Back to prior page



(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from L-to-R are Al 'Fuzzy' St. John, George Houston (atop trusty steed "Lightning") and Dennis Moore. Crop from a lobby card from Houston's THE LONE RIDER IN CHEYENNE (PRC, 1942). Houston rode a paint horse in his initial Lone Rider adventures.



(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from L-to-R are Fuzzy St. John, I. Stanford Jolley, and stage driver Frank Ellis in a lobby card from BLAZING FRONTIER (PRC, 1943), one of the Buster Crabbe oaters. St. John rode this unidentified brown horse with the long and wide face blaze in his Lone Rider and Buster Crabbe oaters at PRC.



(Courtesy of Larry Welch)

After the Buster Crabbe series concluded, Al St. John went to work with Lash LaRue. Above are Fuzzy St. John (on an unidentified paint) and Lash LaRue in a lobby card from DEAD MAN'S GOLD (Western Adventure, 1948).



(From Old Corral collection)

Above from L-to-R are Dave 'Tex' O'Brien (on King), Jim Newill (on Alamo) and Guy Wilkerson, the original members of PRC's Texas Rangers. Does Newill's hoss look familiar? A bunch of PRC heroes rode that horse, including Buster Crabbe, Lash LaRue and Eddie Dean.


(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above is a blurb on O'Brien's hoss 'King' from the BOSS OF RAWHIDE (PRC, 1943) pressbook.



(From Old Corral collection)

Above - Harry Carey Senior was a genuine silent film star. In later years, he did character/supporting roles (MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939), SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS (1941), ANGEL AND THE BADMAN (1947)) as well as starring in a few films (POWDERSMOKE RANGE (1935), THE LAST OUTLAW (1936), others. Above are Harry and trusty steed 'Sonny/Sunny' in a publicity still from POWDERSMOKE RANGE (RKO, 1935).


(Courtesy of Boyd Magers)

Above is a crop from a lobby card for ACES WILD (Commodore, 1936) and note the billing for "and Sonny (The Marvel Horse)".
Boyd Magers adds: although the horse is billed Sonny, Harry Carey, Jr. told me the horse's name was really Sunny.  He died at John Ford's Photo Farm in '51 at age 28.




(Courtesy of Jacque Lauderbaugh)

Above - comic sidekick Smiley Burnette atop Nellie, Ringeye or Ringeye Nellie (or is it spelled "Nelly"?).



(Courtesy of Minard Coons)

The Red Ryder comic strip by Fred Harman was the basis for a popular series of silver screen adventures.  The first cinema Red Ryder was Don Barry in the 1940 Republic serial.  In the mid-1940s, Republic did about two dozen B westerns, with the initial bunch starring Wild Bill Elliott and the ending group with Allan Lane.  The last screen Red Ryder was Jim Bannon in a brief series for Eagle-Lion around 1950, and Bannon is shown above galloping on Thunder.  Thunder wasn't the only famous cayuse that was associated with Bannon --- he played 'Uncle Sandy North' on the early 1950s TVer THE ADVENTURES OF CHAMPION, one of several programs produced by Gene Autry's Flying A Production company.



(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above - Tex Ritter on White Flash and Arkansas Slim Andrews on his trusty mule Josephine. Tex rode several different white horses in his early films - including Jack Perrin's Starlight - before he acquired his own White Flash.



Back to prior page