An Interview with Comedian Mark Staggs

On this blog, I talk a lot about one of my favorite actors who is famous for playing a certain character: Ken Curtis played "Festus Haggen" on television's longest-running Western, Gunsmoke. Curtis essentially created Festus, modeling him after a few people he knew in real life, and letting him evolve over the years. 

But long after Gunsmoke's final episode aired, and Ken Curtis passed away, Festus' legacy lives on in a fun way.

Meet Mark Staggs, comedian and celebrity impersonator.

Sunday ~ Psalm 27:14

sun

Sunday ~ Acts 2:21

The Virginian (1946) Part Two

(See part one here.)


When Molly learns that it really was the Virginian who gave her the horse, she regrets not accepting his invitation, and they start riding together regularly. The Virginian shows her a different side of the West than she knew—he shows her the beauty, the sheer vastness, of Wyoming. 

On one of their rides, they hear a bawling calf. The Virginian finds Steve putting Trampas's brand on one of Judge Henry's calves. He tells Steve that he won't cover up for him, and that he is doomed if he continues his lawless habits.

The Virginian (1946) Part One

Owen Wister's book The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains is sometimes called the first true Western novel, having been published in 1902, and it has been adapted for stage, screen, and radio. The two best-known adaptions are the 1929 film version starring Gary Cooper, and the television series (1962-71) starring James Drury, although the latter had very little in common with the original storyline.

This version, starring Joel McCrea, has lovely technicolor processing, interesting costumes, and outdoor locations—all filmed in California, of course. The quality of the acting varies, and the film may have its share of cliches (don't worry—I smile when I say that); but overall, it is an enjoyable film for any Western fan.

Plot: A cowboy known only as "The Virginian;" his devil-may-care pal; a schoolmistress from Vermont; a cattle rustler with no loyalties except to himself. These people and others close to them in the young state of Wyoming learn what it means to live by the honest—and often harsh—Law of the West.

Sunday ~ I Samuel 2:2

Sunday ~ Psalm 119:130

Sunday ~ Psalm 145:9

Psalm 145:4

Sunday ~ II Timothy 1:7

Sunday ~ I Samuel 16:7

Stuart Randall's Birthday

Stuart Randall, best known for his role as Sheriff Mort Cory on the popular TV Western Laramie (1959-63), was born on July 24, 1909. His birth name was Clarence Maxwell. He began performing in plays at school at a young age, and in 1929, he was bound for California with the intentions of becoming a full-time entertainer.

As Larry Sothern, he had a short-lived, but successful singing career, which was interrupted in a terrible way when he lost his voice. It took three years and several operations to restore his speaking voice; he was able to sing professionally again in 1938. (A few of his songs can be heard on Internet Archive, such as this one, if you search for "Larry Sothern.")

Sons Of The Pioneers ~ 85 Years of Harmony Album Review

The Sons Of The Pioneers recently released their album, 85 Years of Harmony, with fifteen all-new recordings.

In the band's eighty-five year history, they have had dozens of members. Some had fame apart from the group, such as actors Ken Curtis and Roy Rogers. But every man who has ever been a member has played an important part in the growing of Western music.

Today's Pioneers are Tommy Nallie (lead guitar; vocals), Ken Lattimore (vocals; fiddle), Roy "Dusty" Rogers, Jr. (vocals), John Fullerton (vocals, guitar), Paul Elliott (fiddle), and Chuck Ervin (bass, vocals). And this group proves that they are more than just the "legendary Sons Of The Pioneers"—they stand on their own as top-class musicians.

I am thoroughly enjoying this album. Since the album is for their eighty-fifth anniversary, I would have liked to see some liner notes. And of course, there are always more songs you could wish were included, but overall I think they made excellent choices.

The album can be purchased here, and more information on the Sons Of The Pioneers, as well as their touring schedule, can be found at their website: https://sonsofthepioneers.org/

These are the songs on the album:

Happy Independence Day

Sunday ~ Proverbs 3:7

Silver City Bonanza (1951)

Plot: While trying to solve the murder of a friend, Rex Allen gets involved in helping Katie McIntosh and her siblings save their ranch, and he also discovers the secret of a long-lost silver mine.

Sunday ~ Psalm 104:14

An Interview With ~ Pandra Selivanov, Ken Curtis Fan

To start with, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be a fan of Ken Curtis?

