James Arness was just about the only actor who was a physical match for the Duke. He was his protege and got the Gunsmoke job after the Duke turned it down.
He was also a hero in WW2 being severely wounded at Anzio.
They don't make actors like that anymore. Arness. Bronson. Robert Ryan. Charles During. Lee Marvin. There is not anyone like that. Men with real world experience who went into acting.
Ben Afleck. Matt Damon. George Clooney. Give me a fucking break.
The movies scooped up a lot of vets on the ground they were good-looking and could be taught how to deliver a line. Some could and some couldn't.
Audie Murphy got into the movies after meeting Jimmy Cagney at an event. "Little Texas", at 5' 8", slender, soft-spoken, and always youthful, would never had gotten near the silver screen had it not been for his war record. Ben Cooper, who replaced Burt Reynolds for a couple of episodes on Gunsmog, remembered Murphy hadn't much humor about him, quiet and brooding, which he attributed to his war experiences.
Murphy struggled for several years before he found a home in B Westerns. during the 50s and 60s.
You might be interested to know that I am working on a novel about Farmer Peel. I think he was one of the most interesting gun fighters in the Old West and I don't think his story has ever really been told properly.
You're probably right about Murphy as a gunfighter.
There was an old gag that about two men getting into a fight in a saloon. One was a big man, the other was short and slender, but a professional gunfighter.
The big guy complains it's not fair and the gunfighter says, "Chalk out a man my size on him. anything that hits outside the line don't count".
Never heard of Farmer Peel, but I'll do some research.
Bill Hickok always struck me as something outside the mold. After he accidentally killed his best friend breaking up a disturbance, he never drew a gun again. Most of them didn't care that much.
If you've ever seen the pilot episode for "Bonanza", the hired gun of the silver kings was Langford Poole. Someone knew his history, but got the name wrong.
The number of WW II vets in the film is industry was/is absolutely amazing. Eddie Arnold, Jimmy Stewart, Mel Brooks,--there are 30 or 40 of them iirc, most all fairly highly decorated--even more amazing for such a small sample size.
That's the thing ed. There are a lot of characters based on him in various TV shows and movies. Louie L'Amour used him as the basis of several memorable characters and even had him as an actual character in a pretty good book "Comstock Lode."
But I am not aware of a straight out bio-pic. There have been tons of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Wild Bill, Jesse James, Billy the Kid and even Belle Star. But no Farmer Peel.
"Whose very existence was an offense to decent people".
Dog whistle, for sure.
But more to the point, James Arness handled that pistol pretty darned well - his draw was very smooth, and that is not a trivial piece to handle, just sayin'.
Those Western TV heros had the draw down pat all right. The thing was in real life that was not how it happened. In fact the guy who "won" was usually slower but took the time to aim. As it were they threw an enormous amount of shots at each other. They just had to hit them once because of the caliber of most of the hand guns.
The fast draw thing was mostly a TV thing.
Wyatt Earp was best known for buffaloing miscreants. Which meant he walked up to them and banged them over the head with his pistol. Of course he usually waited until they were drunk.
I have switched to watching the first season of Gunsmoke on Youtube right before I go to sleep. It is only about 28 minutes long for an episode and has a bunch of great old time actors like Bronson, Bette Davis, Bruce Dern and my personal favorite Jack Elam.
You're right about the fast draw thing, of course.
The only two I ever really heard of were Bill Hickok and Bat Masterson. Bat would practice with his six-shooters where everybody could see how fast and accurate he was when he was sheriff of Ford County.
It proved a very effective deterrent to anyone who wanted to take him on.
After watching Deadwood and seeing El Duderino in the movie Wild Bill, I did some reading on James Butler Hickok, and he was a very good shot, with one of his most famous and difficult feats being shooting two targets, at a range of 100 feet, 90 degrees apart, simultaneously.
Seems simple, right? Stand still draw a bead on one target, hold it, get the other target in your sights, then squeeze off two rounds at close enough to the same time that the recoil from one shot does not move your other hand off the target.
He used .36 caliber Navy revolvers, each weighing over 2 pounds, 13 inches long, and I can't even imagine holding them at arm's length, much less being able aim with any degree of steadiness. Wild Bill was an accomplished marksman.
Thank goodness stories told about him were not embellished even one bit. Nope, not even a tiny bit.
Wild Bill was an anomaly. Doc wasn't a great shot. Most of his shooting was done across a card table. At the Gunfight at the OK corrall he carried a shotgun. There was a reason for that.
Phil Coe was pretty good till Wild Bill cashed his ticket.
But Farmer Peel might have been one of the best of them. He had a very interesting life.
21 comments:
Is Charles Bronson really that short? Or is James Arness just a huge freak-a-zoid monster?
(I already know the answer is yes and yes)
Bronson was 5'9" according to the Googles. Arness was 6'7".
James Arness was just about the only actor who was a physical match for the Duke. He was his protege and got the Gunsmoke job after the Duke turned it down.
He was also a hero in WW2 being severely wounded at Anzio.
They don't make actors like that anymore. Arness. Bronson. Robert Ryan. Charles During. Lee Marvin. There is not anyone like that. Men with real world experience who went into acting.
