The Writer's Pen

I am an old Western fan, meaning I'm old, and a Western fan. I'm not talking about the silent movies, in which Westerns were very popular, and I'm not talking about when the "singing" cowboy was popular after the "talkies" started. I'm talking about the shoot 'em up, horse chasin', bank robbin', cattle russlin', saloon girl kissin', barb wire fence hatin', soap opera with horses. Westerns that my Dad and I started watching in the late 1950's right on through until the 1970's.

Now you cannot talk about this genre of Western films without mentioning John Wayne. I know that there are a lot of other Western movie heroes than John Wayne: Randolph Scott, Audie Murphy, Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster...the list goes on and on. Clint Eastwood and his spaghetti Westerns were very popular in the early Sixties. Even his blatant rip-off of the classic Alan Ladd movie Shane, Pale Rider was entertaining. The character actors in many of these films were probably just as important to the overall success of the movies as were the main stars. Even though I am a big John Wayne fan, I have to admit that some of his movies were kind of corny, and some of them didn't have the best acting. If I were trying to be a film critic, I could really pick apart many of his movies. Many of them were historically inaccurate, poorly acted with some pretty hokey lines recited. But most of the time, I can overlook these faults and enjoy the story being told.

We couldn't afford to go to the movie theater back in those days, so we had to wait to see the movies until the networks started showing them on the small screen. Back in the 50's and 60's there were Western television shows on every night of the week: Laramie, Cheyenne, Have Gun Will Travel, Sugar Foot, The Rifleman, Wagon Train, Maverick, Branded, The Virginian, The Big Valley, Bonanza, and of course, the granddaddy of them all – Gunsmoke.

What a lot of people don't know is that John Wayne was offered the part of Matt Dillon for the television show Gunsmoke. For some reason or another Wayne didn't take the job, but he did suggest James Arness for the part and introduced him before the very first episode. Arness took to the part like a fish takes to water and the rest is history. The show ran on CBS from 1955 to 1975, 365 episodes!

James Arness made a good Matt Dillon, but the show wouldn't have been the same without his side kicks – Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode for the first eight and a half seasons and Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen for the last eleven and a half. Don't get me wrong, Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) and Doc (Hugh Milburn Stone, AKA Dr. Galen Adams) made contributions, as did Burt Reynolds as Quint the blacksmith. The acting from every one mentioned was great, but the acting is not what made the show a success that lasted for 20 years.

It was the writing.

In fact, the longevity of every successful television show can be attributed to good writing. It is true that some of these old shows are not historically correct. Some are not even particularly well acted. But, if the story is good, a little bad acting can be forgiven. I can only describe the enjoyment I felt as a child and feel now as an old man watching these old Westerns. Writers who know their subject matter are the ones who tell good stories. Whether it be on television, the movie screen, in a book, a newspaper column or a tale you to tell your grandchildren, the important thing is that it is a good story.

Roger Stoner and his wife published the Peterson Patriot newspaper for more than 15 years. Since selling the newspaper in 2004 three of his books have been published. They are available on Amazon and at libraries throughout the area.