MISSING LINKS - 'THE TWILIGHT ZONE', 'DOCTOR WHO' & 'ALIAS SMITH AND JONES'

Even though there is one more blog post to run before my August showcase on TV Westerns finishes, this is the last one I'm actually writing this year.  With it, I'm taking another look at 'The Twilight Zone' with a theoretical link to another Western series... by way of 'Doctor Who'.

I've written about Jerry Hearndan in the past. He was the former movie co-star of Barbara Jean Trenton whom she rebuffed when she saw how old he had become over the years.  In that previous blog post, I did a theory of relateeveety on him, making him the brother of a symphony conductor found in an episode of the original 'Ellery Queen'.  (Both roles were played by Jerome Cowan.)

But this time, I want to take a look at what happened to Jerry Hearndan that night after he left Barbara Jean's mansion of faded dreams.

Jerry drove away from her home and decided to check one of his grocery stores in the neighborhood which was about to close up shop for the evening.  The parking lot was deserted save for the cars belonging to the employees still on duty.  As per his habit, Hearndan parked far away from them all.  (This was mostly due to his fading eyesight - he didn't want to risk bumping any vehicles which might be parked next to him,)

As he crossed the darkened lot, He thought he heard a hardened flutter of wings.  He turned to look behind him and there was a statue of a winged angel taking up a parking space.  

Strange... he didn't remember noticing it as he passed that spot a moment before.

Figuring that some teenaged delinquents had stolen it from the nearby garden supply store and left it there as a prank, Jerry Hearndan made a mental note to have the stockboys return it in the morning.  And then he turned back towards the store.

And the next thing he knew, it was broad daylight and he was standing at the train station in Ellwood, Kansas.  Oddly enough, it appeared to be Frontier Days or some such re-enactment, as everyone was dressed in Old West garb.

As the day progressed, Jerry Hearndan was able to piece together the details of his situation from his own observations and from conversations with the local townsfolk.  He was no longer in the 1960s; it was the 1870s!  

Jerry Hearndan was not one to panic.  Having assessed the situation, he realized he was now trapped in that time period and was resigned to such a fate.  He had led a long, good life, had made his mark in the world as a matinee idol in his younger days.....  But truth be told, he had become a bit bored with it all in his elder years.  Not that he ever contemplated bringing his personal story to a close by his own means, but even though it was a comfortable living, managing a chain of grocery stores was not exactly a challenge.

But to now be living in the wild, wild West?   No phone, no lights, no motor car, Not a single luxury....  Now there was a challenge!

It was difficult adjusting in those first few days - he knew the money in his wallet would be worthless because of its design.  So that meant he needed to find a job... and fast, if he was to pay for lodgings and meals.  

Despite the ordeal of traveling back in Time, Hearndan's clothing was still impeccable.  In fact, a woman whom he passed in the main street remarked on the sharpness of his suit's cut; that it was nothing she had ever seen there in Ellwood.  Thinking quickly on his feet and calling on improvisational skills from his earlier career as an actor, Hearndan told her that it was one of the latest styles to come out of New York City.

"New York City?" she exclaimed, aghast.  She hastily blessed herself and hurried away.

Hearndan had already forgotten about her though.  On the other side of the street he saw the town bank and in its iron-barred window there was a sign: "HELP WANTED."

By the end of the day, Jerry Hearndan had become a citizen of Ellwood and an employee of the bank.  But he was no longer known as Jerry Hearndan.  That had always been a manufactured moniker foisted on him by the Powers That Be at Mammoth Pictures.  (He always thought it should have been spelled "Herndon" anyway.)  He wasn't sure what might happen in his own revised future, but should he bring some kind of notoriety to his name, it might jeopardize his past career as an actor by that name.  Instead he used an alias which had been the name of a character he once played in a movie with his former co-star Barbara Jean Trenton.

From that day forward, he would be known as Waldo Hennessey.

Several years passed and "Waldo Hennessey" acclimated easily to his new life.  It underwent a seismic shift one day when the bank was held up by a notorious gang of thieves led by Sam Belden.  During the raid, the sheriff was killed, as was the bank manager.  

Waldo Hennessey was pressed into carrying on as an interim bank manager until the bank trustees could choose a replacement.  As it turned out, they decided there was no better choice for the job than Hennessey.  (As for the sheriff, a new lawman named Brewster - no relation to a lawyer named Tom Brewster - eventually was hired to take over.  In the meantime, at least Ellwood had a federal marshal named Mort Dooley.)

