The Silver Screen Oasis

I think I found this Wild Stallion pic at the same place I got the ones from Fort Bowie.

The other actor is I. Sanford Jolley, one of those western character actors who was in almost everything, especially B-westerns and TV shows. In Wild Stallion he plays a friendly rancher encountered by Ben's character while they're all out rounding up wild horses.

Sorry I've been away so long -- sometimes real life overcomes reel life but things are back to normal now. :)

Here's a publicity still from Mighty Joe Young. I've never liked this one much because of the weird shadow across the lower part of Ben's face but I finally decided to post it. Plus it's autographed by Terry Moore. :)

One more from Mighty Joe Young. From the eBay vendor: "I purchased a bunch of movie stuff, back in 1992. Out of a barn in Missouri. The barn had caught fire and many of the items had smoke, and or, water damage. This one is showing slight water damage. Also damage to r. and l. border."

Actually apart from the damaged borders, it's in pretty good shape. Wonder who Sybil was.

Suddenly I want a different version of The Train Robbers, where Ann Margret ends up with Ben. :)

The Shadow Riders.

Happy Mother's Day! To celebrate the occasion, here is a picture of Ben and his mom Ollie at the 44th Academy Awards, held April 10, 1972 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in L.A. Unfortunately I don't know the publication this appeared in -- I got the clipping from eBay but it didn't come with any identifying information.

I snagged another contact sheet from eBay, this one from The Train Robbers. It has 18 pics with Ben and I scanned in the entire sheet and then made individual pics of the 18 shots that include Ben. Here they are. But if you want to see the entire contact sheet including the shots without Ben, it's online here: https://benjohnsonfanpage.shutterfly.co ... allery/810

And yes, they're all so darn adorable! :)

Here are Ben and Ann-Margret again, earlier in the year (1972) with their Golden Globes. Ann-Margret won best supporting actress for Carnal Knowledge and Ben of course won best supporting actor for The Last Picture Show at the 29th Golden Globes, held February 6, 1972. He was sporting that mustache because he was still working on The Getaway. Soon he would shave it off and both he and Ann-Margret would be in Mexico for The Train Robbers. They both had to return for the 44th Academy Awards, where Ben would win again but Ann-Margret lost to Cloris Leachman for her role in The Last Picture Show. John Wayne lent them his private plane to take them back to California for the ceremony.

A still from Ben's last scene in One-Eyed Jacks. This was not a shot in the final version of the film, though in the film you do see townspeople running to him after he's staggered out of the bank and fallen on the ground.

The part that got cut out entirely was the townspeople then hanging Ben's character, that bankrobbin', murderin' varmint Bob Amory. :)

Saturday is the official grand opening of the new John Wayne Birthplace Museum, and I'm going! Yay! ;) So today's picture is from Chisum -- Ben and John Wayne. :)

Wow, haven't posted since May 22! Well, that's because I went to the John Wayne Birthday Celebration in Winterset during Memorial Day weekend, and shortly after I returned we had a massive thunder and lightning storm that fried our internet hardware (we had to replace everything) and then my desktop computer wouldn't talk to the internet since everything was new and hubby had to figure out how to reconnect it. But I've scanned in a whole bunch of stuff now and I think we're now back to the usual schedule of updates every other day or so.

You can see my report about the John Wayne shindig here (with photos): https://benjohnsonfanpage.shutterfly.com/festivals

And for today, more John Wayne, with a pic from Chisum. Actually I've posted this before but it was a modern reproduction. I finally acquired a vintage still and here it is. ;)

I love these on the set photos from THE TRAIN ROBBERS. Thanks for posting.

Here's a publicity still from Grayeagle.

Tennis, anyone? According to author Bob Dunbar, Aissa Wayne (John Wayne's daughter) told him that Ben was good at tennis and played in several pro-am tournaments. I knew he played golf but not tennis so that was quite fascinating to hear. More from Bob at the Fanpage:

http://benjohnsonfanpage.shutterfly.com (scroll down after today's birthday mention -- Ben would have been 97 years old today).

Warner Bros. is releasing Mighty Joe Young on Blu-ray on October 6. You can get it either as as single disc or part of the Special Effects Collection box set.