Remembering Jack Palance by Kaye Spencer #westernfictioneers #hollywood #classicwesterns

As I develop the characters in the stories I write, I invariably attribute a Hollywood celebrity’s appearance, mannerisms, and persona related to particular roles they’ve played to my characters. I'm careful, however, to leave enough imagination wiggle room for the reader to create their own mental image of my characters...

...except for the supporting villain in my western historical romance, THE COMANCHERO’S BRIDE. I deliberately created this villainous character in the image of a well-known Hollywood villain of his time,  Jack Palance.

Jack Palance - Publicity photo for film 'Man in the Attic'

By 20th Century Fox - ebay, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27756531

 Since 2019 marks one hundred years since his birth, let’s take a brief look at his life and his acting career. I have used information from these websites: Jack Palance biography at IMDb.com | Jack Palance page at Wikipedia.com   | Jack Palance biography Website

Pertinent information

• Born: February 18, 1919
• Died: November 10, 2006
• Married twice – three children
• Birth name:Vladimir Ivanovich Palahniuk of Ukranian descent and born in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania, which was coal country. His father an anthracite miner, who died of black lung disease.
• received a football scholarship to the University of North Carolina
• dropped out be a professional boxer as Jack Brazzo
• served as an Army Air Force bomber pilot in WWII
• after military service, he returned to college to study journalism at Stanford University
• worked as a sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle

Jack Palance in The Godchild 1974

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=147085

Examples of his acting career

Stage (Broadway)

• 1947 – 1^st stage performance in “The Big Two” – his role was a Russian soldier
• 1947 – understudy for Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in Broadway's “A Streetcar Named Desire” (he eventually assumed this role)

Anecdote:  While an understudy to Marlon Brando … Brando, who was into athletics, rigged up a punching bag in the theater’s boiler room and invited Jack to work out with him. One night, Jack threw a hard punch that missed the bag and landed square on Brando’s nose. The star had to be hospitalized and understudy Palance created his own big break by going on for Brando. Jack’s reviews as Stanley Kowalski helped get him a 20th Century-Fox contract.

A few notable movies (early in his acting career, he was billed as Walter Jack Palance)

• 1950 – 1^st movie: Panic in the Streets (with Richard Widmark) – his role was as a plague-carrying fugitive  – Widmark said, “...the toughest guy I ever met. He was the only actor I've ever been physically afraid of.”
• 1951 Halls of Montezuma (again with Richard Widmark) – his role was a boxing Marine
• 1952 Sudden Fear – his role was a rich and famous playwright who plots to murder his wife (Joan Crawford) and run off with girlfriend (Gloria Grahame)
• 1953 Second Chance with Robert Mitchum
• 1953 Shane – his role was “...finest villain of the decade, that of creepy, sadistic gunslinger Jack Wilson”

Jack Palance in 'Shane'

Google Search, Google, www.google.com/search?site=imghp&tbm=isch&q=Jack Palance&tbs=sur:fc#imgrc=ID_BbZMGHHdvIM:

• 1956 Attack – his first lead role – WWII action film with Lee Marvin, Eddie Albert, Buddy Ebsen
• 1960s and early 1970s movies found him in filming in Europe with much success
• 1966 The Professionals with Burt Lancaster
• 1970 Monte Walsh with Lee Marvin
• 1972 Chato's Land with Charles Bronson
• 1988 Young Guns with the Hollywood “brat pack”
• 1989 Batman with Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton
• 1989 Tango and Cash with Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell
• 1991 City Slickers with Billy Crystal
• 1994 Cops and Robbersons
• 1999 Treasure Island as Long John Silver

Jack Palance CBS Television

CBS Television, Jack Palance 1975, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons

Oscar Nominations and Win for Supporting Actor

• Nominated: Sudden Fear
• Nominated: Shane
• Won: City Slickers

A few of his television appearances

1950s

• Studio One in Hollywood
• The Gulf Playhouse
• The Motorola Television Hour
• Zane Grey Theater
• Playhouse 90: Rquiem for a Heavyweight as a down-and-out boxer (Emmy nomination)

1960s

• The Greatest Show on Earth
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

1970s

• Bronk – series in which he was the title character Lt. Alex Bronkov

1980s

• Host of Ripley's Believe It or Not!

