Tag Archives: Balladeer’s Blog

THE CIMARRON ROSE: LADY OUTLAW? FACT AND LEGEND FIGHT IT OUT OVER ROSE DUNN

Frontierado falls on Friday, August 7th this year. As always, the Frontierado holiday is about the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality. 

CIMARRON ROSE DUNN – Poco wrote a song about her. She appears in a 1915 Silent Film about Oklahoma Outlaws. She’s often mistakenly believed to be the subject of the 1952 western The Rose of Cimarron. And it’s not even certain if that’s really her in one of the alleged surviving photos of her. Rose Dunn may embody the embellishments that fight with the truth when it comes to various figures from the Old West.

Even today, online entries and articles about this woman tend to fall into one of two categories. 1. Rose Dunn was an outlaw ally of the Doolin Gang in their rustling and bank & train robbing antics, and she later become a bounty hunter alongside her brothers. Or 2. Rose Dunn was involved in a couple actions with the Doolin Gang but otherwise was as innocent as an angel.

Dunn lived well into the 20th Century but refused to discuss her past, either to avoid notoriety or because there was nothing to tell, take your pick. Still, iconic Old West lawman Bill Tilghman wrote about her criminal career in his supposedly non-fiction book Oklahoma Outlaws.  

The future Rose of Cimarron was born September 5th, 1878 in either Winfield or Cowley, Kansas (sources vary). She had two sisters and seven brothers. Growing up with so many older brothers, Rose could ride and shoot better than some men. When Rose’s father William Dunn died, her mother later remarried to a physician known as Dr. Call and at some point moved to Ingalls, Oklahoma near the Cimarron River. Continue reading →

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FOOL KILLER PART SEVENTY-ONE: MAY 1914

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 71 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the May 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:

*** President Woodrow Wilson, for his economic policies which Pearson and his Fool Killer blamed for bringing back the anti-working class (Grover) Cleveland Times.

*** The Government Printing Office which the Fool Killer deemed not worth the money spent on it because all they print is the Congressional Record and what amounts to tiresome government pronouncements.

      (How slow a news month must it be to bother going after the Government Printing Office? Too bad the National Egg Council wasn’t around yet.)

*** Bootleggers who were hurriedly transporting as much whiskey as they could from Virginia into North Carolina, where booze was now illegal. They did this because they could charge much more for liquor in a state where it was officially banned. 

*** Pompous High Society members who looked down their noses at farmers.

*** Readers who demanded Pearson work only with printers who belonged to a union, even though he lived in a part of North Carolina where none were available.  Continue reading →

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2 B-MOVIE HOSTESSES FROM “SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE PARTY” (1962-1965)

SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE PARTY (1962-1965) was also called simply SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE and PAT’S SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE in the tantalizingly few surviving pieces of information available about this cult Movie Hostess show. SFMP aired Saturday nights at 10:30 (one ad says 10:20) on KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska from September 1962 to the end of summer 1965.   

From 1962-1964 the program was hosted by “Science Fiction Pat” real name Pat Jones and from Summer 1964-Summer 1965 by Ronnie Bounds and her Siamese cat Yatchie. I’ll examine each hostess momentarily, but for the full context of what made Science Fiction Movie Party stand out it’s important to credit the contribution of KMTV’s Program Director Lou Jeffery.

Mr. Jeffery assumed that position in 1961 and by September of 1962 he had carefully assembled campy and low-budget science fiction films that weren’t exclusive to any of the nationwide syndication packages of the time. Lou’s work in securing such a custom package of flicks would have been a big advantage for Science Fiction Movie Party from the show’s outset.

SCIENCE FICTION PAT – Patricia Jones was a multi-talented woman enrolled at the University of Nebraska. On the side she played guitar, sang and recited beat poetry in Omaha coffee houses of the period. On SFMP Pat wrote her own material and designed various mostly black outfits for herself to wear during her Host Segments.

