Fury, Peter Graves — and the ’60s

Great music video tribute for “Fury”

Fury sure must like that bridle, huh? To run off with it like that?

What Italian I know is what I see on the restaurant menu,  so I can’t translate any of that audio, although I’m betting cavallo is horse.   Still, I can imagine that bunch from the Broken Wheel Ranch galloping along behind Fury and calling out, “Fury, come back. You’ve got our bridle!”

And, from what you’ll read below, he might have understood.

FWIW, I did not bring up Fury to snark. Besides commenting on the recent passing of actor Peter Graves, I’m trying to do here is pay tribute to Saturday mornings past, to an era that preceded the revolution and to some actors who were around for the whole shebang.

Still, my sense of humor refuses sit quietly. And, thanks to the spin of the web browser, I find some of the durnedest things …

Fury and Saturday morning TV’s golden age

Long, long ago – back when there were only three channels to watch because public television just didn’t come in well on our antenna TV — Saturday morning had the best TV shows of the week.

Roy and Trigger and Dale and Buttermilk (and Bullet!) A friend named Flicka. That Ranger who wore a mask and rode a white horse with blingy silver western tack.

Of course, two hours away, my future-husband the-engineer was waiting through all that horse and cowboy stuff to get to “Sky King,” which I admit that I loved to watch, too.

But my favorite was “Fury,” about a wild black stallion that had bonded with a teenage  boy in the modern West.

I was a fan of “Fury” before I could read,  before I knew about Walter Farley’s “The  Black Stallion,” which had been first published in 1941.

Now, I wonder if, when Hollywood execs came up with an idea for a show about a ranch boy and a wild black horse, if the suits hadn’t gone all “high concept” and pitched the show as “like that Walter Farley book – but out West!”

Peter Graves – RIP

But the recent, as of this writing, passing of actor Peter Graves awakened some memories. For more about Graves, see Ken Tucker’s Entertainment Weekly tribute to Graves. And here’s a bio from the  Broken Wheel Ranch site, which is all about the Fury show and its people.

Graves made many, many other westerns. For you youngsters out there, back in those days when Elvis had new hits coming out, westerns were as ubiquitous on TV as cop shows are now.

Even though this post is about “Fury,” here’s another video excerpt from a Peter Graves western TV series called “Whiplash.” The series aired in the UK in 1960 and was written by Gene Roddenberry, who’s more famous for the show he reportedly pitched as ” ‘Wagon Train’ to the stars” – Star Trek.

The video is ahead. Don’t freak when you see a western stagecoach AND kangaroos. There’ s a reason.

Excerpt video from “Whiplash” starring Peter Graves

“Fury” himself

The equine actor who played Fury was not a mustang. (Yes, I am resisting my urge to play The Horse Movie Drinking Game with this fact.)

The horse was a registered American Saddlebred known as Highland Dale. The star’s barn name, according to the fine folks at the Broken Wheel Ranch website, was “Beaut.”

Here’s Highland Dale’s pedigree. In other roles, he played Black Beauty and had scenes with Elizabeth Taylor in “Giant.”

The Broken Wheel Ranch site has some comprehensive info about Beaut, including rare photos. It also mentions the actor’s passion for carrots.

His trainer, Ralph McCutcheon

If you’ve been scrolling through that Broken Wheel Ranch page about Fury, then you already know a bit about and have seen some photos of his trainer Ralph McCutcheon.

Beaut reportedly was voice-trained and said to have known about ten words.  ON that Broken Wheel Ranch site is an on-set, behind-the-scenes photo of McCutcheon sitting on the ground to give cues to Fury. In the photo, note where the horse’s ears are pointed – straight to McCutcheon.

Beaut could play dead, untie a knot, walk as if he were lame, plus laugh and whinny on command.  Another source for information is the Horse Fame site. Also, on that site, don’t miss the fan scrapbook for Fury.

An odd but tenuous 1960s connection

What on earth could Charles Manson possibly have in common with an old cowboy horse trainer like McCutcheon?

Not what you think, my hair-trigger tree-hugging readers who might continue to insist that Beaut’s life wasn’t all carrots, sweet grass and aromatherapy.

But the next link has plenty in it that’s not for the faint-of-heart because it’s part of a memoir by an adventurer in the free-wheeling, tumultuous ’60s. This link also includes a tough reality check for horse-loving movie fans about the bad ol’ days of Hollywood to show what a forward-thinker McCutcheon really was.

On top of all that, he just happened to have a very tenuous basically neighbor-of-a-friend connection to the Manson family.

I don’t think even I could make up this.

Performer Ian Whitcomb describes his memories of knowing and working with McCutcheon late in the trainer’s life. And really – the Manson stuff is just a peripheral part of it.

Poised on the decade of change

Talk about a cross-section of the 1960′s! From ignorance and innocence to assassinations and the first “living room” war to gurus and rock music and psychopaths.

Not the note I had intended as an ending for this tribute. But even I hate to admit that, without the dark, we don’t appreciate the blessings of the light.

RIP, Peter Graves (1926-2010). Thank you for the biographies,  “roger” and the impossible missions along with those Saturday mornings in front of the TV with Fury and Joey.  We will miss the safety and stability you personified, even when spoofing yourself, throughout the years of your career.

If you’d like to geek out on Fury, here are some links:

• The Broken Wheel Ranch site
• Fury on Wikipedia

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Tags: 1950s TV, American Saddlebred, classic TV, Fury, Gene Roddenberry, Peter Graves, Ralph McCutcheon, Whiplash