General Trivia

• Owned a California cattle ranch, exhibited his landscape paintings (poem on the back of each), and was a published poet (The Forest of Love 1966)
• Fell asleep in his square during a taping of The Hollywood Squares television program (1965)
• Awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960
• Inducted in Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum 1992
• Turned down role of General Chang (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 1991) due to scheduling conflicts (part went to Christopher Plummer)
• Wanted the Kid Shelleen role in Cat Ballou (1965) for which Lee Marvin received an Oscar
• Played Dracula, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, and Ebenezer Scrooge
• Has been described as having ‘an imposing glare, intimidating stance, and kill-shark smile’
• Recorded a country music album in 1969, “Palance” – he wrote the song “The Meanest Guy that Ever Lived”, which is included on the album

'Blackjack County Chains' performed on the Porter Waggoner show in 1970
 

 Many of you will recall his famous one-handed push up during his Oscar acceptance speech.

Now, for the excerpt from THE COMANCHERO’S BRIDE when we meet “Jack”:

Grayson leaned back in his chair. “They need to see me as a man of action. A man who can get things done. A man who takes charge. I have to head-up the rescue crusade myself, and you’ll write about it, firsthand, emphasizing my discomfort and desperation to save her, which makes Elizabeth’s peril all the more real and heart-rending to the readers.”

“This is going to cost you more, Gray.” Doyle swirled the whiskey in his glass. “I create and destroy careers from comfortable accommodations, not from the midst of inconveniences that go hand-in-hand with chasing an outlaw from here to Mexico.”

“There’s a mighty big piece of country in between here and the Rio Grande.”

Grayson and Doyle turned as one person to stare at the man standing beside their table. Grayson sized him up in a glance and didn’t like what he saw. The stranger was tall, grizzled and unkempt, clad in weather-worn, dirty buckskins, and he sported a battered, sweat-stained hat cocked at an angle over shoulder-length gray scraggly hair. He carried a faded military haversack slung across his body. His rifle, muzzle pointed down, rested in the crook of his right arm, which lifted his right shoulder higher than the left with a rounded, misshapen hump. He had the look of a mountain man, mean, rough-hewn, and hard as granite, but his defining feature was his puckered eye that drew the left side of his face into a disturbing grin. The eye itself was canted in the socket, a milky white-blue orb that sometimes seemed to focus and other times to look right past a person.

Although the man was starkly out of place in the swank surroundings, he didn’t seem to notice, or, more importantly, didn’t care. Grayson saw the concierge watching from the doorway, his expression strained and demeanor nervous at this stranger’s presence, inappropriately attired as he was for this establishment and that he openly carried a rifle. Grayson made a mental note to slip a hefty tip to the concierge to buy his cooperation.

“Who are you?” Grayson demanded.

“I’m the tracker yer lookin’ to hire. Name’s Jack.”

“Jack…what?”

“Jack’s good enough.”

Grayson reassessed the man coolly, his initial unfavorable impression changing. This crude-cast stranger might just be the sort of man he needed.

“Have a seat.” Although Grayson nodded to the concierge that all was well and the small man visibly relaxed, although he maintained his watchful position at the doorway.

Grayson offered bourbon, and a chair across the table, but Jack declined both with a slight head shake then took a chair that put his back to the wall and beside Grayson. Grayson exchanged a quick glance with Doyle.

“What’s your price?”

“Depends on the job.”

*****

THE COMANCHERO’S BRIDE

Available on Amazon.com as a single purchase

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AND in the boxed set

UNDER A WESTERN SKY

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Until next time,

Kaye Spencer

Writing through history one romance upon a time

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Remembering Marty Robbins by Kaye Spencer #westerns #countrymusic #classiccountry #WesternFictioneers

Marty Robbins has a birthday anniversary this month—his 93rd, in fact. But, sadly, Marty died on December 8, 1982. He’d suffered his third serious heart attack a few days prior, but he didn’t survive the surgery to repair the damage.

I was living in Cleveland, Ohio and running thoroughbred race horses at Thistledown Racetrack when I heard it on the radio. The DJ broke down and cried. I cried along with him.

