Meet our Staff Members

Staff Members would like to welcome you to Broken Arrow.

Staff Members

Administrator- Sandy Scafedi - Westerngal
Administrator- Davy - Westernnut
Newest Administrator- James Mattern- Death Valley Jim

Moderators
Tom- tomgoldrup
Steve-cap123ny
Iain
Ed- Chain Lightning
Tom B.

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Updated News: Death Valley Jim has joined our Staff and will a great asset in helping Sandy with the Administration part of the Forum.

Want to know a little about our staff - Read below
Read below:

Steve-cap123ny
Howdy! Most of you already know me. I've been hanging around since the early days on the Amazon Forum. I was lucky enough to get an invite from Sandy and Davy to join the first foray into forumhood and now they cant get rid of me. I grew up with horses. My Dad is a great lover of horses and westerns. We would go to the nearby drive-in movie theater every time a western or Disney movie was playing. We watched all the western TV shows on in the 60's, many reruns of the popular 50's series. My Dad also owned a tractor trailer so I learned to drive a big rig at an early age and pursued that as a career for 35 years. Last year I decided it was time for a change (with the help of my employer of 11 years going out of business!) and began my pursuit of a nursing license. Its been a long 13 months but tommorrow is my last day of school! YAY! ...oh, yeah, and I'm the biggest John Wayne fan left in this town (to paraphrase a song by Big and Rich) so no badmouthing the DUKE! Steve

Manco
I've been a fan of western films all my life. Luckily I grew up in the '50s and was able to see almost all of the TV westerns and at the theaters and Drive-Ins many of the westerns. In the '60s I became interested in the Spaghetti westerns and started collecting LPs, later CDs, videos then DVD, posters, lobby cards, stills, books and anything else I could find on the subject. I was co-editor and then editor of a fanzine called "Westerns... All'Italiana" since 1982. I was voted into the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame at the Spaghetti Western Data Base this year. I retired early last year after 30 years working as a salesman and later Territory Mgr. for Hubbell Wiring Devices. I keep busy researching westerns, and doing a daily blog. Sandy roped me into being a staff member responsible for the Spaghetti Western section.

Chain Lightning

I started watching westerns when I was between 4-5 years old in 1950 on an ole 21 inch b/w Motorola console t.v. The first westerns I remember watching were the Bob Steele films, which were filmed in the 1940's. I grew up watching Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, The Cisco Kid, Lash LaRue, Hopalong Cassidy, The Durango Kid, Tim McCoy, Buck Jones, Kit Carson, starring Bill Williams, Wild Bill Hickok, starring Guy Madison and The Lone Ranger. Then in 1955-1957, the first adult westerns came along, Gunsmoke, Wyatt Earp, Have Gun Will Travel, Wagon Train, Laramie, Trackdown, Whistling Smith, Tombstone Territory, Colt .45, Restless Gun, The Rifleman, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Cheyenne, Cimarron City, The Rebel, The Texan, The Zane Grey Theater, Death Valley Days and I became hooked on westerns forever. I've been fortunate to see almost all of the great western stars of the 50's and 60's, when they were getting started in film. I was employed by an Airline for 30 years and am now retired. I love all things western and am a western trivia fanatic. I love single action Colts and steel lined fast draw rigs. BTW, if you don't know why the Cartwrights on the Bonanza series didn't have cartridge loops on their gunbelts, you're way too young for this group!!!!!!!

Tom-tomgoldrup

Well, I reckon I'm just one of them pards that
love westerns, especially the older ones. I am an actor, author, love
traveling to remote corners of the world, have a great family, love
animals and the great outdoors, and guess that's about it except I feel
fortunate to live in a cabin nestled away in the California hills near
the beach and the redwoods. Guess that is all I need to say on that
subject.
Now, I'll see if this works. You know me, low on computer skills. Tom G.

Has anyone heard from Davey and the rest of the gang lately?
I have gone through reading older posts and wondering how they are doing.
I do pray they are well.

Davy in April 2020 and Iain in August 2020 were last looking on the forum (checked members list and it says last time they checked in) but I haven't heard from Davy in a long time. Sent him a personal message a number of months ago and didn't hear back. Hope he is doing okay.

