Cool Hand Mick

Mick:

You old salty sonofabitch. You simply overwhelm me with your knowledge, curiousity, questions, enthusiasm, and wonderful wackiness. I hardly know where to begin to respond to your last opus. You mix the metaphors and movies so thickly that I have to actually "think" to keep up with the feeble beat of your cortex.

Well, let's see. The John Cameron Swayze Timex reference. What I recall is that they strapped a Timex onto a horse and jumped it off a platform into a swimming pool. But I think the watch "kept on ticking". I was not aware that at one point he actually smashed the crap out of one of the watches. It was an urban myth I guess, and I missed it.

Onto Fort Apache. When I was a kid I had the FORT APACHE play set, which included the whole fort, and the soldiers and the Indians. I waged plenty of toy wars with it. Sometimes the Indians won too. Lee Aaker is so very correct on Cpl. Rusty, and yup on every episode he had to yell, "Yo, Rinty!". Yeah, I remember him in the 1953 John Wayne classic HONDO too. Who played the love interest in her film debut in that film? The film was released in 3-D, and that's why the actors were always sticking fire brands and fists into the camera, and horse were leaping over the lenses a lot. Aiker had already done HONDO when he got the RIN TIN TIN gig in 1954. Actually as a child actor he had cameos in THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952), and HIGH NOON (1952). He worked with Jimmy Cagney in A LION IN THE STREETS (1953). He was in DESTRY (1954) with Audie Murphy. After he finished the series, THE ADVENTURES OF RIN TIN TIN, he worked for Disney on a couple SPIN AND MARTY episodes. He did one THE LONE RANGER in 1955. He did an episode on TALES OF THE 77TH BENGAL LANCERS (1957) with Michael Ansara. For Disney he did LITTLE LEAGUE MOOCHIE (1959). And his last gig as an actor was on THE LUCY SHOW (1963). He went into producing in the 60's, the smart man. He worked on ROUTE 66 as producer I think. On RIN TIN TIN, it was James Brown who played Lt. Rip Masters. Sterling Holloway played Sorrowful Jones. I could not find any reference to a character called Cpl. Boone. I did find Roy Roberts and Lyle Talbot listed in some episodes. The actor you are referring to in GONE WITH THE WIND was Fred Crane. The director of THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA (1949) was Allan Dwan. Shirley Temple's first husband, who co-starred with her in John Ford's FORT APACHE was John Agar. He played Pfc. Peter Conway. Do you remember big-dicked Forrest Tucker, and buff Richard Jaeckel in there too?

Now as to WAGON TRAIN --yes, that was Robert Horton who played Flint "McCullough". The other scout for John McIntire was a Robert too, but that would be Robert Fuller there, slick. The cook was Wooster, and the actor was Frank McGrath. Ward Bond's cameo as Major Seth Adams was in Bob Hope's 1959 flick, ALIAS JESSE JAMES. There were a bunch of other cameos in it from movies and TV. Can you name some of them? There were 10 of them in all. Kudos to you if you remember 3 to 4 of them. Did Duke Wayne do a cameo on WAGON TRAIN as General Sherman? Man, that is hot trivia. I guess as a favor to the memory of Ward Bond. General Grant in HOW THE WEST WAS WON was our favorite, Harry Morgan. Debbie Reynolds sister, who went on to be George Peppard's mother of all things was sexpot Carroll Baker. Yes, Morgan Woodward's best film role was "the man with no eyes" in COOL HAND LUKE. There were a lot of character actors in that film. Can you name some of them?

The set for Duke's THE ALAMO was built, and still stands next to the set for a western town on a ranch outside Brackettville, TX. John Ford made a pest out of himself on the set for that film. Sitting in Duke's director chair every time he got up, and just starting "directing" shots without being asked to. Duke finally assigned him some second unit work to get him the hell out of his hair. I think you are right in that that TV film of THE ALAMO with James Arness, Brian Keith, and Raul Julia was shot there too. The new film of THE ALAMO with Billy Bob Thornton was built somewhere else.

Lorne Greene played Peter, the Saint, in THE SILVER CHALICE. In SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME, the other punk was Robert Loggia. Steve McQueen's character's name was "Fidel". Robert Loggia played ELFAGO BACA on the Disney film, and he did a hell of a good job as I recall. I knew that Ken Curtis had been part of THE SONS OF PIONEERS, but I did not know he was back up yodler for Sinatra. Curtis did RAWHIDE, SEA HUNT, (5) HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVELs, and then he did the series RIPCORD in (1962), and for a time after GUNSMOKE, he did THE YELLOW ROSE (1983) with Sam Elliott. I don't remember who the narrator was in TO HELL AND BACK, unless it was Murphy himself?

Kudos on getting from Stanley Holloway to Jack Lemmon in just two stages. I will send another email with my (6) stages, and my answer to your challenge of Larry Storch connected to Jack Palance.

So Exhausted, but Smiling: The Glennster