A little about Marty

Martin David Robbins was born in Glendale, Arizona on September 26, 1925. When WWII broke out, Marty joined the Navy. While serving, he taught himself to play the guitar. When the war was over, Marty returned home and embarked upon a singing and performing career around Phoenix in nightclubs, on the radio, and on television.

During his early club-playing and performing days, “…he heard a country singer featured on the local radio station KPHO. [Marty] was convinced that he could do better. He drove right down to the station and earned a place on the show.”

By the end of the 1940s, Marty had his own radio program, “Chuck Wagon Time”, and a television show, “Western Caravan”. By the mid-1950s, he was invited to the Grand Ole Opry radio show and was a regular performer for many years. He signed with Columbia Records in 1951 with his first Number 1 song coming in 1956, which was Singing the Blues.

El Paso released in 1959, and it garnered him his first Grammy Award. With the 1960s came, he pursued racing with such a passion that he progressed to NASCAR racing. It was in 1969 that he suffered his first heart attack. He recovered quickly and wrote, My Woman, My Woman, My Wife, which earned him his second Grammy. Then his second heart attack occurred in 1981.

Marty was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982. His last song was a single that same year—Some Memories Just Won’t Die—a bittersweet irony. Over the span of his career, he recorded over 500 songs and 60 albums.

Discography information is HERE and HERE.

Individual songs information is HERE.

When he was growing up, Marty wanted to be a cowboy singer like Gene Autry, and he credits his grandfather, “Texas Bob Heckle”, a traveling medicine show salesman and story-teller, as the main inspiration for many of the songs he wrote later.

In an interview, Marty said, “…I’ve done what I wanted to do… I’m not a real good musician, but I can write [a song] pretty well. I experiment once in a while to see what I can do. I find out the best I can do is stay with ballads.”

Marty Robbins:

By NBC Television (eBay item photo front photo back)

[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

When I was growing up and listening to Marty’s music, I wore out at least two 45 rpms of “El Paso” on Side A and “Strawberry Roan/160 Acres” on Side B. Marty’s gunfighter ballads influenced my love of the Old West. If I had to choose one artist’s music as the only music I could listen to, Marty Robbins would be that person. Yes, I love his music that much, and my musical tastes range from Vivaldi to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘Hamilton’ and everything in between.

Marty was (still is) so influential to my writing that my historical western romance novel with Prairie Rose Publications, The Comanchero’s Bride, was inspired by his song, Meet Me Tonight in Laredo. This book is my little way of paying tribute to Marty and how much his gunfighter ballads mean to me. I sprinkled hints to many of his gunfighter songs throughout the story.

Below is an excerpt from The Comanchero’s Bride. For those of you familiar with Marty’s gunfighter ballads Running Gun and Big Iron, you’ll likely notice the small references.

Excerpt

At the livery, Mingo remained in the shadows where he could see both ways along the street. Opening the wagon doors just wide enough to allow him to pass through, he eased his way inside. Speaking in a low soothing tone to his horses, he packed and saddled them under the moonlight coming in from two windows. Opening half the double doors, he led the two riding horses out the back, tied them to a corral rail, and returned for the packhorse.

He no more than reached the packhorse when a cold voice in the shadows stopped him in his tracks.

“Don’t turn around, Valderas.”

Mingo froze. A few more steps and he would have been on the off side of the packhorse, but where he was, he had no protection.

“I’ve got a good bead right between your shoulders. I know about your fast draw and the price on your head. I’ve also heard stories about your throwing knives, so keep your hands where I can see them.”

“You know me. But who are you? What do you want?” Mingo didn’t care. He knew the challenge from the shadows was a bounty hunter. He needed the man to talk so he could pinpoint his location.

“I came out of El Paso. A man named Jack added to the price on your head—dead or alive—and some politician is offering a pretty penny on top of that to bring in the woman you have with you. He wants her alive.”

From the sound of the man’s voice, he hadn’t moved and was off to his right. Mingo fought the urge to whirl and fire, but shooting blindly was not his way. He wouldn’t risk wild shot that could injure a horse, and gunfire would bring others into the fray. Shadows were both his enemy and ally, depending upon how he used it.

