Rawhide—The Complete First Season
1959, DVD 2006 (Paramount Home Video), 7 discs, 1,150 minutes.
Although the show is remembered today primarily for having introduced Clint Eastwood to the Western world, Rawhide had a lot more going for it than the future box office champion. Not the least of its assets was the unforgettable theme song, “Rawhide,” sung by the late Frankie Laine. As these first 23 hour-long black-and-white episodes clearly demonstrate, Rawhide was no more about steers than Wagon Train was about wagons. The focuses of both “traveling” shows were the people—the regulars and the guest stars. Eastwood’s character, Rowdy Yates, wasn’t even No. 1 on the endless cattle drives; he was ramrod, second-in-command to Gil Favor, the hard-nosed, no-nonsense trail boss played by the all-but-forgotten but talented Eric Fleming. The regular cast in 1959 included, among others, the gruff but kindhearted cook Wishbone (Paul Brinegar) and the valuable trail hand Pete Nolan (Sheb Wooley).
The first episode, “Incident of the Tumbleweed Wagon” (about a prison wagon that features a fetching female convict), aired on January 9, 1959. The other 22 episodes also have “Incident” in the title, and who wouldn’t be intrigued by stories with names like “Incident on the Edge of Madness” and “Incident of the Town in Terror.” The show had enough realism, grittiness and depth to please adults and to last for seven years, the final telecast coming on January 4, 1966. Eastwood needed a stint in Spain filming spaghetti Westerns before he achieved superstardom in Hollywood. As for Fleming, he drowned in Peru on September 28, 1966.
Originally published in the June 2007 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