Guitar in hand, Jones would engage in the time-honored tradition of Bad Movie Shows by sarcastically commenting on the bizarre and low-budget nature of the So Bad They’re Good films shown on SFMP. Her sense of humor was versatile enough that she even composed and performed occasional beatnik poems about the schlockers she presented, including Robot Monster (1953), that staple of Bad Movie Shows for decades. Continue reading →

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JOHNNY RINGO (1959-1960) FORGOTTEN TELEVISION

JOHNNY RINGO (1959) – Don Durant starred as the one and only Johnny Ringo, the real-life gunslinger. The fictional setting of this program takes place between Johnny’s original rise to fame during the Mason County War in Texas and his final years in Arizona as part of the Clanton-McLaury Crime Faction led by Curly Bill Brocius. Aaron Spelling was the producer.

Ringo is depicted being weary of his life as a gunfighter, so he tries to turn over a new leaf by becoming the Sheriff of the fictional town of Velardi in Arizona Territory. An odd gimmick of the Johnny Ringo television series was the fact that Johnny wielded a special seven-shot pistol designed by the real-life gunmaker Jean LeMat.

Other regular cast members were Mark Goddard as William Cully aka Kid Adonis, Ringo’s deputy; Karen Sharpe as Laura Thomas and Thomas Mitchell as Laura’s father Case Thomas, town drunk turned sheriff’s deputy. Johnny Ringo ran for one pilot episode followed by 38 regular season half-hour episodes. Star Don Durant wrote and sang the theme song.   

THE EPISODES: Continue reading →

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THE OZIDI SAGA OF NIGERIA: PART THREE

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. FOR PART TWO CLICK HERE.

PART THREE: When we left off, our hero Ozidi the Younger had just finished slaying the first of his father’s murderers and Ozidi reminded his mentally unfit uncle, King Temugedege, that he is having to take care of the family business that he is incapable of. When all of the killers of Ozidi the Elder have been dealt with, his father’s spirit will be free from the deadlands limbo in which it currently dwells. 

Azezabife the Half Man (also called Kemepara), another of his father’s murderers, is the next to confront Ozidi. The narrative makes it clear that despite his bluster and his graphic description of the way he intends to kill our hero, Azezabife is frightened deep down.   

This figure is called the Half Man because one half of his body is normal while the other half is hideous and monstrous. Azezabife was spawned by the deadlands and in that limbo there is another of him whose body is human on the half where the living Azezafife is monstrous and vice versa. Continue reading →

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MY TOP FOUR WESTERNS BASED ON REAL-LIFE FIGURES

butch cassidy and the sundance kid 2We all know that in real life the celebrated “heroes” of the old west were a pack of corrupt and/or outrightly criminal thugs who would have had a pretty odd worldview. And let’s face it, by our standards their personal hygiene habits would have been pretty disgusting.

But since the Frontierado holiday is all about celebrating the myth of the West and not the grinding reality of it here’s my list of the Top Four Westerns Based on Real-Life Figures. Coming up with lists like this is one of the perks of being the international commissioner of Frontierado (along with the seven-figure income and a staff of three hundred people).

butch cassidy and the sundance kid1. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) – Redford and Newman set the standard for the “buddy western” with this magnificent movie. Newman once described this flick by saying “It’s a Continue reading →

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IRISH NELLIE CASHMAN: A FRONTIERADO LOOK

The Frontierado Holiday falls on Friday, August 7th this year. As always, the holiday is about the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality. For looks at female gunslingers of the West click HERE. For looks at other women and men of the Far North Gold Rushes click HERE.

IRISH NELLIE CASHMAN – Nellie Cashman was born Ellen O’Kissane in 1845. Sometime between 185o and 1852 her family moved to Boston, where the ambitious young woman was later working as a bellhop at Boston hotels. During the U.S. Civil War Nellie did some spying for the Union cause, following which she and her family moved to San Francisco in 1866.

Irish Nellie worked at various legal professions in Virginia City, NV and Pioche, NV before heading North to British Columbia in Canada during the 1870s Gold Rush. Cashman established a boarding house for gold miners at Telegraph Creek. The savvy businesswoman made money from that venture as well as investing in the gold claims of some of her boarders.

