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Daniel D. Aranda
Daniel D. Aranda is a member of the Dona Ana County Historical Society and the El Paso Corral of Westerners. He has written numerous articles for Real West and True West magazines. He makes his living as a captain with the NASA fire department at White Sands Test Facility.
Richard Arlen
(Deceased)
Richard Arlen, actor, was born as Van Mattimore on September 1, 1899 at Charlottesville, VA. . He served in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps during World War I.
Richard Arlen moved to Los Angeles and got a job as a motorcycle messenger. He literally crashed into the gates at Paramount Pictures, while delivery a letter. And, while receiving medical attention from the studio staff, they were impressed by his good looks. And they offered him a contract.
His next big break came when he was cast as a pilot in "Wings", a 1927 silent film with 'Charles 'Buddy' Rogers' and Clara Bow. The story of fighter aces would win the Oscar for Best Picture and Richard Arlen would continue to play the tough, cynical hero throughout his career.
Richard Arlen started going deaf in the late 1940's, but he had an operation in 1949 which restored his hearing. He went on making a handful of adventures and Westerns through the 1950's and 1960's.
CLICK HERE to see Richard Arlen's extensive filmography.
He died of emphysema on March 28, 1976 in North Hollywood, CA. He is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery (T-T57-130) in Culver City, CA.
Margaret Armen
Margaret Armen was born on Sept. 9, 1921 at Washington, D.C. Her father was a dental officer in the Navy, so the family lived in Manila, Panama, Japan and spent four very important years in Peking, China, where she learned to speak the Mandarin language. She and her family were in Peking the night of the first Communist takeover.She received her A.B. degree in English Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. Then she took creative TV writing at UCLA. She married a young naval officer, Garo Armen, on June 30, 1945. He is now deceased.
Prior to her marriage, Margaret Armen wrote numerous short stories and news articles. Then in 1959 she began writing scripts for the "Rifleman" television series. That experience led to the sale of other scripts to other TV programs, including The Rebel, Lawman, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Bonanza, The Big Valley, The Detectives, Star Trek, Cannon, Ironside, ABC Mystery Movie, Sixth Sense, Jason of Star Command, Barnaby Jones, Fantasy Island, and Walt Disney Wonderful World of Color. In addition, she has written scripts for movies of the week and for various TV pilots.
Stan Paregien, Jr. and Margaret Armen
National Cowboy Hall of FameArmen has been a member of WWA since 1968. She is also a member of Writers Guild of America, West and was elected to that organization's board in 1976. And she holds a membership in the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences.
She has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award for her script writing. And as an accomplished equestrian, she has won Silver Cups and Blue Ribbons for horsemanship in both English and Western class competition.
When not writing scripts, Margaret Armen enjoys English and Western horseback riding. She served on the Writers Guild board of directors for three years, and was on the board of governors of the Television Academy for two years. She claims to be retired, but has just completed and sold a western novel. (See her photo and Maggie Weisberg's article about her in the February, 1976 issue of The Roundup.)
Pedro Armendariz, Jr.
Pedro Armendariz, Jr., movie actor in both the US and Mexico, was born on May 9, 1912 in Ciudad de México. He grew up in San Antonio, Texas and studied at the California Polythecnic Institute. His best-known English-speaking Western was his co-starring role, with John Wayne and Harry Carey, Jr., in "The Three Godfathers".
Pedro Armendariz, Jr.'s movie credits included: Los Caciques, El Corrido Del Hijo Desobediente, Cosa Facil, Dias De Combate, La Ilegal, Maria Candelaria, Mas Negro Que La Noche, Todo Por Nada, El Zorro De Jalisco, Ni Solteros Ni Casados, Dos Hijos Desobedientes, El Zorro De Jalisco 2, Matar O Morir, Flor Silvestre (1945), The Fugitive (1947), Three Godfathers (1948), John Steinbeck's the Pearl (1948), El Bruto (1952), The Littlest Outlaw (1954), Diane (1956), and Captain Sinbad (1963).
He committed suicide on June 18, 1963 in Los Angeles, CA.