Eventually Bank Manager Waldo Hennessey crossed paths with two outlaws also notorious at that time (but eventually their legend faded in history.)  Instead of trying to take money out of the bank, they were bringing back a shipment that had been stolen during a stagecoach robbery.  The two men, Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones (but in reality, Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry) inquired after a reward for returning all of the money.  But "Waldo" demurred - he agreed that they were entitled to a reward, but as the money had been under the aegis of the United States Postal Service, they would have to deal with them in getting that reward.

And that wasn't likely to happen with the walls of post offices festooned with Wanted posters for Heyes and Curry!

And that was the last time we saw Jerry Hearndan in Toobworld - at least on his personal timeline.  In the greater Toobworld timeline, he was yet to be born (which would happen in 1897, as "Thierry Roussel" to French immigrant parents on the lower East Side of New York City.)

That Weeping Angel which sent Jerry Hearndan into the past?  We've met it before and it has been inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  When I wanted to find a theory of relateeveety between a character in "modern" times and a character from TV Westerns, I usually went the route of children (with saloon girls as the mothers.)  But when the Western character is older than the modern character, sometimes I claim that the Westerner was that character from the 20th Century, sent back by that Weeping Angel. 

Each angel has a set time period to which it can transport its victims.  For instance, the Angel that sent the Doctor and Martha Jones back in Time to the middle of the 1960s from 2007 was the same one which sent Detective Billy Shipton to the same time.  However, another Angel sent Cathy Nightingale back to Hull in 1920.

So this particular Angel would send TV characters from "modern times" back to the Old West.  We detailed a lot of these when we inducted this Weeping Angel into the TVXOHOF one October......

SHOWS CITED:

• 'The Twilight Zone' - "The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine"
• 'Alias Smith And Jones' - "The Root Of It All"
• 'Doctor Who' - "Blink"
• 'Maverick' - "Gun Shy"
• 'The Big Valley' - "Teacher Of Outlaws"
• 'Sugarfoot' 

Happy trails!

TV-GPS: CARSON CITY, NEVADA

This story popped up at the end of July:

In Plain Sight Marketing
July 31, 2018

A new sitcom called "Casino Boss" starring comedian, movie star and Saturday Night Live alum, Joe Piscopo, is filming in the Carson Nugget Casino, located at 507 N. Carson St.

A full cast of comedians and performers including Bob Zany, comedian and the real "Bob" from the "Bob & Tom" syndicated radio show, Grammy nominated singer, songwriter and award-winning filmmaker, Linda Chorney and Kabir Singh are part of the cast.

Locals Roger Diez, Cameron Crane and Sophie Moeller are also part of the cast. The show is being directed by Yvette Fintland and written by the Carson Nugget's owner, Dean DiLullo, loosely based on the iconic history of the Carson Nugget.

"The premise of the script is 'How hard can it be to run a casino?'" DiLullo said. "Every day funny things happen in the casino and this sitcom has captured them."

Carson City, Nevada, has always been a recognizable location of the Old West in TV Westerns, probably thanks mostly to 'Bonanza'.  (On that map in the opening credits, the Ponderosa mega-ranch of the Cartwrights looks like it's about to swallow the western town whole.

From Wikipedia:
Carson City is an independent city in and the capital of the US state of Nevada, named after the mountain man Kit Carson. As of the 2010 census, the population was 55,274.  The majority of the town's population lives in Eagle Valley, on the eastern edge of the Carson Range, a branch of the Sierra Nevada, about 30 miles (50 km) south of Reno.

Here are some of the examples in which the televersion of Carson City provided the location in TV Westerns:

'DEATH VALLEY DAYS'

"The Man Who'd Bet On Anything"
Abe Curry is determined to do anything to make Carson City a success and later helps make it the state capital. But his habit of betting on everything puts the well being of his family and future at risk.

"Lady of the Press"
Mike Ward arrives in Carson City and immediately clashes with newspaper owner Lauri Frick. He establishes a rival paper, both working to improve things in frontier Nevada. What Lauri doesn't realize is who her secret contributor is.

"Fighting Sky Pilot"
Reverend Ben Darniell believes he should practice what he preaches, and he refuses to resort to violence in the face of opposition. But he finds a minister in Carson City must be prepared to fight for those who cannot defend themselves.

"Little Washington"
The tale of a society belle of Washington, D.C. who is transplanted to Carson City, Nevada, then known as "Little Washington".

