Western-Stars singen

Spade Cooley (1910-1969) war einer der
Kings of Western Swing, der sich auch kurzzeitig
mit B-Western versuchte. Seine Karriere endete
am 3. April 1961, als er seine Frau Ella Mae vor
den Augen der 14-jährigen Tochter ermordete.
Er wurde lebenslang verurteilt, sollte jedoch
mittels Ronald Reagan begnadigt werden und erhielt Freigang
für ein Konzert. Hinter der Bühne starb er.

Später erzählte seine Tochter Melody (geboren 1946) dem Gericht:
On the night of April 3, 1961, while in a drunken rage, Cooley beat, stomped, and kicked Ella Mae Evans unconscious, and then summoned his fourteen-year-old daughter Melody to the house. Later testifying against her father, she described the horrifying scene to jurors:

When I entered, he (Spade) was on the phone. He was talking to his business partner and he said, 'Don't call the police.' He was real sweaty and he had blood spots on his pants. He put down the phone and said, 'Come in here. I want you to see your mother. She's going to tell you something.' He took hold of my arm and took me into the den. The shower was running in the bathroom. Mother was in the shower. He opened the door and said, 'Get up. Melody's here . . . talk to her.' He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the den with both hands. She was undressed. He banged her head on the floor twice. He called her a slut. She couldn't move. She seemed unconscious. He turned back to Mother and said, 'We'll see if you're dead.' Then he stomped her in the stomach with his left foot. He took a cigarette which he had been smoking and burned her twice. 1


Hier aus seinen Glory Days ohne Alkohol und Gewalt...

TOM MIX

Damit es hier nicht "einschläft", der grosse, frühe Westernstar Tom Mix, zu dessen
Ton-Filmen es zahlreiche Soundtracks gab.

MIX, THOMAS EDWIN (1880-1940).
Silent-film star Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was the most flamboyant and popular of all the early movie cowboys. His colorful clothing and action-filled plots set a pattern for a generation of "B" Western heroes. He was a true "legend of the Old West," and his publicists created a heroic past for him, yet his real life had many Oklahoma connections.

Son of Edwin and Elizabeth Mix, Thomas Edwin Mix was born January 6, 1880, in Mix Run, Pennsylvania. His father, a stable master for a wealthy lumber merchant, taught Tom Mix to love horses. At eighteen Mix left home for the U.S. Army. In 1902 he married Grace Allin, went absent without official leave, and headed "out west" to Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory.

He found work as a bartender in the Blue Belle Saloon, wrangled horses, and even performed at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition as the drum major for the Oklahoma Cavalry Band. This exposure took him to the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West show near Ponca City, where he performed from 1905 to 1908 as a bronc buster for thirty-five dollars a week.

His first marriage was annulled and a second marriage to Jewell "Kitty" Perrine of Oklahoma City also was short lived. In 1908 he married Oklahoma "cowgirl" Olive Stokes, and they toured the Wild West show circuit together. His daughter, Ruth, was born in 1912 at Olive's family ranch near Dewey, Oklahoma. While Mix was staying with his in-laws, the mayor of Dewey, a family friend, appointed him "night marshal."


In 1909 Mix appeared in his first film when the Selig Polyscope Company hired Wild West show performers for horse scenes while filming near Dewey. A legitimate prize winner in the rodeo world, he joined with Guy Weadick in 1912 to organize the first Calgary Stampede. Mix signed with Fox Studios in 1917, but throughout his film career he continued to "hit the road" occasionally with a Wild West show or a circus.

Noted for his horsemanship, daring stunt work, and fancy wardrobe, Mix became the highest-paid actor in Hollywood by 1928, earning seventeen thousand dollars per week. He starred in such classics as the Lone Star Ranger (1923), Riders of the Purple Sage (1925), and Destry Rides Again (1932). Mix made more than three hundred films before he died in a car wreck near Tucson, Arizona, on October 12, 1940. At the beginning of the twenty-first century much of his custom clothing, saddles, and personal memorabilia was displayed at the Tom Mix Museum, an Oklahoma Historical Society property, in Dewey.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Robert S. Birchard, King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies (Burbank, Calif.: Riverwood Press, 1993). Ted Holland, B Western Actors Encyclopedia: Facts, Photos and Filmographies for More Than 250 Familiar Faces (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1989). Paul E. Mix, Tom Mix: A Heavily Illustrated Biography of the Western Star with a Filmography (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1995). Michael Wallis, The Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999).

Donald W. Reeves

xx

Von der Stummfilmära zurück in die Western und Western-Serien der 50er und 60er
Jahre: CLU GULAGER ist mit seinem Namen nicht unbedingt jedem präsent, doch
vom Gesicht her wahrscheinlich zwei Generationen bekannt:

WILLIAM MARTIN GULAGER wurde am 16. November 1928 in Holdenville,
Alabama, geboren und von seinem Vater "Clu" gerufen, weil es einen
Vogel gleichen Namens gab. GULAGER besuchte die Uni in den 40er Jahren
nach dem Kriegsdienst. In den 5oern schaffte er den Durchbruch in der Serie
´The Tall Man´(1960-62), wirkte aber auch ´Am Fuß der Blauen Berge´(1959)
und in dem Ronald-Reagan-Thriller ´Tod eines Kilers´(1964) mit. In
The Virginian´(1963-68) - also ´Die Leute von der Shilo-Ranch´ - bekam er
die permanente Rolle des Co-Helden Hilfssheriff Emmett Ryker, der als
Freund von Trampas und Virginian oft die Bösen zur Strecke brachte. Noch
1972 war er in ´Bonanza´ zu sehen, bevor seine erste Karriere verebbte.
Ab Mitte der 80er Jahre fand er die zweite Fangemeinde als Star zahlreicher
Horror-Filme wie ´The Return Of The Living Dead´(1985). Hierzu gab es sogar
einen Soundtrack mit Musik von The Cramps und anderen, weshalb das Ding
auch abgebildet ist.

TY HARDIN sang auch im Soundtrack zu ´Palm Springs Weekend´(1963)
neben Jerry Van Dyke..

Eine Sternstunde für ihn im Kriegsfilm ´Steiner´