Blast from the Past: When Westerns were the Saturday afternoon film of choice
Growing up many of us will recall our parents gunning for ‘cowboys’, dodgy tradesmen with plenty of patter, but shoddy skills.
But whilst they were trying to track down real rogues, us youngsters would be glued to one of the three channels on our Austin Metro-sized TV, watching cowboy gunslingers like John Wayne and his trusty steed crossing an arid landscape, as bare-chested Indians with smears of warpaint and bows and arrows looked on from craggy peaks.
Westerns were on TV every Saturday afternoon and the best vantage point for watching them was lying flat on your belly, head in hands. The cowboys were Stetson-wearing strong, silent, macho men, the sort of men who could light a match on their stubble and lift a pretty lady with one hand.
The formula was pretty standard: an outlaw, a barroom brawl, lots of bourbon swigging, a climatic shoot-out and dusty chaps galore!
At Christmas boys would get little toy guns and cowboy outfits – which made them look more Village People than Clint Eastwood!
The Magnificient Seven, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, A Fistful of Dollars….those were movie magic (she says, chewin’ on her cigar, thinking ‘there could be gold in them thar hills’).