The Old Corral isn't an online store. We don't have anything for sale.
We don't do ads from businesses or other websites.
Nor do we have any sponsors or advertisers.

Please don't ask me for a "price list" or catalog of videotapes, DVDs, posters, lobby cards, etc.

And please don't ask me to give you prices on running some kind of an ad (banner, pop-up, etc.) on the Old Corral.

The Old Corral is a non-profit, non-commercial fan site, with nothing for sale and no profit in mind. The Old Corral is NOT an online business or store. We don't sell videos, DVDs, audio tapes, CDs, posters, lobby cards or photos. There are no companies who sponsor or underwrite the Old Corral. And there are no banner advertisements, link exchange ads, pop-ups, pop-unders, nor are we part of any money-making 'associates' or 'referral' programs with click-thru icons and banners that take you to other websites to purchase books, CDs, videos, etc. In other words, no remuneration of any kind is received in connection with the operation of this site.

Ye Old Corral webmaster pays for the b-westerns.com domain name and the website hosting/web server - that's my treat and I consider it a worthwhile expenditure in order to keep the B-western memories alive.

You're looking for info on a relative who might have worked on - or appeared in - some western films. And I do like contacts from relatives cuz they generally are enthused and happy to provide info and photos on a family member who did westerns or serials.
It's absolutely imperative that you send me one or two photos.

I get a lot of e-mails with questions like "my grandfather (or uncle or grandmother, etc.) worked in a few films during the 1920s (or 1930s or 1940s) as a stuntman (or henchie or stage driver or whatever). Can you give me some info on him or her". The probability is that we can't be of much help on background performers or personnel who appeared in - or worked on - a film or two or three.

Be aware that these bit and background performers never got any credits. And if they were involved in stunting, doubling, driving a buckboard, or just doing "hoss wrangling", they never got credit either. Likewise with many of the B western production people (other than the primary production folks such as the producer, director, main camera man, etc.). And nobody kept records of those participants. To add more confusion, westerns filmed on ranches or distant locations from Hollywoodland often used local citizens to act as townspeople, saloon patrons, etc.

Many of these old westerns and serials were churned out by "Gower Gulch" and "Poverty Row" production companies who came and went over a half-century ago. And any records or paperwork related to their films were tossed or lost decades ago.

If you ask for this kind of help, ye Old Corral webmaster and Old Corral contributors and B western experts will try to oblige.

In many cases, I need to forward your e-mail to folks who might have some info or leads. I don't forward e-mails or give out e-mail addresses without your permission. If you write to me with a question, include an OK in your e-mail for me to forward your e-mail message to Old Corral contributors and B-western experts.

Based on many experiences in helping with "relative questions", there's a couple things WE NEED FROM YOU:

1. An image scan of the person so we can see a closeup or two of their face. And if you have some photos with them from any films - or cast and crew shots - that would be helpful also. E-mail me first before sending any image scans as I need to provide you with some instructions on the size of the scans.

2. We also need details about the person you are asking about - like the person's full name and nickname, date and location of birth, date and location of death. Plus your best guesstimate on when they were doing films - silents in the 1920s ... or the 1930s ... or the 1940s ... or later.

I like to get e-mails.
But please ... check out the Old Corral webpages and do a little "homework" before sending me a message. Odds are pretty high that your question may already be answered on the Old Corral.

I get questions ... lots and lots of questions ... and it amounts to several thousand e-mails a year. Sadly, more than half of these are answered in one or more sections on the Old Corral website. For example, there have been scores of e-mails asking "did Ken Maynard live out his years in some trailer park?" Those e-mailers didn't take the time to read the Ken Maynard section. If they had, they would have found a page with photos and info on Ken and the trailer park. Another common question is "how many films did Gabby Hayes do with Roy or Hoppy or Bill Elliott?". Info on ol' Gabby is on the website also. So before you e-mail me, please take the time to look through the Old Corral homepage menu and the various sections ... and do run the Search function.

I don't forward e-mails or give out e-mail addresses without your permission. If you write to me with a question about a film, person, studio, whatever - include an OK in your e-mail for me to forward your e-mail message to Old Corral contributors and B-western experts. I don't have all the answers, and quite often I have to ask for help. If you don't include that OK, that forces me to e-mail you back to ask for that permission.

If you're looking for a western movie on videotape or DVD, please don't ask me to locate it for you. Go to the Videotapes/DVD section on the Old Corral, and do your own searching. You also should check our list of Lost and Missing B-westerns and serials as there are about 150 films currently on that list.

Please don't ask me questions like "who owns the rights to xyz film?" ... "or is xyz film under copyright?" ... "or is xyz film public domain?". I don't have a clue. You need to find a legal-copyright-trademark expert who can get you those answers.

Before you ask a question, please take the time to scroll down through ALL the Old Corral menu items. There's info and links to DVD and videotape suppliers, heroes, heroines, villains, henchman, sidekicks, horses, musicians/musical groups, producers, directors, western series, movie locations, photos, CDs, books, newsletters, auction websites, TV schedules, movie databases to search, posters, comics, Big Little Books, more.

