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Let's Talk Westerns by Terry Alexander
DODGE CITY, KANSAS, and Gunsmoke. The words seem to fit together like cow boys and cattle drives.
Everyone knows about the television show. The longest-running western on network TV ran for twenty years in various incarnations. There was also an anomaly, Gunsmoke, the radio show.
RADIO DAYS
Norman MacDonnell and John Meston con ceived the radio show, which ran from 1952-61 and had over four hundred episodes.
William Conrad, known for his later TV roles in Cannon and Jake and the Fatman, was given the role of Matt Dillon due to his powerful, distinctive voice. He later directed two episodes of the TV series, “Panacea Sykes” (1963) and “Captain Sligo” (1971).
Howard McNear portrayed Dr. Charles Adams. In the radio version, his real name was Charles Moore. He was a doctor on the run from a mistake in his past and used the alias to hide from the people searching for him. He appeared in six episodes of the TV version and played shopkeeper Howard Rudd on three occasions. Some folks may remember him more as Floyd, the barber on The Andy Griffith Show.
Parley Baer played Chester Wesley Proudfoot. After the radio show ended, he guest-starred in several TV shows and made appearances in movies. He played Mayor Stoner on The Andy Griffith Show.
Georgia Ellis was the original Kitty Russell She had worked in a number of radio dramas for many years prior to her involvement in Gunsmoke and continued her radio work until the mid-1960s. Ellis had a few roles in television as well.
TELEVISION RUN
The TV show premiered on Sept. 10, 1955, and ran until March 31, 1975, for 695 episodes. The show was No. 1 from 1956-61. Gunsmoke was one of the few series that transitioned from black-and-white to color when CBS made the change in 1966. It was rarer still to have its format change from 30-minute to 60-minute episodes during the final 15 years of its run. There were also five Gunsmoke movies that premiered from 1987-93.
To put in perspective how rare it is for a TV show to have that many episodes, Gunsmoke is only surpassed by the cartoon series The Simpsons (700-plus episodes). Lassie (591 episodes) is a distant third.
When the idea for a TV version of Gunsmoke came into being, all the radio stars were given token interviews. Conrad didn’t fit the image the producers had in mind. McNear lost out on the role of Doc to Milburn Stone, and Baer was hardly considered as Chester. Georgia Ellis didn’t quite have the eye-catching looks needed for television’s Miss Kitty Russell.
Between 1955-70, the series earned 15 Primetime nominations and won four. In 1957, it had its most nominations in a year (five) and won Best Dramatic Series that year, and Mike Pozen won Best Editing for the episode “How to Kill a Woman.”
During its 20-year run, 30 other western shows debuted and were canceled. Western Writers of America, TV Guide, and Entertainment Weekly recognized the series as among the greatest TV shows of all time.
The show’s star, James Arness, was nominated for best actor in a drama in 1956-58 but lost to Robert Young (Father Knows Best, 1956-57) and Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, 1958).
Dennis Weaver and Milburn Stone earned Primetime Emmys in the Best Supporting Actor category in 1958 and 1967, respectively.
The show spawned one spinoff, Dirty Sally, which starred Jeanette Nolan and Dack Rambo and lasted for a single season.
THE STARS
Arness appeared in all 635 episodes of Gunsmoke. Charles Warren, one of the first directors and producers for the series, knew what he wanted in the television version of Matt Dillon. In addition to interviewing Conrad for the role, Warren also interviewed Denver Pyle and Burr. Pyle did not fit the image of Dillon that Warren had in his mind, and Burr had some of the same issues that plagued Conrad.
Hollywood legend had it that John Wayne was offered the role, but according to the producers, Wayne was never seriously considered. He did recommend James Arness for the role and recorded the intro for the series in 1955.
Arness was born in Minneapolis on May 26, 1923, to Rolf Cirkler Aurness and Ruth Duesler Aurness. Actor Peter Graves was his younger brother. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and trained as a rifleman at Fort Snelling. He was part of the landing at Anzio Beach (the Italian campaign) on November 11, 1944, and was wounded. The injury would affect him for the rest of his life. After he was discharged from the military, he worked as a radio announcer at station WLOL in Minneapolis and later hitchhiked to California to become an actor.
