Wild Bill Elliott
October 16, 1904 – November 26, 1965
Lesley Selander: “Bill Elliott was a real gentleman. He was always on time, knew his lines, and in every sense of the word was a professional. He learned to ride damned well, considering that when I first saw him at MGM in the early 30s, he didn’t know one end of the horse from another.”
Photo: Hellfire (1949), one of my favorite Westerns.
I don’t get that quote from Lesley Selander (a director whose work I like a lot). I had always read that Elliott grew up up on a ranch and was an experienced rider. From b-westerns.com: “He was born Gordon Nance, on a ranch in Pattonsburg, Missouri, on Oct. 16, 1903, according to John Leonard’s definitive book on his films, appropriately titled Wild Bill Elliott. Nance grew up around horses, riding his first one at age five. His father was commissioner at the Kansas City stockyards, where young Nance saw many actual cowboys riding and roping. By age sixteen, he won first place among those cowboys in the American Royal Horse and Livestock Show.”
Ben Johnson trivia: Ben did a lot of doubling for Elliott during his (Ben’s) stuntman days in the 1940s, and one of his very first noticeable appearances on camera was in the 1943 Elliott oater, Bordertown Gun Fighters, in which he delivers a telegram to Harry Woods. Go here to see some pics of Ben delivering the telegram: http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com/stunts/658
I’ve come across quite a few things that contradict what Selander said. Weird, huh?
Yes; me too. Would not be made today because of its ” morality ” mores. Marie Windsor sure looks great in her transvestism, sporting great looking cowboy duds, including shiny leather chaps.
It wouldn’t be the first time someone spun a tale a little out of true just to make it more interesting in the telling, I suppose.
Actually real life cowboys thought fairly highly of Wild Bill, to judge from this article:
http://benjohnsonscreencaps.shutterfly.com/memorabilia/387
…Although he’s mistakenly called Bob Elliott — was someone thinking of Bob and Ray?
Anyway, enjoy the article, I think it’s a hoot. 
(Sorry to plug something at my website again, but I like to share the good stuff if it’s relevant somehow to the topic at hand. P.S. If anyone can figure out why Van Johnson got mentioned in this piece, please let me know. Maybe they meant Van Heflin?)