Tom,I don't know if this is the right thread, but what films were you in? I would like to see some of them if available. This is the closet i have come to conversing with an actor.
You will have to tell me which one you are so I will recognize you.

Most of my acting has been on the stage. Latest film is called The Fighting Preacher...Jim and I are both mob members in that (had a few nice closeups). An unreleased independent film called The Magdaburg Affair Jim and I both had several nice scenes as a couple of hitmen. It was fun but never released. My brother Ray wrote episodes for Gunsmoke, How the West Was Won, The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, Grizzly Adams and The New Land as well as the screenplay for Windwalker. Jim had one small scene in a terrible film called Zabriskie Point when he was very young. Again, 99% of our acting has been on stage where we have both enjoyed some really nice roles. Ray wrote and directed and the three of us produced a film a couple of years ago called The Last Bell. Jim also composed and played most of the music score. Jim starred in the film and I had a nice co-star part. It was called "The Last Bell...The First of Many." It is on You Tube somewhere. I can send you the link if you want.  Clint Walker once asked me "Where were you when I was making Cheyenne. You would have been good in them." I replied "I was at home watching them on television"  (after all, I was still in high school). He encouraged me to get an agent but by that time Hollywood has changed so much and most of the films they make today (and TV) I would not really be interested. Spent three years in Hollywood (1969-1971) and that was enough. I enjoy much more living here in the Santa Cruz Mountains (except for times like now with the big fire). Anyway, I stay busy with the local theater (until the virus closed it down) and have worked in several university student films for their film classes....the last one I was back as a bad guy  

I found the trailer to Last Bell and i have to say, that was some powerful acting. Its not a western but from the trailer I would rate it two thumbs up.
I wish you did do Cheyenne, i would like seeing more of you. That must have been your brother with you, you look so much alike.

I thought you were talking to yourself at first.
Great film !

Jim was the major character..an old poet. I come as a refugee with my two grandchildren to his place to hide out as we escaped from a state holding pen.  you can see the whole movie here

[ltr][size=13][size=14]First one is for the trailer:
https://youtu.be/LlM0PRxr7lU
This is the link to the film on Youtube: It is 2 hrs running time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBvEaw5KEMw


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Attachments area

Preview YouTube video The Last Bell Trailer




The Last Bell Trailer

Preview YouTube video The Last Bell




The Last Bell



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Jim wanted me to add about the film: "It's not your typical Hollywood commercial type of movie. Ray based it on a play he had written and 99% of the action is in the dialogue. It is very much a dialogue driven story and almost the first half is basically a one man show,"

Thanks Tom.I will watch it tonight. Have you two ever thought of writing some series books like Zane Grey? Maybe even historical stories.

I think you'll find that Tom also had a small PART IN FIVE BLOODY GRAVES. sORRY ABOUT THE CAPITALS ,KEYBOARDS GOT A MIND OF ITS OWN. bRONC.

Hi bronc.thanks i will look for it.
I watched about 45 minutes of The Bell early this morning,will finish tonight.
I was blew away with Jim's performance thus far. I could never memorize all that. I mean, he talked non stop for 45 minutes! Should be doing Shakespeare or something.
In my opinion, if that film ever hit tv or movie screen it would be the biggest thing since charlton Heston's Ten Commandments.
I was truly impressed.

Forget Five Bloody Graves...just did a bit of extra work on that one (my first film I was in); Can't even notice me unless you get the full screen version....You can see Ray though as an Indian sneaking in a corn field during an attackk on a cabin and he gets blown away by a woman.

As to The Last Bell.....Thanks much for your comment; glad you are enjoying it. Jim thanks you for the compliment and says there were parts of his performance he was happy with and parts he wished could have been refilmed. (an actor is always his worst critic). Morgan Woodward watched he film and liked it and asked if Jim had a teleprompter (he did not) and was amazed at how he had all of that put to memory. 

It played here on the local television but as of yet unable to find distribution.

To be fair Five Bloody Graves isn't the greatest Western ever made but it has got Jim Davis,Scott Brady and John Carradine in it so it's worth watching. Bronc.
P.S. Tom, it must have been great just to have been in a Western, even if you were only an extra.