Irish Nellie used part of her growing fortune to finance the Sisters of Saint Anne. When snowstorms trapped dozens of gold seekers in the Cassiar Mountains in a series of avalanches, Irish Nellie heard that Canadian authorities were advising against rescue attempts due to how dangerous the Cassiars were.

That kind of talk was the proverbial music to Nellie’s ears, and soon she took charge of a half-dozen men and led them to the rescue of the trapped gold seekers, many of whom were already dead. She brought food and medicine to them. Cashman herself was briefly buried in one of the series of avalanches but managed to dig herself out. The “Angel of the Cassiars” saved the lives of around 75 people.   Continue reading →

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AUD-I-SEE SERIES (1978)

AUD-I-SEE aka AudiSee (1978) – Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the largely forgotten AudiSee series of audiovisual science fiction stories for adolescents. Each episode is roughly 30 minutes long. The audio element consists of voice actors including a narrator. The visual element consists of an illustrated booklet that came with the AudiSee package.

As the story progressed, the tween could read along while listening to sharpen reading skills. A slight beep would indicate that it was time to turn the page. Here in 2026 there are people who have been kind enough to upload the AudiSee series online. The videos eliminate the need for page-turning as the episodes unfold onscreen with color illustrations of each page of the booklet. 

The series was produced by Russ Tamblyn’s younger brother Lawrence from the 1960s musical group the Standells of Dirty Water fame. Continue reading →

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THE GREEN HORNET

This weekend’s superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at some of the earliest comic book adaptations of the iconic character the Green Hornet. That figure originated on radio in January 1936 and in a very early example of a shared universe, the Green Hornet’s secret identity was Britt Reid, grand-nephew of John Reid – the Lone Ranger.

Britt’s father was the son of the Dan Reid kid that frequently interacted with his uncle the Lone Ranger from the 1933 radio show on to the Clayton Moore television series. In fact, Britt Reid’s pride in his family’s heroic forebear inspired him to don a mask and costume and fight Detroit’s racketeers like the Lone Ranger fought outlaws in the Old West.

In the radio series and screen serials the Green Hornet’s gun was loaded with knockout gas but in comic books and television his gun fired electric blasts called the Hornet’s Sting. The Hornet’s sidekick was Kato, most famously portrayed on the tv series by Bruce Lee. Kato drove the Black Beauty, the Green Hornet’s souped-up, gizmo-filled car. The Black Beauty came before the Batmobile and any of James Bond’s tricked-out vehicles.

And just as the Lone Ranger show’s theme music came from classical music – the William Tell overture – the Green Hornet show’s theme came from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee.

Britt Reid’s father was the millionaire publisher of the newspaper The Daily Sentinel and he put his good-timing playboy son in charge hoping the responsibility would make him grow up and abandon his partying. Britt pretended to still be a shallow playboy to make sure his father and the public never realized he was secretly that scourge of crime the Green Hornet.   

The police and even Daily Sentinel crime reporter Mike Axford (formerly of the 1932 radio series Warner Lester, Manhunter) misunderstood the Green Hornet’s vigilante activities and suspected the masked hero of being a criminal himself. The Hornet took advantage of that misperception by convincing some of his gangster foes that he was indeed an outlaw and wanted a cut of their illegal operations.

Completing the Green Hornet program’s supporting cast was Britt Reid’s sexy secretary Lenore Case aka “Casey.” And another show in the shared Lone Ranger-Green Hornet-Manhunter universe was radio’s Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. Continue reading →

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FOOL KILLER PART SEVENTY: APRIL 1914

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 70 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the April 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure:

*** Politicians who wanted to invade Mexico because of the continuing chaos there, stating it was being considered just to protect the property of American millionaires in Mexico.

*** Civilian Jingoists who talked tough about invading Mexico, claiming that if war actually did break out those same people would try to avoid military service.

*** The scamming Marriage Brokers of the time period.

*** People who opposed North Carolina’s law prohibiting alcohol. Despite Pearson’s usual pro-liberty stances, he and his Fool Killer supported bans on alcohol and tobacco. Continue reading →

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