James Arness
James Arness was born in Minneapolis, MN. on May 26, 1923. He served in the army during World War II. He fought in the Battle of Anzio (Italy), where he was wounded and subsequently received a Purple Heart.
Back home in Minnesota after the War, he broke into "show biz" in 1945 as a radio announcer.1945. He soon moved to Los Angeles, though. And he got a lot of good exposure when he starred with Loretta Young in "The Farmers Daughter" (1946), a film for which Young won an Oscar.
Arness was still a young, struggling actor when he accepted a role as "The Thing" in the science fiction movie of the same name. The movie was a big hit way back there in 1951, and it is considered a "classic" though the mystery and danger are entirely laughable to today's audiences.
He met cowboy king John Wayne and they hit it off. So from 1952 to 1955 he was under contract to Wayne's production company, "Bat Jack Enterprises".
The producers of a new TV Western approached John Wayne, but he was not interested in being tied down to the grind of a weekly TV series. So he recommended that consider his young associate, James Arness. They did, and the rest is TV history.
"Gunsmoke" kicked off their first show in the fall of 1955, with John Wayne introduced James Arness to the audience. At 6'7", Arness was certainly the tallest marshal on TV. From 1955 through 1975 he played marshal Matt Dillon of Dodge City, KS. It became the longest running dramatic series ever produced.
CLICK HERE to hear the Gunsmoke theme song.
Along the way Arness found time to star in five Gunsmoke made-for-TV . When his Gunsmoke days ended, he starred in another TV Western series, "How the West Was Won," from 1976 to 1979.
James Arness, a man who is truly a legend to people around the world, was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. There is a portrait of him along side the likes of Ben Johnson, John Wayne, Walter Brennan, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.
His brother, Peter Graves, is also a successful actor who starred for several years in the "Mission Impossible" series.
Jim Arness's Western movie credits include "Alias Jessie James (1959), "Gun the Man Down" (1965), Many Rivers to Cross (1955), Horizons West (1952), Big Jim McLain (1952), Cavalry Scout (1951), Sierra (1950), Wyoming Mail (1950), and Wagonmaster (1950).
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of James Arness.
Al Arnold & Karyl Arnold
When should you give up on trying to sell your Western novel? Two years? Five years? Ten years? It took Al and J. Karyl Arnold 12 years to sell their first Western novel. Al and J. Karyl write Western novels as a team, using the combined name of A.J. Arnold. The book is Dead Man's Cache (Ballantine, 1988).They also teach creative writing classes and seminars for the Akron Manuscript Club, the oldest writers' organization in Ohio. They began writing Westerns because Al had read and loved them all of his life.
Al was born on Sept. 23, 1924. He farmed for 40 years, then worked for eight years as a shipping and receiving supervisor. He retired from all that in October, 1986, and got serious about getting published. Two months later they had an agent. And five months later, a contract.
J. Karyl was born on July 27, 1944. She and Al were married on Oct. 29, 1971. She is a former high school English, drama, French and Spanish teacher who served as drama director and coach of the debate teams. She sings with the County Chorus, and occasionally with church choirs. She has had many poems published in small press magazines (Mountain Arts Review, A Different Drummer ) and writers contests, and she has served on the board of directors of Ohio Poetry Day. She has a special interest in researching the culture of the Plains Indians. They are both interested in square dancing, metaphysics, reading and classical music.
Darrell Arnold
Darrell Edward Arnold was born on July 14, 1946, Arnold received his B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University in 1968. He is married to the former Jeannie McCabe.
Darrell worked as a city fireman at Grand Junction, Colo. during 1974-75, while also working as a freelance writer. He has been since 1972 a registered X-Ray technician. He was the feature editor with Texas Longhorn Journal before becoming associate editor of Western Horseman in January, 1985.
His articles have appeared in Colorado Outdoors, Western Horseman, Empire, Draft Horse Journal, Texas Longhorn Journal, Farm and Ranch Living, Nissan, and Cascade Horseman.
He is the author of In the Shadow of the Peaks (1984) and of Cowboys Und Ranches Heute (published in Germany by Ludwig Schneider, 1987).