'BONANZA'

"One Ace Too Many"
In his second attempt to cash in on Ben's good name, crooked lookalike Bradley Meredith learns that the Cartwrights are in Carson City and, posing as Ben, pretends that he is seriously ill and begins to liquidate the Ponderosa's assets. 

"Company Of Forgotten Men"
Candy is kidnapped by retired Army Sergeant Mike Russell and his band of fellow former soldiers when he uncovers their plan to blast their way into the Carson City Mint to steal the pension they believe they deserve, but never received, from their long years of Army service

"Justice Deferred"
Not long after bad-tempered Frank Scott is hanged for murdering a young woman in a dark Virginia City alley, witness for the prosecution, Hoss Cartwright, sees a man in a Carson City saloon who looks just like Frank, hears him whistling the same strange tune the killer whistled that fateful night, and begins to fear that his testimony has sent the wrong man to the gallows.

"The Spanish Grant"
The Cartwrights try to disprove the validity of a Spanish land grant to stop the De La Cuesta family from seizing part of the Ponderosa and all of the Carson Valley settlers' homestead lands.

'THE WILD, WILD WEST'

"The Night Of Sudden Death"
Black clad men clamber over each other and up the wall to a high window, entering the United States Mint at Carson City. They plant a bomb and leave without taking any of the money. Jim West and Artemus Gordon must learn why they broken in and who masterminded the plot before economic chaos overtakes the United States.

I don't see any reason why any of those characters living in Carson City in those episodes couldn't have run into each other.

Like this new 'Casino Boss', there was another TV series which was centered around Carson City in "the present." (At the time, it was the 1950s.)

'State Trooper'

Rod Blake, a State Trooper, is an officer of the Nevada Department of Public Safety. The setting is in the 1950s American West.

Here's an example from the show:

"Carson City Kitty"
Blake suspects an inside job when a valuable necklace is stolen from a Carson City, Nevada museum.

And it's not just found in the main Toobworld.  Carson City is also located in the TV dimension of the sitcom Presidents.  (Containing 'Nancy', 'Mr. President', 'Corey In The House', 'Hail To The Chief', etc.)

'Veep'

"Nev-AD-a"
While Amy, Dan, Jonah and Richard lead the Nevada recount effort, Mike begins a new diet, Kent tries to figure out how old Sue is, and Selina meets a billionaire banker.

As of now, there are no plans to honor Carson City, Nevada, as a TV location by inducting it into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.  As with any other location like New York City and Los Angeles, just because TV characters live in an established location isn't enough to qualify it.  This may change as I do further research (yeah, watch the actual episodes.)  But also I'll check out the surnames in those episodes - perhaps I can cobble together some theories of relateeveety to connect them all.....

Check back next August, maybe we'll have come up with something.....

Happy trails to you!

BEST TV WESTERN EPISODES FROM TV SHOWS WHICH AREN'T WESTERNS #4

To help fill up the August blog schedule, we've been showcasing my favorite Western episodes of TV shows which aren't TV Westerns.

And to top off this mini-theme, here's the final entry:

'THE PRISONER'
"LIVING IN HARMONY"

From the IMDb:
Number Six finds himself in a western town called Harmony,which is run by the Judge, with the Kid,a young gunslinger, as his murderous assistant. The Prisoner would appear to have been the town sheriff,who resigned and refused to carry a gun. The Kid leads the townsfolk in an outbreak of killing with Kathy, a saloon girl befriended by Number Six, as one of the victims. This persuades Number Six to take up arms but then finds that he has been enacting a role play in the village to make him more disposed to killing and the Judge is yet another Number Two. The result ends in tragedy. 

From Wikipedia:
"Living in Harmony" is an episode of the British science fiction-allegorical television series, The Prisoner. It was first broadcast on 29 December 1967. It differs from most other episodes of the series in that it does not begin with the show's standard opening credits sequence. In fact, in a situation considered somewhat unusual for a 1960s television programme, the actual title of the series does not appear on screen until the standard closing credits for the series. This episode was not aired in the United States during the series' initial network run.

To read more of the Wikipedia entry, click here.

I saved "Living In Harmony" for last because it was part of a series which had long been my Number One TV show of all time, about forty years in the top spot.  (It's been bumped down to become "the new Number Two" because of 'Doctor Who', but it won't ever be dislodged again.)

And for this final entry on this theme, here is that episode of 'The Prisoner', "Living In Harmony"....

Happy Trails AND BCnU!

