Hooked on Gunsmoke
- Thread starter jds holler
- Start date
Cecil S.
Gold $$ Contributor
True Grit......classic.
Watching Gunsmoke with my Dad was a religion in our house. I've been watching re-runs ever since they started re-running them and have seen almost ever episode so many times that I lost count.
Also a huge fan of Gary Copper - High Noon being one of my all time favorites. Also a huge fan of Audie Murphy and Randolph Scott.
There there is John Wayne - can't get enough of that either. My favorite being the Searchers and The Shootist.
Yes - I'm addicted to those old westerns. But then there is Clint Eastwood's trilogy, A Fist Full of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and the Good, Bad, and Ugly - the music is awesome and I listen to it on a routine basis especially when I go ground hog hunting - it gets me in the mood.
The Tall Men - one of the best ever - seen it many times - never get tied of watching it. Gable is fantastic.
My favorite Tom Selleck western is Cross Fire Trail - I have the DVD - lots of gun stuff in that one. The bad guy uses "cross sticks" to make a long shot rifle on one of Tom's boys - great shot but "bad idea" to make Tom mad.
Also a huge fan of Gary Copper - High Noon being one of my all time favorites. Also a huge fan of Audie Murphy and Randolph Scott.
There there is John Wayne - can't get enough of that either. My favorite being the Searchers and The Shootist.
Yes - I'm addicted to those old westerns. But then there is Clint Eastwood's trilogy, A Fist Full of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and the Good, Bad, and Ugly - the music is awesome and I listen to it on a routine basis especially when I go ground hog hunting - it gets me in the mood.
The Tall Men - one of the best ever - seen it many times - never get tied of watching it. Gable is fantastic.
My favorite Tom Selleck western is Cross Fire Trail - I have the DVD - lots of gun stuff in that one. The bad guy uses "cross sticks" to make a long shot rifle on one of Tom's boys - great shot but "bad idea" to make Tom mad.
Tom Selleck does make a great cowboy, Monte Walsh being one of his best in my opinion. Robert Duvall does as well, Open Range and Broken Trail rank right up there with Lonesome Dove to me. As far as Gunsmoke goes, there wasn't a western that could compare. One last thing, after watching Festus, who knew he could sing?
You remember correctly.And, before Arvo, the person who squared off against Matt in the earlier shows was non other than Glen Strange, who later played Sam Noonan, the Bartender.
Sam also played bad buy Butch Cavendish, in the pilot episode of the Clayton Moore Lone Ranger series.
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The revolver James Arness used for many years was auctioned off in 2016. I would have loved to been wealthy enough to bid on it.
From the LiveAuctioneers web site:
Ser #74056 (approx. 1882) with S mark for Stembridge. 7 1/2" Colt SAA. Used by James Arness as Sheriff Matt Dillon on TV's Gunsmoke. Lasercopy of Stembridge Gun Rental Ledger book indicated that the gun was rented to Paramount Pictures on April 17th 1961 and the additional ledger stating July 25/26th 1961 for use on the series. The Gun was likely used for shooting Season 7, an important transition for Gunsmoke as they moved from a 30 minute show to a full hour. Also the original Paramount pre-producton order request from Paramount to Stembridge dates the request at 4/18/1961. The revolver retains 95%+ blue and is in Excellent used condition. The cylinder slots have been tooled by Stembridge for functionality, a common occurrence in prop house SAA's. In addition the Paramount request asks for the 7 1/2" Colt SAA with "PL Stagg gripps." Arness used plastic stagg grips during this period until Western Gun enthusiast wrote the show and pointed out that they were not period. Later episodes show the change in grips. Accompanying the Colt is an original letter from Al Frisch, Verifying the colt's serial number and the invoice #1970 from Stembrige ledger.
From the LiveAuctioneers web site:
Ser #74056 (approx. 1882) with S mark for Stembridge. 7 1/2" Colt SAA. Used by James Arness as Sheriff Matt Dillon on TV's Gunsmoke. Lasercopy of Stembridge Gun Rental Ledger book indicated that the gun was rented to Paramount Pictures on April 17th 1961 and the additional ledger stating July 25/26th 1961 for use on the series. The Gun was likely used for shooting Season 7, an important transition for Gunsmoke as they moved from a 30 minute show to a full hour. Also the original Paramount pre-producton order request from Paramount to Stembridge dates the request at 4/18/1961. The revolver retains 95%+ blue and is in Excellent used condition. The cylinder slots have been tooled by Stembridge for functionality, a common occurrence in prop house SAA's. In addition the Paramount request asks for the 7 1/2" Colt SAA with "PL Stagg gripps." Arness used plastic stagg grips during this period until Western Gun enthusiast wrote the show and pointed out that they were not period. Later episodes show the change in grips. Accompanying the Colt is an original letter from Al Frisch, Verifying the colt's serial number and the invoice #1970 from Stembrige ledger.
pertnear
Silver $$ Contributor
Which one or both?
His answer was to a John Wayne posting so I assume he was referring to the first True Grit which was staring John Wayne. To me the second True Grit staring Jeff Bridges was not near as good as the original John Wayne True Grit. It is awfully difficult to replicate a John Wayne character.
Oh, & let's not forget about "Valdez Is Coming" starring Burt Lancaster....
Amen. Another good one! Burt did a lot of his stunts himself and was very athletic.
Jimmy Stewart had a horse named Pie that he rode in a lot of his movies. He bought the horse as a matter of fact and he road it in Far Country and Stewart is the one who got pie to walk down the street alone with the little bell on the saddle.
How about the Professionals? Now that one was star packed.
jackieschmidt
Gold $$ Contributor
Thanks for that. It makes me wish the movie would be played again soon. I sometimes try movies for a few minutes and occasionally get an unexpected surprise. I recently watched Viggo in the Green Book, which I later found out was based on a true story. I really enjoyed it.
I'm beginning to think I watch too many movies.
Bangs OH
Silver $$ Contributor
And, Big Valley’s “Audra” (Linda Evans) was pretty easy on the eyes!
Me too, Hollywood sure used up a lot of guns making movies. It's funny because historically not too many folks had a Colt Peacemaker. Not too many could afford one, not to mention that the Army got just about all of them prior to the 1911 issue.
In Hollywood everyone used one. In fact though just about everyone had some other more cost effective revolver. Many folks still used cap and ball guns and most had the Remington guns, 1879 and 1890's.
Colt SSA's were always expensive, even John Wayne didn't use one. If I remember right, his pistol was a Great Western with plastic fake ivory grips. They were so yellow they were almost orange.
As posted above, "fast draw" was a product of Hollywood.
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