Tim McCoy - Cowboy and Serial Hero

One of the things that really intrigues me about the B western is the 'musical chairs' that occurred as western movie stars moved between different studios and production units, on their way up or down the cowboy hero ladder.

A classic example is Tim McCoy, who reached the height of his western starring career in the 1930s at Columbia Pictures, and then spiraled downward as he found lesser quality work at other production outfits. Fans generally remember McCoy from his 1930s Columbia work, or in later flicks where he portrayed a steely-eyed, strong man of the west with names like Lightnin' Bill Carson, Trigger Tim Rand, or U.S. Marshal Tim McCall.

McCoy was born in Saginaw, Michigan, but migrated to the west and settled on a ranch in Wyoming. He served in World War I, and over time, became an expert on the old west and Indian lore. The retired US Army (Lt) Colonel came to Hollywood to provide technical details and help on THE COVERED WAGON film which was released by Paramount in 1923. During that film, McCoy was the interface between the production crew and the Native American participants, as he was able to converse with the Indians via sign language.

Young and good looking, McCoy was hired by MGM and became their silent film cowboy and outdoor star in about twenty films. When sound arrived, Colonel Tim starred for Universal Pictures in a pair of chapterplays, THE INDIANS ARE COMING (1930) and HEROES OF THE FLAMES (1931).

Why Universal didn't hire McCoy for a western series is unknown. That studio wasn't avoiding cowboy flicks during the first half of the 1930s, for they did utilize the services of Tom Mix and Ken Maynard in some very fine films. And they were arranging for McCoy to star in another Universal chapterplay, BATTLING WITH BUFFALO BILL. But Tim signed with Columbia Pictures in 1931, and Universal brought in Tom Tyler to do the cliffhanger.

Over his four plus years at Columbia, McCoy made nearly three dozen pictures. Most of these would be good, solid, memorable oaters. But for release season 1933-1934, Columbia opted to place him in some crime and adventure dramas, and those eight non-western films were not successful. McCoy was "back in the saddle" for his next (and last) batch of films for Columbia which were released during 1934-1935. It should be noted that during Tim's first couple years at Columbia, the studio also had Buck Jones doing series westerns --- and both the McCoy and Jones pictures were extremely popular and financially successful. But all good things come to an end, and in 1934, Buck Jones moved to Universal Pictures. A year later, McCoy was also gone.

(From Old Corral image collection)

Above, from L-to-R are McCoy, a young John Wayne and an unidentified player in a scene from TWO-FISTED LAW (Columbia, 1932). Les Adams identified the unidentified player as Wallace MacDonald, who became a Columbia B film producer. A short time later, Wayne would star in a brief western series at Warners and the trio of cliffhangers for Nat Levine's Mascot company. He would then do a lengthy series of Lone Star westerns, released through Monogram.

(Courtesy of Ed Phillips)

Above is McCoy on a white horse during his days at Columbia. This was one of many mounts that McCoy rode during his film career.

(Courtesy of Boyd Magers)

Above - title lobby card from CORNERED (Columbia, 1932).

(From Old Corral image collection)

Above, from L-to-R are McCoy, Geneva Mitchell and Ward Bond from FIGHTING SHADOWS (Columbia, 1935), one of the films in McCoy's last season at Columbia. At the time, Wardell 'Ward' Bond (1903-1960) was part of Columbia's stable of bad guys. He would do a lot of later films for director John Ford, would work often with his buddy John Wayne, and star in the WAGON TRAIN TV series.

Scuttlebutt is that McCoy signed a new deal with independent Puritan Pictures a few hours before Columbia decided to renew his contract. The real scoop may be in the book Tim McCoy Remembers the West (Doubleday, 1977). McCoy relates that he wanted to do circus tours from May thru November, with film work in the off months. Columbia said "nope". However, Puritan said "yes". At the last minute, Columbia had a change of heart and offered to continue the McCoy series. Their proposal came too late as Tim had already agreed to the Puritan deal.

McCoy's replacement at Columbia was Ken Maynard (who had completed a very good western series at Universal, left Universal, and went to work for Nat Levine's Mascot film factory in the MYSTERY MOUNTAIN (1934) serial and IN OLD SANTA FE (1934) oater). In addition to Maynard, another hero was also saddling up at Columbia --- his name was Charles Starrett, and he'd do westerns at Columbia for almost twenty years, including a lengthy run as the masked Durango Kid.

(From Old Corral image collection)

Above, from L-to-R are Jack Rockwell, Karl Hackett, John Merton, McCoy, Joe Girard and Lafe McKee in LIGHTNIN' BILL CARSON (Puritan, 1936). This was one of the nine sagebrush adventures that McCoy did for Puritan circa 1935-1936, eight of which were directed by Sam Newfield (Neufeld), including GHOST PATROL (Puritan, 1936), shown below. Newfield and Tim worked together in a total of 25 westerns: 8 at Puritan, 2 Monograms, 8 at Victory, and 7 for PDC/PRC.

(From Old Corral image collection)

After the Puritan films, McCoy contracted for a new series with William Pizor and his Imperial Pictures, and his salary was to be $32,000.00 ($4,000 X 8 films). But something happened with the financing or whatever, and Pizor reneged on the contract. My guess is that Pizor/Imperial wound up in a cash crunch problem as they were at the bottom of the Poverty Row film production companies. Pizor's films were distributed on a 'states rights' basis to lower echelon theaters ... and the mid 1930s was a difficult time for westerns because of the Depression. Don't remember Imperial Pictures --- William Pizor did some westerns starring Wally Wales (Hal Taliaferro), and you can view a lobby card from same by clicking HERE.

A lawsuit was filed and Tim McCoy was off the screen for a year and a half.

For those into trivia, pay particular attention to the gunbelt that McCoy is wearing in many of the pictures and lobby cards in these webpages.

He's wearing that gunbelt in the publicity still on the right. That pattern, design and belt buckle can be seen from his 1930s sound films through his circus and Wild West show appearances --- a career that would span over forty years.

(From Old Corral image collection)