CROSSING ZONE - "MR. BEVIS" & "BRONCO"

Let's start off the week with a touch of de-Zonking.....

'THE TWILIGHT ZONE'
"MR. BEVIS"

From the IMDb:

While Mr. Hempstead is trying to impress Mr. Bevis, one of the things he mentions is that he helped Ben-Hur win his famous chariot race. This would have been impossible since Ben-Hur is a fictional character (created by General Lew Wallace in the mid 1800s) and not an actual person from history.  Hempstead reveals to Bevis that he helped Ben Hur win the famous chariot race. At the end of the episode, a movie theater marquee advertises that "Ben Hur" is playing.

I don't see this as being a Zonk.  We've already seen that the televersion of Governor/General Lew Wallace actually writing the novel in an episode of 'Bronco'. 

'BRONCO'
'DEATH OF AN OUTLAW" 

But as is the case with other writers like Mark Twain and Dame Agatha Christie, in Toobworld their most famous novels were based on actual events and people, and not created out of whole cloth.  

So Judah Ben-Hur may have been a fictional character in the Real World, but he's an historical figure in Toobworld.  Therefore, Mr. Hempstead could have helped him in that chariot race against Messala... to Messala's chagrin.

And that's the "Crossing Zone" connection between 'Mr. Bevis' and 'Bronco' - General Lew Wallace & "Ben Hur".  It could have been any other portrayal of the Governor in a TV series - like Frank Ferguson's in an episode of 'The Tall Man'.  But we actually see Wallace writing the novel in this episode, so it gets preference.

BCnU!

VIDEO SUNDAY - "THE OVER-THE-HILL GANG RIDES AGAIN"

From Wikipedia:
A sequel [to "The Over-the-Hill Gang"] called "The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again" was produced the following year, with Brennan, Wills, Buchanan, Devine, and Burt Mustin reprising their roles while Fred Astaire replaced O'Brien as the second lead. Both movies doubled as a pilot for a projected weekly series, but ABC ultimately passed on the idea.

Unfortunately, the following video of the movie has the dialogue off-kilter, but enjoy it if you can see your way clear past that problem.....

BCnU!

VIDEO SATURDAY = TV WESTERN THEME SONGS

For this last Video Saturday during our TV Western showcase month, we're going to celebrate the theme songs from many TV Westerns.  (And this collection kicks off with my favorite Western series!)

Happy Trails!

FRIDAY HALL OF FAMER - CHAPS CALLAHAN

Three years ago, Inner Toob looked at the missing link who connected 'Family Affair' to 'F Troop' with a theory of relateeveety, and 'Family Affair' to 'The Hero' as a "wish-craft" - the former cowboy actor Chaps Callahan.

'Family Affair'
"The Old Cowhand"

And now we can add another theoretical connection for Chaps Callahan.

'Columbo'
"How To Dial A Murder"

Lt. Columbo was investigating a murder (Well, duh!) in which his chief suspect was a psychologist who was a fanatical movie buff.  He even used his fixation in creating what he thought was the perfect murder.  (No spoilers, Sweetie!)

At one point, the young woman who was living in the guest house showed Columbo an old "baby spot" covered in dirt which Dr. Mason had apparently picked up at an old ranch which had once been used for making movies.  

Lieutenant Columbo:

There's a lot of rust on this, 

but you can still make it out.

It says, 

"Property of Callahan Film Ranch, 

Peach Tree, California." 

Columbo goes out to that old movie ranch and he finds a lot of evidence for his case.

Lt. Columbo:

I found it out at the old Callahan Movie Ranch, where you got this baby spot, sir.

Dr. Eric Mason:

Yes, I've visited Callahan's.

Here's my candidate for a missing link, and you're probably way ahead of me on this.....

First, let's revisit this segment from my original story about Chaps Callahan:

Chaps Callahan had been a cowboy movie star in the early days of the talkies.  His films (which looked a lot like old Bob Steele movies from the Real World) would later enjoy a resurgence of popularity in the 1960's among young boys when they were shown in the afternoons on TV.  (But for little girls, like Buffy Davis, the appeal was lost.)

By that time, Callahan was the manager of a large ranch in Pennsylvania, having retired from making movies in 1939.  

But did he go straight from making movies to working that Pennsylvania ranch?  No.  Chaps tells Bill Davis that he started working as the foreman at the B-Bar Ranch in Pennsylvania ten years earlier.  That would be in 1959, so for twenty years Callahan had time on his hands.

There are a lot of actors who found other ways to supplement their income either while they were just starting out, or to keep them occupied between gigs.

