To many of us we remember the opening commentary over the film title and credits of  the Range Rider series on Television back in the 1950s – ‘with Jack Mahoney as The Range Rider’

I can nearly hear these words again as I think back.   This was one of the best series to appear on British Television at the time and we always looked forward to it with it’s thrilling opening sequence.

Anyway, I recently purchased an autobiography on Sally Field the actress who I hadn’t realised was Jack Mahoney’s Step Daughter.  Early in 1952 her Mother had married Jacques O’Mahoney  – his real name – although Sally would always refer to him as ‘Jocko’.

She described him as a cross between Errol Flynn and Randolph Scott – two of the actors he had doubled for in his career as a stuntman following his leaving the US Marines where he had flown aircraft from carriers and later became an instructor.

He was an expert with horses and many times in his stuntman years, would leap on a moving horse or fall off it or whatever was necessary – without the safety equipment available today.

Sally’s Mother had met him on the set of The Range Rider which co-starred Dick Jones. Jocko and Dick had toured with a stunt show  where it is said that Jocko had broken every bone  in is body at least once.  Jocko was a stuntman turned actor who Sally Field describes as only an average actor but a great stuntman.

She goes on to speak quite highly of Jack Mahoney in the early years but not so much as she grew older.  All in all though, I think she conveys his great work ethic and his ability to do his job – and to grasp opportunities when they came along in his career.

In the 1948 film   Adventures of Don Juan Director Vincent Sherman recalled staging the climactic fight scene which involved a leap from a high balcony  and could find only one stuntman – Jack Mahoney – who was willing to leap from a high staircase in the scene.

Jock Mahony was the go- to- fall guy for any leap of faith. He made a name for himself within the stunt community and a top 1000 $ by jumping down a staircase from a standing position in “The Adventures of Don Juan”.

Jack Mahoney  demanded and was paid  $1,000 to do this dangerous stunt.

So Errol Flynn’s daring leap from a descending stair case was actually  in reality Jocko.

Born in Chicago of 1919 Jacques O’Mahoney excelled at swimming, basketball, and football at the University of Iowa. During World War II he was a Marine flight instructor. After the war, he moved to Los Angeles and worked as a horse breeder. He soon was doubling Charles Starrett in the Durango Kid westerns. Jock also doubled Gregory Peck, Randolph Scott and Rod Cameron. One of a few incedibly talented stuntmen he later became a TV star alongside Gene Autry

Much later in his career, at the age of 44, he played Tarzan in Two quite good films – Tarzan Goes to India and Tarzans Three Challenges. In the second one his main adversary would seem to have been Woody Strode but in reality it was serious illness that was the real enemy as half way through the making of this film,  Jack Mahoney contracted dysentery, dengue fever, and pneumonia.

His weight plummeted by around 45 lbs – and he struggled to finish the film – but he did which was in itself a superhuman effort. On his return home he took almost a year to recover fully from this.

Scenes from these two big widescreen colour Tarzan films – below

Scene from Tarzan Goes to India – here with Jai

Scene from Tarzan Goes to India – watch out for the Cobra

Scene from Tarzan Goes to India – here with an elephant on location

Scenes from Tarzans Three Challenges as he fights with Woody Strode.

I would appreciate some help on this – I can’t remember this series being on British Television in the mid – late Fifties but I could be wrong.

Nor am I familiar with the actor Scott Forbes who played Jim Bowie, but on reading about him, he does seem to have been a hard working, resourceful and brave person who went off to the US in the fifties to try to push his career forward – and push it forward he did.

The Adventure of Jim Bowie must have achieved some success in the US as 78 episodes were produced.

It was set against  the backdrop of 1930s French-American New Orleans and backwoods Louisiana territory.  Scott Forbes starred as wealthy young planter Jim Bowie.

Wielding a knife – as pictured below on the front on a promotional Book –  instead of a gun, Bowie  pursued lawbreakers and battled social injustice in western adventures

Jim Bowie represents action from a simpler time and conjures up fond memories of  places like Disneyland where his sort of character would fit well.

Scott Forbes plays the part well as the strapping Bowie and his narration adds a nice extra touch to these episodes.

I am informed that if you enjoy “boy’s adventure” themed films and books like Tom Sawyer you’ll appreciate this series.

Jim Bowie 

Well, even Film Stars have to have a home life and some relaxation after being in front of those cameras much of the day – not to mention learning lines, make-up and costume fitting and so on.

