FESTUS HAGGEN

[williamlayton]

Or, Ken Curtis, "Sons of thePioneers" all one and the same.
Often in John Ford's stock company with John Wayne.
Remember "Kathleen ?"
Tommy Dosey's chosen replacement for Frank Sinatra ??
Myowself relates too him.
Blessings

[jh45gun]

One heck of a nice guy and a great singer. I had the opportunity to meet him back in the early 70's when he was performing at a rodeo in Spooner WI. Back then (60's and early 70's )  they used to hire a lot of the early 50's and 60's western stars for a main attraction for the rodeo. Some I remember that were there were the guy that played Bill Hawkes on wagon train. and the guy who played Candy from Bonanza. The guy who played Bill Hawkes was absusive and a drunk who went downtown and got hammered them come back and put on a lousy show he kinda spelled the end of hireing actors for the main attraction though by that time the western was fading from the tv screens. Out of all of them Ken put on the best show and I got to meet him when my mother who wrote for several of the upper WI papers interviewed him.  I had just caught a 28 pound musky and had a picture of it and Ken autographed it saying "I fished bettern then he did and a heap bettern then that old skudder doc"  Somehow in the course of the years and moving around the pic got lost. I always felt bad about that as it was a great keepsake from a fine actor and a better man.

[chuckles]

One of my all time favorite actors. Great in Gunsmoke and a lot of other westerns. The Searchers is my all time favorite movie and he had a good role in that one too. I think he was from Fresno CA or there abouts. Just found out he was from Colorado but lived and died in Fresno. RIP Festus.

[jh45gun]

Forgot to add that Ken Liked the Northern WI area so well he bought a cabin on the Eau Clair Lakes Chain in Douglas Co. Not sure how long he had or used it but I know it for a fact as the guy who ran the Rodeo in Spooner had a cabin on the same chain of lakes and he set up the deal for Festus.  I suppose he sold it in later years.

[Skunk]

Jh45Gun,

Interesting Northern Wisconsin trivia there. I live up in Northern Wisconsin and enjoy hearing such things.

I've been told that Bill Murray of Saturday Night Live fame has a cabin on the chain of lakes in the Three Lakes, WI. area. Of course it is a fact that the infamous John Dillinger and his outlaw gang used Northern Wisconsin as one of their main hideouts when the Feds from down South put on the heat.

Harboring criminals and movie stars - Now who said Wisconsin was only good for its cheese. 

By the way, which papers did your mom write for? Could be I've read some of her articles.

Skunk

[jh45gun]

Hey Skunk, She wrote for the Superior Telegram and the  Duluth News Tribune. She took her own pictures and wrote the articles. Lots of them were feature articles of the Gordon WI area where we lived or of the general area. Later when we lived in the Spooner area she wrote for that local paper at times too if I remember right it was called the Spooner Advocate. The owner of that paper Bill Stewart was the guy who ran the Rodeo and owned the property on the Eau Clair Lakes  Chain in Douglas Co and got Festus interested in buying some property there. If you have done any Reading of the Gordon MacQuarry books or articles you will remember that he had a cabin on the same chain of lakes. As a interesting side note he also got his start at the Superior Paper. I really liked his stories of hunting ducks in the area and fishing the local trout streams like the Brule.

[Bear Rider]

By coincidence, last night I happened to watch the episode of "Have Gun, Will Travel" where Monk (Ken Curtis) goes to San Francisco. During that show Curtis sings basically a capella. An absolutely marvelous voice.

[jh45gun]

Yep Ken had a good set of pipes on him. That showed how good an actor he was listening to Festus you would never guess he had such a great singing ability. Truely one of the good guys. With the exception of actors like Tom Sellect and a few others the rest of hollywerd these days is pitiful, a bunch of Liberal anti gun pukes. Speaking of Selleck he is due for an other good western if he can talk the buttheads in hollyweird to do so. 

[jh45gun]

By coincidence, last night I happened to watch the episode of "Have Gun, Will Travel" where Monk (Ken Curtis) goes to San Francisco. During that show Curtis sings basically a capella. An absolutely marvelous voice.

I always liked that show it was different than the average western of the time.

[Skunk]

Jh45Gun,

Good info there again. Those newspapers would have been a bit far West for my area, but I have relatives over in those parts and I'll bet they remember your Mom's writings.

I'll be on the look-out for Gordon MacQuarry books or articles. Thanks for the tip.

Skunk

[jh45gun]

A tip if you go to the Library you will find the books of the articles he wrote for the big Three sporting mags of the time Field and Stream, Sports Afield and Outdoor Life. The books may be under his name but look also for Zack Taylor and Keith Crowley. The last author wrote a good book about MacQuarrie I got this off the web for ya.  If ya ever sat in a duck blind or wet a line in a trout stream or shot a grouse or two this is required reading. 

Gordon MacQuarrie: The Story of an Old Duck Hunter


Keith Crowley Biography
Table of Contents
By Keith Crowley with Foreword by Michael McIntosh

Hardcover: $34.95
ISBN: 0-87020-343-6
Paperback: $22.95
ISBN: 0-87020-344-4
186 pages, b/w photographs, 6x9"
Buy Now
Although his typewriter has been silent for nearly fifty years, Gordon MacQuarrie's words continue to inspire generations of hunting and fishing enthusiasts. Through his "Stories of the Old Duck Hunters," most of which are still in print, MacQuarrie captured the intangible, emotional qualities of the outdoor life in a way that made him unique among his peers. As a result, his audience and his legend continue to grow.
Gordon MacQuarrie: The Story of an Old Duck Hunter is the first full-length biography of this literary legend. It explores the relationships he nurtured and treasured; records his coming of age during Theodore Roosevelt's Conservation Movement; documents his rise to national prominence as the first full-time, professional outdoor writer in America; and follows his life as journalist, storyteller, husband, father, outdoorsman, and conservationist.   and By Zack Taylor who basically compiled MacQuarrie's articles into several books:  Stories of the Old Duck Hunters and Other Drivel,  More Stories of the Old Duck Hunters, Flyfishing with MacQuarrie: Fifteen Classic Tales
 ,  Gordon Macquarrie Trilogy: Last Stories of the Old Hunters/More Stories of the Old Duck Hunters/Stories of the Old Duck Hunters. 


Gordon MacQuarrie
1900-1956
Inducted 1998

 
Gordon MacQuarrie, born July 3, 1900, was a native of Superior. Following his graduation from UW-Madison, he became a cub reporter for the Superior Evening Telegram and became its managing editor until he joined the Milwaukee Journal in 1936. Even before 1936, he wrote guest columns for the Journal on outdoor subjects at a time when this was new and unusual.

He penned personal tales of trout and bass fishing, duck and grouse hunting, retrievers, hounds, and the whole spectrum of the outdoors. He authored articles for national outdoor magazines as well as the newspaper, and his collected stories were compiled into books like Stories of the Old Duck Hunters and Other Drivel. MacQuarries' contributions were cut short be a fatal heart attack at the age of 56. The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters annually awards the Gordon MacQuarrie Award in his memory for "distinguished contribution to and achievement in environmental communication."