The Silver Screen Oasis

Here's a little autographed candid photo of Ben -- this scan is about twice the size of the actual photo. Probably mid to late 1980s. The back is stamped "Photo by Bill Jones." Not sure if it's the celebrity photographer Bill Jones, but if it is, here's his bio: http://www.theloop411.com/eblast/images ... es_bio.pdf

Paula, that's a fine photo of gentleman Johnson. He certainly was an actor to be proud of.

Feel free to borrow it anytime for the candids page!

This is a publicity still for the first season Laramie episode "Hour After Dawn," which was originally broadcast on March 15, 1960.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving (if you celebrate Thanksgiving)! BJ Fan Page postings are taking a brief holiday but will be back around November 30.

Did you all have a nice Thanksgiving? Here are two pics from My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys. :)

A second Riders of the Silver Screen Collector's Card, from Eagle Design. No. 12 from Series 18 (a series of 25 cards). The card is 4 1/2" x 2 1/2" and features a photo of Ben from Fort Bowie. Sorry I haven't posted much in the past couple of weeks -- a combination of holidays, being very busy in "real life" and a buggy computer mouse that needs to be replaced and which has made using the computer quite difficult.

Another trading card. This one is really tiny, I guess so it could fit into a packet of cigarettes.

Here's a curious bit of memorabilia. This week I've been posting scans (or for today's post, a photo) of small-sized items. This is a little pin (which is quite a bit smaller than the image in the photo below) apparently issued by the Oklahoma Lions Club, Multiple District 3-L (Southwest Oklahoma) in honor of PDG (Past District Governor) Travis Cummins. No idea what Ben's connection to Travis Cummins or the Lions was.

I posted this yesterday at the BJ Fan Page and then got so busy I forgot to post it here! Yesterday's post was a contract Ben signed with his agent Herb Tobias on March 26, 1971. You can download the big size scans here: https://benjohnsonfanpage.shutterfly.com/print/1007

Here are the first and last pages.

A rather faded but still enjoyable vintage still (March 29, 1950 is stamped on the back) from Wagon Master.

A still from "Chisum, John Chisum!" That title song always gets stuck in my head when I watch this movie. :)

Love this one...Ben looks like he's "fixin to spit."

I loathe tobacco-chewing and spitting -- ew gross! So, er, that's not my favorite picture of Ben. Though he can be spotting chewing on a plug in quite a few films. I wonder what Carol Johnson thought of the tobacco habit. She probably was used to men doing that, having grown up in the movie horse business.

Sorry I've been away for a week. Last Thursday we had a series of massive thunder/lightning storms and one of them fried our modem. We finally got back online Saturday night. Apparently a lot of people had fried modems. Our friend John had had his modem since *2002* and it got blasted too. He went to the electronics store to replace it and there was a line of people there needing new modems. The clerk told him he hadn't seen his particular model in years. Heh heh. However, I am not complaining about one fried modem because looking at the weather news, I can see it could have been so much worse.

So here's a publicity still from One-Eyed Jacks. That's Elisha Cook, Jr. as the hapless bank clerk.

Got your sweet card, Paula...thanks!

To quote Frank Loesser, "What are you doing New Year's Eve?"

The usual -- trying not to fall awake before midnight so I can watch the apple come down in Times Square on TV. ;) I did make chocolate chip cookies, though. The diet will have to wait for 2016. :)

So here's the last pic for 2015 -- a still from the set of The Wild Bunch. :)