For instance, when I had my first head shots done when I moved to New York, I recognized the photographer right away from a soap opera I got hooked on while at UConn - 'Somerset', which got cancelled before I graduated.

That could be the situation in this case.  Perhaps Chaps Callaghan saw the writing on the wall, that the leading roles in the Westerns would not last forever as he got older.  And so he invested in that property and dubbed it "Callahan's Movie Ranch".  He leased it out to the studios as a place to film the outdoor location shots.  It would be perfect for fake frontier town scenes as we saw during that 'Columbo' episode.  Eventually the property fell into disuse but Callahan still owned it.  (And would continue to do so until he either sold it to one of the studios (perhaps Mammoth?) or until he died (in 1988.)

And now let's move on to some even stranger and yes, more tenuous connections for Mr. Callahan.

We saw that a scene from one of Bob Steele's old Westerns was shown in that 'Family Affair' episode as though it was now a movie which starred Chaps Callahan.

We've seen this happen before in Toobworld.  In an episode of the revised 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents', Martin Sheen played another actor in the episode "Method Actor".  But when they showed an example of his work during a seminar, it was Martin Sheen in "The Execution Of Private Slovik".  Movie clips from the careers of Ricardo Montalban and Janet Leight were shown in episodes of 'Columbo' but as though they were movies about Luis Montoyo and Grace Wheeler respectively.

That's the situation we have here.  Both Bob Steele's televersion and Chaps Callahan exist in Toobworld and both had careers in the movies.  Steele was best known for several movie franchises in which he played Billy the Kid and more often, Tuscon Smith (about fifty films!)  He also played himself in a few movies with Ken Maynard and Hoot Gibson also playing themselves.

So we have these several movies on Chaps' resume:

• "Last Chance For Donovan"
• "Stranger In Twin Creeks"
• "Headed For Danger"
• "Six Guns For Pecos"
• "No Love For Tombstone"

(I'm not exactly sure about that last title.  I listened to it three times and I still can't make out what Johnny Whitaker was saying.)

I don't want to take anything away from the lengthy career of Bob Steele, but there should be a lot more movies which could be ascribed to Chaps Callahan.  

I suppose any fictional movie Westerns in TV shows from before 1939 but without any cast members listed could be oaters in which Callahan starred.

Also, I think when Chaps said that he stopped making "his" movies in 1939, he meant movies in which he was the star.  I think it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble, that over the next twenty years he made appearances in other movies in smaller roles.  He did this so that he could keep his union membership up-to-date for its medical coverage and with an eye towards his old age.

As such, I think there are a few of Bob Steele's movies, those in which he was uncredited, could just as easily be movies in which the actor we were seeing was actually Chaps Callahan.  And best of all, many of those real-world movies were referenced in TV shows.  Claiming those uncredited roles were actually Chaps Callahan would then provide a theoretical link between all of those shows through Chaps.

Chaps started work as the foreman/manager of the B-Bar Ranch in 1959.  But that didn't stop his periodic acting in the televersions of movies to maintain his status in the actors' union.  On his vacations he'd squeeze in acting roles; those will be the movies Bob Steele made after 1959 for which he received no credit.

Here's the list of those movies, with the TV shows who can lay claim to a connection...

Rio Bravo 1959
Matt Harris (uncredited)

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch:
Ice Station Sabrina (1999)
Salem plans to watch the film.

Angel:
Dad (2001)
Wesley imagines himself as John Wayne in Rio Bravo. 

Psych:
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He's Dead (2007)
Henry mentions it to Shawn.

Nikita:
3.0 (2012)
Martin tells Davis he should watch classics like "Rio Bravo" and "Network".

The Task:
It Ends (Here?) (2017)
"Rio Bravo my ass!"

Tatort:
Tote Taube in der Beethovenstraße (1973)
movie theater scene [from the movie]

Hap and Leonard:
Monsoon Mambo (2018)
Leonard says he heard Hap was surrounded like  Dean Martin in this movie

The Sopranos:
For All Debts Public and Private (2002)
Tony watches the movie on TV

Shenandoah 1965
Union Train Guard (uncredited)

Married with Children:
The Gas Station Show (1992)
Al watches it, crying at its theme. It makes him want to go on a family trip.

No Name on the Bullet 1959
Poker Player (uncredited)

77 Sunset Strip:
Penthouse on Skid Row (1962)
title seen on theater marquee

The following movies have no connections to other TV shows, but Bob Steele appeared in them uncredited.  So we're declaring them as movies featuring Chaps Callahan.

