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Death Valley Days

p3skykingp3skyking Member Posts: 23,916 ✭✭✭
edited January 2017 in General Discussion
I never watched the show as a kid but I'm watching it now.

Ronald Reagan is playing a lawyer suing a man who shot a kids dog.
I discovered the show was on the radio and TV from 1935 to 1970 making it one of the longest running westerns ever.

It's well written and directed. Too bad there's nothing like it on TV nowadays.

Comments

  • spasmcreekspasmcreek Member Posts: 37,717 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    20 mule team borax.......mined in death valley...oh yeah
  • p3skykingp3skyking Member Posts: 23,916 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The show about the dog was based on a true story.
    Future Senator George G. Vest was the lawyer. Ronald Reagan recited his summation to the jury in it's entirety.



    George Graham Vest (1830-1904) served as U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1879 to 1903 and became one of the leading orators and debaters of his time. This delightful speech is from an earlier period in his life when he practiced law in a small Missouri town. It was given in court while representing a man who sued another for the killing of his dog. During the trial, Vest ignored the testimony, and when his turn came to present a summation to the jury, he made the following speech and won the case.

    Gentlemen of the Jury: The best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us, may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.

    The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.

    If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.

    George Graham Vest - c. 1855
  • spasmcreekspasmcreek Member Posts: 37,717 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    a dog in japan went to the train staion every day to meet his master for almost 10 years after the man died..others fed and watered him and had a big funeral upon dogs death ..this is why i prefer Rainbow Bridge to any preachers blather
  • dreherdreher Member Posts: 8,891 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I used to have a friend that taught school in Arizona and was the stunt man for Death Valley Days while Reagan was the moderator and occasional actor. Hardy told me that in between takes Reagan and him would sit around and BS, some times for hours at a time. Hardy said Reagan was very nice, had a great sense of humor and was a hell of a horseman!

    Hardy said he should have known Reagan had politics in mind. Reagan rode a donkey around the Death Valley Days set. Reagan named the donkey Lady Bird!![:D]
  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 25,320 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I liked the show and watch the reruns they would always say based on true story's , regardless they would always come on and do a sort of follow up on what happened to the character as went on to be famous or died a poor man and so on .. good old show [^]
  • discusdaddiscusdad Member Posts: 11,427 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Reagan wasn't the first host pf DVD of i remember. he was 2nd. the original was also a star, name escapes he but he had a very distinctive voice, wore his dark hair slicked back. i'm having a complete blank, i wanna say Robert Scott but i know Scott isn't right. ROBERT TAYLOR was the 1st host of DVD

    i was wrong Reagan was the original host and Robert Taylor took over for him when Reagan got into politics

    enhanced-11293-1422499035-10_zpsiqpx82pz.jpg
  • mjrfd99mjrfd99 Member Posts: 4,553 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    We lived and breathed cowboy shows as 50=60's kids. We emulated them sun up to sun down.
  • danielgagedanielgage Member Posts: 10,560 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by forgemonkey


    Got to see one of the wagons used by the mine, the wheels are huge. They had it at Mule Days in Bishop, Ca.

    There was a 20 Mule team pulling the wagon,,,,,,,,,,,a low riding log chain ran from the lead mules back to the wagon. When turning a corner all the mules on the inside radius had to step almost sideways over the chain and then back when they straightened out.

    When harnessing all the 'rubber neckers' were warned to not walk up to the mules,,,,,,they're not 'pets',,,,,,,

    The mule skinners said there were several rest stops along the route the wagons traveled each day and the mules would stop in virtually the exact same tracks each day and not move until rest time was complete,,,,,,,,


    I would like to see that [8D]
  • mackcranemackcrane Member Posts: 1,869 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Watchin It Rite Now on GRIT TV. Watched It when I was a Kid with my Dad. Gunsmoke & Have Gun Will Travel Too.
  • minitruck83minitruck83 Member Posts: 5,369
    edited November -1
    My memory has failed before, but I seem to remember Stanley Andrews being host through the 50s. Reagan only lasted a year or so. With Taylor following. I think Dale Robertson was host for a while too.
    (not sure I'm not mixing him up with tales of Wells Fargo's Jim Hardie)