He made his movie debut with Loretta Young in The Farmer’s Daughter. James co-starred in films with Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, and Victor McLaughlin. He was also the titular character in the sci-fi film The Thing from Another Planet.
He appeared with Audie Murphy in Sierra and co-starred in four movies with John Wayne—Big Jim McLain, Hondo, Island in the Sky, and Sea Chase.
Arness made his last theatrical movie appearance in the 1959 western comedy Alias Jesse James, starring Bob Hope and Rhonda Fleming. Glenn Strange and Gloria Talbott also appeared in the film. Arness appeared in character at the end of the film as one of several cameos by famous western movie and TV stars. Among them, Fess Parker, Gail Davis, Ward Bond, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, Jay Siverheels, and Hugh O’Brian.
After Gunsmoke ended, Arness starred in a string of TV movies. He was in The Macahans, which became How the West Was Won. Following the movie was a miniseries, and that led to a weekly series that ran from 1978-79. Arness played mountain man Zeb Macahan, and the series also starred Eva Marie Saint, Fionnula Flannagan, Bruce Boxleitner, and Kathryn Holcomb.
He married Virginia Chapman in 1948 and adopted her son, Craig. They had a son, Rolf, and a daughter, Jenny Lee. The couple divorced in 1963. James married Janet Surtees in 1978.
Arness was honored as the Man of the Year at the Annual International Broadcasting Committee in 1973.
Amanda Blake was born Beverly Louise Neill on Feb. 21, 1929, in Buffalo, New York. She was the only child of Jesse and Louise Neill . She was a telephone operator and briefly attended Pomona College before she began acting. She signed a contract with MGM in the late 1940s.
She appeared in Duchess of Idaho (1950) with Ester Williams . Blake shared screen time with Jon Hall and Liza Ferraday in China Corsair (1951). This was also the debut of Ernest Borgnine In A Star is Born (1954), she appeared with Judy Garland and James Mason.
Blake played Miss Kitty Russell in Gunsmoke from 1955-74 for 425 episodes and left before the series’ final season. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama in 1955. Amanda received the Best Actress in a Drama Golden Globe nomination for three consecutive years but lost each time. She would go on to play Miss Kitty in the first of the made-forTV movies.
She was the third performer inducted into the Great Hall of Western Performers in the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum in 1968. In 1985, Amanda was awarded the Golden Boot for her work in the western genre.
Following Blake’s departure, Fran Ryan was added to the cast as Miss Hannah, the new lady in charge of the Longbranch, for the final season of the show. Ryan would also reprise her role in Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge. It would be the only time Ryan and Blake played their respective roles in the movies.
Off-screen, she had multiple marriages, including her third husband, Frank Gilbert (196782), with whom she shared her devotion to animals. The couple had an animal compound at their home in Arizona and successfully became one of the first to breed cheetahs in captivity. She helped form the Arizona Animal Welfare League (1971) and financed the start of the Performing Animal Welfare Society in 1982 to care for former circus, movie, and television animals. She later became a one-time board member of the Humane Society of the United States.
Her own battle with cancer led her to become a supporter of the American Cancer Society. She received the society’s Annual Courage Award from President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
After her death in 1985, Blake was honored in 1997 when the Amanda Blake Memorial Wildlife Refuge opened at Rancho Seco Park in Herald, California. The refuge provides sanctuary for free-ranging African hoofed wildlife. Most of the animals have been reclaimed from wild animal farms and hunting preserves.
Hugh Milburn Stone was born on July 4, 1909, in Burton, Kansas, to Herbert and Laura Stone. He was a vaudeville star in the 1920s and went to Los Angeles in the 30s to begin his screen career. He appeared in over 150 movies from 1935-55, from short appearances to co-starring and starring roles.
He appeared in feature films with Fred MacMurray and Carole Lombard in The Princess Comes Across, Pat O’Brien and Humphrey Bogart in China Clipper, Tyrone Power and Dorothy Lamour in Johnny Apollo, Lou Abbott and Bud Costello in Buck Privates Come Home, John Wayne and Robert Ryan in Flying Leathernecks, and Charlton Heston, Jack Palance, Katy Jurado, and Brian Keith in Arrowhead. He starred in 604 episodes of Gunsmoke from 1955-75.
