Aeolian Vocalion

Westerns? Probably my favorite genre. But my tastes do veer towards the more vintage offerings, when westerns were in their prime, and audiences still living who were old enough to remember the west. Favorites:

1. THE TOLL GATE (1920) William S. Hart
2. THE VANISHING AMERICAN (1923) Richard Dix
3. THE FORBIDDEN TRAIL (1923) Jack Hoxie
4. THE GREAT K & A TRAIN ROBBERY (1926) Tom Mix
5. THREE BAD MEN (1926) George O'Brien
6. WILD HORSE MESA (1926) Jack Holt
7. REDSKIN (1929) Richard Dix
8. HELL'S HEROES (1930) Charles Bickford
9. DESERT VENGEANCE (1931) Buck Jones
10. RIDER OF DEATH VALLEY (1932) Tom Mix
11. LAW AND ORDER (1932) Walter Huston
12. MYSTERY RANCH (1932) George O'Brien
13. TO THE LAST MAN (1933) Randolph Scott
14. SCARLET RIVER (1933) Tom Mix
15. WHEN A MAN'S A MAN (1935) George O'Brien
16. THE LAST OUTLAW (1936) Harry Carey
17. THE OLD BARN DANCE (1938) Gene Autry
18. HERITAGE OF THE DESERT (1939) Donald Woods
19. STAGECOACH (1939) John Wayne
20. RIDE 'EM COWBOY (1942) Abbott and Costello
21. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY (1944) Roy Rogers
22. TALL IN THE SADDLE (1944) John Wayne
23. CORONER CREEK (1948) Randolph Scott
24. LUST FOR GOLD (1949) Glenn Ford
25. RED CANYON (1949) Howard Duff
26. WAGONMASTER (1950) Ben Johnson
27. ROCKY MOUNTAIN (1950) Errol Flynn
28. SADDLE TRAMP (1950) Joel McCrea
29. BEND OF THE RIVER (1952) James Stewart
30. DAWN AT SOCORRO (1954) Rory Calhoun

It's not that I don't have a lot of later-era westerns that I like. But I just 'like' them. The earlier stuff I really LOVE. The old-time 1920s/early-30s westerns are such a wild mix. Many of them are just light and breezy, while others are startlingly harsh and brutal. Sometimes both, in the same movie. I find them endlessly fascinating as well as entertaining.

We haven't quite sunk as low as Europe, whose men stand aside and allow their wives and daughters to be raped by Muslim hordes.

Yet, we're awfully close, with the nation awash in cultural rot, bereft of shared values, invaded by foreigners. America ditched its former greatness and has gone all sickly and homo. The real America that used to be would never have voted in some monstrous foreign communist like that El-Sayid creep, nor some freaky little perv who loves tranny kids and drag-queens like Talarico. A country that chooses such cancerous depravity as that in leadership positions is indeed a 'pussified' country, and likely doesn't have much of a future left.

That pose by Bogie sure reminds me of his reaction at the finale of "The Roaring Twenties" (1939) when Cagney is pointing his pistol at him, and about to shoot.

I always thought Janice Rule had very pretty eyes.

Yeah, it reminds me of an old discussion in college about enjoying movies and the aspect/importance of 'identifying' with the film's protagonist. Questions involving if you can 'identify' with a male protagonist, the typical norm. "Absolutely." Then, can you 'identify' with a female protagonist? "Absolutely, no problem." Can you 'identify' with a protagonist from a foreign culture? "Absolutely." Can you 'identify' with a protagonist of a different religion? "Absolutely." Can you 'identify' with a homosexual protagonist? "No way in hell."

Ah, I figured it was Madison County, TX, as it's right adjacent to Huntsville, TX. With all the indignity befallen my state of Texas in the past 24 hours, it was a very natural mistake.

Yeah, I've been a long-time aficionado of old country stores, vintage suburban groceries, early convenience stores, and whatnot, capturing them in photography going back over forty years ago. Great americana, long gone. Most operated by war vets or hometown husband-and-wife teams.

It's just jaw-droppingly disgusting seeing the devolution of these things into what are basically third-world trash pits. The whole damned country has become a butt-ugly landscape of these things, run by seedy foreigners bringing their lowered, sub-civilized standards to it all. Indeed, seeing here these two foreign scumbags leveling a historic relic for yet another filthy, putrid, stink-infested eyesore just makes me want to torch every single one of them, and with the owners inside. The bastards.

The filthy foreigners that just tore down the historic Kirby mansion in Houston in order to build yet another arse-smellin' quickie-mart selling vapes and purple energy-drinks turned out to be pretty symbolic of what's happened to Texas. And the rest of the country, to be honest. Third-world trash pit.

My prediction? If the creepy little drag-queen lovin' dweeb wins, the phantoms of eight generations of Texas pioneers will screech in unison, exit their hallowed soil, and seek out blood-drenched vengeance for this grotesque, once-unimaginable ignominy. Entrails, offal, and strands of blue hair seen stewing in pots from Dalhart to Corsicana, Van Horn to Hemphill.

Seriously? Texas going total homo? Can the 21st century get even more ghastly?

That was Tommy Dix who died a year or so ago. I think Tommy Cook is still alive and kickin,' although he should be in his mid-90s now. While he made a bigger mark in radio, Cook also had a decent run in films. I remember him as a 'troubled youth' type (his specialty) in a Roy Rogers western, and he also played a double-crossing teen native who's planning to kill Boy in "Tarzan and the Leopard Woman" (1946). However, Cook told me the film and performance he was most proud of is "The Vicious Years" (1950), and it does give him a good spotlight. Cook was getting long-in-the-tooth for such roles, yet he still headlined "Teen-Age Crime Wave" (1955), a Columbia b-film, with him a snarling JD character.

Back to radio drama, that "Sam Spade" series with Howard Duff was always being cited as a favorite of radio buffs. Everybody spoke well of it, old fans and new. I thought I'd like it too, but the dialogue was delivered so fast and so laden with non-stop quips that every time I'd listen to an episode, it would just wear me out. Listening to the show just exhausts me. Plus, maybe it didn't help that I was never entirely keen on the private-eye genre. I always tended to prefer the more 'adventurer' type characters, like Bulldog Drummond, The Saint, Boston Blackie, etc.

DeForest Kelley was old-school professional. Always remember my surprise at seeing him in "Variety Girl" (1947) on a late-show back when I was a kid. He's in a ton of early television fare.

I saw Koenig at a comic convention in 1980 or 1981, and he came across pretty agreeably. I'd seen James Doohan at an earlier one in 1979, helping hype the 'Trek' feature film.' Later met Leonard Nimoy at the Paramount commissary. Never met Roddenberry but I was at his outer office, and recall seeing he had a big picture of the space shuttle behind his desk. My friend was a friend of his secretary. Takei (ugh) walked past me once, while talking to his 'associate.' The familiar sound of his distinctive voice made me curious enough to turn and take a glance to see who it was.

The funny thing about 'Trek' is how guest actors were always so amazed or dumbstruck at how much attention some single appearance on the original show led to later-day fame. An actor or actress might have done 50 to 100 different guest shots on tv-series, yet get virtually 100% of their fan attention due to that one, singular 'Trek' appearance. This fact never failed to bemuse them.