“The way’s clear behind you, so back towards the open wagon door, and keep your hands away from your body. When I heard the talk of a Mexican man traveling with a white woman, and they were staying at the hotel, I figured I’d hit pay dirt. I was just supposed to worry you into making a wrong move. Never thought I’d be the one to catch you.

“I’m taking the woman to El Paso. You, I’m locking up in the back room of the saloon for safe keeping…unless you give me an excuse to kill you right now, which I’ve a yearning to do. I can’t miss at this range. It wouldn’t do my reputation any damage to be the man who took down Mingo Valderas.”

Now, he knew who he was up against. Earl Johns was vicious and a killer, a back-shooting coward. Mingo inched backward, buying thinking time.

“Where’s the woman, Valderas?”

“There is no wom—”

“She’s too close for your comfort.” Elizabeth’s voice cut through the night. The sound of a shotgun hammer pulling back was an angry, lethal sound that made the hairs on Mingo’s arms prickle.

The Comanchero's Bride is available on Amazon.com.

Kindle | KindleUnlimited | Print

The Comanchero's Bride is also included in this boxed set of

six full-length historical western novels.

Under a Western Sky

Kindle | KindleUnlimited

For your listening pleasure, here is Marty singing Meet Me Tonight in Laredo.

Do you have a favorite Marty Robbins song or story? Please share. I'd love to read about it.

Until next time,

Kaye Spencer

Writing through history one romance upon a time

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References:

• Marty Robbins Biography. Biography.com Editors. The Biography.com website. A&E Television Networks. http://www.biography.com/people/marty-robbins-20651271. April, 2, 2014. Accessed September 9, 2018.
• Marty Robbins website. http://www.martyrobbins.com. Accessed September 9, 2018.
• Country Music Television, Inc. http://www.cmt.com/artists/marty-robbins/biography/. Accessed September 9, 2018.

Today in U.S. History: May 14, 1856 - Military camels set foot on Texas soil by Kaye Spencer #westernfictioneers #OldWestHistory

 

The Great U. S. Military Camel Experiment unfolds, briefly, this way:

By the 1830s, American westward expansion was going nowhere fast. Difficult terrain and often inhospitable climates made traveling a daunting challenge at best, especially in the southwest.

But in 1836, an outside-of-the-box thinker had a bold plan. The then Lieutenant, and later Major, George H. Crosman proposed to the U.S. War Department:

For strength in carrying burdens, for patient endurance of labor, and privation of food, water & rest, and in some respects speed also, the camel and dromedary (as the Arabian camel is called) are unrivaled among animals.  The ordinary loads for camels are from seven to nine hundred pounds each, and with these they can travel from thirty to forty miles a day, for many days in succession.  They will go without water, and with but little food, for six or eight days, or it is said even longer.  Their feet are alike well suited for traversing grassy or sandy plains, or rough, rocky hills and paths, and they require no shoeing...¹

The War Department ignored the report.

However, the War Department's attitude did an about-face in 1847 when the right people were in the right place at the right time. Crosman met Major Henry C. Wayne, who shared his camel enthusiasm. Together, they submitted another report to the War Department and Congress. At this point, Senator Jefferson Davis took up their cause.

There wasn’t a western railroad system at this time, and horses and mules needed water in a water-scarce environment. All three men reasoned that since camels thrived in deserts elsewhere in the world, they would also thrive in the American southwest. Congress listened and appropriated $30,000 for “...the purchase and importation of camels and dromedaries to be employed for military purposes.”¹

The task of sailing to the Middle East and North Africa to bring back camels fell, willingly, to Major Wayne. It took Wayne about a year to gather up camels for the voyage back to America. While the ship carrying the camels, “Supply”, arrived at the port in Indianola, Texas on April 29, rough ocean waters prevented unloading the camels. It wasn’t until May 14 that the ocean calmed enough to safely move the camels into small boats and deliver them to shore. From the Texas coast, the camels moved out under Army control for Camp Verde. Not too long after that, another group of 41 camels also made their home at Camp Verde.

 State Historical Marker - Indianola, Texas

Image by Larry D. Moore (citing below) -

As a side note, a civilian, Mrs. J. J. Watson, attempted to bring camels to America as a cover for her slave trade, but she wasn’t allowed to unload them. So she dumped them out in Galveston and sailed for the slave markets in Cuba.²  Two private shipments of camels arrived not long after but, like Mrs. Watson's camels, these camels were turned loose on the Galveston shore and were doomed to wander in neglect.