The grandson of a horse trader and teamster, Arnold confesses to a lifelong love of horses and the West. He says, "I have traversed the West many times writing articles and taking photographs about the people of the West--including cowboys, ranchers, rodeo performers, artists, authors and celebrities. My articles in Western Horseman, along with the rest of the magazine, are aimed at people who are interested in the West, in horses, and in a western style of life."
J. Karyl Arnold,
(See: Arnold, Al)
Eddy Arnold
Eddy Arnold, one of the most successful entertainers of all time, was born Richard Edward Arnold on May 15, 1918 in Henderson, Tenn. He was raised on a farm in Tennessee. His father played both the bass and the fiddle, so he was exposed to music at an early age. After he showed some interest, his mom bought him a cheap beginner's guitar when he was 10 year-old. The next year his father died, and Eddy had to drop out of school to help work the family farm. But they eventually lost it.
However, the music bug had bitten young Eddy. And he playing in dance bands as often as he could. He first appeared on a radio station in Jackson, Tenn. Then he moved northwest to St. Louis, Mo. He played in local nightclubs and on the radio.
Eddy Arnold married his sweetheart, Sally Gayhart, on Nov. 28, 1941. Little did they know what lay ahead. Nine days later, on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and plunged the country into World War II.
He became a member of the "Camel Caravan," a traveling show sponsored by the makers of Camel cigarettes. The troupe included such talent as Minnie Pearl, Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys, and Redd Stewart. They criss-crossed the U.S. and even played in Panama. Along the way he became the lead singer in the Golden West Cowboys. Someone called him "The Tennessee Plowboy," which he certainly had been, and the label stuck. And he took as his personal theme song, the Western tune "Cattle Call".
Eddy Arnold had his first recording session with RCA Records in 1944. One of those songs, "Cattle Call" (written by Doye "Tex" Owens in 1934), became the first in an amazing string of 145 chart singles. In 1945 he released "Each Minute Seems a Million Years" and it went all the way to 5th place on the charts. He followed that up, in 1946, with "That's How Much I Love You". It went up to 3rd place on the charts. People were sitting up and paying attention to this "Tennessee Plowboy".
Arnold hit not just one home run but two in 1947. Two of his songs, "What Is Life Without Love" and "It's A Sin," went all the way to Number One. Two in one year. What could ever top that?
Well, it didn't take long to answer that question. He next recorded a song called, "I'll Hold You In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms)." That record spent an astounding 21 weeks as the #1 country/hillbilly record, then crossed over a seldom-traveled bridge to rise to the 30th spot on the pop charts. Before it was through it would be the best-selling recording of any song recorded in the entire decade of the 1940's. The Tennessee Plowboy was doing okay.
In 1948 he absolutely owned the charts. He recorded nine singles and they all did well. Each made it to the top five, while five of them rang the bell as Number One performers. Those five chart toppers were: "Anytime," "What a Fool I Was," "Texarkana Baby," "Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long, Long Way)," "My Daddy Is Only a Picture," and "Bouquet of Roses." The Plowboy was also getting very wealthy.
By now he had attracted the attention of a savy manager, one Colonel Tom Parker. You may remember Mr. Parker from his stint, some years later, as the manager of a young kid from Mississippi name Elvis Presley. Together, Arnold and Parker cruised through 1949 with ten records making up to the Top Ten in the charts. And these four hit each hit Number One: "Don't Rob Another Man's Castle," "One Kiss Too Many," "I'm Throwing Rice (At the Girl I Love)," and "Take Me In Your Arms and Hold Me."
Eddy Arnold became the very first country star to a TV show of his own, appropriately called , "Eddy Arnold Time". And the hit records just kept rolling along. He had had seven Top Ten hits in 1950 and thirteen in 1951. Five of those hits in 1951 made it to Number One: "There's Been a Change in Me," "Kentucky Waltz," "I Wanna Play House With You," "Easy on the Eyes," and "A Full Time Job." Ah, yes, when you're hot, you're hot.
The fact is, though, that Eddy Arnold was changing. His records, as well as his personal appearances, began to refect a more mainstream approach. He had become smooth and polished, a crooner of songs with mass appeal rather than a hillbilly singer.
