wild women wednesday

Mary Wiggins worshipped excitement. As a double for such screen stars as Barbara Stanwyck, Dorothy Lamour, Norma Shearer and Claudette Colbert she loved to climb the facades of tall buildings, to leap from a running horse to a speeding automobile, to fly a plane while blindfolded. Wiggins was one of the top stuntwomen during the...

Academy Award winning actress Mercedes McCambridge portrayed Joan Crawford’s vindictive nemesis in Republic Pictures’ psychological Western Johnny Guitar. She was also Rock Hudson’s strong-willed older sister in Giant.  A versatile, radio-trained character actress with a strong resonant voice, McCambridge specialized in playing forceful, domineering characters on screen. Many film critics believed she outshined Crawford in...

Jane Russell was a dark-haired siren who made her sensational debut in the 1943 Western The Outlaw inspired producer Howard Hawks to challenge the power and strict morality of Hollywood’s production code. Her provocative performance in the film – and the studio publicity shots posing her in a low-cut blouse while reclining on a stack...

For more than nineteen years, Amanda Blake’s character on Gunsmoke, Miss Kitty, gave strength and succor to the parched patrons who visited Dodge City’s Longbranch Saloon. Kitty Russell was extremely softhearted, beneath what could be a very businesslike exterior, and would have willingly become romantically involved with Marshal Matt Dillon. The few Westerns seen on...

Bullseye! The Annie Oakley Show was on the air from 1954 to 1957, and Annie hit the entertainment bullseye every week with her hard riding, straight shooting, and suspense. Actress Gail Davis portrayed the Western legend. To some, Gail was only a minor flicker in the Hollywood star system. But to others, she was something...

Reel cowgirl Ruth Roland portrayed Pearl Marvin in a dozen silent films in The Perils of Pauline series between 1915 and 1917. Fans were on the edge of their seats watching the spunky actress ride her way in and out of trouble while solving crimes.  They waited in suspended animation for the film operator to...

“I rode my first horse on a bet,” admitted World Champion cowgirl Dorothy Morrell in 1917. “That I am champion woman rider of the world today was due to an accident, or rather a dare.” At the age of twenty-four Dorothy attended a wild west exhibition in Fresno and was mesmerized by the women bronc...

The sun blazed high in a brassy sky, and heat danced in undulating waves across the high plateau town of Winslow, Arizona.  In the far distance, a train with the name Santa Fe Railway embossed on its side hurried along steel rails toward the La Posada Hotel.  It was May 15, 1930, opening day for...