Packy Smith came up yesterday and I thought it was about time to pay tribute to him. He passed away in 2019.
Morton Packard “Packy” Smith was the absolute authority on B Westerns. And he was a real joy to hang around with. No matter if you ever met him or not, you owe him a debt.
Packy produced the Happy Trails Theater show with Roy Rogers on TNN. He was a founder of a lot of the stuff that goes on in Lone Pine, from the museum to the film festival. And he wrote, edited or published some of the best books on Western films. I’ve got a stack of ’em around here — you probably do, too.
Jennifer and I grabbed something to eat with Packy at a Krystal during the Western Film Festival, years ago, and I think of him every time I go there.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
PACKY SMITH, thank you very much for help keeping alive the wonderful world of the B-Westerns of the Golden Era.
Very nice. I recall Packy telling me of how he’d help arrange getting Tim Holt as a guest at one of the first western conventions, but shortly before the show, Holt went to the hospital where he learned of his fatal illness, and had to cancel. I wish I’d tapped his memories more when it came to those early shows he was so integral in putting together, and the guests he managed to get.
My favorite book on b-westerns has to be the revised edition of Don Miller’s “Hollywood Corral,” which Packy and Ed Hulse put together. Great book, loaded with info, but also conveys the great sense of fun and nostalgia the genre innately tends to exude, even for folks (like me) who were too young to experience it first-hand.
I also love that revised edition of “Hollywood Corral” by Don Miller, but with all the extra articles added, Bert. It also featured virtually all different stills from the original book, which happily I also have. Those two books have been thumbed many a time.