Golden Saddles and Silver Spurs
Posted: May 4th, 2007, 10:11 am
Has anyone seen this documentary? It's on the Western genre going from the silents to about 1960. Towards the end, it says something to the effect that: 'All those great cowboys are gone now and we have to look to the youngsters like Clint Eastwood, and Kevin Costner to . . .' so I assume it was done in the 60's.
Anyway, I learned quite a bit about the silent cowboys I had not known about. As in so many other genres, many could not handle the transition to talkies - Side question: Was it their voices or acting ability?
Guys like Johnny Mack Brown, and Hopalong Cassidy made hundreds of movies before becoming big stars on their own. And there must have been listed at least 30 singing cowboys, but only Gene Autry really made it to the top. There was a guy names Eddie Dean, who I never heard of that was a singer on radio before going to movie westerns. Even John Wayne did a couple of movies where he did some singing to the girl (with a dubbed singing voice) - that was a hoot!!! Many of Roy Rogers movies were actually western musicals in every sense of the word, with staged numbers and choral sequences.
Of course there is a reasonably good sized tribute to Randolph Scott (cue the chorus, if I may), and Harry Carey, Sr.
I thought I was pretty much up on westerns until I saw this doc., now there is so much more to look for. Oddly, Joel McCrea was only mentioned minimally as was Gary Cooper, (although they did suggest that Randolph had 'taken on the mantle' from Coop), Clark Gable was also considered a cowboy because he started in several before catching on as the romantic contemporary type.
They did a large coverage of sidekicks also, including Ben Johnson, Smiley Burnett, and of course Gabby Hayes. I was surprised they didn't mention Harry Carey, Jr. though.
It's on the Encore Western channel of course, and will be rerun on May 11th. For those of you who are western fans, you will probably find a lot to learn about.
Anne
Anyway, I learned quite a bit about the silent cowboys I had not known about. As in so many other genres, many could not handle the transition to talkies - Side question: Was it their voices or acting ability?
Guys like Johnny Mack Brown, and Hopalong Cassidy made hundreds of movies before becoming big stars on their own. And there must have been listed at least 30 singing cowboys, but only Gene Autry really made it to the top. There was a guy names Eddie Dean, who I never heard of that was a singer on radio before going to movie westerns. Even John Wayne did a couple of movies where he did some singing to the girl (with a dubbed singing voice) - that was a hoot!!! Many of Roy Rogers movies were actually western musicals in every sense of the word, with staged numbers and choral sequences.
Of course there is a reasonably good sized tribute to Randolph Scott (cue the chorus, if I may), and Harry Carey, Sr.
I thought I was pretty much up on westerns until I saw this doc., now there is so much more to look for. Oddly, Joel McCrea was only mentioned minimally as was Gary Cooper, (although they did suggest that Randolph had 'taken on the mantle' from Coop), Clark Gable was also considered a cowboy because he started in several before catching on as the romantic contemporary type.
They did a large coverage of sidekicks also, including Ben Johnson, Smiley Burnett, and of course Gabby Hayes. I was surprised they didn't mention Harry Carey, Jr. though.
It's on the Encore Western channel of course, and will be rerun on May 11th. For those of you who are western fans, you will probably find a lot to learn about.
Anne