Posted on 06/04/2011 6:06:51 PM PDT by stillafreemind
The fact is, " Arness" and John Wayne could entertain us without sex, vulgarity or extreme visual violence. They still helped us to use imagination. Westerns today depend on sex, vulgarity and extreme visual violence for viewers to tune in or pay for a ticket. Encore Western Channel and TV Land still play reruns of the "Gunsmoke" series. On the official James Arness website, Jim was extremely pleased that it was still running.
(Excerpt) Read more at associatedcontent.com ...
And among the best is John Phillips Souza and any Mozart.
Time to finish my rum and go start the record (disc) player. (I must admit this whole conversation (movies, actors, heroes, musicians, has brought a tear to my eye. I believe it is called "Auld Lang Syne")
Thank you
I will second your motions on all of that. I have become my parents, no doubt about it. They have both passed on, and I could not think of two better people to emulate.
I too am a musician, have played drums for ovedr 40 years and bass for about 20. And I too love the classics; Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and Strauss, Tchaikovsky et al.
I do have to admit though that I absolutely cannot identify with the utterly unsyncopated noise which passes for music nowadays. My daughters, 23 and 25, still like some of the music I do, because they grew up listening to it, but I simply cannot listen to any of the groups they like. My parents were the same way. And DO NOT EVEN GET ME STARTED OR “RAP” OR “HIP HOP”. That is not even music, I don’t even have a word to adequately describe it without referring to the decomposing excrement of some animal.
Great Westerns,You tube has one “Death of a gunfighter” very good the writing,the acting,fantastic gunsmoke show from the past.
Festus Haggen was always my favorite. In some ways he reminded me of Ernest T. Bass from the old Andy Griffith show!
Ken Curtis was one of the best western singers around. He had a terrific voice. Seems like all the good guys are leaving us.
I hear you as far as Hip Hip or Rap. However I apply your evaluation of them just to the lyrics. The underlying rhythm, tones, still give me pleasure. And I wish I had learned the bass, electric or acoustic. Gives me chills. Mine was piano and trumpet.
James Arness had blond hair. He had to keep it dyed black all those years for the show.
It’s obvious in that bottom picture, even the eyebrows are made over.
RIP
Quick: Who were the world famous actors of the 1900’s or 1870’s?
Every generation has their favorites. It doesn’t take away from YOUR favorite, but in thirty years they will just be on a list when MY favorites start to fade away.
Its just the way it is.
Gunsmoke was so good a show(and without being obscene,like today’s TeleVenom), you could almost believe there
was a Matt Dillon. There was talent in those days.
If you can’t get the show on TV, you can watch it on Netflix and YouTube’s “Gunsmoke Channel”. But I know what you mean. I love him so much and cried when I saw the headline. Like many of us here, Gunsmoke remains my favorite show, and I watch it almost every day.
Me, too.
To express his gratitude to his fans and say goodbye to us at such a time... yes, he was a wonderful man.
Legend is that GUNSMOKE was offered to John Wayne. He turned it down and suggested they hire Arness. At first Arness turned it down and Wayne went ballistic.
“...cut out of the heart of America...” you nailed it. That’s what it feels like.
Wow, what a splendid gift!
Hilarious!
Oh, I love them.
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