A Love Letter to Old TV Cowboys

In April of 2022, I found myself sobbing brokenheartedly in the middle of my bed. It took a while to understand why I was so distraught. I mean life has been complicated for a while now, but I couldn’t immediately put my finger on the reason for this outburst. It took a little inner tracking to figure it out.

I was crying because the Virginian is dead. So is Trampas and Judge Garth — or at least the actors who portrayed them are. I thought probably the entire cast of the 1960s western TV show had passed on by then. It broke my heart and released a flood of hot tears.

I’m not an emotional woman. At least I didn’t used to be.

I wasn’t well through the winter. I’d moved 1500 miles at the beginning of the pandemic to be near family and was working mentally demoralizing 12-hour shifts in a physically demanding job. Exhausted, I started falling. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’d also developed high blood sugar. The fourth time I went down face first, nearly breaking my nose.

I’ve worked since I was 15, so I took early retirement and concentrated on getting well. I spent a lot of time on the couch streaming old John Wayne movies because I was too tired to read. My Amazon Prime account and ROKU gave me access to the Freevee channel where I discovered a bounty of classic TV shows, which I began to binge watch.

Westerns were my first love, but 10 years living near Seattle had tried to convince me that they were old-fashioned, outdated, and were racist and generally deplorable. But that’s not how I remembered them.

Sometime in February I sat down intending to watch an episode or two of The Virginian, which had aired from 1962–1971, and I kind of recalled that I’d enjoyed this one as a kid.

Shiloh

As soon as I heard the first notes of that unforgettable theme song by Percy Faith I felt a physical reaction — a jolt of recognition that startled me into paying attention.

The intro is simple enough. From horseback Judge Henry Garth (Lee J. Cobb) surveys his cattle ranch near Medicine Bow, Wyoming Territory. One by one his three best ranch hands ride straight into the camera.

Trampas (Doug McClure), flashing his trademark wide smile, rides in from the left on his reliable buckskin horse, known as Buck. Entering the screen from the right, Steve Hill (Gary Clarke), on a bay mare called Babe, matches the pace. Finally, the nameless Bossman himself (James Drury) eases his mostly white Quarter Horse/Appaloosa, Joe D, into the middle position before sending the cowboys on their separate ways with a smile and a wave.

Handsome men on beautiful horses galloping through gorgeous, wild country. And that music! They had my full attention. I watched 3 of the hour and a half long episodes that first day. It was an educational experience.

Lord have mercy!

See, I’d have bet money that Little Joe Cartwright was the source of my lifelong love of cowboys. Michael Landon was certainly cute riding Cochise, his black and white paint. But Little Joe always had a bit of a rich-boy smirk that I’ve never liked. I’ll take a working man any day.

Still, my most prominent early memories were of watching Bonanza and Gunsmoke with my grandpa — and both those shows have always been playing somewhere on cable TV, so I remembered them.

I didn’t have clear memories of the Shiloh bunch. But memory is stored in the body as much as in the brain, and I started to remember quite a bit.

That Explains a Lot

We all have our mental catalog of looks, mannerisms, and character traits that we find attractive. I’d never been able to pinpoint exactly where my attraction to clean-shaven, dark-haired men with deep voices and sexy hands came from. Instinctively, I knew I was about to find out.

By the time I was halfway through the first season, I was starting to understand the reasons I’ve always loved cowboys, and that boots and a cowboy hat (white, black, silverbelly, or shades of brown) don’t mean much if the person wearing them does not live up to the Cowboy Creed. More on that later.

If I’d been more observant in my youth, I’d have noticed that in almost every episode there was a bad guy — or guys — who also wore cowboy hats and rode pretty horses. Not all cowboys are worthy. And you cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys tell by the color of their hats.

I studied those cowhands like they were my homework.

All the actors — James Drury, Doug McClure, Gary Clarke, and Clu Gulager, who played Deputy/Sheriff Emmett Ryker in later seasons — were handsome men. But they were not just pretty faces. They could act. They didn’t need pages of dialog to move the story along. They had expressive faces and there was intelligence in their eyes. The interplay between the characters was sometimes more important than the plot. There was a feeling of real camaraderie in their relationships.

The writers gave them a story line, but they created realistic three-dimensional characters — flawed men with complicated backgrounds. Moral men with integrity, courage, and substance. They weren’t afraid to call each other out but they always backed each other up.