    Stanley was 'the old ranger' long before Ronnie came along.
    Guess I'm just old. [V]
  • discusdaddiscusdad Member Posts: 11,427 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    this is from wiki

    The series was sponsored by the Pacific Coast Borax Company (20 Mule Team Borax, Boraxo) and hosted by Stanley Andrews, alias "the Old Ranger" (1952-1963), Ronald Reagan (1964-1965), Rosemary DeCamp (1965), Robert Taylor (1966-1969), and Dale Robertson (1969-1970). With the passing of Dale Robertson in 2013, all the former Death Valley Days hosts are now deceased. Hosting the series was Reagan's final work as an actor; he was cast in eight episodes of the series.
  • discusdaddiscusdad Member Posts: 11,427 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    your memory is razor sharp sir!quote:Originally posted by minitruck83
    My memory has failed before, but I seem to remember Stanley Andrews being host through the 50s. Reagan only lasted a year or so. With Taylor following. I think Dale Robertson was host for a while too.
    (not sure I'm not mixing him up with tales of Wells Fargo's Jim Hardie)

    Stanley was 'the old ranger' long before Ronnie came along.
  • minitruck83minitruck83 Member Posts: 5,369
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by discusdad
    your memory is razor sharp sir!quote:Originally posted by minitruck83
    My memory has failed before, but I seem to remember Stanley Andrews being host through the 50s. Reagan only lasted a year or so. With Taylor following. I think Dale Robertson was host for a while too.
    (not sure I'm not mixing him up with tales of Wells Fargo's Jim Hardie)

    Stanley was 'the old ranger' long before Ronnie came along.




    Dunno bout that... I don't recall a female host at all. Course most of the 60's is foggy anyway.
  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 48,464 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Lived near where they had working teams of mules and they still put on shows there to this day.


    quote:Twenty Mule Team Days, a Festival in Boron, California
  • discusdaddiscusdad Member Posts: 11,427 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    its not clear if she was an actual host, but she did several episodes for the series, and also did the commercials for the 20 Mule Team Borax products seen on the show.

    quote:Originally posted by minitruck83
    quote:Originally posted by discusdad
    your memory is razor sharp sir!
    Originally posted by minitruck83
    My memory has failed before, but I seem to remember Stanley Andrews being host through the 50s. Reagan only lasted a year or so. With Taylor following. I think Dale Robertson was host for a while too.
    (not sure I'm not mixing him up with tales of Wells Fargo's Jim Hardie)

    Stanley was 'the old ranger' long before Ronnie came along.




    Dunno bout that... I don't recall a female host at all. Course most of the 60's is foggy anyway.
    [/
  • discusdaddiscusdad Member Posts: 11,427 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
  • beneteaubeneteau Member Posts: 8,552 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by spasmcreek
    a dog in japan went to the train staion every day to meet his master for almost 10 years after the man died..others fed and watered him and had a big funeral upon dogs death ..this is why i prefer Rainbow Bridge to any preachers blather


    This Akita dog came to Shibuya Station everyday to meet his master, a professor, returning from work. The professor died in 1925, but Hachik#333; kept coming to the station until his own death 10 years later. The story became legend and a small statue was erected in the dog's memory in front of Shibuya Station.

    There's a movie about this dog: Hachi: A Dog's Tale
    0M9InwN.gif[
  • leadlead Member Posts: 2,311 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    We got a new tv this year and when setting it up, it added Grit TV to the channel selection. I've found been watching Laramie and Dick Powell's Zane Gray Theatre alot. Good TV shows
  • eastbankeastbank Member Posts: 4,052 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    i was ask if i wanted a job,as a kid and i said yes and was told the 20 mule team needed a new *. if i was bigger, i would have kicked the borax out of him. mr myopic.
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