Aside from winning an Emmy in 1968, Stone was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1972. In 1975, he received an honorary doctorate from St. Mary’s of the Plains College in Dodge City, Kansas. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He was written out of seven episodes in 1971 due to heart surgery and was temporarily replaced by Pat Hingle as Dr. John Chapman. Hingle appeared in six episodes.
Stone married Ellen Morrison in 1925, and they had one child together. Stone married again in 1940 to Francis Jane Garrison, five years after Ellen’s death. Stone and Francis divorced in 1941 but remarried in 1946.
He died in 1980 and was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum posthumously in 1981.
THE SIDEKICKS
Dennis Weaver was born on June 4, 1924, in Joplin, Missouri, to Walter Leon “Doc” and Lenna Leora Weaver. He studied at Joplin Junior College, where he was a basketball and football standout. He left school for over two years to join the Naval Air Corps. While in training, he set new records in speed and agility testing.
After he was discharged from the Navy, he transferred to the University of Oklahoma in hopes of a football scholarship but became a track star. He competed in 12 different track and field events and set individual records at the time. He led the Sooners to a Big Six championship in cross country and won the heptathlon at the Colorado Relays in 1948.
After some stints in off-Broadway productions, Weaver was accepted into Lee Strasberg’s Actor’s Studio, where performers like Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Shelley Winters honed their craft.
In Hollywood, Weaver had some small success, but his role as John Brown, Jr., in Warren’s film Seven Angry Men got him the audition for his now iconic role. In 1955, Weaver became the first revolving sidekick on Gunsmoke, where he played Chester Goode from 1955-64 (290 episodes). When he started on Gunsmoke, he was earning $300 dollars a week. When he left after nine seasons, he was making $9,000 a week. Weaver was last seen as Chester in the episode “Bentley,” aired on April 11, 1964. At the end of the show, he rode out of Dodge City, searching for a murderer. His character was never mentioned again.
He left to star in his own show and had six. He headlined Kentucky Jones (1964), where he played a single father. The series also starred Ruby Der and Harry Morgan. Weaver reprised his theatrical role of Tom Wedloe from the film Gentle Giant in Gentle Ben, which had a two-year run and 56 episodes. Beth Brickell and Clint Howard also starred in the series.
Weaver also starred in Stephen Spielberg’s earliest film, Duel, and made Duel at Diablo with James Garner and Sidney Portier. He recorded seven albums and formed a singing trio with Gunsmoke costars, Stone and Blake. Weaver was also the president of the Screen Actors Guild (1973-75) and was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum in 1981.
He met his wife, Geraldine (Gerry) Stowell, at Joplin Junior College, and they were married from 1945-2005.
As an environmentalist and activist, Weaver took up many causes, including the support for alternative fuels, and founded L.I.F.E. (Love Is Feeding Everyone), which provides meals and food for folks in Los Angeles.
Burton Reynolds was the second revolving sidekick. He joined the show in 1962 and stayed till 1965 appearing in 50 episodes as Quint Asper, a Comanche half breed blacksmith. Burt was born in Lansing, Michigan, on February 11, 1936. His parents were Burton Milo and Harriette Fernette Reynolds. He was a star running back with Florida State University and might have had a career in pro football, but an injury derailed those plans. He won the Florida State Drama Award in 1956 and graduated college in 1958.
He appeared in several TV shows in guest starring roles. In 1959, he landed the role of Ben Frazier on the series Riverboat. The show starred Darren McGavin as Captain Grey Holden, a man who won a riverboat, named The Enterprise, in a poker game and fought to keep the boat afloat and making money. Burt quit after twenty episodes. He stated he couldn’t get along with McGavin or the executive producer and thought he had a stupid part. He returned to appearing in other shows as a guest star but stated that work was hard to find after he walked away from Riverboat. He married English actress Judy Carne in 1963. They divorced in 1965. He had a relationship with Dinah Shore, who was twenty years his senior, which lasted from 1971 to 1975. He casually dated Tammy Wynette and had a relationship with Sally Field that lasted from 1976 to 1982. The pair made four movies together. In 1988, Burt married Loni Anderson. They adopted one child, Quinton, and divorced in 1994.