They read books and newspapers, courted every single lady in town, participated in community life, and performed their ranch duties with skill. They stood up for little kids and women and often took unpopular stances against the routine cruelties of the times.

Native Americans of various tribes, Chinese immigrants, other minorities, homesteaders, ex-convicts, miners, women of dubious backgrounds, two female lawyers, a newspaper woman, and a lady doctor all found friends at Shiloh. (Wyoming did not become a state until 1890, but Wyoming Territory gave women the vote in 1869. Even black women voted in the 1870 elections.)

I can trace the beginnings of my own ideas about racial and gender equality back to early exposure to progressive ideas about how people should treat each other, as demonstrated by the TV cowboys that I looked up to. I sought out books to learn things they did not teach me in school because of how my heroes thought about topics I’d not encountered.

Understanding Attraction

Because I rediscovered The Virginian, I now know why I’m attracted to intelligent men with strong, masculine hands and sexy forearms. A cowboy’s hands had to be able to rope a steer, handle a revolver, set a fence post, soothe a nervous horse, or assist a lady in getting in or out of a buggy. Those Shiloh men all had beautiful hands.

(To see what sexy hands look like, check out Sam Hueghan in Outlander for an outstanding example. He’s one current actor that possesses the same essence of virility and manliness that those old cowboy stars had.)

The male physique was different in the 1960s. I can only think of 3 western stars of the time who were into bodybuilding — Clint Walker of Cheyenne fame, William Smith of Laredo, and Denny Miller who did actually play Tarzan before joining the cast of Wagon Train. While I can appreciate the appeal of bulging biceps and six-pack abs, that’s not the body type that I fixate on.

Chopping wood and building fence gave a man a more streamlined look. Broad shoulders and well-toned arms do give a girl something to dream about. Lucky for me, the Shiloh ranch hands sometimes had to take off their shirts while engaged in those activities.

They dressed differently, too. Slim hips set off by properly fitting and pulled-up-where-they-belong pants and a gun belt are much more attractive than any business suit. A common part of a cowboy’s cattle drive wardrobe was a tight pair of leather chaps. Cowboy boots are certainly sexier than tennis shoes. Clothing that had practical applications on the range made a man look darned sexy while he worked. All I have to say about that is, Lord have mercy!

I learned why ponytails and man buns don’t turn me on, but a little scruff on the face can be nice. And I finally understand why I almost bought an old shaving mug and straight razor at an antique shop in the Skagit Valley. Watching those cowboys get ready for a Saturday night in town was…educational.

Possibly the most startling thing I learned by watching old TV westerns is the real reason that I don’t dance. Or maybe it’s the saddest thing.

When the Virginian, Trampas, or Steve waltzed a lady around the drawing room, they were focused on that lady with an intensity that was so intimate that I had to look away. I learned early in life to keep my emotions in check. That level of human contact is terrifying to me.

The Episode That Broke My Heart

The Virginian episodes were an hour and a half long. I binge watched all eight seasons, and the final 9th season, which was renamed The Men From Shiloh and had a horrible new theme song and introduction.

In 249 episodes there were a few clunkers, but overall, the stories were strong, well-written, and well-acted. Although there was a lack of attention to continuity and some contradictory story lines, several exceptional episodes stand out.

Duel at Shiloh recalls Steve’s arrival in Medicine Bow, and guest stars Brian Keith and Ben Johnson give the story bonified western credentials.

The Small Parade is a fun one. It features a chimpanzee and a group of orphans, with Doug McClure’s young daughter Tane captivating the cowboys.

In The Showdown, the Virginian finds himself backing the Frome brothers (Michael Ansara and an eerily Spock-like Leonard Nimoy) in a gunfight against the family that he came to buy cattle from.

It was an episode early in the third season that undid me and left me bawling on my bed. Felicity’s Spring is a love story. Those never ended well in a TV western.

The Virginian is skeptical when the entire town — men, women, and school children — fall in love with the beautiful new teacher (Katherine Crawford). But he soon comes under her spell, and wedding preparations are made. Only Felicity’s sister (Mariette Hartley) and grandfather (Carl Benton Reid) know that she is dying. Just before the wedding the sister goes to the Virginian and confesses. He decides to go on with the wedding as if nothing was wrong.

Cowboys may be tough as nails, but they have big hearts. He will give her the best he has to offer for as long as she lives. Of course, she dies on her wedding day.

