When I was growing up westerns were a big deal in movies, TV and books. A cover on "Colliers" magazine or "Life" with a picture of Hugh O’Brien as Wyatt Earp and a feature article on the popularity of television westerns sticks in my mind. Personally, I was a huge fan of Roy Rogers. I know. I’m dating myself. Now, it seems all you can find to watch on television are reality shows and "CSI" in its various versions. I’m exaggerating but not by much. So in this article I would like to "return to those exciting days of yesteryear" and gallop through the selection of new (yet old) westerns in the Scottsbluff Public Library DVD collection.

"Fury" starred Peter Graves of "Mission Impossible" fame and Bobby Diamond. (I really thought Bobby Diamond was cute). It was on Saturday morning TV from 1955 to 1960 and was about the adventures of a boy and his horse, Fury, who lived at the Broken Wheel Ranch. The television show was based upon the children’s books by Albert G. Miller.

"The Stalking Moon" starred Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint. Gregory Peck played the part of an Army scout who escorts a former Apache captive and her half-Indian son to safety. A renegade killer, however, stalks their path, trying to get the boy back.

In "The Law and Jake Wade" Robert Taylor starred as Jake Wade, a reformed bad guy, who is now a lawman. His former outlaw partner, Richard Widmark, returns and forces Wade and a female captive on a trek through Comanche country in search of long ago buried loot. For my money no one could play a villain quite as well as Richard Widmark.

"Saddle the Wind" is another Robert Taylor movie. This one also co-starred John Cassavetes and Julie London. Rod Serling of "Twilight Zone" fame wrote the screenplay.

"Cimarron" is based on the Edna Ferber novel with Glenn Ford as the star. It has a spectacular scene of the Oklahoma Land Rush. (Glenn Ford was cute too.)

"Many Rivers to Cross" is an adventure/comedy about a woman (Eleanor Parker) who gets her cap set on marryin’ a trapper (Robert Taylor) during the preacher’s annual visit to Barren River, Kentucky.

During "Escape from Fort Bravo" a Confederate prisoner tries to escape from a Union fort in the Arizona desert. Directed by John Sturges who later directed "The Great Escape" and "The Magnificent Seven", it starred William Holden, Eleanor Parker, and John Forsythe. (William Holden wasn’t cute. He was handsome.)

Also, the Special Collector’s Edition of "True Grit" is now available at the library. Issued on the 100^th anniversary of John Wayne’s birth, this is the movie for which Big John won the Academy Award.

Fans of westerns should find a few at the Scottsbluff Library that are not often rebroadcast on television. Mosey on in and check-em out, pardner!

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