Ben Afleck. Matt Damon. George Clooney. Give me a fucking break.
The movies scooped up a lot of vets on the ground they were good-looking and could be taught how to deliver a line. Some could and some couldn't.
Audie Murphy got into the movies after meeting Jimmy Cagney at an event. "Little Texas", at 5' 8", slender, soft-spoken, and always youthful, would never had gotten near the silver screen had it not been for his war record. Ben Cooper, who replaced Burt Reynolds for a couple of episodes on Gunsmog, remembered Murphy hadn't much humor about him, quiet and brooding, which he attributed to his war experiences.
Murphy struggled for several years before he found a home in B Westerns. during the 50s and 60s.
The thing is Audie Murphy was physically in stature pretty much what gun men in the Old West used to be like.
There were very few giants like James Arness or Clint Walker.
I know you love the West just as much as I do ed.
You might be interested to know that I am working on a novel about Farmer Peel. I think he was one of the most interesting gun fighters in the Old West and I don't think his story has ever really been told properly.
You're probably right about Murphy as a gunfighter.
There was an old gag that about two men getting into a fight in a saloon. One was a big man, the other was short and slender, but a professional gunfighter.
The big guy complains it's not fair and the gunfighter says, "Chalk out a man my size on him. anything that hits outside the line don't count".
Never heard of Farmer Peel, but I'll do some research.
Bill Hickok always struck me as something outside the mold. After he accidentally killed his best friend breaking up a disturbance, he never drew a gun again. Most of them didn't care that much.
Found a couple of articles.
For laughs, I note his given name was Langford.
If you've ever seen the pilot episode for "Bonanza", the hired gun of the silver kings was Langford Poole. Someone knew his history, but got the name wrong.
The number of WW II vets in the film is industry was/is absolutely amazing. Eddie Arnold, Jimmy Stewart, Mel Brooks,--there are 30 or 40 of them iirc, most all fairly highly decorated--even more amazing for such a small sample size.
That's the thing ed. There are a lot of characters based on him in various TV shows and movies. Louie L'Amour used him as the basis of several memorable characters and even had him as an actual character in a pretty good book "Comstock Lode."
But I am not aware of a straight out bio-pic. There have been tons of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, Wild Bill, Jesse James, Billy the Kid and even Belle Star. But no Farmer Peel.
I am almost finished with my first Western "Doc Holiday Must Die" that I am going to put on Amazon E books.
"Whose very existence was an offense to decent people".
Dog whistle, for sure.
But more to the point, James Arness handled that pistol pretty darned well - his draw was very smooth, and that is not a trivial piece to handle, just sayin'.
Those Western TV heros had the draw down pat all right. The thing was in real life that was not how it happened. In fact the guy who "won" was usually slower but took the time to aim. As it were they threw an enormous amount of shots at each other. They just had to hit them once because of the caliber of most of the hand guns.
The fast draw thing was mostly a TV thing.
Wyatt Earp was best known for buffaloing miscreants. Which meant he walked up to them and banged them over the head with his pistol. Of course he usually waited until they were drunk.
My favorite book on the subject is "Draw: The Greatest Gunfights of the Old West" by James Reasoner. Very informative and great as a kindle book.
I have switched to watching the first season of Gunsmoke on Youtube right before I go to sleep. It is only about 28 minutes long for an episode and has a bunch of great old time actors like Bronson, Bette Davis, Bruce Dern and my personal favorite Jack Elam.
Bruce Dern came along in the middle 60s, when everything was an hour, but you're right about a lot of those old timers.
They honed their skills in the movies and found plenty of work in both mediums.
Well I interspersed a favorite episode called "The Jailer" which had Bette Davis, Bruce Dern, Tom Skerritt and Julie Sommars.
It was voted one of the top 50 Dramatic TV episodes of all time by TV Guide.
You're right about the fast draw thing, of course.
The only two I ever really heard of were Bill Hickok and Bat Masterson. Bat would practice with his six-shooters where everybody could see how fast and accurate he was when he was sheriff of Ford County.
It proved a very effective deterrent to anyone who wanted to take him on.
After watching Deadwood and seeing El Duderino in the movie Wild Bill, I did some reading on James Butler Hickok, and he was a very good shot, with one of his most famous and difficult feats being shooting two targets, at a range of 100 feet, 90 degrees apart, simultaneously.
Seems simple, right? Stand still draw a bead on one target, hold it, get the other target in your sights, then squeeze off two rounds at close enough to the same time that the recoil from one shot does not move your other hand off the target.
He used .36 caliber Navy revolvers, each weighing over 2 pounds, 13 inches long, and I can't even imagine holding them at arm's length, much less being able aim with any degree of steadiness. Wild Bill was an accomplished marksman.
Thank goodness stories told about him were not embellished even one bit. Nope, not even a tiny bit.
Stertching the blanket, as it was called, was a favorite pastime of frontiersmen.
Wild Bill was an anomaly. Doc wasn't a great shot. Most of his shooting was done across a card table. At the Gunfight at the OK corrall he carried a shotgun. There was a reason for that.
Phil Coe was pretty good till Wild Bill cashed his ticket.
But Farmer Peel might have been one of the best of them. He had a very interesting life.
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