Who Or What Ranks First On Billing Scorecards?

Room At The Top For Man Or Horse ...



Fred Thomson Astride Silver King

It was truly an animal's world in silent days. There were heroic horses, dogs, even a lion or eagle sometimes. Casting to type was the norm, result a tiger always predatory, condors laying in wait to snatch away the innocent, etc. Picturegoers knew a pecking order of "good" vs. "evil" wildlife and could spot either on sight. Horses were a noblest creature, a dog always man's best friend, so from these came stars who would stay immortal for at least so long as barks and whinnies weren't heard. Oddly, it was sound that took them out, Rin Tin-Tin a canine John Gilbert, his major studio career gone to dogs once Vitaphone made outdoor trickery harder to choreograph. Rinty regrouped in serials, as would Rex the Wonder Horse. Steed assist to cowboys made stars of Fritz (w/Bill Hart), Tony (whose name got in titles of some Tom Mix westerns), and Silver King, here ad-featured as reason alone to come see Masks Of Lopez with misspelled Fred Thomson, called Thompson here, as if that mattered to fans of "the most wonderful trick horse in photoplays today." Thomson was huge in his prime, Silver King more so for Beverly Theatre purpose. Local management answered first to patron preference ... proper billing be damned. When a wonder horse was the most saleable element in your western, then let them enjoy carrot of placement over cowboy riders, who after all, had but two legs with which to propel a show.

Weird and Wacky Were Wedding Announcemants Back Then --- Was Bob
Reduced To Aproned Kitchen Help So Soon After His 1935 Marriage?

 

They called program westerns "B's," but wait a minute --- how come there to be so many occasions where humble oaters take pride of place over mainstream pics from majors? At right was further ad instance of that, Bob Steele heading up the Majestic bill in Ranger's Code, while Warner's From Headquarters, a George Brent programmer, held second place. This wasn't unusual in smaller situations like the 550 seat Majestic in Madison, Wisconsin. Westerns were jam on bread of dime and fifteen-cent admissions for which folks expected to sit at least part of time on horseback. Management evaluated star appeal like grocers weighing meat, then billed accordingly. George Brent graded fine, but Bob Steele more so. He served the action, but also romance, Bob a series cowboy who deftly carried fans among femmes and got press for off-screen coupling, as shown above.

More of Fred Thomson and his lost legacy (in three parts) at Greenbriar Archives HERE. And Bob Steele is featured with wonder horse Wildfire here, plus Thunder Town, and B-cowboy reunions.