This is just a sample of such actors at home :

Betty Grable – above – with her husband Harry James the Band Leader and their daughter Vicki – pictured at their Ranch

Much decorated War Hero Audie Murphy at home in the San Fernando Valley – with wife Pam and son Terry. He had been previously married to actress Wanda Hendrix although only briefly – then he married Airline Stewardess Pam in 1951 and they remained together until he died. They had two children.

Pamela Murphy, widow of WWII hero and actor, Audie Murphy, died peacefully at her home
on April 8, 2010 at age of 90.

Audie Murphy with his Wife and Two Sons – Above

Tony and Janet – both film stars at the height of their film career enjoy painting

Debra Paget with her Mother and three Sisters – At Home

Above: Kathryn Grayson with her Daughter Patti-Kate

Richard Conte showing his wife a card trick

Betty Grable – above – with her husband Harry James the Band Leader and this time their two daughters

This was shown on TV in England a year or two ago and I have not seen that it has been on since.   Prior to that it must be years since it had last been shown – which is a shame really for such a good entertaining film – with some very well known stars.

THE BIG CIRCUS. Allied Artists/Warner Brothers, 1959. Victor Mature, Rhonda Fleming.

In this film Victor Mature is ideally cast as Hank Whirling, a circus owner who has just split with his partners and needs  a loan to keep the Whirling Circus going.

Victor Mature was held in high regard by Film Producers – because he was rarely in a film that did not make money –

and many of them like Samson And Delilah made a LOT of money.

Victor Mature’s character ends up in partnership with banker Randolph Sherman (Red Buttons) and publicity agent Helen Harrison (Rhonda Fleming), neither of whom he wants.

The Whirling Circus is a family affair; the prime players being ringmaster Hans Hagenfeld (Vincent Price), sardonic clown Skeeter (Peter Lorre), high wire and trapeze stars The Great Calinos, Zach and Mary (Gilbert Roland and Adele Mara), their catcher Tommy Gordon (David Nelson), and Hank’s sister Jeanie (Kathryn Grant) who dreams of working the trapeze one time before she settles down (her mother fell to her death from the trapeze).

Money problems and his unwanted partners aren’t all that plague Hank — sabotage  is making his life  difficult: a lion escapes and threatens a press party, a fire breaks out and threatens the animals, a train wreck kills two people, one of them Mary Calino, and strands the show. Add to that bad weather and the bank threatening to sell the show  and only a miracle can save them.

The miracle being Zach Calino walking the high wire across Niagara Falls But just before he is to make the walk his wife (Adele Mara) is killed in the train wreck and Zach loses his nerve. Hank makes him mad enough to go through with it, but at the risk of losing his oldest friend.

Then the saboteur in the circus troupe plans to strike while the circus plays in New York while Victor Mature has to keep a low profile to avoid the man sent from the bank to foreclose (Howard McNear )

It all builds to a suspenseful finale as the killer is trapped in the centre ring, after trying to kill Jeanie when she makes her debut with Zach Calino on the trapeze

The mystery element is done fairly well, with suspicion falling on almost everyone — particularly Vincent Price.

This film is certainly worth seeing, and a fine cast  along with a well written script and good direction and camera work

Above: Peter Lorre,  Gilbert Roland and Victor Mature in a scene from the film

All the performers are at their best with Red Buttons more subdued than usual, and Kathryn Grayson in a non-singing role is fresh and attractive. Rhonda Fleming is as gorgeous as usual, and Gilbert Roland. Vincent Price and Peter Lorre both have their moments, and Victor Mature has a nice presence in the kind of part he often played as a fast talking faster thinking promoter with a heart well hidden behind the million dollar smile.

At one point after the train crash the circus is stranded and Victor Mature has the idea of using the elephants, “like Hannibal,” to get to their next play date.

The Big Circus may not be as gaudy as Cecil B.de Mille’s  Greatest Show on Earth but it is entertaining , hits all the marks, and delivers  the thrills, smiles, and laughs it intends to do, and does so with a more than usually attractive and capable cast.

It’s pretty big entertainment, even on the small screen.

A week or more ago for  three days, my family and I have been staying at the wonderful Petwood Hotel in the Lincolnshire village of Woodhall Spa.

In film terms this should be a magic place for Wartime locations I would have thought and of course it is home to the unique Kinema In The Woods that I have referred to before.

