2007 Festival Highlights

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After playing Gene Autry in the radio re-creation of “Melody Ranch” at the Saturday night awards banquet Johnny Western put on a fabulous concert to the delight of everyone in the audience.		Adrian Booth speaks by phone with her former leading man, Monte Hale, who was at his home in California. He was celebrating his 88th birthday on June 8th when Boyd Magers placed the call during a panel. Monte’s brother, Bill, seated to Boyd’s right, also got on the phone with Monte. There was a large audience who listened in on the call and Monte was genuinely touched when everyone sang Happy Birthday to him.

Johnny Western and “Whitey” Hughes made a film together in the early 1960s called “Night Rider” which also starred Johnny Cash. It drew quite a crowd, made up in large part by a number of Whitey’s relatives who came from afar to see him.		Caren Marsh was primarily at the festival because of her work with Bob Steele who also would have been 100 years old this year.  But she also made an Army training film about avoiding sexually transmitted diseases in which she played the bad girl who gave a soldier a “dose.”

Gregg Palmer and Don Collier, both of whom worked with John Wayne several times, wait to be called up to the dais for a panel.		(left to right) Philip Loy, Mike Nevins, Mickey Kuhn, and Boyd Magers on stage shortly after the radio re-creation of “Stagecoach” concluded.

(left to right) Ray Nielsen, Boyd Magers, Ty Hardin, Johnny Western, and Gary Crain are applauded after completing the “Melody Ranch” radio re-creation they performed at the Saturday night banquet. This particular episode was the one that told the story of how Gene Autry found his horse, “Champion.” This show and the “Stagecoach” production that was done the previous night were produced by Donald and Mary Ramlow and Gary Yoggy.		“Whitey” Hughes and his wife, Dottie (to his immediate right) are surrounded by an entourage of about 40 of their relatives who attended the festival in his honor. The photo was taken on an elegant staircase at the Whispering Woods Hotel in Olive Branch, Mississippi.

Ty Hardin participated in our auction during the Saturday night banquet and offered a kiss to the high bidder.		Jimmy George (left) and “Whitey” Hughes were reunited at the festival. George had been Robert Conrad’s stunt double on “The Wild, Wild West” and Hughes was the show’s stunt coordinator.

Gregg Palmer and Don Collier kept the audience in stitches with their humorous banter during one of the panels.		This is the John Wayne commemorative saddle we had on display courtesy of the Cowboy Corner in Southaven, Mississippi. It was one of the selected stores around the country that had one of these limited edition saddles made by the Circle Y saddle makers in Texas. The saddle retailed for $10,000.

Luster Bayless, a former movie wardrobe man who costumed John Wayne in many films, accepts an award he was given at the Memphis Film Festival.

(Photos coutesy of Ray Nielsen and Jimmie Covington)

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