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service, I wasn't interested In the picture Industry However, improbable their luck and ingenuity,
at that time. I went to work on a cattle ranch, then Buzz and Frank provide what the western clientele
I got married on June 22, 1947. In 1950 my wife and desire--action and plenty of it.
I were transferred to a ranch In Arizona. Shortly after
going to Arizona we adopted a baby girl. We left THE PINTO KID
Arizona in 1956 and returned to Newhall, California. Variety, April 11, 1928
At this time I returned to the picture industry as a
wrangler. Horatio Alger's kid of the plains scores again.
We bought us a home in Sylmar in 1962. Since This time it's in THE PINTO KID, tailored to fit young
· that time I worked on pictures such as THE Buzz Barton's measurements.
GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, THE WAY WEST, With his familiar side-kick, the Gump-like Frank
: THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL, CHEYENNE AUTUMN, Rice, Buzz proceeds to rescue a girl and her horse
MAJOR DUNDEE, ALVAREZ KELLY, THE AP· from quicksands as the introduction to his latest ex-
PALOOSA, PAINT YOUR WAGON, TEXAS ACROSS hibition of riding and rope slinging. This leads into
THE RIVER, CHISUM, and the latest was THE an unusually good story for this type of production
SHOOTIST with John Wayne. I wrangled his horses. and well pieced together by John Twist and the
My movies days were real good. I knew my rapidly rising Jean Dupont.
dialogue and what was expected of me. I was a good A bit of comedy that will squeeze laughs is pro-
rider. I did all my own stunts and also doubled vided at intervals by the grandfathers of the sheep
leading ladies and kids, anything pertaining to and horse ranchers. A fistic encounter and later a
horses. gun duel behind rocks, each believing the other has
My main director was Louis King. Those were the kidnapped their neice and nephew, will break out
good old days. Everyone worked together. At the grins in many an adult.
end we would have a big barbeque or watermelon The abductions, promoted by a would-be land
feast and have a good time. buyer, are hardly convincing, but they give little Buzz
Our daughter Linda is married and lives close by as opportunity to gallop on his pony, change clothes
and we see her frequently, as we are a very close with the heroine and push the villain into a pool.
family. Perhaps the biggest guffaw will be when Buzz finally
Illness forced Buzz's retirement in 1979 and hooks the bad man to a rock and proceeds to pad-
brought about his death at age 67 on November 20, dle him as he dangles.
1980. Since Barton's starring career predates the
. memory of a majority of readers, the following film THE FIGHTING RED HEAD
reviews of the time might prove interesting. These Variety, July 18, 1928
are typical of the Barton reviews. It should be
remembered, however, that film reviewers were One unnecessarily weak sequence right in the
hardly ever impressed by the "B" western. Even middle of the footage breaks the story back of THE
super cowboys such as Tom Mix, Buck Jones, Ken FIGHTING RED HEAD. Aside from an innocent
Maynard, and Gene Autry often were shot to pieces blacksmith turning shamefaced when the sheriff ar-
. in the pages of Variety, Motion Picture Herald, Film rives shortly after he finds the body of a deputy who
Daily and other trade publications. has been shot by the bad man, there is the usual
hokum. Audience gets restless when the blacksmtih
THE SLINGSHOT KID takes the blame for no reason other than apparent
Variety, December 28, 1927 self-consciousness.
Aside from an unusually weak and disintegrated
Buzz Barton is the 13-year old kid cowboy offered story, Buzz is the same as usual, doing the same
as an ace bid for juvenile trade by F.B.O. Buzz is a pranks, climbing chimneys, discovering the money
bet and there's showmanship in the decision to and saving the girl from train, hooing the bad men.
build around him. With Jackie Coogan pulling in his The only thing deprived him is exonerating the
chin at a military school and Wesley Barry grown up, blacksmith. The deputy comes to long enough to do
the screen is without another boy star. Buzz may be that.
it.
THE SLINGSHOT KID is a breezy, speedy, well BANTAM COWBOY
produced and directed western detailing the ex- Variety, August 15, 1928
perience of Buzz and his adult side-kick, thewalrus-
mustached Frank Rice. They outthink, outgeneral, The appeal of a picture of this kind, regardless of
outride, and outshoot a gang of ruffians and cattle construction, story or acting, is necessarily limited.
rustlers led by a youth named Santa Fe Sullivan, Choice of a juvenile star, perhaps older but looking
played with a week's growth of beard and a lot of about 12 or 14 years of age in the picture, makes it
venom by Jay Morley. impossible to hit except for children.