Excerpts from The Sound View "for Trivia Lovers"

Our November 2022 issue of THE SOUND VIEW featured this fun-fact filled missive about trivia in relation to Westerns. It's just some fun reading, and the hyperlinks take you to where you can pick up a copy of the #DVD of one of the films. All make for great #gifts .

TRIVIA OF THE WEST

By I. Slifkin for The Sound View

The popularity of western films has wavered over the years. But this All-American genre has enthralled audiences since the earliest days of the movie industry. It was, after all, 1903’s landmark “The Great Train Robbery,” produced by Thomas Edison, that was one of the world’s first hit films. Through the decades, we’ve had great stars who have made their mark battling outlaws on the screen, and great directors whose work in the genre has impressed and given movie fans excitement and often much to think about.

So, we’ve collected some stories relating to these great stars and filmmakers that we hope will interest and maybe even surprise you.

So… grab yourself a cup of belly wash and huddle around the campfire as we tell you some inside stuff about a batch of the world’s great western moving pictures.???

LEE SKIPS GOING WILD

Before William Holden was cast as “Pike Bishop” in Sam Peckinpah’s bloody 1960 epic “The Wild Bunch ,” the role was turned down by Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Sterling Hayden, Richard Boone and Robert Mitchum. Marvin actually accepted the role but pulled out after he was offered a huge $1 million pay day to star opposite Clint Eastwood in the 1969 musical western “Paint Your Wagon.” That film tanked, but Marvin had another issue starring in “The Wild Bunch”: He felt like the film was too similar to 1966’s “The Professionals” (1966), which also co-starred Robert Ryan.

WAYNE DRIVES A FORD

Although 1939’s John Ford classic “Stagecoach ” really made 32-year-old John Wayne a star, he had already acted in 80 movies, including silent films and low-budget “B” westerns by the time he was cast as the gunslinging “The Ringo Kid” in the iconic film.?

BEAU JEST

In a fight scene in “High Noon ” involving Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) and Deputy Marshal Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges), Lloyd's son, Beau Bridges, then a youngster, was in the hayloft watching the filming. When water was thrown on his father after the fight, Beau could not help laughing, requiring the scene to be shot a second time. Cooper was ill at the time, but he was gracious and understanding, according to Lloyd Bridges.

AIN’T THAT A SHANE

The first gunshots in the 1953 classic “Shane ” are when Alan Ladd’s Shane shows Brandon de Wilde’s youngster Joey how to fire a revolver. To enhance the dramatic effect of the shooting, the sounds of the gunshots were elevated by firing a gun into a garbage pail. The reverberations made the gunfire sounds much louder. Director George Stevens' intention was to startle the audience with the first firing of a gun—and he succeeded!

THIS DUKE IS TOPS

Reportedly John Ford’s “The Searchers ” was seen in a theater in Texas by Buddy Holly and his bandmates The Crickets in the summer of 1956. They were so impressed with Ethan Edwards’ (John Wayne) repeated use of the phrase "That'll be the day" that they used it as the title for their now standard rock song, which they composed soon after the viewing.

GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT

Clint Eastwood was given the script in the "early '80s" for his 1992 Oscar winner “Unforgiven .”?Eastwood did not pursue the project and eventual Best Picture winner because “I thought I should do some other things first." He later said that he waited purposely until he had the right age and he was in the right place of his career. The script, then called “The William Munny Killings” and penned by “Blade Runner” screenwriter David Webb Peoples, was presented to him in the spring of 1984 by a story analyst at Warner Brothers, who Eastwood was dating at the time.

STERLING STAND-OFF

Known as a “Freudian Western”, Nicholas Ray’s 1954 oddball “Johnny Guitar ” featured Joan Crawford as the owner of a saloon and Sterling Hayden as her ex-beau, the string-plucking title character, who helps Crawford fight a group of vigilantes who want to shut down her establishment. From the get-go, Crawford and Hayden were at odds during filming. In fact, Hayden was so annoyed with his co-star's behavior, he said, "There is not enough money in Hollywood that could lure me into making another picture with Joan Crawford." Then the actor added “And I like money."

RINGO DRUMS SUCCESS

One of Gregory Peck’s favorite roles was as “Johnny Ringo,” the aging gunslinger in 1950’s “The Gunfighter. ” For this part, Peck uncharacteristically insisted on sporting a mustache, which Fox executives hated. The real “Johnny Ringo” was actually a murderer and member of the notorious Clanton gang, noted for battling Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday at the gunfight at the OK Corral. The film inspired Bob Dylan and playwright/actor Sam Shepard to write the song “Brownsville Girl” which appears on the 1986 album “Knocked Out Loaded.” The songwriters’ reference the movie and Peck on the tune.??

COSTNER’S COSTLY PAYOFF

Kevin Costner’s 1990 Academy Award winner “Dances with Wolves ”?presented a challenge to make because of its three-hour length and plentiful subtitles for the Lakota language used in the picture. In order to finish the project, Costner had to put in $3 million of his own money. But after the $22 million movie brought in over $400 million worldwide, Costner’s contribution landed him a $30 million payback.

JIMMY STEWART’S CAREER IN NEW DIRECTION

After a series of box-office disappointments, James Stewart decided to take a chance and change his wholesome image by starring in “Winchester ’73, ” a psychological western in which Stewart plays a man seeking vengeance for the death of his father. Stewart wanted the role and decided to take less than his typical $200,000 salary for less money and a cut of the profits. This was among the first times an actor took part of the film’s returns for payment. Stewart ended up with over $500,000 and, thanks to “Winchester 73’s” success he made such gripping sagebrush sagas as “Bend of the River” and “The Naked Spur” with “Winchester ‘73” director Anthony Mann.????

BATTLE OF THE TITANS

While making the 1960 spectacle “The Magnificent Seven ”,?Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen carried on a nasty rivalry that lasted for years. During production, veteran Brynner and newcomer McQueen tried to upstage each other with subtle and not-so subtle gestures in order to get more audience attention. In 1980, when McQueen was ill, he called Brynner, who had won the Oscar for playing the lead in 1956’s “The King and I,” to thank him for not having him kicked off the film for his antics. Brynner responded: “I was the king and you were the rebel prince—every bit as royal—and dangerous to cross.”???

Certainly there is more Trivia of West to be fired out of a barrel, and certainly there is even more Hollywood Trivia to be slung at ya, but the above is a wild west start. Maybe more to come?