty!
[Doniphon kicks Floyd in the face as he bends down to retrieve the tray]

We deal in lead.

Well there are still Steve McQueen fans out there. Or Yul Brenner is a lot more popular than I thought he was. The results of our poll as to your favorite Western without John Wayne or Clint Eastwood is as follow:

Magnificent Seven 24
Wild Bunch 14
Shane 9
Ride the High Country 4
Gunfight at OK Corral 3

Once again my pick lost as I am a big fan of Gunfight at OK Corral. One of the best parts of it is how Frankie Lane sings over the action. It was parodied so well in Blazing Saddles. Every little thing he sang a voice over.

"A piss....a piss....can't miss...can't miss.....When the toilet seat is down if you miss the wife will frown and send you to die....at the Gunfight at OK corral."

Sometimes I sing everything we do in a Frankie Lanie voice. Drives the wife crazy.

Next up, which sitcom wife would you like to be married to.

Keep out of this Ringo.

Kate Fisher: What difference does it make to you where I go or who I take up with?

Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday: Shut up!

Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday: [throwing her dress on the floor] Get your things together. You're leaving!

Johnny Ringo: [entering from the bedroom] She's staying here!

Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday: Keep out of this, Ringo!

Johnny Ringo: You got no right to come bustin' in here!

Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday: I'm talking to Kate. Take a walk!

Kate Fisher: Anything you got to say you can say in front of him.

Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday: [with contempt] You slut!

Johnny Ringo: Wait a minute, Holliday. You don't talk to my woman like that!

Dr. John 'Doc' Holliday: [contemptuously] Your woman? Anybody's woman!

Come back Shane.

[last lines] Joey: Shane! Come back!

Shane: I didn't go anywhere.

Joey: Shane! Come back!

Shane: I'm over here. Look down.

Joey: Shane! Come back!

Shane: What are you retarded, I'm short not invisible.

Joey: Shane! Come back!

Shane: Screw this. I'm moving back to Tiny Town.

(Shane, 1953)

We deal in lead.

Chris: There's a job for six men, watching over a village, south of the border.

O'Reilly: How big's the opposition?

Chris: Thirty guns.

O'Reilly: I admire your notion of fair odds, mister.

Chris: Just one thing.

O'Reilly: What's that?

Chris: I get to shoot Richard Benjamin in the balls. I hate that bastard.

(The Magnificent Seven, 1960)

And maybe a few Hymns'd be in order.

Pike Bishop: You boys want to move on or stay here and give him a... decent burial?

Tector Gorch: He was a good man, and I think we oughta bury him.

Pike Bishop: He's dead. And he's got a lot of good men back there to keep him company.

Lyle Gorch: Too *damn* many!

Dutch Engstrom: [removes his hat] I think the boys are right. *I'd* like to say a few words for the dear, dead departed. And maybe a few *hymns'd* be in order. Followed by a church supper. With a *choir*!

Lyle Gorch: You crazy bastards. Both of ya.

(The Wild Bunch, 1969)

What's your favortie Western without the Duke or Clint?

So the new poll question is what is your favorite Western without John Wayne or Clint Eastwood?

Your choices:

The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn and the best bad tooth Mexican of them all Eli Wallach.

Gunfight at the OK Corral with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Dr. McCoy and the Blue Velvet guy as Billy Clanton.

The Wild Bunch with William Holden, Ernst Borgnine when he wasn’t whacking it every five minutes, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson and Robert Ryan.

Ride the High Country with Joel McCrea and Cary Grants boyfriend and the broad from the commercials with James Garner when she was a dewy nineteen.

And Shane with heroic Midget Alan Ladd and push up guy Jack Palance.

Let me know what you think Cowboys and Cow Girls.

The General is indisposed.

George Gordon Meade (December 31, 1815 – November 6, 1872) was a career United States Army officer and civil engineer involved in coastal construction, including several lighthouses. He fought with distinction in the Seminole War and Mexican-American War. During the American Civil War he served as a Union general, rising from command of a brigade to the Army of the Potomac. He is best known for defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
In 1864–65, Meade continued to command the Army of the Potomac through the Overland Campaign, the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, and the Appomattox Campaign, but he was overshadowed by the direct supervision of the general in chief, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

On December 31, 1840, he married Margaretta Sergeant, daughter of John Sergeant, running mate of Henry Clay in the 1832 presidential election. The marriage produced several children but eventually foundered because of his habit of maintaining a voluminous correspondence with the many and diverse people he had met through the use of the new fangeled communications device the telegraph.

General Meade served with distinction through out the Civil War but in his dotage he eventually became quite lonely and intensified his correspondence with a lady professor at a small Midwestern college. It was during a visit to this campus that the General disappeared and was never heard from again. The only thing that was ever recovered was his hat. It seemed that he could not keep it on. Although the Pinkerton agency was engaged to search for the general his whereabouts have never been conclusively established. It remains a mystery to this very day.

Across the Wide Missouri

Narrator: My father told me that for the first time, he saw these Indians as he had never seen them before - as people with homes and traditions and ways of their own. Suddenly they were no longer savages. They were people who laughed and loved and dreamed. Of course they could only use Spanish and Italian guys to play them in the movies.

(Across the Wide Missouri, 1951)

Is that a Sequoia in your pants or are you just happy to see me?

Bonanza
We chased lady luck, 'til we finally struck Bonanza.

With a gun and a rope and a hat full of hope, planted a family tree.

We got hold of a pot of gold, Bonanza.

With a horse and a saddle, and a range full of cattle, how rich can a fellow be?

On this land we put our brand,

Cartwright is the name,

fortune smiled,

the day we filed the Ponderosa claim.

Here in the West, we're livin' the best, Bonanza,

if anyone fights any one of us, he's go a fight with me, Bonanza.

Hoss and Joe and Adam know every rock and pine,

no one works, fights, or eats, like those boys of mine.

Here we stand in the middle of a grand Bonanza.

With a gun and a rope and a hatful of hope, we planted our family tree,

we got hold of a potful of gold, Bonanza.

With a houseful of friends where the rainbow ends,

how rich can a fellow be?

On this land we put our brand, Cartwright is the name,

fortune smiled, the day we filed the Ponderosa claim.

Here in the west we're livin' the best Bonanza.

With the friendliest, fightingist, loving band,

that ever set foot in the promised land, and we're happier than them all.

That's why we call it Bonanza...Bonanza...Bonanza...

(Lyrics written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans.)

How soon they forget.

Chico: Villages like this they make up a song about every big thing that happens. Sing them for years.
Chris Adams: You think it's worth it?
Chico: Don't you?
Chris Adams: It's only a matter of knowing how to shoot a gun. Nothing big about that.
Chico: Hey. How can you talk like this? Your gun has got you everything you have. Isn't that true? Hmm? Well, isn't that true?
Vin: Yeah, sure. Everything. After awhile you can call bartenders and faro dealers by their first name - maybe two hundred of 'em! Rented rooms you live in - five hundred! Meals you eat in hash houses - a thousand! Home - none! Wife - none! Kids... none! Prospects - zero. Suppose I left anything out?
Chris Adams: Yeah. Places you're tied down to - none. People with a hold on you - none. Men you step aside for - none.
Lee: Insults swallowed - none. Enemies - none.
Chris Adams: No enemies?
Lee: Alive.
Chico: Well. This is the kind of arithmetic I like.
Chris Adams: Yeah. So did I at your age.
(The Manificent Seven, 1960)