The Tonya Lewis & Michael A. Paller Video
Collections
By Chuck Rand,
8/21/2008
Two collections of movie & television videos were recently acquired by the
Dickinson Research Center. The Tonya Lewis collection is comprised of 90 western
titles starring such actors as James Arness, Marlon Brando, Walter Brennan,
Chuck Connors, Steve McQueen, Audie Murphy, Randolph Scott, Barbara Stanwyck,
and John Wayne.
James Arness as Matt Dillon and the entire Dodge gang are seen in the two
50th Anniversary Gunsmoke volumes. "No Brag, Just Fact," declares Walter
Brennan as Will Sonnett in seasons 1 and 2 of The Guns of Will Sonnett.
In the six boxed set collections of The Rifleman Chuck Connors as Lucas
McCain helps Marshal Micah Torrance protect the town of North Fork, New Mexico
with his specially modified Winchester. As Josh Randall, Steve McQueen hunts
down outlaws with his sawed-off rifle holstered to his side in a collection
of Wanted: Dead or Alive episodes.
Audie Murphy appears in westerns
Gunsmoke and
Night Passage and
Randolph Scott stars in
Law of Vengeance, A Lawless Street, and
Wagon
Wheels. Season one of
The Big Valley showcases
The Maverick Queen
star Barbara Stanwyck as matriarch Victoria Barkley in a series like
My Three
Sons plus a daughter meet California's San Joaquin Valley.
Fifty-three John Wayne movies make up the bulk of the Lewis Collection. Mostly
westerns, they include
3 Godfathers, The Alamo, Big Jake, The Big Trail,
Cahill United State Marshal,
Chisum, The Comancheros, The Cowboys, Dakota, El Dorado, Fort Apache, Hondo,
The Horse Soldiers, In Old California, Lawless Frontier, Lawless Range, McLintock!,
Red River, Rio Bravo, Rio Lobo, Santa Fe Stampede, The Searchers, She Wore a
Yellow Ribbon, The Shootist, The Sons of Katie Elder, Stagecoach, Tall in the
Saddle, Three Faces West, True Grit, The Undefeated, and The War Wagon.
The Michael A. Paller Collection is comprised of movies featuring the actresses
Diana Lynn and Gail Russell. Born Dolores Loehr on October 7, 1926, Diana
Lynn was a child prodigy who by age 12 was playing piano with the Los Angeles
Junior Symphony Orchestra. She made her film debut playing the piano in the
1939 movie, They Shall Have Music.
Seeing acting potential in her, Paramount Studio signed her to a seven-year
contract, changed her name and gave her acting lessons in 1941. A series of
parts in movies ensued including
Bedtime for Bonzo starring Great Westerner
inductee Ronald Reagan),
The Bride Wore Boots, The Kentuckian, The Major and the Minor, The Miracle
of Morgan's Creek, and My Friend Irma and
My Friend Irma Goes West
(starring Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin). Lynn remarked, "Acting was my own decision,
a kind of rebellion. I loathed playing piano for people and I always have. I
was so young when I started; I was used and exploited, and I didn't have the
courage or the brains to say 'no' to the use of whatever talents I had." She
died from a stroke on December 18, 1971.
Born on September 21, 1924, Gail Russell was signed by Paramount Studios
upon her graduation from Santa Monica High School. Her film debut occurred
in the 1943 movie Henry Aldrich Gets Glamour. She then appeared in
the horror movie The Uninvited with Ray Milland. In her first western
Angel and the Bad Man Russell starred opposite John Wayne and Harry
Carey in 1947.
This was followed by the 1949 western
El Paso in which she starred with
John Payne, Sterling Hayden, and Gabby Hayes. With Randolph Scott and Lee Marvin,
Russell appeared in the 1956 western
Seven Men from Now. Tragically on
August 26, 1961 after a long battle with alcoholism, Russell was found dead
in her apartment surrounded by empty liquor bottles. Her death was attributed
to heart failure due to acute alcoholism. These movies are available to the
general public for viewing in the Dickinson Research Center.
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