Back in the 50's, there was an incredible glut of Western TV shows. By the 60's, the number had dwindled to only a few. "Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke" were still around, but attempts to add more manure to the shitty prime time schedules dominated by sitcoms and bad variety shows, failed. You might vaguely remember "Lancer," or the almost laughable "Custer," or the weird Chuck Connors items "Branded" and "Cowboy in Africa."
There were also "Bonanza"-type shows that tried to give us a view of our sprawling American West, and brawling American families. "The Big Valley" was one of those, with Barbara Stanwyck supervising a slightly more interesting bunch besides the usual cowboys. There was, after all, Linda Evans. And there was another Linda...LINDA CRISTAL, hanging around "The High Chaparral."
You might well ask what the FUCK is a "Chaparral." Is it the apparel a chap would wear? The show lasted from 1967-1971, and I don't think too many people cared about the scenery and landscape...just the face and body of LINDA CRISTAL.
Linda has passed on (February 23 1931 – June 27 2020 and here's a musical tribute to her...the mediocre theme song for this mediocre show.
David Rose composed some good theme music. This isn’t necessarily the best example. He also wrote two instrumental hits: "Holiday for Strings" in 1944 and 'The Stripper," a #1 smash in 1962.
Rose worked on several TV westerns, composing incidental music for "Bonanza," and also for the forgotten 1967 hour, "Dundee and the Culhane," which starred John Mills as an urbane lawyer dealing with the wild wild west. For some reason, that show can't even be sampled on YouTube.
The theme he wrote for "The High Chaparral" opens with notes that seem copped from Leonard Bernstein (“Tonight, tonight, won’t be like…) NO no, this is a WESTERN, not a West Side Story. Rose also makes use of the Dimitri Tioimkin stutter-rhythm that, I guess, was supposed to imitate horses galloping. Or something. Oh well, I think David Rose was busier dealing with his regular job as band leader for "The Red Skelton Hour," (where "Holiday of Strings" was flogged constantly) and who knows, when he wasn't watching Red make an ass of himself, David was still shaking his head over how Judy Garland wanted him to fuck her in the ass. But I digress.
Let's see some ludicrous but sexy publicity stills on Linda...
Linda was a nice lady. She autographed a few photos for me. I wasn't geeking her at a memorabilia show...this was purely a free, mutual-respect thing. I did know quite a lot of famous people back in the day, and I sure appreciated beautiful ladies.
I put the photos down on a Moon Martin and a Patti Dahlstrom album -- which is of course, proof that I didn't merely swipe photos off of eBay or Google. This isn't a Dutch liar blogging. And it's a bit ridiculous the fanboys who "pay for it," going from table to table to get one minute with a star and think it means anything to that star except some extra bucks in the purse. But, let's not digress again...
Linda was an exotic beauty from Argentina, with the requisite load of names (Marta Victoria Moya Peggo Burges). Her looks typed her pretty much for Indian roles, and for roles in a load of those "sword and sandal" movies which were so popular in the 50's. Her debut was as "Margarita" in "Comanche" (1956), and she slid from the 50's into the 60's with both Westerns (she was Flaca in John Wayne's "The Alamo) and yeah...."Legions of the Nile" (1959) and "The Pharoah's Woman" (1960).
Her greatest fame came, of course, when she was on FREE TV, and millions could watch her week after week (Friday nights, 7:30 to 8:30) on "The High Chaparral." She only appeared in a few guest-star roles after the series ended, including a "Love Boat" episode in 1981. Her last film role was as Nancy Chavez in the film "Mr. Majestyk" in 1974. Lovely, majestic...LINDA CRISTAL...still sailing in some of our dreams.
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