A walk down Memory lane of Western TV and Movie Stars

Just of Fun

Our gratitude goes to Donald of Chester, CA for this story idea “Thanks Dad”
Here is a link sent to me that I truly enjoyed.

Western Stars

In fact I enjoyed it so much I had to blog it for others to enjoy. If you are a Western fan you will enjoy it too, and if not, you may just get a boot out of seeing some old friends. And if you know nothing about Westerns I added a little setup theme for you to read about Westerns.

The Western genre, particularly in films, often portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original inhabitants of the frontier. The Western depicts a society organised around codes of honor, rather than the law, in which persons have no social order larger than their immediate peers, family, or perhaps themselves alone. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centres on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter.
In some ways, such protagonists could be considered the literary descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of an earlier extensive genre. Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight errant of the earlier European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse, fighting villains of various kinds and bound to no fixed social structures but only to his own innate code of honour. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress.

The technology of the era – such as the telegraph, printing press, and railroad – may be evident, usually symbolising the imminent end of the frontier. In some "late Westerns", such as The Wild Bunch, the motor car and even the aeroplane are referenced. Weapons technology is very evident and a recurring theme is the merit of the latest piece of "hardware", be it a repeating rifle produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company or a Colt Single Action Army handgun. Dynamite also features somewhat, both as a blasting agent and as a weapon, and to a lesser extent the Gatling gun.

The Western takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, usually set against the spectacular scenery of the American West. Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in a desert-like landscape. Specific settings include isolated forts, ranches and homesteads; the Native American village; or the small frontier town with its saloon, general store, livery stable and jailhouse. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasises that this is the "Wild West": it is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), girls (often prostitutes), gambling (draw poker or five card stud), drinking (beer or whiskey), brawling and shooting. In some Westerns, where "civilisation" has arrived, the town has a church and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone said, "where life has no value".