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TEXAS RANGERS TV
TRACKDOWN
By David K.
Dorward |
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Here is a fine photo of
Robert Culp as "Hoby Gilman" that was submitted for this article by Don
Raker.
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Many obituaries on Robert Culp, who died aged
79 in March 2010, do not even mention his first major television role as Hoby
Gilman a "former Texas Ranger who lost his taste for confrontation during the
Civil War. He returns from the carnage and finds his home town in the grip of
an ex-Confederate tyrant who kills one Ranger and threatens to kill anyone who
succeeds him. Hoby is moved to take up the challenge, though reluctantly." Culp
played the role in 70 (71 episodes in another source) black and white episodes
starting in October, 1957 when Culp was only 27 years old. The role helped make
Culp a star. In an unpublished article by fellow Canadian Debbie Young-Groves
destined for the now defunct Television Chronicles "A Quarterly Magazine for
Home Archivists," she says: "To my mind, NEVER was a Western lead character
ever portrayed with such power. It was my first memory of television. I was
five and a half years old."
When he introduced the pilot for Trackdown called
Badge of Honor, Dick Powell explained the show this way: "The Texas
Rangers were formed to fight the Comanches and in order to qualify, a man had
to ride like the wind, trail like an Indian and shoot like an outlaw. They were
called the 'Western Minutemen.' Of course, the Texans put a stop to that when
they learned that Paul Revere had to ride for help. A Ranger was armed with a
rifle, a brace of pistols, a hunting knife and fifty rounds of ammunition. He
was literally the B17 of the desert. Texas history records some fantastic
stories about the Rangers. For instance in 1906, James Dunaway was sent to
Groveton to stop a riot....one Ranger, mind you. In the fight that ensued he
was shot nineteen times. Nevertheless, he sent a wire to the governor which
read, 'Riot stopped. Shot to pieces. Nothing serious.' "
The series ran for
only two years and featured such then up and coming actors as James Coburn,
Steve McQueen (a personal favourite as a neighbour, Director Norman Jewison,
directed Steve in two big screen movies before his untimely death) who appeared
as Josh Randall which was spun off to became the great hit TV Western,
Wanted: Dead or Alive and DeForest Kelley of Star Trek fame
(Bones) appears a number of times. Unfortunately all three of these actors died
before Robert Culp and have gone to the great round-up in the sky. To prepare
for the series Culp spent a weekend with actual Texas Rangers which endeared
him and the series to them. Robert Culp always strived to bring authenticity to
his roles as you can see below in his approach to the personal side arm he used
in the series.
I wanted to mention the cap guns this series featured as I was
fortunate enough to purchase one high quality reproduction made by outstanding
holster maker David Stanley of Kentucky from veteran collector Don Raker in
January, 2011. Don had been looking without success for an original
Trackdown holster for about 20 years before he commissioned the one I
eventually purchased from him in January 2011.
Don found a 1959
Sears Roebuck catalogue illustration, showing the Trackdown holster
paired with a Lone Star made gun with Apache written on the side. Lone Star
also made a cap gun with Rebel written on the side.
There does not
appear to be a specific Trackdown cap gun made and Western cap gun
collector extraordinaire, Chuck Quinn, recommended a Halco .44 Texas Ranger in
either nickel or bronze or a Halco Remington model to pair with my holster as a
good match in the absence of a specific Trackdown gun. I am still trying
to source examples of these Halco cap guns for my holster and if anyone has any
suggestions where to locate same please contact me at
dkdorward@sympatico.ca.
There is a fascinating history to the gun actually used in
Trackdown. Here is a quote from an interview Robert Culp did with the now
defunct magazine, Television Chronicles, Issue Number 3, (1993): "Once I
knew I wasn't gonna use that gimmicky thing with the thong on the end of it
that we had in the pilot (BADGE OF HONOR) I didn't know exactly what I
was gonna use as my gun. I was resisting the idea in my own mind, although
nobody discussed it with me, about using a PEACEMAKER which is the weapon of
choice on every other television show. Long barrel, short barrel, whatever,
it's kinda boring. Well, I never said anything to anybody, but the prop man
came up to me one day, and said, 'Come here, I wanna show you something.' And
he took me over to his prop box and he pulled out this gun. He said "This is
different from any gun that anybody else is carrying on television! It's
legitimate. A lot of guys carried it. Although most of them carried 44's, this
is a 38.' The 38 was what caused the gun to be made in the first place and
given as a gift to GRAND DUKE ALEXEI of Russia, who appeared, as a matter of
fact, in ... MAVERICK. He was a real person. He really did exist, and
the Grand Duke Alexei hunted throughout the West and travelled with a big
entourage. It was a Smith & Wesson Russian Model #3. They called it the
Russian Model because it was the one that had been made with very fancy
engraving and and a brace of them was given to the Grand Duke Alexei as
publicity for S & W. It was a top break. That was what made it very
special, also it made it somewhat undependable, because that top break, through
normal wear and tear, sometimes would come loose on you and cause the gun to
explode. (top break meaning the top of the gun opens forward instead of the
cylinder coming out to the side the way it does on a Colt or a Peacemaker or a
Pioneer. An extra piece of metal was welded on the hammer to make it flatter,
so I could get to it. You couldn't fan the regular hammer on a Russian Model
#3. It was so stiff. You could scarcely get it back, and you certainly could
never fan it, and I did a lot of that. I think I'm the only guy I know of who,
in the course of business, could fan three and make it sound like one. I did
that. It's on film. Somewhere. It's in an episode. To draw and fire and fan the
next two, one with your thumb and one with your little finger, and make it
sound like one shot, that's fanning three. It's not really fanning, but you do
one normally, and then fan right on top of it, two, three. I did it once, only
once. I spent the next ten takes trying to get it in close-up, but I couldn't
do it. I could not do it with regularity. I have done it more than once, but
not on film."
The article "Culp The Perfectionist" by John Lachuk contains further
information on the gun used in TRACKDOWN: "Despite the fact that
TRACKDOWN producer Vincent Fennelly told Bob in the beginning to play
down the quick draw angle as Gilman, he discarded the clumsy studio holster and
belt as soon as he could get his own fast-draw rig. 'I altered the gun by
welding an extension on the hammer to make it easier to cock, had the action
hand-tuned for smoothness, and began practicing between scenes,' said Bob."
At
every break, Culp practices draws, twirling and such juggling tricks as
flipping the gun over his shoulder from the back and catching it in front. This
sort of dedication has made him lightning quick on the draw and an expert at
handling a six-gun. "I guess practicing has turned into a sort of reflex with
me. I do it without thinking, just from habit."
There may have
been a Canadian variant version of the Trackdown holster and I am continuing to
try and source an example of this. Anyone with knowledge of this, please
contact the author at the email address noted above.
I will be 60 this
year (2012) and I continue to long more than ever for the days of the late
1950's when there were over 30 western series on television including; Wyatt
Earp, Cheyenne , Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rebel,
Bonanza and Gunsmoke, to name but a few. Younger people don't
know the treasures of youth they missed. While current TV has much better
production values, they seem to lack moral values and do not produce any cool
cap guns for us to treasure!
— David K. Dorward
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A good photo of Robert Culp as Hoby Gilman
from the TV show.
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Another good scene from
the show.
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Hoby and his
horse.
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Most westerns had a femme
fatale.
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Hoby and his special
pistol.
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Don't round up the bad
guys without your badge.
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