And nobody remembers Leonard Slye (opps! Roy Rodgers)? Leonard stared in the original Sons of the Pioneers album, but picked up Dale, Trigger, and Nelliebelle by the second album.

Also in the Washington DC area, there was a cowboy show called "Pick Temple" which was closer to Cowboy Bob and Hoody Doody than an "adult western".

Finally a memory... I once saw Hugh O'Brian (who played Wyatt Earp) give a quick draw exibition at a grocery store opening in Long Beach CA around 1955, and to a kid he was pretty quick, and the sound of a 45 blank round was damn loud.

Fast foreward to 1964 when my high school senior play was "Rebel without a Cause". My role was a bit piece as "Officer 1", who shoots Plato as he runs from the planetarium. (See the movie, imagine the play).

This was in Hawaii, and the only gun the class propmaster could find was from a local Wild West show down near Waikiki, which held shoot out reinactments a couple of times a week. (Go figure). So there I was, armed with a Ned Buntline Special (12 inch barrel) and only two .45 cal. blanks, which were to serve for the two shows we were giving. Prior to that time, I had used a cap pistol during reheasals to fire my shots. So now I stuck this thing in my "uniform" pants and prepared for the show.

At the end of the play, I had two lines; "Stop or I'll shoot" (Bang!) and then " Get an ambulance!". And, as the kid who was playing Plato was running in front of the cardboard scenery that depicted a planetarium, I dutifully declared my first lines, as I hauled out a total of about fifteen inches of pistol at the end of my 34 inch arms, which almost reached under the chin of "Plato", and pulled the trigger.

Nowadays plays have signs as you enter the theater that state, "A Firearm Will Be Discharged During This Play, Do Not Be Alarmed"

No such luck... The power of a .45 caliber blank left a blue flame some three feet long, blew a five foot hole in the scenery, while deafening everyone in the theater, and putting Plato flat on his back, sneakers in the air, shrieking, while unbelieveable smoke filled the air.

This was all to the good, as my next line was an unscripted, "Holy Shit!"   And to make matters worse, this .45 replica was double action, and as I tried to put the gun back down my pants, I looked up to see a cast member behind the scenes looking out through the hole in the scenery, and the gun went off a second time.

No, dear reader, I had not actually gotten the gun in my pants, but I did accomplish several things.

Since my back was to the audience, it allowed those persons who had not fainted the first time to fall amonst those who did. Several people, including the kid playing Plato, thought I was really out to kill him as the blast struck near the other side of his face. And several of the cast members actually thought I had blown my balls off as recompense for the ensuing chaos, and thought "Plato's" screams were my own in the second welter of smoke.

In the end the James Dean father character gives a denoument about trusting your kids to make the right choices etc. etc. etc. (yeah yeah yeah) but was weeping through the clearing smoke to men standing over their splayed out wives fanning the air while the younger kids ran amoke to the theater.

The only thing worse was that in the end, my Navy Commander father ran out back behind the theater to find me smoking...