Pulled this out the other day. It had been a while. Among its many delights is a great picture of James H. Griffith from Masterson Of Kansas (1954).
What movie books are y’all flipping through these days? (There’s one on One-Eyed Jacks that I’d recommend.)
Toby, I picked up a copy of ‘Heroes, Heavies & Sagebrush’ many years ago and always enjoy browsing through it (which I did quite recently actually).
I know a lot of your readers are not into the series or ‘B’ westerns as much as I am and I know you are. My good buddy John Brooker put out a lovely book about 5 years ago called “The Happiest Trails” which is a fun read but much more than that. It recounts John’s trips to California in 1967 and again in 1970 with the express purpose of meeting as many of the heroes and character actors from the mighty ‘B’s as he could, plus visiting the many western location sites before so much was lost to housing.
John was kind enough to let me use his Tim Holt interview on this blog years ago —
I’ll have to get his book. Sounds wonderful.
This is wild – just last weekend I was reminiscing about one of the earliest film books on my shelves, THE FILMS OF JAMES STEWART (1970) by McClure and Jones (plus one more writer). Thanks to your post I found an inexpensive copy of their Westerns book online and ordered it today. Thanks for this!
Best wishes,
Laura
Hope you like it. It’s a good reference, for sure, but I sure wish it had an index! And a section on actresses would’ve been cool.
What really gets me is that when this was published, so many of these folks were still around.
It’s interesting that the actors were still around when books of this era were written, while at the same time I find that oftentimes the movie plot descriptions are off-base — because there was no easy way then for writers to watch them!
Grateful for Mike Fitzgerald’s volumes on women in Westerns!
Best wishes,
Laura
I watched THE MOUNTAIN last night with Robert Wagner and Spencer Tracy.They played two brothers and I felt as though they may have been miscast as Tracy was old enough to be Wagner’s father as he was in BROKEN LANCE.Apparently,Tracy asked for him to be in the film.BROKEN LANCE was a great film,particulary the court room scene (similar to the one in TRUE GRIT) and the confrontation with the mining boss-“now you listen to me you pasty faced Easterner”.Imprint have announced their May releases with THE GREAT GATSBY and THE LONG VOYAGE HOME.