Yes,and to just be around the stars. I would have been happy just bringing the coffee.

Besides helping attack and burn the cabin, in between scenes Ray and I (and another actor) had the job of putting the fire out so the cabin would be in tact for the next setup. Also, at te end of the day (one of the two days we were there) Ray and I helped bring the horses back to the corral. The other day as the cars pulled out the star, Robert Dix (son of actor Richard Dix who acted in a number of early westerns) called us over and said to ride back with him. A real nice guy. Did not meet Carradine, Brady or Davis as hey were not working the two days we were there. Another actor, Kent Osborne, told us if we ever come to Hollywood to pursue acting to look him up. Three years later when Jim and I did we did look him up. He was trying to raise money for a film to be shot in Georgia about two feuding families...one led by Carradine and he other by Brady. He said he would hire us to play two of the sons. Unfortunately the funds were not withcoming and it was cancelled...but he was true to his word and would have helped if he could. Ray and I got into this film because we were visiting Capitol Reef National Monument in southern Utah (1966 the year it was filmed; released a couple of years later) and at the lodge there we met Kent Osborne and another actor Bud Cardos, and we asked about parts and they introduced us to the production manager and we were hired on as extras. It was a fun two days. The director, Al Adamson, seemed more interested in one of the actresses than doing his job. I remember he got soooo mad when the cabin collapsed in the flames and the camera had run out of film. He was jumping up and down and swearing like a pirate. Robert Dix's horse was named Blackjack....a really nice black horse. I got a photo in my Indian garb on the horse. Another old western actor, Johnny Carpenter, was there as the horse wrangler...a nice guy but I didn't like it when he hit Blackjack with a board after Blackjack knocked over a large light reflector. The film isn't great...very low budget but the location is worth a watch. If you see it my brother Ray is the Indian sneaking in the corn patch and gets shot during the attack on the cabin. You will need a full screen version to see me and don't think that exists on any dvd or vhs. I did almost get killed during the filming when my character gets killed and I am laying on the ground and the horses riding around...one almost stomped me on the head. The rider (who was the production manager who hired us) apologized saying another horse forced his over. After the dust cleared the people back at the camera thought I was trampled and they asked "Why didn't you move" and I replied, "A dead Indian can't move>'....but really, I heard the horse coming close (it's hoof landed between my head and outstretched arm) but I couldn't see it and did not know where to move as there were so many horses...if I had moved I might have ended up under another horse. But it was an adventure...my first real film and so it was a good experience.

I have always wondered about people getting hurt or even killed on the set. I guess that is kept on the QT because I have never heard anything about it. Oh wait,I do remember once,John Wayne said Yukima(?) was almost hurt badly once.

Vic Morrow and Eric Fleming were killed on the set due to not following safety procedures; a guy was killed by being run through with a saber in They Died With Their Boots On....think it was an extra during a charge and the horse went down and he was killed by his sword.  Things do happen unfortunately.
i

Thanka Tom
I have noticed in scenes like Indian attacks on horse back, like you mentioned in your adventures, a horse will almost step on someone shot off another horse,but unlike you, they move over. I have thought for sure i have seen some trampled,but you never hear anything about it.
Doing cattle stampedes i would think would be very dangerous. I wouldn't want the job.

Quite often in Westerns you see horses fall onto their rider I can't imagine that all these stuntmen got up and walked away afterwards.

True bronco,
My horse fell on me 5 years ago and drove the saddle horn into my ribs. Didn't break any,but it was sore like crazy for months.
And that was just from raring up standing still. I can imagine what would have happened at a full gallop or dead run.

Hi Laramie:  Just wonderin' if you had a chance to finish The Last Bell. If so, would love to hear your comments, pro or con.  We just watched last night an old Joel McCrea western called "Saddle Tramp"....a good one that co-starred John McIntire and his wife Jeanette Nolan (they played a husband and wife) and John Russell as the bad guy. A good solid western about a cowpoke who loved the freedom of the open range but soon had to accept responsibilities that he hadn't planned on that interrupts his restless spirit.