The military used the camels for the next ten years for hauling supplies to different locations as well as using them for the in-camp tasks. The camels were also important during cross-country military expeditions. One expedition involved surveying what is now the historic Route 66. Another was a scouting mission to identify possible fortifications in southwest Texas. While the soldiers brought feed and water for the horses and mules, the camels were content to forage off the land and drink when water was naturally available. Despite being naturally adapted to the American Southwest’s climate and terrain, realistically, camels had a terrible smell, horses were terrified of them, and handlers detested them because of their surly temperaments.

The War Between the States brought the camel corps to an end in 1866 through lack of funding and general neglect. The camels were auctioned to private owners. Some camels ended up on supply trains as pack animals, others went to miners and prospectors, and some went to circuses. A few ended their days on private ranches. However, many camels escaped. Camel sightings continued for decades. “For years, travelers in the Southwest told tales of camels looming up in the flickering light of campfires.”³

From that comment, an idea sparked, and I wrote a scene involving camels in my novel, The Comanchero's Bride. Here is a teaser from the camel encounter:

A horse snorted.

Mingo came wide awake with a revolver already in his hand. A glance without looking directly at the diminished fire told him he’d slept for two or three hours. The sound of heavy breathing and grunting drew his attention beyond their lean-to. Peering into the darkness, he ran through his mental catalog of sounds to identify the source while simultaneously planning a defense against whatever—or whoever—was out there. He separated the soft whisper of drizzle from the normal night noises, ruled-out humans, while sensing a vague familiarity that wasn’t horse, but he was certain it had four legs. And there was more than one.

Careful in his movements, he eased his arm along his thigh and down his leg to grasp the handle of his knife tucked in the sheath on the inside of his tall boot shaft. Shifting his position, he waited. In the glow of the orange embers of the fire, he could make out hulking, ghoulish shadows hovering just at the edge of camp. When a whiff of breeze swirled around their shelter, stirring up ashes at the edge of the fire, Mingo picked up a pungent odor of urine and manure mixed with the tang of wet, dead carcass. There was no mistaking the visitors now, and he relaxed, chuckling softly.

Slipping from under the blankets with slow, deliberate care, he placed a light touch on Isabel’s shoulder. Her eyes popped open, and he spoke in a low tone. “I must calm the horses. Do not make a sudden move or noise, and keep your voice quiet. Build up the fire and stay close without looking into it.”

She rolled to her knees, grabbing Mingo’s arm as she whispered, “Eww, what’s out there? The stench is horrid.”

Speaking close to her ear, he replied, “Camellos.”

Isabel jerked her head around. “Wha— Camellos? Camels?” She looked across the coals into the darkness. “Here? In Texas?”

Mingo’s grin widened at her bewilderment, and he handed her a piece of firewood. “At least two of them. I do not think they will come closer, but it is also not wise to startle them. The horses are already frightened, and we do not want them to bolt. Trying to catch a camel to ride it to our ranch is not how I want to finish this journey...”

The Comanchero's Bride

available on Amazon.com

Print | Kindle | KindleUnlimited

See you next month on the 2nd Monday for another episode of ‘Today in U.S. History’,

Kaye Spencer

Website/Blog- https://www.kayespencer.com
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References and Resources:

I would direct you HERE for an excellent article about the camel corps.

1. National Museum-United States Army. Vince Hawkins, “The U.S. Army's ‘Camel Corps’ Experiment”, accessed May 12, 2018, https://armyhistory.org/the-u-s-armys-camel-corps-experiment/

2. Handbook of Texas Online, Chris Emmett and Odie B. Faulk, “Camels”, accessed May 12, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/quc01.

3. Smithsonian Magazine. Owen Edwards, “Camelot”, accessed May 12, 2018. Smithsonian.com. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/camelot-121505856/

*Larry D. Moore, US Camel Corps State Historical Marker, CC BY-SA 4.0

*Texas Highways. The Travel Magazine of Texas. The Great Camel Experiment.
http://www.texashighways.com/history/item/7475-the-great-camel-experiment-texas-camel-corps. July 2014. Accessed: May 12, 2018.