Buster Crabbe

His "Uniform" at PRC

In these webpages on Crabbe, there's a variety of stills and lobby cards showing his PRC range costumes - he wore mostly light colored hats but his shirts varied from light to dark colors with some having a checkerboard pattern. Sometimes his shirt had drawstrings at the collar and sometimes he wore a bandana / neckerchief.

The one bit of consistency was the chin/jaw strap on his hat.

On pages 211 - 212 in Karl Whitezel's book, Buster Crabbe, A Self Portrait, Crabbe mentions that "I never liked having my hat blow off my head when riding a horse. It was a lot of trouble during a chase scene to have to stop, go back for the hat, then reshoot the scene. The jaw strap saved time and trouble."

Below - early range wear

Above - later uniform

Al 'Fuzzy' St. John and Buster

(From Old Corral image collection)

Some folks recall the partnership of Al 'Fuzzy' St. John and Lash LaRue as being Fuzzy's best western film work. I disagree and suggest that St. John's finest moments - or at least his meatiest roles - occurred in the PRCs with Buster Crabbe.

With Buster, he got a lot of screen time, meaning a significant quantity of dialog as well as comedy bits. Examples: he did his old vaudeville bicycle riding routine in PRAIRIE RUSTLERS (1945 PRC); there was the secret mine and the devil bats in WILD HORSE PHANTOM (PRC, 1944); Fuzzy knocked out Buster at the end of PRAIRIE BADMEN (PRC, 1946). St. John got even more screen time in FUZZY SETTLES DOWN (PRC, 1944) and HIS BROTHER'S GHOST (PRC, 1945).

If you like Fuzzy, give Crabbe some credit. As the star, he had to be supportive of St. John's expanded sidekick duties. If he was not pleased, I'm sure he could have gotten PRC's production team to reduce Fuzzy's role.

Buster's horses at PRC

(There were at least three different hosses during his PRC oaters)

While the palomino Falcon was Buster's primary horse during his 36 westerns for PRC, he did ride several horses. In Karl Whitezel's Buster Crabbe, A Self Portrait, Crabbe said that he and St. John picked out their steeds at one of the rental stables in the San Fernando Valley, but he doesn't mention which stable.

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Horse #1

In one or two of his early PRC westerns including his first, BILLY THE KID WANTED (PRC, 1941), Crabbe rode "White Hoss #1 - The horse with a mottled face and many names" which is profiled in the Trusty Steeds - Movie Horses section. That horse came from the Fat Jones stable. Wonder if his later palomino Falcon also came from Fat Jones?

(From Old Corral image collection)

Horse #2

Above and below - Buster Crabbe and trusty steed 'Falcon' (which confusingly shows up as white and palomino colors). Crabbe uses this horse in BILLY THE KID TRAPPED (PRC, 1942), FUGITIVE OF THE PLAINS (PRC, 1943), THE KID RIDES AGAIN (PRC, 1943), WESTERN CYCLONE (PRC, 1943), OATH OF VENGEANCE (PRC, 1944), RUSTLER'S HIDEOUT (PRC, 1944), HIS BROTHER'S GHOST (PRC, 1945), FUZZY SETTLES DOWN (PRC, 1945), OVERLAND RIDERS (PRC, 1946), GHOST OF HIDDEN VALLEY (PRC, 1946), more.

The palomino Falcon is relatively easy to identify by the thin, longish white face blaze which extends down between the nostrils. This horse also had a brand on its left front shoulder near the stirrup (shown below).

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above is the title lobby card from SHERIFF OF SAGE VALLEY (PRC, 1942) in which Buster Crabbe (on his palomino Falcon) had dual roles as both Billy the Kid and Kansas Ed Bonney. Sidekicks Dave 'Tex' O'Brien is on the left and Al St. John is on the right.

(From Old Corral image collection)

The above image of Buster and Falcon was also used in the lobby card below. I did view GHOST OF HIDDEN VALLEY (PRC, 1946) when I was preparing this webpage and Crabbe is definitely riding the palomino Falcon with that long face blaze. I have no idea why Falcon shows up as a white steed in this lobby card. Check the brand on the left shoulder (crop/blowup of the brand shown below).

(From Old Corral image collection)

Above is a crop/blowup of the brand from the B&W image above. Anyone recognize the owner of the brand? Also spotted this on the hoss (and it appears to be the palomino Falcon) which Crabbe rides in OATH OF VENGEANCE (PRC, 1944), FUZZY SETTLES DOWN (PRC, 1945), more. Interestingly, I wasn't able to see this brand on Falcon on many of the films, though the horse was easily recognized by that slender face blaze. Did they cover the brand in some of the films ... or was the brand not present until the later films.

Horse #3

Above - Buster riding a different palomino in a scene from one of his last PRC westerns, PRAIRIE BADMEN (PRC, 1946).

Buster's Gunbelts at PRC On the left are two of his earlier gunbelts. Note how deep the six-gun fits into the holster in the bottom image on the left. Great for securing the pistol, but not good for a fast draw. On the right is Buster's later black gunbelt circa 1945 - note the light colored bullet loops.