Well, I live in San Diego, and I work in the public school system as a behavior technician. I love animals, especially dogs, and I've adopted several dogs over the years out of the animal shelter. I also love music, and I play the penny whistle. I have a small Yahoo! group called Us Haggens.

Sunday ~ Isaiah 40:8

Sunday ~ John 3:17

William Boyd's Birthday

Known to children throughout the world as "Hoppy," silver-haired William Lawrence Boyd (born in Ohio on this day in 1895) found success—and a personal sense of happiness—in the character he brought alive on the silver screen: Hopalong Cassidy.

Sunday ~ Isaiah 26:3

"Over the Desert" Poem

Miles of red sand stretchin' out under the sky
I look to the horizon and wish I could fly
Over the desert, to have it far behind
To close the distance between you and me.
A thousand cactus plants I'd see
If I flew
Over the desert
To reach you.

But if I could be there
In just a moment, with you, dear
Would you welcome me
Or send me away?
Perhaps in the end
It is better that here
On the desert I always stay.

© 2019 Western Reservoir

James Stewart's Birthday

Born James Maitland Stewart on May 20, 1908, he became one of the most proficient actors of his time, whose personal integrity set him apart in an industry where morals were often abused.

Sunday ~ Proverbs 21:2

Sunday ~ James 1:17

Over the Santa Fe Trail (1947)

Plot: Curt is accused of being involved in a series of robberies, but he suspects the real outlaw is the boss of a medicine show.

Sunday ~ Proverbs 22:4

Karl Farr's Birthday

Karl Farr photo courtesy of the Sons of the Pioneers Museum, Branson, Mo

Karl Farr was born "deep in heart of Texas" on April 25, 1909, in a town called Rochelle. The Farr family was a musical bunch (eight children: five girls, three boys), and Karl was playing banjo, drums, and guitar professionally by the age of thirteen.

Karl's older brother, Hugh Farr, was the Sons Of The Pioneers' original fiddle player, and he encouraged Karl to also join the western music group; and so he did, becoming their lead guitarist in 1935.

Karl was Hugh's musical counterpart, and Hugh was Karl's. Each played their respective instruments in a unique way with a jazzy flair that suited and enhanced the cowboy and western songs on which they performed. They also wrote and arranged many instrumental numbers to showcase their style.

As a member of the Sons Of The Pioneers, Karl appeared in films starring Charles Starrett ("The Durango Kid"), Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and John Wayne, among others.

Although he has been described as "a hypochondriac," Karl was a kind man and well liked by those who knew him. He and his wife, May, had one child, Karl Farr, Jr.

On the evening of September 20, 1961, while doing a show with the Sons Of The Pioneers in West Springfield, Massachusetts, Karl suffered a heart attack. He was taken to a hospital, where he died—minutes after being carried offstage. "It was a terrible shock to all of us," said the Pioneers' then-baritone Tommy Doss.

May Farr lived to be ninety-seven, passing away in November of 2007. (Karl Jr. died a few years later on December 4, 2013.)

Karl was only fifty-two years old when he died, but he left a legacy of music still treasured today.

Karl, Hugh, Ken Curtis, Tommy Doss, and Lloyd Perryman in Rio Grande (1950)

Sunday ~ Matthew 20:18-19 ~ Happy Easter!

The Pathfinder (1952)

The novels of James Fenimore Cooper have been translated to film dozens of times. His most famous character was the hero of the Leatherstocking Tales; Natty Bumppo went by various titles throughout the five-book series. He was "Deerslayer," "Pathfinder," "Hawkeye," "Leather-Stocking," and "the Trapper, " although his eccentric, honest, and simple personality remained the same.

This movie, like most based on Cooper's characters, fails to even try to be faithful to the novels. Instead it is a rather lighthearted and predictable, yet still enjoyable, story with a similar setting to The Last of the Mohicans.

Plot: Pathfinder and Chingachgook are caught in the middle of the French and Indian War, along with a pretty spy for the British named Miss Alison.

Sunday ~ Romans 5:8

An Interview With ~ Helen, Ken Curtis Fan

Tell us a little about yourself and how you came to be a fan of Ken Curtis!


Well, I'm Helen, one of the very few UK members on the Ken Curtis fan page. I grew up in Cornwall, which is the bottom left-hand corner of England, the bit that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. So the coastline and the sea is very much part of me. These days I live in NW England, in fact only about one and a half miles from the ancestral home of the Dodge family who founded Dodge City.