His first episode was “Quint Asper Comes Home” in 1962, and his final appearance was in “Bank Baby” in 1965. Three sidekicks appeared together in the 1964 episode “Prairie Wolfer.” It included an early appearance of Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen . Burt was fired at the end of the 1965 season and told that he couldn’t act. Burt went on to star in the series Hawk in 1966 as Native American detective John Hawk . The show lasted for seventeen episodes. He next played police detective Dan August in the 1970/71 TV season. The show was a Quinn Martin production but failed to find an audience. Burt had more success than any of the other actors that appeared on the series, but he also fell the farthest. He was the number one box office draw in motion pictures from 1978 to 1982.
Burt’s success bloomed after he posed for the nude centerfold in Cosmopolitan Magazine. He appeared in Deliverance, The Longest Yard, Smokey and the Bandit, Semi-Tough, and Hooper. He appeared in films with Raquel Welch, Jim Brown, Jackie Gleason, Clint Eastwood, Dolly Parton, and several others. He was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1975 for The Longest Yard and in 1980 for Starting Over. At one time he was a minority owner of the USFL Tampa Bay Bandits football team.
He made a series of bombs in the late 80s and returned to television. He starred in the detective drama B L Stryker as part of the ABC network wheel shows from February 13, 1989, to May 5, 1990. The show ran for two seasons and co-starred Ossie Davis, Dana Kaminski, and Rita Moreno . Burt directed three episodes. Burt starred in Evening Shade from 1990-94. The show co-starred Marilu Henner. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy. His divorce from Loni Anderson and subsequent bankruptcy led to the cancellation of his show. He managed to get smaller character actor roles in films, and in 1997 he made the movie Boogie Nights. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Bafta for his role in the film and won a Golden Globe and a Satellite Award. He also co-authored a children’s book in 1997 Barkley Unleashed: A Pirates Tail. Burt died of a heart attack on September 6, 2018. His body was cremated, and the ashes given to his niece.
Ken Curtis was born Curtis Wain Gates on July 2, 1916. His parents were Don Sullivan and Nellie Sneed Gates. He had two brothers, Chester and Carl. He played quarterback at Bent County High School. He was the third revolving Gunsmoke sidekick, appeared in 304 episodes of the series, and stayed until the end. He made his first appearance in “Change of Heart” as an unnamed cowboy in 1959. He first appeared as Festus Haggen in season eight, episode thirteen on December 8, 1962, in “Us Haggens.” He played lowlife Kyle Kelly in the episode “Loverboy” in season nine, episode two on October 5, 1963. He joined the main cast as Festus in the episode “Prairie Wolfer” in season nine, episode sixteen on January 18, 1964.
He met his first wife, Lorraine Page, at Universal Studios. They married in 1943 and divorced in 1952. His work as a singer led to movie appearances with John Wayne. He appeared in Rio Grande, The Searchers, The Quiet Man, On the Wings of Eagles, The Horse Soldiers, The Alamo, and How the West Was Won. He also appeared in three John Ford movies that didn’t feature John Wayne—Mister Roberts, Cheyenne Autumn, and Two Rode Together. He produced two monster movies in 1959, The Killer Shrews and The Giant Gila Monster. His last appearance in his Festus outfit was in How the West was Fun: A Western Reunion in 1979. He appeared with James Arness that same year in the series, How the West Was Won. He played Sheriff Orville Gant. He was offered a role in the movie Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge but felt he was getting a lowball offer and declined.
Ken appeared as James Buckley in the series Ripcord with Larry Pennell as Theodore McKeever from 1961-63. The pair made seventy-six episodes of the series. After Gunsmoke ended he played Hoyt Coryell in the primetime soap opera The Yellow Rose. The series also starred Sam Elliott, Cybill Sheppard, David Soul, Edward Albert, Noah Beery Jr, Chuck Connors, Jane Russell, and Will Sampson.
Ken married Barbara Ford on May 31, 1952. He was director John Ford’s son-in-law. Ken and Barbara divorced in 1964, amid rumors of abuse. He never worked with John Ford again. In 1966, he married Torrie Connelly , and they remained together until his death. Ken died of a heart attack in 1991 in Fresno, California, after he completed the filming of the TV movie Conagher. The TV movie starred Sam Elliott and Buck Taylor. His body was cremated, and the ashes were scattered over the Colorado Flatlands.