James Drury was a far more talented actor than he got credit for. His portrayal of a man in love was a thing of beauty. His grief was unbearable to witness. Years later, in a phone interview, he would talk about what an honor it was to be his wife’s primary caretaker. (Clu Gulager, who passed away this year did the same.) Like I said, I’m not an emotional woman, but that affected me.

It also drove me to study the series like it was homework.

Aside from top-notch regular cast, The Virginian attracted some of the most talented and respected stars of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. I started to search out other old TV westerns when a particularly engaging guest star appeared. Two, in particular, caught my eye.

Hugh O’Brian had starred in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp from 1955 to 1961. He appeared in the first episode, The Executioners, which introduced the main characters and let the viewer know that this was going to be a different kind of western. O’Brian’s version of Wyatt is quite different and more innocent than other TV and movie portrayals. It’s certainly worth watching.

While a young Robert Redford and a young Tom Skerritt had obvious appeal, it was a conniving Robert Fuller in A Welcoming Town that made me remember why charming men are not to be trusted. So, I hunted down the 1959–1963 series, Laramie, which also stared John Smith.

Lord have mercy. Those men were hot.

Tracking Down 3 Old Cowboys

The internet makes this sort of research easy, and I was soon able to learn that some of those old cowboys are still alive. Some of them have active Facebook accounts. I started following them and joining fan groups and it’s been a lot of fun to learn that I’m not alone in my appreciation for old western TV shows. There are thousands of us.

Three of my favorite accounts have ties to The Virginian. Gary Clarke was a key character in seasons 1 and 2 and was in several episodes of season 3.

Robert Fuller played bad guys in 2 episodes, and Buck Taylor was the weak son of a bad man in another.

Gary Clarke, who played Steve Hill for two and a half seasons of The Virginian turned 89 this summer. I found his book, “How It Happened” on Amazon. He writes about his time on The Virginian, of course, but that might be one of the least interesting things about him.

Hollywood in the 1950s was a wild place. I’m pretty sure some of his stories involved actual gangsters! It sure sounds like he’s had an adventurous life. You might catch him at a film or nostalgia festival and ask him about it.

In addition to his acting career, he’s a writer, and created the character of Hymie the robot on the TV show Get Smart!

His Facebook account is handled by trusted associates, but he sometimes does answer fan questions by video. I was leery of participating, but his answers were delightful, and so I sent in a question.

I said that it seems to me that life was better when there were cowboys on TV every week. I wondered if there was anything he’d learned by playing a cowboy that had served him well in life. He answered with a quote that James Drury was fond of repeating.

The Cowboy Creed goes like this — “If it’s not yours, don’t take it. If it’s not true, don’t say it. If it’s not right, don’t do it.” And I agree that those are good words to live by.

Robert Fuller also turned 89 this summer, and although he’s not on Facebook himself, his fan club group is very active. Turns out that I am not the only woman who appreciates sexy hands. (I think I’ve found my people!)

After Laramie was canceled, Fuller starred in seasons 7 and 8 of Wagon Train and then played Dr. Kelly Brackett on Emergency for 6 years. He’s an actor who can play the hero or the villain, and he looks darned good doing it. You might meet him at a festival, and it sure looks like he has a lot of fun talking to his many fans.

Buck Taylor, at 84, is best known for his role as Newly O’Brien in seasons 13–20 of Gunsmoke. He’s also had many supporting roles in movies like Tombstone and has had a recurring role in TVs Yellowstone.

He’s a respected western artist and posts often on his Facebook page. Just this fall, he’s had an extended stay at Silver Dollar City and another at the National Finals Rodeo where he sells his artwork and visits with folks who stop by.

The Research Continues

At one time there were over 30 westerns on TV each week. It’s an interesting experience to watch them today. Times have changed since cowboys ruled the evening entertainment lineup. I’m not sure it’s for the better.

One thing I am sure of is that I’m glad those old shows exist, and that I can access them easily. I’ve made an extensive list of the ones I want to binge. It’s going to take a while, but this is the kind of research that I enjoy.

I never expected to start taping autographed 8x10s on the wall. But here I am, acting like a teenager with a copy of Tiger Beat magazine…and I’m delighted to rediscover a part of my past that I’d forgotten about.

And I hope all the old cowboy actors know that their work still matters and that they have a lot of fans who love them today as much as we did back in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.