In 1955, he recorded "Cattle Call" with a decidedly pop slant. "The Tennesse Plowboy" went all the way to New York City and recorded it with the Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra. It became a big hit for him and introduced Western/cowboy music to many who otherwise would never have had that exposure. Still, it wasn't done Gene Autry style.
Whether it was that change in style or audiences tiring of a one-man musical industry-- or more likely the advent of rock and roll followed by the Beatles-- the hits no longer were coming with such dizzying frequency. It was not until 1965 that he knocked the lights out, again, with a Number One hit titled, "What's He Doing In My World." He continued to have periodic country/pop hits through 1969.
He had three big hits in the 1970's: "I Wish That I Had Loved You Better" (1974), "Cowboy" (1976), and "If Everyone Had Someone Like You" (1978). But, hold on, he wasn't quite done. He saw two of his songs sail into the Top 10 in 1980: "Let's Get It While the Gettin's Good" and "That's What I Get for Loving You".
However, the fat lady had not sung the last note then, either. Eddy Arnold retired from live performances in May of 1999. But he had recorded a duet with LeAnn Rimes earlier that year, another version of his famous "Cattle Call" song. And, lo and behold, that single rocketed into the country music charts in December of 1999 and carried over into January of 2000. That marked Eddy Arnold's seventh consecutive decade on the charts. Seven decades. The 1940's. The 1950's. The 1960's. The 1970's. The 1980's. The 1990's. And, now, the 2000's. Amazing.
And his record sales are closing in on 90 million. Not to shabby for a plowboy from Tennessee.
Eddy Arnold, not surprizingly, has received a number of awards over his long career. In 1966, he was elected to the prestigious Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1966 the Country Music Association gave him their first-ever "Entertainer of the Year" award. In 1984 the Academy of Country Music presented their "Pioneer Award". And in 1987 he received "The President's Award" from the Songwriters Guild. He received the National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment of the Arts in 2000.
Biography written in 1997On Oct. 7, 2002 a large number of Nashville's royalty -- i.e., music stars -- gathered for a four-hour musical tribute to Eddy Arnold. The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the Nashville Association of Musicians (Local 257 of the American Federation of Musicians), held at the Grand Ole Opry House. They presented the 84-year-old Arnold with the "Artist of the Century" award.
Oh, a final word about that cowboy song, "Cattle Call". Eddy Arnold, following his latest time (1944, 1955, 1999-2000) to have a hit with it, said: "I have performed for all kinds of audiences, people in different stations in life --- diplomats, presidents. I have never been before an audience in my lifetime that "Cattle Call" was not apropros. I don't care who they are, they want to hear 'Cattle Call'" (interview in Country Music, Aug./Sept., 200, p. 64; has a great photo of him)
CLICK HERE to hear the "Cattle Call" melody.
Samuel P. Arnold
Arnold is the author of Frying Pans West.
Budd Arthur
Budd Arthur and his famous father, the late Burt Arthur, wrote The Stranger (1959), Manhunt (1959), Mission to Paradise (1959), Quemado (1960), Crossed Trails (1960), Three Guns North (1961), Ambush (1961), Shadow Valley (1962), Big Red (1962), Rowan Woman (1962), Empty Saddles (1963), Requiem for a Gun (1963), Ride a Crooked Trail (1964), Action at Truxton (1965), Walk Tall, Ride Tall (1965), Ride the Prairie Wind (1967), Saga of Denny McCune (1967), and The Marriage Bed (1968). Some of their books have been reprinted many times, including Brothers of the Range (Tower Books, 1980), Canavan's Trail (Leisure Books, 1984), Ride a Crooked Trail (Tower Books, 1979), The Saga of Denny McCune (Tower Books, 1979), Three Guns North (Tower Books, 1979), Westward the Wagons (Tower Books, 1979).Budd also wrote mystery novels.
(See Budd's warm tribute to his father--plus photos of each--in the July, 1975 issue of The Roundup.)