Ewing made his first appearance as Gunsmoke’s fourth of the revolving sidekicks in 1965. He appeared in thirty-six episodes and is one of the only two actors from the series that is still living. Roger was born on January 12, 1942. When his character of Thad was brought into the series, CBS executives and James Arness were at odds over salary and part ownership of the series. Thad was their backup plan in case it became necessary to replace Matt Dillon. His first appearance was in the episode “Clayton Thaddeus Greenwood.” His final appearance was in “The Prodigal.” He didn’t receive any billing at the beginning of his final appearance, nor was his character acknowledged at the end of the show. Ewing appeared in four movies and a handful of TV shows during his career. He appeared in Ensign Pulver in 1964, and his final movie was Play it as it Lays in 1972. He retired from acting in 1972 and pursued a career in photography. He currently lives in Morro Bay, California.
Buck Taylor was born Walter Clarence Taylor III on May 13, 1938. His parents were Dub Taylor and Florence Gertrude Heffernan Taylor. He served two years in the United States Navy. He played gunsmith Newly O’Brien from 1967-75. He appeared in 173 episodes. He was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum in 1981. He appeared as Leonard Parker in “Vengeance Part I” in 1967. He first appeared as Newly in “The Pillagers” that same year. His last episode was “The Sharecroppers” in 1975. Buck appeared as Newley in the TV movie Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge in 1987. He also appeared as Colorado Smith in the TV mini-series The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory. The miniseries was directed by Burt Kennedy and focused more on Jim Bowie than Davy Crockett. It starred Arness as James Bowie, Brian Keith as Davy Crockett, Alec Baldwin as William Barrett Travis, Raul Julia as Santa Anna, and Lorne Green as Sam Houston He is the other surviving Gunsmoke cast member and was recently part of the cast of Yellowstone, playing Emmitt Walsh. The modern-day western tells the tale of the Dutton Family and stars Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, and Wes Bentley.
He has worked steadily since the cancellation of Gunsmoke and has appeared in several movies and TV shows. He shared the screen with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer in Tombstone. He appeared with Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Jeff Bridges in Hell or High Water, and he also appeared in Cowboys and Aliens with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford. He is a noted artist and prefers to work in watercolor and acrylic.
He married Judy Nugent in 1961. They divorced on November 13, 1983. They had three children, Matthew, Cooper , and Adam . He married Goldie Ann Maudlin in 1995. At one time Anne Lockhart was his daughter-in-law. He was awarded the Golden Boot in 1993 for his work in the western genre. He received two Western Heritage Bronze Wranglers—one in 1972 for being part of the ensemble cast of Gunsmoke, the other for the movie Truce in 2007. He also received the Cowboy Spirit Award in 1998.
Sam the Bartender
Burtis Harwood “Bert” Ramsey was the first Sam the Bartender and appeared in seventy-five episodes from 1955-59. Sometimes he was uncredited, sometimes credited as Longbranch bartender, other times as simply bartender, and finally Sam the bartender. His first episode was “Hot Spell” the second episode in season 1, and his final episode was “The Boots” in season 5. He died in Bellaire-Clearwater, Florida, on June 6, 1968, from lung cancer.
George Glenn Strange played Sam the Bartender in 247 episodes. He was born on August 16, 1899, in Weed, New Mexico territory, thirteen years before statehood. Glenn had a lengthy career in westerns. He played Butch Cavendish , the man responsible for killing all the Texas Rangers save one in the TV series The Lone Ranger. He played The Frankenstein Monster in three movies— The House of Frankenstein in 1944, The House of Dracula in 1945, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948. He first appeared on Gunsmoke in 1959 and returned as Sam Noonan the bartender from 1961-73.
He married Flora Hooper on April 29, 1920. They had two daughters, Wynena and Juanita. He married Minnie Thompson in 1937, and they had one child, Janine Laraine Strange. He once fought professional boxer Primo Carnera.
His first episode as Sam the Bartender was “Old Faces,” episode twenty-six in season 6 in 1961. His final episode was “The Hanging of Newly O’Brian,” episode eleven in season 19 in 1973.
—TERRY ALEXANDER and his wife, Phyllis, live on a small farm near Porum, Oklahoma. They have three children, thirteen grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. If you see him at a conference, though, don’t let him convince you to take part in one of his trivia games—he’ll stump you every time.
