I caught Zombos just as he was falling backwards, thrown off balance by yet another heavy box of movie pressbooks he had squirreled away in his closet, as he lifted with his back, not his legs.
“How many of these do we have tucked away in here,” he mumbled. I disagreed with his use of the word “we.”
“You mean how many of these heavy boxes you have stashed in the closet?” I corrected him. “I’m thinking a lot. Enough to keep you busy way past my death, so there’s a positive note for you right there.”
He gave me that look of his that could peel paint, then opened the box and rummaged through it. “Oh, here it is. I have been meaning to post this one for some time.”
Again with the we.
He handed the pressbook to me. Cowboys and Indians tussling was a common theme through many westerns. Flaming Frontiers, a 15-chapter Universal serial with John (or Johnny) Mack Brown, followed his Tex Houston as he protected settlers and maintained the peace. Names like Tex Houston were also common in westerns. As he makes his rounds, a mean villain stirs up the prairie between Settlers and Indians (in the old parlance), to hide his stealing of land and what’s on it. Tex outdraws, shoots from the hip, and rides into danger to right the wrong being done. Brown was a college football star so he had the build and look to be lean, clean, and wholesome.
The serial was filmed at Universal City, California, and ran close to five hours across all the chapters. It was a remake of Heroes of the West (1932) (according to Wikipedia). The Files of Jerry Blake notes that a lot of stock footage taken from silent movies was used for the Indian attack scenes. While usually a budget-only consideration, the older footage actually worked well to sell the more authentic Old West atmosphere it gave to the serial. Much of Flaming Frontiers was reused in Lon Chaney’s Overland Mail (1932) serial.
Eleanor Hansen, who played the always-needed-rescuing Mary Grant, had a limited career in Hollywood. 1938 seems to be the only year she appeared in movies, with The Mad Miss Manton, a higher profile outing with Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, in the list with Blondie Goes to College and a few others.
“Now, if we could find the pressbook for The Big Clock I could take a break while you scan them.” Zombos said it with no hint of irony. I gave him my patented Mr. Dark look of wonder and doom, but he was too busy falling over another box to notice.
