Draw and Paint Tom Mix. 96 pages with a full-page picture on every page. No stupid text to take away from your crayon pleasure. For those uninitiated, Tom Mix was a silent movies western star, and had in fact been a deputy sheriff in my home county in Kansas. Book also at amazon: The Amazing Tom Mix: The Most Famous Cowboy of the Movies. You can see several shorts of his at youtube.

Hugh O’Brian, TV’s Wyatt Earp Sings, ABC-Paramount, ABC-203. 1957. I know this cover is all beat up, but I still thought it was cool. And it was free. I’ve seen a few episodes of this show I think. Either that or Bat Masterson. You know how all those strong guys from the 1950s look alike.

Marty Robbins, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, Columbia CL 1349. 1959. “Big Iron” “Cool Water” “Billy the Kid” “A Hundred and Sixty Acres” “They’re Hanging Me Tonight” “Strawberry Roan” “El Paso” In the Valley” “The Master’s Call” “Running Gun” “Down in the Little Green Valley” “Utah Carol” Marty Robbins had a 30-year career placing singles on the Country Western chart from 1952 to 1983. “El Paso” was his only #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s a rather pathetic song, a guy loves “wicked Felina” and dies because of his love for this wicked woman. I like the almost pink cover with a man in black with a gun. Amazon has the CD of Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songsand one withMore Gunfighter Ballads.

Paint Your Wagon Soundtrack gatefold album cover and booklet. Paramount Records PMS 1001. 1969. I have no idea why this movie was a hit. It is boring beyond belief. I expected more with Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. I could never finish it. The album I have is in NM shape however, and the booklet is too. Let me know if you want it.

A very rich man (Ralph Bellamy) hires four “professionals” to go into Mexico and get his kidnapped wife (Claudia Cardinale) back. Henry ‘Rico’ Fardan (Lee Marvin) is the leader of the four. He and Bill Dolworth (Burt Lancaster) fought together in the Mexican Revolution with Raza (Jack Palance), the kidnapper. Fardan had a Mexican wife who was killed. Dolworth is only interested in women, money, and adventure. Jake Sharp (Woody Strode) is a tracker and the under-appreciated Robert Ryan plays Hans Ehrengard a horse expert. The four men go deep into Mexico trying to avoid Raza’s men (of which there are many), get the girl, and make it back to the States. Seems straight-forward enough, but there is a slight twist to the plan.

The Professionals is a great action movie and western with interesting characters. There could have been more conflict between the four, in fact there was opportunity for some serious confrontation when one decision endangers the mission, but they are professionals and they just let it go and carry on with the what they have set out to do. This movie touches on bonding, and friendship as well as loyalty to more than one’s self. Highly recommended.

The Professionals. Directed by Richard Brooks. Written by Richard Brooks from the novel by Frank O’Rourke. Starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Woody Strode, Robert Ryan, Claudia Cardinale, Jack Palance, Ralph Bellamy. 117 minutes. 1966. Rated PG-13 (which didn’t exist in 1966!) for violence and some side views of a woman.