Gathering of Guns – full throttle films
The 2015 festival will be held at full throttle films.
Sam’s Town Resort
Tunica, Mississippi
Western News
Passings
If you’re a fan of classic movies and television we invite you to join us
at the next Memphis Film Festival on:
GUESTS BY FESTIVAL DATE
Dick Jones
Dick Jones, who began working in Westerns at age eight, died July 7 at age 87. As a boy, Dick saddled up with the likes of John Wayne, Dick Foran, George O’Brien, Kermit Maynard, Buck Jones, Bob Baker, Jack Randall, Bill Elliott, William “Hopalong” Boyd, James Stewart, and Errol Flynn. He frequently appeared with Gene Autry in both films and television and starred in two TV western series of his own; The Range Rider (with Jock Mahoney) and Buffalo Bill, Jr. (with Nancy Gilbert). Nancy Gilbert and Dick made about 50 episodes of the show and made many personal appearances in support of it. This included the 60th Annual Frontier Days Celebration at Cheyenne, Wyoming in ’55 where they served as Grand Marshals. In more recent years, they appeared together at a museum in Gene Autry, Oklahoma, The Tombstone, full throttle films, AZ Festival in 2001, and the Memphis Film Festival in 2005.
Dick was a frequent guest at the Memphis Film Festival (see above) and appeared there in 1987, 2005, 2008, and 2010. He was also one of the founders of The Golden Boot Awards which benefited the Motion Picture Home and Hospital in California.
Nancy Gilbert, who co-starred with Dick Jones in the Buffalo Bill, Jr. series in 1955-56, had this to say about the passing of Dick.
“Another big piece of my life is gone,” Gilbert said. “When my husband passed away four years ago, Dick was very consoling and supportive. I played Dick’s kid sister, Calamity, in the series. We had so much fun, and he treated me just like he was my real brother. I feel so very blessed to have had that time together. Dick was a truly wonderful man.”
Same Superb “Festival”
…Just a new website…
Nancy Gilbert and Dick Jones at the 2005 Memphis Film Festival
Dick Shane – full throttle films
Dick Shane was James Drury’s very good friend and stunt double in The Virginian. Shane heard about a new television series starting production called The Virginian and was hired on as an extra. He eventually was promoted to stunt man, where his performances earned him the role of stunt doubling for James Drury, “The Virginian.” He eventually became stunt coordinator on the long-running series. He and his brother Choya Shane (who was also a stunt double) were known as the “Shane Duo” for the their bullwhip act. They later created a stunt school called the International Stunt Actors Association.
James Garner
Actor James Garner, whose genial charm and sly humor made him a Hollywood fixture for more than 50 years, has died at 86.
It was on Sept. 22, 1957 when the ABC network, desperate to compete on ratings-rich
Sunday night, scheduled Maverick against CBS’s powerhouse The Ed Sullivan Show and NBC’s The Steve Allen Show. Maverick soon out-polled them both – full throttle films.
At a time when the networks were crowded with hard-eyed, traditional Western heroes, Bret Maverick provided a fresh breath of air. With his sardonic tone and hiseagerness to talk his way out of a squabble rather than pull out his six-shooter, the con-artist Westerner seemed to scoff at the genre’s values.
After a couple of years, Garner felt the series was losing its creative edge, and he found a legal loophole to escape his contract in 1960.
Twenty years later, he won an Emmy for perhaps the role that gave him his most visibility — as James Rockford, the laid back, beach-dwelling private detective of NBC’s Rockford Files, which ran from 1974 to 1980.
He played a supporting role as a marshal in the 1994 Maverick, a big-screen return to the TV series with Mel Gibson in Garner’s old title role.
Garner also had success as a Madison Ave. pitchman. In the 1970s, he starred in a series of popular Polaroid commercials with actress Mariette Hartley. Their on-camera shtick was so convincing that many believed they were actually married. In the ’80s, he was the North American spokesman for automaker Mazda, and later did voiceovers for Chevrolet trucks.
Despite his star status, Garner was never enamored with being in Hollywood’s limelight. “I got into the business to put a roof over my head,” he said. “I wasn’t looking for star status. I just wanted to keep working.”
David Bailey – full throttle films
Website Master for the Memphis Film Festival
David was the gentleman who for 10 years was responsible for updating the website. He started and maintained the site up until his death. He did such a wonderful job and he will be missed.
David is survived by his wife, Sue; his brother, Richard; a son, Aaron and his wife, Juanita; a step-daughter, Elizabeth; and many nieces, nephews, grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
Eli Wallach – full throttle films
Eli Wallach actor, best known to western fans as the Mexican bandit, Calvera, in The Magnificent Seven, died Tuesday in New York at age 98. His other westerns included The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, How the West Was Won and Ace High. Along with his wife, Anne Jackson, they became the best-known acting couple in the American theater.
The Memphis Film Festival is celebrating its 34th year and in that time over 250 different movie and TV personalities have come to Memphis. We have three viewing rooms that run simultaneously and continuously from about 10:00 am until 11:00 pm each day. We will run over 125 feature films and TV shows for your viewing pleasure.
Celebrities appear on panels each day, where you can ask questions, or you can meet your favorite star at their tables in the dealer’s room and obtain personally autographed photos. There will be dozens of dealers with movies, TV, DVDs, videotape, toys and other types of entertainment related memorabilia. The people who come to the Memphis Film Festival are very knowledgeable about movies, TV stars, toys, and other collectibles in the field.
We have fans and collectors from all over the U.S.A. and some foreign countries so come join in the fun! On Saturday night you can join us for our celebrity awards banquet where we give out handsome tokens of our appreciation to the celebrities
Additional guests will be added as they are confirmed.