Rio Lobo 1974
Rio Lobo Deputy (uncredited) 

Taggart 1964
Earl (uncredited)

The Comancheros 1961
Pa Schofield (uncredited)

Showdown 1963
Poker Player (uncredited)

Bullet for a Badman 1964
Sheriff (uncredited)

Ride A Crooked Trail 1958
Jud Blunt (uncredited)

Bugles in the Afternoon 1952
Horseman (uncredited)

Decision at Sundown 1957
Irv (uncredited)

One last movie of note....

City for Conquest 1940Kid Callahan (uncredited)

(Being an uncredited role for Bob Steele, I'm giving it to Chaps Callahan instead.  And it looks like he got to play a character who had the same last name.  It doesn't happen often in the real world movies, but it's not a rare occurrence.)

Perhaps one day some TV show will mention those movies and thus add even more shows to the theoretical credit of Chaps Callahan.

In the meantime, he gains an honorary membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame which is focused on the TV Western this month.

Happy trails, Chaps!

THURSDAY'S THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - A TALE OF TWO SMITTIES

As I've mentioned in the past, a lot of present day citizens of Toobworld can trace their lineage back to the wild, wild West.  There, their grandfathers or great-grandfathers found themselves passing along their bloodlines thanks to overly-friendly saloon girls.

One such example was one Charles Jensen, known by the nickname of Chuck, who sold RVs for a living.  And a little bit more....

'COLUMBO'
"THE CONSPIRATORS"

It will be my theory of relateeveety that Chuck Jensen was the great-grandson of an old West historical figure on his mother's side of the family:

"Smitty" Smith.

U.S. Army Cartographer

From the "Cheyenne" wiki:
When he's along for the ride with Cheyenne, Smitty has got his big friend's big back. Smitty was a talented artist and was using his skills as an Army mapmaker. While Cheyenne usually let his fists do most of his talking, Smitty had enough chatter and wit for the two of them combined.

On one of their adventures, Smitty had to pretend to be a gun drummer....

'CHEYENNE'
"JULESBURG"

From the IMDb:
Cheyenne and Smitty encounter settlers headed to Wyoming who lost their guide. On the way to Fort Laramie, a group of rustlers steal their cattle and a boy's brother is killed. The two head to a nearby to try to recover the stolen cattle.

From the "Cheyenne" wiki:
Smitty and Cheyenne found a lost wagon train and offered to lead them to the nearest fort. During the night, rustlers stole the settlers' cattle and one of the settlers, Morton Scott was killed. Smitty and Cheyenne hatched a plan to get the cattle back, with Smitty impersonating Scott in the nearby town of Julesburg. Smitty had to pretend to be both a gun salesman and big brother to Scott's relative Tommy. Smitty and Cheyenne discovered that the cattle were in the hands of a dangerous criminal, McCanles, and challenged him. The confrontation ended in a rip-roaring fist fight that Smitty said was the best fight he'd been in since he left Texas.

Julesburg was in Colorado, but I think Smitty finally put down roots in California when he left the Army.  And there he had children (whether by a saloon gal or not, I cannot say) whom he regaled with the tales of his cross-country journeys with Cheyenne Bodie.

When those children grew up and had children of their own, the stories were again recounted for their own offspring.  And those tales grew in the telling.

One of Smitty's granddaughters, born at the end of the 19th Century, married a man named Charles Jensen in 1926.  She gave birth to his son the following year and they named him Charles Jensen, Jr. but everybody would come to know him as Chuck.  (At that point in time, Chuck's grandfather was fifty years of age and it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble that Smitty was still alive as he would have been 80 years of age.)

Mrs. Jensen carried on her family's tradition with her bedtimes stories for young Chuck about his great-grandfather the map-maker in the Old West.

But it was that one story about Grampa Smitty being a gun runner (or at least pretending to be) in Julesburg, Colorado, which really captured his imagination.  And as he got older, Chuck became fixated on the financial gains aspect of a life as an arms dealer.

So remember when I said at the beginning that Chuck Jensen was an RV salesman?  That was his cover line of work.  Even with the largest inventory west of Chicago, he actually found a more lucrative line - Jensen had become a dealer in illegal weapons over the years and now, about the same age as his own grandfather was when he was born, this fourth generation of that family tree of Smiths was about to close a deal on the biggest transaction of his life....

