“Rawhide” Trivia
The staff at MeTV posted 9 Tough as Leather Facts about Rawhide. Wow! This brought back great memories. I loved Rawhide as a kid. Here are three of my favorite facts and my comments on each…
Eastwood wore his ‘Rawhide’ boots in ‘Unforgiven.’ No need for a wardrobe department when it comes to Clint. To bookend his career as a cowboy, Eastwood wore his same Rowdy Yates boots in his Oscar-winning 1992 masterpiece Unforgiven.
(I absolutely love this fact! How cool is it that Eastwood could bookend his cowboy career like this? I guess you could say Eastwood’s cowboy career died with his boots on. – Craig)
Loads of soon-to-be-famous faces appeared on the show. That’s Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery taking aim in “Incident at El Crucero,” in a guest role that would foreshadow her gig as Mrs. Sundance. Star Trek crew members Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley appeared on the Western, too. Sitcom legends Buddy Ebsen, Barbara Eden, Alan Hale, Jr., June Lockhart, Gavin MacLeod, Marion Ross and William Schallert also pop up — just to name a few. Then there’s Martin Landau, Frankie Avalon, Anne Francis, Peter Lorre…
(I love watching old shows and seeing stars in an early role. Rawhide had more than its share. – Craig)
Eric Fleming died filming a canoe scene shortly after the series ended. Eastwood’s stature as an American icon overshadows the work of Fleming, the top-billed star of Rawhide. Fleming left the series in 1965 and began work on the big screen. He appeared in the Doris Day comedy The Glass Bottom Boat and then began work on location in Peru for the adventure High Jungle. When filming a scene on the Huallaga River, Fleming’s canoe overturned and the actor perished in the rapids. Urban legends about piranha developed, but those are untrue.
(Although I was about 7, I can remember adults talking about Fleming’s death and being shocked that he drowned. Never heard the piranha rumor though. – Craig)
If you’ve enjoyed these facts, check out 9 Tough as Leather Facts about Rawhide.
