- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Expired Image Removed
Not a photo from my past this time, but a scanned artifact I still own from 1958! This Dell comic was based on the then-popular syndicated TV series The Gray Ghost starring B-movie actor Tod Andrews as Maj. John Singleton Mosby which had a lot to do with increasing my interest in the Civil War. I've fairly recently watched a few of the thirty-odd episodes which are overall representative of 1950's westerns where each one is a mini morality play. The end credits claim that Virgil Carrington Jones, author of the book Gray Ghosts and Rebel Raiders, served as historical consultant; maybe so, but the series is full of mistakes of all kinds, both historical and technical ones concerning weapons, props, and typical "Hollywood" costumes. Beards are a great problem too: most don't have them and the few historical characters that do (Jeb Stuart for example) remind me of the saying of a friend about someone looking as if he had a raccoon taped to his face! Among the supporting cast I've noticed then-beginning actress Angie Dickinson and Austrian immigrant John Banner (later Sgt. Schulz from Hogan's Heroes fame) as Maj. Heros Von Borcke of Stuart's staff. Of course in retrospect the most remarkable thing about the entire series is the fact that a Confederate officer is unmistakably and unapologetically the hero of the piece!
Not a photo from my past this time, but a scanned artifact I still own from 1958! This Dell comic was based on the then-popular syndicated TV series The Gray Ghost starring B-movie actor Tod Andrews as Maj. John Singleton Mosby which had a lot to do with increasing my interest in the Civil War. I've fairly recently watched a few of the thirty-odd episodes which are overall representative of 1950's westerns where each one is a mini morality play. The end credits claim that Virgil Carrington Jones, author of the book Gray Ghosts and Rebel Raiders, served as historical consultant; maybe so, but the series is full of mistakes of all kinds, both historical and technical ones concerning weapons, props, and typical "Hollywood" costumes. Beards are a great problem too: most don't have them and the few historical characters that do (Jeb Stuart for example) remind me of the saying of a friend about someone looking as if he had a raccoon taped to his face! Among the supporting cast I've noticed then-beginning actress Angie Dickinson and Austrian immigrant John Banner (later Sgt. Schulz from Hogan's Heroes fame) as Maj. Heros Von Borcke of Stuart's staff. Of course in retrospect the most remarkable thing about the entire series is the fact that a Confederate officer is unmistakably and unapologetically the hero of the piece!
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