Chuck Jensen was going to sell a ton of mercenary merchandise to the IRA in order to foment the "Troubles" over in Ireland.

Originally he was going to do business with an intermediary by the name of Vincent Pauli, but Pauli met with an unfortunate... accident.  So Chuck had to deal directly with the buyer, an Irish poet named Joseph "Joe" Devlin.  (Known in some circles as "the Floof".)

It was supposed to be the biggest arms deal he had ever arranged.  Chuck Jensen might very well have retired from the profit he would garner. Unfortunately, a rumpled, New York-born detective from the homicide division of the LAPD, one Lieutenant Frank Columbo, put a kibosh on that deal.  

I've been talking about Chuck Jensen in the past tense, but that was in conjunction with his former life.  Columbo, being in Homicide, brought that aspect of his case to the attention of his superiors and they brought Jensen down in collaboration with the ATF.

Chuck Jensen probably served at least twenty years, perhaps more since there was an international element to the case and he had such a voluminous cache of weapons.

I'm going to assume he served time in prison until the turn of the century and has been living the last 18 years back in the Los Angeles area.  He's no longer involved in gun sales; too many eyes on him even now with him being about ninety years old. 

But he did get back into the other line of work he knew - the RV business.  It was only meant to be a small enterprise; but when Chuck made a few cheap-jack commercials to air on a local cable station, he became something of a pop culture sensation.  (Not an uncommon situation in the Los Angeles area over the years.)

Chuck Jensen in one of low-cost commercials

And he found his niche in the trade dealing with senior citizens interested in the RV lifestyle in their retirement and who could relate to a fellow old codger.

And that's my TV Western theory of relateeveety for the week.....

Happy trails to you!

WIKI TIKI WEDNESDAY - THE BARON OF ARIZONA

When I wrote up the similarities between episodes of 'Maverick' ("The Marquesa") and 'Bonanza' ("The Spanish Grant"), I claimed the story of "Anastasia" was the inspiration for both script writers.  However, I remembered seeing the story of James Addison Reavis dramatized in two unconnected episodes of 'Death Valley Days' and I think now that this was the original influence, but influenced by the movie.

'DEATH VALLEY DAYS'
"THE BARON OF ARIZONA"
[Season 4, Episode 11]

From the IMDb:
Two Arizona newspaper men have doubts when a Spanish gentleman claims to own millions of acres in the territory. His papers date to colonial times appearing authentic but Tom is determined to prove fraud.

IMDb trivia: Based on the true life exploits of adventurer, forger, and convicted swindler, James Addison Reavis, this subject would be revisited in the 1968 episode "The Pieces of the Puzzle", with Robert Taylor playing the Reavis role.

"THE PIECES OF THE PUZZLE"
[Season 16, Episode 25]

From the IMDb:
"The Baron of Arizona," James Reavis, files a claim against the government.

IMDb trivia: This subject was also covered some twelve years previous in this series, in the February 6, 1956 episode, "The Baron of Arizona".

O'BSERVATION 1: Robert Taylor, who was hosting 'Death Valley Days' at the time, played the role of Reavis in this second episode.

O'BSERVATION 2: 'Death Valley Days', like 'The Twilight Zone' in being an anthology series which isn't always taking place in the dimension of Earth Prime-Time.  These two episodes are a good example.  The first one, "The Baron of Arizona", takes place in the main Toobworld.  "The Pieces of the Puzzle" takes place in Toobworld2, the Land O' Remakes.

Here's more about Reavis from Wikipedia:

James Addison Reavis (May 10, 1843 – November 27, 1914), later using the name James Addison Peralta-Reavis, the so-called Baron of Arizona, was an American forger and fraudster. He is best known in association with the Peralta land grant, also known as the Barony of Arizona, a pair of fraudulent land claims which, if certified, would have granted him ownership over 18,600 square miles (48,200 km2) of land in central Arizona Territory and western New Mexico Territory. During the course of the fraud, Reavis collected an estimated USD 5.3 million in cash and promissory notes ($156 million in present-day terms) through the sale of quitclaims and proposed investment plans.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase, the United States was required to recognize and honor existing land grants made by either the Spanish or Mexican governments. Reavis utilized this provision by manufacturing a fictional claim and then generating a collection of documents demonstrating how the claim came into his possession. The documents were then covertly inserted into various records archives. In his initial claim, Reavis claimed title to the grant via a series of conveyances. When serious challenges to this claim developed, Reavis developed a second claim by marrying the purported last surviving lineal descendant of the original claim recipient.