Burt Arthur
(Deceased)
Burt Arthur died on March 15, 1975, in Chicago at the age of 76. He wrote some 100 novels, plus numerous plays and short stories. (See his obituary in the May,1975 issue of The Roundup). He was survived by his wife and by his son, Budd.Burt Arthur attended Columbia University and began his career with a Dallas newspaper. He had lived in Chicago since 1973. He was a long-time member of WWA. In a touching tribute to his father, Budd Arthur said that Burt used an Underwood portable typewriter to grind out "everything from radio soap operas to a film shot in a jungle setting housed in a Manhattan garage..... There were other films, more radio, television stories and more and more Westerns. There were novels and novelettes and cut versions of cut reversions for the fourth and fifth reprint markets. There was something for everyone who had a printing press and his outpourings reached every continent in a babble of languages and entertained millions.
"Mysteries were easier, he told me. Non-fiction paid better, he said. Writing was no way for a sensible person to attempt to make a living, he swore" (The Roundup, July, 1975).
Burt Arthur wrote such Western novels as The Black Rider (1941), Valley of Death (1941), Trail Dust (1941), Chenango Pass (1942), The Gunfighter (1942), The Texas Rangers (1942), Border Incident (1942), O-Bar-O Days (1943), The Claim Jumpers (1943), The Hunted (1943), The Shorthorns (1943), Mustang Marshall (1943), Gunsmoke in Paradise (1944), Trouble at Moon Pass (1944), Silver City (1944), The Lawmen (1944), Sagebrush Saga (1944), Thunder Over the Range (1944), Guns of Vengeance (1945), Rainbow Trail (1945), The Last Trail (1945), Bullet Trail (1945), Woman in the White House (1945).
In 1946 he wrote Gunsmoke Over Utah, High Pockets , Range Law, Canyon Pass and his all-time best seller The Texan. In 1947 he had published The Line Rider, Men and Guns, The Buckaroo, The Long Trail, The Range Riders, The Californians, and Storm River. Then his 1948 books included Boss of the Far West, Lonesome Trail, Death Trail, Trail Breakers, Westward the Wagons, Boots and Saddles, Ride Out for Revenge and Long West Trail.
In 1949 he wrote Nevada, High Mount, Killers' Moon, Blood Trail, Ambush at Canyon Pass, and Rustlers' Range. Then in 1950 he wrote Stirrups in the Dust, Trouble Town, Bugles in the Night, Holster Law, The Sky Trail and Wagon Wheels. In 1951 he wrote The Gun Slinger, Two-Gun Texan, Freedom Run, Thunder Valley, Man With a Gun, The Avengers, and The Vigilantes. Then in 1952 he wrote The Killer, Gunplay at the X-Bar-X, Law of the Gun, The Marshal, Duel on the Range, and Killers' Crossing.
In 1953 he wrote Wagons West, The Sheriff, Border Town, No Other Love, and Gun-Law on the Range. His 1954 books were Wolf Head Pass, Outlaw Fury, The Dakotan, Two-Gun Outlaw, Homecoming, and Montana Story.
In 1955 he wrote Blood and Water, The Drifter, Action at Spanish Flat, Colt Law, and The Ghost Rider. In 1956, Texas Sheriff and Return of the Texan, and in 1957, Tin Star, Gunsmoke in Nevada and Eagle Pass. In 1958, The Maverick, Deadfall, and Dakota Story. He also wrote Peaceful Valley (1959), The Free Lands (1964), Showdown (1967), Way of Man (1967) and Lead Hungry Lobos.
Burt Arthur and his son, Budd Arthur (a long-time WWA member), wrote The Stranger in 1959 and Action at Truxton in 1965. Some of their books have been reprinted many times, including Brothers of the Range (Tower Books, 1980), Canavan's Trail (Leisure Books, 1984), Ride a Crooked Trail (Tower Books, 1979), The Saga of Denny McCune (Tower Books, 1979), Three Guns North (Tower Books, 1979), Westward the Wagons (Tower Books, 1979).
This listing is far from complete and may
contain errors. Therefore, all Westerners and/or
their agents are requested to submit recommended
changes by contacting Stan Paregien through
his e-mail address.
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
