Tonight's Durango Kid movie was called "Trail Of The Rustlers" (1950). Now there's a Western staple for ya : cattle rustlin'. Stampedes are a good one, too, and in this movie you get both rustlin' and a stampede. That alone is worth a thumbs up. The title of the movie is misleading, however, because the plot is really about an attempted land grab. The Mahoney brothers and their Ma (another Western cliche, the tough Ma) want to acquire all the land in the Texas river valley where they own a ranch. Their biggest obstacle is a rival rancher and landowner who will never sell, so the brothers raid his ranch and kill him, with the eldest brother in charge dressed all in black and wearing a mask.
They want to make it look like The Durango Kid led the raid.
Pretty soon Smiley Burnette is singing a hillbilly comedy song, backed this time by Eddie Cletro and The Roundup Boys. Somebody oughta round up all of Smiley's songs from these movies and make a highlight reel, because he is really great.
Good Guy "Steve" shows up in town soon thereafter. See last night's blog re: Steve, the alter ego of The Durango Kid. He never lets on that is is The Kid, of course, even though he himself is known as an expert gunfighter. Steve meets Tommy Ivo, an actual kid, who had idolised Durango but now hates him, because the news in town is that Durango is really a Bad Guy. He led the raid that killed the rancher. Steve knows the truth, as he is the real Durango, but he keeps quiet about it while little Tommy tells his story. Steve is learning everything he can about the land grab scheme by being nonchalant and asking indirect questions. When he knows enough, he will don the Black Bandanna (offscreen, of course) an ride as The Durango Kid, bad guys watch out.
It is funny - and interesting - what the mind retains. I hadn't heard the name Tommy Ivo in 50 years, and never knew he was a child actor. In fact, I would never have thought of him at all had I not seen him in these movies. His name would have just been one of those "in one ear and out the other" pieces of information that we process by the millions in our lifetimes, a name, or phrase or sentence perhaps, that flashes by for some reason or another.
But it's interesting what the mind retains, and when I saw the name "Tommy Ivo" in the credits, immediately my brain said "TV Tommy Ivo". I knew I'd heard that before, and within two minutes, while still watching the movie, I knew it was from an old radio commercial for Irwindale Raceway, a dragstrip in Orange County that was famous in the 60s and early 70s. I used to listen to radio station 93 KHJ as a kid, every day, and they would have commercials for Irwindale Raceway, during which they would announce the names of the drag racing drivers who were gonna compete that week.
I was a big Drag Racing fan for about a year or two between the ages of seven and nine. My favorite was Big Daddy Don Garlits, and also Don "The Snake" Prudhomme. Tom "The Mongoose" McEwen.
But in those commercials, they would also regularly mention "TV Tommy Ivo".
I never gave him a second thought, because those other guys were my favorites.
But then here I see him, fifty years later, as a twelve year old kid in a Western movie, and his name rings a bell in my mind. According to his IMDB, he also did a lot of television work, hence his adult moniker as a race driver.
"TV Tommy Ivo". It's interesting what the mind retains, which I am finding is just about everything. :)
At any rate, Two Thumbs Up for "Trail Of The Rustlers", because you can't go wrong with The Durango Kid and Smiley Burnette, and the Iverson Ranch locations in Chatsworth. /////
Because the movie was only an hour long, I also had time to watch an episode of "Tombstone Territory", a 30 minute Western series that ran from 1957-1960. I bought the complete series from Amazon a couple of years ago and have watched some of the 91 episodes from time to time. Pat Conway is great as the Sheriff, and you also occasionally get some Chatsworth or Simi footage. But tonight I was watching, and the plot revolved around a band of Confederate Rebel soldiers who had joined together after the war to raid and rob unsuspecting frontier towns.
I was watching a scene where the leader of the rebels is addressing his men, and my memory kicked in again and said, "that's Richard Reeves". In this case, the reference and recollection did not come from as "out of the blue" as did TV Tommy Ivo, because I have seen Richard Reeves a few times, say, over the last twenty years, in an occasional old TV show or B-Western, always in a small or brief part. In my life, I would guess I have seen maybe six or seven of his performances.
But the thing is, when I was a little kid, from 1960 when I was born, to 1967 when we were getting ready to move to Northridge, Richard Reeves lived directly across the street from us in Reseda, right around the corner from where I am writing to you tonight at Pearl's. All the kids on the street knew him as "Mr. Reeves". This was during the Baby Boom with a million kids around. But the kids knew that Mr. Reeves house was off limits. He rarely came out, and never turned his lights on at night. One thing that was cool was that he drove a Metropolitan. Google that car and check it out, it's really pretty neat.
Mr. Reeves kept entirely to himself, while this explosion of Kid Life was taking place outside on Hatton Street.
It's amazing what the mind retains, and I always remember my Mom telling us kids : "Don't bother Mr. Reeves". That sentence sticks out just as much as the announcement of "TV Tommy Ivo"! on the radio.
"Don't bother Mr. Reeves".
Mr. Reeves, I saw long ago on IMDB, was a prolific actor, mostly working in television, who specialised in playing "heavies" in shows like "Tombstone" or any of the other popular Western and police dramas that made up the rosters of broadcast television in the 1950s and very early 60s.
We kids knew he was an actor, but we also knew there was something wrong. Mr. Reeves suffered from severe alcoholism. His house was dark at night, though he would sometimes come out during the daytime to drive his Metropolitan.
I see on IMDB that he passed away at Northridge Hospital in 1967, shortly before my family moved to Northridge. I was seven years old at the time.
I love all the old movies and all the old tv shows, and I love all of the actors and actresses. I have probably only seen Richard Reeves twenty five times in my life, if that, onscreen and as he got into his Metropolitan. But I recognised him in tonight's episode of "Tombstone Territory", and so I mention him because it is amazing what the mind retains, and also because I love the actors.
God Bless Mr. Reeves, who did not have an easy life. ////
Tonight is also the early hours of Valentine's Day, and so I wish all of you Valentines a happy day of love tomorrow. I am single myself. and I hate it, but it seems to be the fix I am in. That doesn't stop me from sending all of you all the love in the world, however, and that is exactly what I do.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo to The Highest. :):)
See you in the morn.
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