8 minute read
Talking Westerns
Two Colorado Originals: Spring Byington and Kelo Henderson
Spring Byington
Spring Dell Byington was born on October 17, 1886, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Her father, Edwin, was a college professor and superintendent of schools who died in 1891. Her mother, Helene, placed her sister, also named Helene, with their grandmother in Port Hope, Ontario. Spring stayed with relatives in Denver. Her mother went to Boston where she studied to be a doctor. Spring developed an early interest in theater. As a high school teenager, she put an acting company together and toured the mining camps in the area. After high school, she joined a stock company and toured on the circuit in the U.S. and Canada.
At the onset of World War I, she joined the Belasco De Mille company of New York enroute to Bueno Aires, Argentina. She married Roy Corey Chandler, the company’s manager. The couple had two daughters, Phyllis and Lois. Spring learned fuent Spanish during her time in South America. The marriage ended in divorce four years later, and Spring and her daughters returned to New York. She never remarried.
In 1924, she made her first Broadway appearance at age thirty-one in the comedy satire A Beggar on Horseback. She worked exclusively in theater for the next nine years, building a reputation as a dedicated performer. She made her flm debut as Marmee Marsh in 1933, in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. She shared the screen with Katherine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Jean Parker, and Francis Dee. She was nominated for an academy award for Best Supporting Actress, losing to Mary Astor for The World Changes, and never returned to Broadway. She appeared in the horror film Werewolf of London with Herbert Hull and co-starred with Olivia De Havilland and Errol Flynn in The Charge of the Light Brigade.
Spring was a lifelong science fction fan, and once said that she read the genre daily.
Spring was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Penny Sycamore in You Can’t Take It with You in 1938. Fay Bainter won the Oscar for her role in Jezebel. Ironically, Spring was also in this movie.
She acted steadily in movies for years. In 1950, she co-starred in Devil’s Doorway, directed by Anthony Mann. The movie starred Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern, and Edgar Buchanan. The movie told the story of an Indian who fought in the Civil War for the Union. When he returned home after the war ended, he found hatred and bigotry from the whites and the Indians. She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for the 1951 movie Louisa, losing to Judy Holiday for the flm Born Yesterday. She won a Golden Laurel for her role in the flm. She appeared in over eighty movies, including eighteen of the Jones Family flms. She appeared in two flms that won Best Picture Oscars, Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935 and You Can’t Take It with You in 1938.
When her career began to wane in the fifties, she moved on to radio, then to TV. She starred in the comedy December Bride on the radio in 1950. In 1954, Desilu brought the comedy to the small screen; her co-stars were Vera Fulton and Harry Morgan. The show ran for five years. Spring was nominated for Best Actress in a Television comedy in 1958 and 1959, losing to Jane Wyatt for her role in Father Knows Best. In 1960, she appeared in her last movie role in the comedy Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, playing Doris Day’s mother. She received a nomination for a Golden Laurel for her role.
She played Daisy Cooper in the western television show Laramie. The show starred John Smith and Robert Fuller as two cowboys running a stage relay station, including cowboys working on the ranch. They changed out the teams for the stagecoach, repaired fences, did the cooking, and washed dishes on occasion. Spring played a grandmotherly fgure to young Dennis Holmes, who also joined the show with her. Spring continued to work in TV. She was in an episode of Mister Ed in 1963 and appeared as heiress J. Pauline Spaghetti in a 1966 episode of Batman starring Adam West and Burt Ward. She even played Larry Hagman’s mother in a 1967 episode of I Dream of Jeanie, which starred Barbara Eden. Her final television role was in a 1968 episode of The Flying Nun, starring Sally Field. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Spring and Marjorie Main were alleged to be close companions, and Main said after her death that “She didn’t have much use for men.”
Spring died on September 7, 1971, at her home in Los Angeles, California from cancer. She was survived by her daughters, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She donated her body for medical research.
KELO HENDERSON
Paul Lars ‘Kelo’ Henderson was born on August 8, 1923, in Pueblo, Colorado. He appeared in a handful of western roles from 1957 to 1965. He first appeared in an episode of Cheyenne in 1957. He played Doc Pardee in the episode The Brand. The series starred Clint Walker in the title role. Ed Brynes guest starred as a young outlaw. He played an uncredited henchman in the movie Last Stagecoach West. The coming of the railroad to Cedar Center meant the end of the stagecoach mail contract. The movie starred Jim Davis, Mary Castle, and Victor Jory.
He played Ike Clanton in a 1957 episode of Tales of Wells Fargo. The series starred Dale Robertson as troubleshooter Jim Hardy. In the episode “The Target,” a pony express rider was found dead on the Wells Fargo Stagecoach route and Jim had to fnd his killer. He returned to the big screen in late 1957 to play a police dispatcher in the science fiction/horror film The Monolith Monsters.
He played a guard in the 1958 film Return to Warlow. After he spent eleven years on a chain gang, Clay Hollister escaped from prison and returned to his hometown where his brother hid the money from a robbery years before.
He also appeared in an episode of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon that year. In the episode “Escape to the North,” two criminals blackmailed an ex-con into helping them escape from the law. The series was written by Don Beattle, Robet C. Bennett and Fran Striker, the man that wrote the early adventures of The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet. The series starred Dick Simmons, George Eldridge, and Yukon King.
Saddle the Wind, a 1958 release, saw former gunman Steve Sinclair’s eforts to settle into life as a peaceful rancher go terribly wrong when his wild younger brother arrived with a fast gun and a fiancée in tow. The writer for this film was Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, along with Thomas Thompson and Daniel Fuchs. It starred Robert Taylor, Julie London, John Cassavetes, Donald Crisp, Royal Dano, and Ray Teal.
He appeared in seventy-three episodes of the western series 26 Men as Ranger Clint Travis. The series told the true stories and tall tales of the Arizona Rangers and their adventures during the late 1800s and the turn of the century.
His last flm appearances were Treasure of the Aztecs and its sequel, Pyramid of the Sun God, directed by Robert Siodmak based on the novel by Karl May. The full story takes place during the American Civil War and starred Lex Barker as Dr. Karl Sternov. It also starred Jef Corey. Dr. Sternov was hired by the Mexican Government to fnd lost Aztec treasure and return it to the Leaders in Mexico. Kelo played Frank Wilson in this epic, which was initially flmed as one movie. After the flm was completed, the investors decided to split the flm into two halves for a better chance to recoup their expenses on the flm and show a proft.
Kelo was awarded a Golden Boot award for his work in the western genre in 2003. He died in Ridgecrest, California, following a surgical procedure on December 10, 2019.
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.