Growing up in the countryside, there weren't many other kids around, so I played out with the cattle on the other side of the garden fence, and practiced shooting tin cans off posts with a rifle. I always loved Westerns and often dressed up as an Indian and ran around with a homemade bow and arrow. I had my own pocket-knife, but was pretty useless at whittling. I don't actually remember Gunsmoke (or Gun Law as it was called in the UK) being on the TV, because I was a bit too young, but I'm pretty sure I would have seen it. I certainly remember watching The Virginian which was from a similar time period.

Sunday ~ Psalm 73:25-26

Jan Merlin's Birthday

Jan Merlin, accomplished actor and author of novels such as Ainoko and Shooting Montezuma, celebrates his ninety-fourth birthday today. Born as Jan Wasylewski, his father, Peter, was a Russian immigrant, and his mother, Theresa, a Polish-Austrian immigrant. Jan was raised in New York City.

Sunday ~ Psalm 59:16

Sunday ~ Phillipians 4:19

Marry Me, Marry Me 'Way Out In Laramie . . . Or Not (Part Two)

And here is Jess's list.

(See Slim's list here.)

Marry Me, Marry Me 'Way Out In Laramie . . . Or Not (Part One)

Laramie (1959-1963) is one of my all-time favorite Western TV shows. The series starred Robert Fuller as Jess Harper, a man with a shady past, and John Smith as Slim Sherman, a respectable rancher who runs a relay station for a stage line out of Laramie, Wyoming. 
Robert Crawford Jr., Hoagy Carmichael, Spring Byington, Stuart Randall, and Dennis Holmes are also regulars at various points in the show.

One of the best and most fun things about Laramie is the interaction between all of the main characters, especially when it concerns the glaring differences between Slim and Jess. 

Sunday ~ Galatians 5: 22-23

Sunday ~ Psalm 105:4

Book Review ~ Bucking Hollywood by Susan Robertson

Dale Robertson typified Hollywood's image of the cowboy hero, in movies and especially in his television series, Tales of Wells Fargo. Dale passed away in 2013 at the age of eighty-nine, but his memory is preserved on film . . . and by those who knew and loved him.

Sunday ~ John Muir Quote

Steve Clark's Birthday

Actor Steve Clark was born as Elmer Stephen Clark on February 26, 1891, in Daviess County, Indiana. He lived in New York and worked in the theatre before beginning in films in the early 1930s.

Most of his appearances were in Westerns. You can spot him as the innocent fatherly figure, the banker, or the victim of a crime—or sometimes even the heavy in disguise—in over three hundred films. The list of actors he worked with includes Gene Autry, Clayton 'The Lone Ranger' Moore, Jimmy Wakely, Allan 'Rocky' Lane, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy (Bill Boyd), Duncan Renaldo, Jock Mahoney, Buster Crabbe, Bob Steele, Tim McCoy, Tom Tyler, Rex Bell, and Johnny Mack Brown.

His wife's name was Ruth. (She was probably his second wife.) He owned a movie theater in Hollywood during the 1940s that showed mostly westerns and other films that kids enjoyed.

Steve Clark passed away on June 29, 1954, at the age of sixty-three.

Sunday ~ Psalm 118:5-6

Sunday ~ Psalm 33:5

Sunday ~ Isaiah 40:31

Jock Mahoney's Birthday ~ An Interview With Judy Pastorius

Jock Mahoney, one of Hollywood's most impressive stuntmen, was born Jacques Joseph O'Mahoney in Chicago, IL. He was The Range Rider (1951-53), and later Yancy Derringer (1958-59), on television, and Tarzan in two feature films.

Judy Pastorius runs the Jock O'Mahoney Friends Group on Facebook, but her interest in Jock began over sixty years ago. In the 1950s, she became president of his fan club and developed a friendship with him that lasted the rest of his life. But she can tell you about that in her own words. . . .

Sunday ~ Albert Einstein Quote

Frank McGrath's Birthday

Center photo: ABC Television [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Hard-drinking, roughhousing Benjamin Franklin McGrath, known as Frank McGrath and even better known as the bewhiskered "Charlie Wooster" on Wagon Train (1957-65), was born on this date in 1903.

Sunday ~ Psalm 61:2

Mary Castle's Birthday

Mary Castle, born January 22, 1931 as Mary Ann Noblett in Pampa, Texas, had a short career and a tragically troubled personal life.