All guests appear on the condition of their availability.
The 2015 Memphis Film Festival will be paying tribute to the great TV westerns of the past. To fit that theme, we have invited guests who have direct connections to those wonderful programs!
Julie Adams and Arthur Kennedy in Bend of the River.
Julie Adams in the episode
“The White Widow” with
Jack Kelly in Maverick.
James Drury – The Virginian
James Drury is a frequent and popular guest at The Memphis Film Festival and the fans are always happy to see him.
Early in his career, James appeared as Neal Adams in the episode “Client Neal Adams” of ABC’s western series Black Saddle. He also appeared in Love Me Tender with Elvis Presley.
James appeared in different roles in two episodes, “Fair Game” and “Vindication” of another ABC western series, The Rebel, starring Nick Adams as a Confederate adventurer roaming through the post-Civil War American West.
He was also in an episode of NBC’s Wagon Train, broadcast just days after the death of series lead Ward Bond. Robert Horton as the scout Flint McCullough struggles to get a wagon train through a Sioux burial ground.
He made a memorable guest appearance on the CBS drama series Perry Mason in 1961, as he played the role of musician and defendant Eddy King in
“The Case of the Missing Melody,” with Raymond Burr.
James eventually landed the top-billed leading role of the ranch foreman on The Virginian, a lavish series which ran for nine seasons. The show was based on Owen Wister’s classic novel, and the various screen versions that had been filmed since. It has been rumored that James Drury was possibly cast because of a vague resemblance to Gary Cooper, who had played the part in an early film version. Director Andrew J. Fenady stated that James was offered the lead role in the series because of his impressive performance in an unsuccessful television pilot The Yank that was inspired by Nick Adams’ The Rebel, on which James had guest starred twice.
In the series, as in the novel, the actual name of “The Virginian” is never revealed. Drury’s costars on The Virginian included Lee J. Cobb, Doug McClure, Randy Boone, Roberta Shore, Gary Clarke, Clu Gulager, Diane Roter and toward the end of the run, Tim Matheson.
James Drury as “The Virginian” “Pollyanna”
Rudy Ramos – High Chaparral
Rudy Ramos has been a guest before and his powerful performance as Geronimo was breathtaking. Once again he will honor us with his performance with another guest, Steve Railsback ,directing. You won’t want to miss it.
With only one television credit on his resume, Rudy was cast in the hit TV western, The High Chaparral (1967), as “Wind”, the half-breed Indian boy.
Thirty-five years later, his career is still going strong and he has appeared in many movies and television series. He has appeared in made for TV movies such as The Blue Knight, Helter Skelter(with one of our other guests Steve Railsback, who played the role of Charles Manson), Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman: The Movie.
As a member of the Los Angeles Actors Theatre, Rudy performed the role of “Cupcakes”, in the award-winning hit show, Shorteyes, by Miguel Pinero – full throttle films.
Other stage performances have taken place in such notable theaters as The Mark
Taper Forum, John Anson Ford, The Met, Matrix, The Los Angeles Theatre Center, Nosotros, South Coast Rep, New Mexico Rep and The Ojai Playwrights Conference.
Roberta Shore – The Virginian
Roberta Shore has been a guest at our festival many times and we were lucky enough to have, a few years ago, almost the whole cast of The Virginianin attendance (excluding Clu Gulager). We were honored one year by a performance of “Love Letters” with her husband Ron Frederickson; it made us laugh and cry.
Roberta Shore was featured very prominently as a series regular within the first three seasons of The Virginian as Betsy Garth, the daughter of Shiloh Ranch owner Judge Garth played by Lee J. Cobb. Though no longer a regular in the fourth season, she returned in the fourth episode of that season (“The Awakening”) in a story in which Betsy meets and falls for a gentleman played by Glenn Corbett. A disillusioned former minister, Corbett’s character finds his way back to his belief in God and by story’s end finally proposes to Betsy. The episode ends with the couple being wed at Shiloh Ranch by Judge Garth himself before the newlyweds ride off to Pennsylvania where Corbett’s character is to become the minister of a church.
Roberta Shore co-starred in several Walt Disney productions featuring the Mouseketeers, and thus came to be associated with them. She appeared as the French-speaking Franceska in The Shaggy Dog.
Roberta Shore’s television credits include appearances on Playhouse 90, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Donna Reed Show, The Lawrence Welk Show (a singing appearance in 1959), several Western series including Maverick, Wagon Train, The Tall Man, and Laramie, and regular roles on Father Knows Best (as Joyce, Bud Anderson’s girlfriend), The New Bob Cummings Show and The Virginian.
Franceska – in The Shaggy Dog
Wind on High Chaparral Rudy as “Geronimo”
Steve Railsback
Actor/Director
This is a first time appearance for Steve Railsback at the Memphis Film Festival. You won’t want to miss meeting him.
Steve Railsback was a student of Lee Strasberg and the Actors Studio and in the late sixties and early seventies spent ten years working in theatre in New York.
He made his film debut in The Visitors, directed by Elia Kazan.
He played the parts of two notorious murderers, appearing as Charles Manson in the 1976 television mini-series, Helter Skelter (which Rudy Ramos also appeared in), and as Ed Gein in the 2000 film In the Light of the Moon. He also served as executive producer of the latter film.
Other notable roles include the part of Cameron in The Stunt Man with Peter O’Toole, the astronaut in Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce, Duane Barry in two episodes of The X-Filesand Joseph Welch in the pilot episode of Supernatural. In 2008, he appeared in the science fiction/horror movie Plaguers.
Mr. Railsback will be directing Rudy Ramos in “Geronimo: Life on the Reservation”.
Cameron in Stunt Man – Charles Manson
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