During the course of his deception, Reavis managed to convince a number of prominent persons to support his efforts. He obtained legal and political support from Roscoe Conkling, Robert G. Ingersoll and James Broadhead. Business leaders such as Charles Crocker and John W. Mackay in turn provided financial support. Initial exposure of the fraud occurred when an unfavorable Surveyor General report caused the claim to be summarily dismissed. In response to this action, Reavis sued the U.S. government for US$11 million in damages ($324 million in present-day terms). The suit in turn prompted the U.S. government to perform a detailed investigation that fully exposed the forgeries Reavis had planted in a variety of locations.

Reavis' exploits have been dramatized, and highly fictionalized, in motion pictures and on television. A fraudulent land claim similar to the one created by Reavis was used as a plot device in the 1939 film The Night Riders.  Reavis' life served as the basis for "The Baron of Arizona", a 1950 movie in which Vincent Price played the title role. 

For more on Reavis, click here.

Happy trails!

SUPER SIX LIST DOUBLED - TV WESTERN NAMES

COOL NAMES OF 

TV WESTERN CHARACTERS

I've always been a fan of names.  I think it began with a fascination with my own name and how it was adapted to a nickname even before I was born.  And that fascination came in handy with all of the fantasy novels I've read over the years.

Westerns have always been a great source for interesting and unique names; so much so that I couldn't limit myself to a Super Six List.  

1) DR. MIGUELITO QUIXOTE LOVELESS
'THE WILD, WILD WEST'
My all-time favorite TV character.

2) HANNIBAL HEYES
'ALIAS SMITH AND JONES'
A name worthy of a dime novel protagonist.  A bit of a letdown he had to spend most of the series as "Joshua Smith".

3) FENIMORE BLEEK
'DEATH VALLEY DAYS'

Bleek was a rain-maker out West and as played by Denver Pyle, he looked like a Fenimore Bleek.

4) RUFUS I. PITKIN
'BRANDED'
Pitkin was an undertaker and he had the perfect name for the occupation - "R.I.P.".

5) FABIAN LAVENDOR

'THE WILD, WILD WEST'

Here we have another Old West undertaker, but one who was on the wrong side of the law.  Still, it was a velvety-sounding name that would be comforting to the mourners if he really put his mind to the job as it should have been carried out.

6) NOBBY NED WINGATE
'MAVERICK'
There were a lot of great names among the Mavericks' fellow con artists - Gentleman Jack Darby, Dandy Jim Buckley, Big Mike McComb.  But I like this one best; a shame the character didn't catch on.

7) CRAZY CAT
'F TROOP'
This Western sitcom always had fun with the names of their Indian characters - Bald Eagle (played by Don Rickles) and Wise Owl, a Sherlock Holmesian Indian version of a consulting detective.  Here, the show's creators paid homage to a comic strip character who was already archaic by the time of the series.  And he was a bit of a hat tip caricature of the spaced-out counter-culture types coming into their own at the time.

8) BURGUNDY SMITH
'THE WESTERNER'
Played by MISTER John Dehner, you can just tell by the name that he was a rascal who should not be entirely trusted.  (And we have a theory of relateeveety that he was the grandfather of Dr. Zachary Smith from the original 'Lost In Space'.  And probably the identical cousin of Jared Garrity.)

9) FRANK AND JOHN SKIMMERHORN
'CENTENNIAL'
Michener came up with a lot of great names for his rich panorama of the people who tamed the West.  With "Skimmerhorn" (at least in the book), Michener even gave us the etymology of the name - from the Dutch "Schermerhorn". (Clay Basket, Levi Zendt, and Hans "Potato" Brumbaugh were also favorites.)

10) MAJOR GLENN VANSCOY
'GUNSMOKE'
Nothing I hate more than common, generic last names for characters.  Distinctive names help make characters even more memorable.  Major Vanscoy is a great example.

11) NIMROD BLIGH
'BRET MAVERICK'
I said earlier that "Hannibal Heyes" would have been a great name for a dime novel character.  Well, here we have the name of an "actual" dime novelist.  It may have been a pen name, but so what?  I think it stirs the imagination of those buying such publications.

12) TOBY NOE
'LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE'
Several factors make this a favorite - it flows nicely; it's distinctive; Ray Bolger played the role; and yes, it is my first name. (Unfortunately, the combination I heard often enough at the end of a date.....)

Do you have any favorite names for TV Western characters?  Let me know!

Happy trails!