In Wartime terms this is where the Dam Busters 617 Squadrom was based and the Officers Mess was in the Petwood Hotel – and still is.

You can visit there and see the bar / officers mess very much as it was – and now  a tourist attraction for so many.

Whilst there we met with Charles Clarke OBE who is now 96 years old and had been brought back for some re-union. He was part of 617 Squadron and had flown on Lancasters out of Woodhall Spa.   On one particular mission his plane was shot down and crashed into mountainous terrain but he remarkably survived and was take prisoner. The Camp he went was none other the the famous Great Escape Camp.

On one of the days that  we were there we left the Hotel and went about 5 miles to the current RAF Base at Coningsby which houses the Battle of Britain Flight with their collection of Spitfires, Hurricanes, a Dakota and a flying Lancaster Bomber.

We had a guided tour – and it was pointed out the the above Hurricane had been used in the film Angels One Five in 1952 which was filmed mainly at Kenley in Kent.

What a lovely looking girl she was. The other evening I watched one of the Edgar Wallace Mysteries on Talking Pictures – and she was in it – this is what prompted me to write this article having looked a bit further into her life story.

She was actually in THREE of the Edgar Wallace Mystery series – Marriage of Convenience,  Clue of the Silver Key and  Return to Sender.

She was married to Dinsdale Landen the actor from 1959 until his death in 2003.
Jennifer Daniel 

The Pictures above from the TV Series Public Eye – This episode was entitled ‘Unlucky for Some’ from 1975.

The series starred Alfred Burke

Welsh actress Jennifer Daniel, who appeared frequently on British television and in the Hammer Films The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and The Reptile (1966), died on August 16 2017 at the age of 81.

Jennifer Daniel was born  in Pontypool, Wales. When she was young she had an interest in music. She was even a a clarinettist in the Welsh National Youth Orchestra. Then her interests eventually turned to acting.

She studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She was in a repertory company before making her television debut in an episode of Leave It to Todhunter in 1958. She made her film debut in Marriage of Convenience in 1960.  She guest starred on BBC Sunday-Night Theatre, Theatre Night, and Armchair Theatre.

She also appeared in an episode of the 1959 mini-series adaptation of Great Expectations where she played Clara and just a short time later she was in Barnaby Rudge again for the BBC

Above in Kiss of the Vampire 1963 – before The Reptile

In the Sixties Miss Daniel appeared in the feature films Return to Sender (1963), The Kiss of the Vampire (1963), and The Reptile (1966).

It is for her role in  The Reptile I mainly remember her – although this is a little unfair as she did so much more

She appeared on the series Rooms and in the mini-series People Like Us. She guest starred on such shows as Barlow at Large, Thriller, Public Eye, and The Boy Merlin.

In the Eighties she had a recurring role on The Collectors. She guest starred on Barriers, I’ll Take Manhattan, Rumpole of the Bailey, and Capital City.

In the Nineties she appeared in the feature films Wuthering Heights (1992) and Love Is All There Is (1996).

She also guest starred on Keeping Up Appearances.

She appeared in the films Run for Your Wife (2012)  and Christmas with the Dead (2012).

Jennifer Daniel certainly stood out from other blondes  of her era, and even other Hammer actresses.

Her style was quite subtle particularly in the Hammer Films where she appeared to be very cool – this was perhaps because her stock-in-trade was playing serious young women confronted with unusual situations. Jennifer Daniel wasn’t just providing the  romantic interest or window dressing, but characters that required a certain amount of intensity in her performance.

What is more, she played them very well. It should be little wonder that she appeared so often on British television.

Return to Sender – Edgar Wallace.

Jennifer Daniel – showing just how beautiful she was ABOVE – in Return To Sender 1963

I will prepare another Post on Jennifer Daniel with scenes from the other TWO Edgar Wallace Mysteries series later

Jay Silverheels was a full-blooded Mohawk Indian, born Harold J.Smith on the Six Nations Indian Reservation, Ontario, Canada in 1918. He got the name Silverheels from a tribal elder.

He began his acting career as an extra in 1937 and appeared in quite a few films including The Yellow Sky, Walk The Proud Land and Broken Arrow, also  doing supporting roles to Gene Autry and Audie Murphy, but he is best know for playing  Tonto in all but four of the 221 episodes of The Lone Ranger.

Aboye:  As Tonto in the Lone Ranger alongside Clayton Moore – this was the part that he will always be remembered for.

