Thursday, October 01, 2015

Wild West #15


3 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Ray "Crash" Corrigan, B-Western actor, stuntman, movie ranch owner. He also got his gorilla costume cast in several jungle pictures, notably for our purposes as "Bonga/Samabi", in Republic's first serial, DARKEST AFRICA (1936). Clyde Beatty's film career was on a roll by then, and Saturday Matinee serials were hot. Republic signed Beatty for this 15-chapter hit, but Corrigan received no screen credit. His ranch was Corriganville, not far from us at Jungleland. In our Compound years, the top Italian restaurant in Thousand Oaks was the House of Orlando's. This location is now a popular steak house, owned by Ray's son, Tom.

Unknown said...

This is actually Buck Jones and one of his "Silver" horses. (He had 3; one was used for running scenes, one was used for rearing up, and the principal Silver was used for close-ups and doing tricks (like untieing Buck when he fell into the hands of the bad guys.)

Roger Smith said...

That's Buck? Good correction, then--as I've seen this one claimed as Corrigan. A friend in Thousand Oaks had it, and wanted to give it to the son, Tom, for display in his Corrigan's Steak House. I haven't been back to see if it's on the wall. Tom has lined the place with his dad's photos and posters of films he was in. Ray starred in a string of oaters, but co-starred steadily in far more. He shared the screen with all of them--Roy Rogers, Robert Livingston, Bob Steele, Monte Hale, Tim Holt, and this list includes the early B-Westerns of John Wayne.