After The Lone Ranger programme finished in 1956, he had part in films that included Indian Paint 1965, The Sphynx 1970, and True Grit in 1978 and founded the Indian Actors Workshop in Hollywood.

He had a stroke in 1973 which curtailed his activities but in 1979 he became the first native American to be awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

He died on 5th March 1980 with his Italian-born wife Mari at his side. Lone Ranger Clayton Moore wept at the funeral saying ‘He was my kemo sabe ( faithful friend.

I hadn’t realised that among the films he did before The Lone Ranger TV Series was this quite big film alongside Tyrone Power no less.

His is a name that is well remembered in England though – from the early days of Television – hence this article some months ago in the daily Mail – Above.

He holds a unique place in early Television History. The Lone Ranger Series ran from 1949 to 1957

I know this cinema very well – or at least did do when it was the Odeon and went there many times in the mid to late 1950s when we saw such films as His Majesty O Keefe, Trapeze and Gunfight at The OK Corral – all good films by any standards.

In my own mind I have His Majesty O Keefe was the best of the lot because it gave us a look at the South Sea Islands – and my goodness it did look good. So did Joan Rice who starred in the film.

On a very recent visit to St.Albans, I was shown round the new cinema and chatted to some of the young people who worked there. It is now a first class venue – about as sumptuos as you could ever get.

Also the choice of films interested me – of course there were all the new releases but also an old film was shown each month and when I was there it was to be The Third Man ( which one of the young girls had never heard of ) and this month Jaws is showing.

His Majesty O’Keefe (1953) – Starring Burt Lancaster Some scenes were  shot in the country’s capital – Suva.

A picture from around the 1940’s and 50’s in Suva, Fiji. Around the time His Majesty O’Keefe would have been filmed.

Filmed in Fiji in the South Seas.

The Odyssey Cinema was originally built in 1931 during the golden age of Cinema. It was one of three Cinemas in St Albans and is the last one that survives. This building was originally called the Capitol and then from 1945 The Odeon. It was converted to 3 then 4 Screens and closed very unjustly in 1995 and laid empty.

James Hannaway of The Rex Cinema in Berkhampsted was offered the building in 2010 by the property developers that wanted to demolish it. With the help of local donations and fund raising Mr Hannaway purchased the building then spent several years raising funds to restore the building. The building reopened as a restored single screen cinema on 29th November 2014 and fully to the public on 13th December 2014.

The Cinema is breathtaking the original Art Deco features that remained have been incorporated into the new scheme and the end result is an auditorium which is beautiful and a true picture palace which harks back to a bygone age . Unlike the multiplex’s The Odyssey has Screen Curtains and all the sense of occasion and grandure that a visit to the cinema used to have. In the Stalls area tables with swivel seats offer a different experience as you can sit at a table with a drink and then turn towards the screen as the film starts. In the balcony the rows of seats have massive amounts of leg room and the seats themselves are all armchair type offering the height of comfort.

The Odyssey technically is brilliant it has a massive Screen with the very latest digital projection technology, the sound system is the very latest reactive sound system and has the surround speakers hidden in the walls, the Odyssey offers sound and vision better than West End Cinemas in Leicester Square. The Cinema in summary is a beautifully restored Art Deco masterpiece

The Heading just shows what a versatile man Elton Hays was.

The success of the Walt Disney ‘Robin Hood’ film – in which Elton had one of the leading roles as Alan A Dale – led to a nineteen-city tour of the USA and Canada, making 113 radio and TV appearances in 8 hectic weeks in 1952

He bought a 47-acre farm at Hartest, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk and soon built up a prestigious herd of pedigree pigs. He now found time to return to his youthful hobby of horses.

Sadly a severe stroke in 1995 put an end to these activities and Elton had to give up his farm and move to live with friends at nearby Cockfield. With characteristic courage and determination he overcame many of the difficulties associated with the stroke but lost the brave battle he had with his final illness in 2001.

A friend and colleague lives close to the Farm that Elton Hayes owned in Suffolk – this was the farm he had there

Elton Hayes became a star after The Story of Robin Hood and appeared on Television and Radio – and on stage – see above Theatre Bill.  He seemed to be top billed at the Finsbury Park Empire – so that must have been around 1952 after he scored his big film success.

Before this in 1949 he had minor stage parts – and is billed here as The Singer – but that would seem to be a key part in this stage play – which I have to say I am not familiar with – However he is at that time appearing in the West End so he must have been well known in the Theatre before his film work began.