There's also a Search function within the Old Corral website - so if you're looking for a film title, person's name, etc., try that. Look for the red search box on the Old Corral homepage.

If you're looking for info on a particular film title, make sure to check out Boyd Magers' Best & Worst of the West Film Reviews. There's 2000+ westerns listed there with plot synopses and cast info on each film title (and you can also do a search).

Please don't add my e-mail address to your address book.
And I don't have the time to respond and keep up with your My __pace or Fac__book things or Y_hoo groups or Link_dIn, etc.

I get a lot of e-mails ... and I reply to a lot of e-mails. Appears that many folks do a "save my e-mail address" to their address book in their e-mail program. The end result is that I get a bunch of "family e-mails" that folks are sending to all the contacts in their address book. For example, during the Spring-early Summer time period, I receive dozens of messages about high school graduations, family reunions, a few birthdays, etc. Additionally, there are a lot of the "forwards of forwards" which most often contain the never-ending hoax and political e-mails that continue to circulate across the internet. There's always a few messages with images of new babies, family reunion photos, a family member's birthday party, or someone's new house, car or boat. I recall one e-mail announcing "here's the reunion photos" with about 25 high resolution images attached. While those e-mails are benign - and I do smile at the cute baby photos - those messages add to my e-mail load. Meaning I have to download, view, toss, delete, etc.

The Old Corral is about the sound era B-western films, performers and production/support people, and the time period is roughly 1929-1954.

In a nutshell, the Old Corral is about the low budget sound B western circa 1929-1954, give or take a year or two. We don't do A-Westerns or TV Westerns or "spaghetti" westerns or "Eurowesterns". And we don't cover performers who worked only in the silent era. So please don't ask why the Old Corral doesn't have info on Joel McCrea, Audie Murphy, Randolph Scott, James Garner, Clint Eastwood and other A-western heroes ... or western heroes who only worked in silents like Art Acord, Fred Thomson and William S. Hart ... or TV western heroes such as Clint Walker, Chuck Connors and James Arness. Nor do we have info on the bad guys who did mostly TV and movies in the mid 1950s and later like John Doucette, Leo Gordon, Jack Elam, Hal Baylor, Richard Devon, etc. Please read the homepage menu item marked "About The Old Corral website", as that defines what the Old Corral website includes and does NOT include.

However, folks whose career spanned both silent and sound - like Tom Mix, Ken Maynard, Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, Tom Tyler, Hoot Gibson, Bob Custer, Buffalo Bill Jr. and Bob Steele - are covered on the Old Corral.

You have a (vague) recollection of some film you saw years ago ... and want to know if I (we) can identify the film title and if it's available on videotape or DVD.

I get lots of these type e-mails, and in many cases, the plot description is too brief and too generic (like "I saw a movie with a wagon train being attacked."). Do some deep thinking about this before shootin' off an e-mail to me please. Think about your recollections of the film - and add as much detail as you can. For example - was the film in color (if so, it probably wasn't a B-western as most of those were done in glorious B&W). Did you see it on TV or at the theater? How many years ago did you see the movie - in the 1940s or the 1950s or the 1960s? Did the hero ride a white horse or have a sidekick? Did the film include some singing and musical interludes? A suggestion - the Internet Movie Database has a great search function where you can look for western films only ... and you can enter search teams (like wagon train). You may want to try the IMDb first.

Don't waste my time and yours.
If you send me an e-mail and want an answer, MAKE SURE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS WORKS AND CAN RECEIVE A REPLY FROM ME. And make sure my oldcorral e-mail address above is in your "allowed senders" list (if your ISP uses that).

Rant #1: If you send me a question, make sure you include a real (valid) e-mail address and your mailbox can receive e-mails. I spend time trying to dig up an answer and send the e-mail response back to ya - and it bounces back as undeliverable because you "munged" your reply address (disguised it to stop spam). Or you used a business e-mail address and your work mail server blocks e-mails coming from outside the company. Or you haven't checked your e-mail for a while, and your mailbox is overloaded with unread messages. And my e-mail comes back because your mail box is full. I'm not going to try resending a bunch of times. In most cases, I'll delete the original request along with my response.

Rant #2: Your ISP has some kind of e-mail validation/check which requires me to send a confirmation back in order to get the e-mail to you ... or to get on your permissable e-mail listing (which is often called a "whitelist"). AOL, Earthlink, SBC Yahoo, Postini and more have a spam blocking option where you can select what e-mail addresses can send to you and you input this into your personal list of allowed senders. It's tough enough to wade through the questions and prepare responses ... and I send the response ... and an e-mail comes back requiring me to do more.

Real life example: someone asked me a question and I e-mailed back. Very quickly came the following response: "Your email message has been redirected to a "suspect email" folder for realnameremoved@unnamed.net. In order for your message to be moved to this recipient's Inbox, he or she must add your email address to a list of allowed senders. Click the link below to request that realnameremoved@unnamed.net add you to this list." Another real life example which I've received many times. The e-mail reads: "I apologize for this automatic reply to your email. To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved beforehand. If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form linked below. Once I approve you, I will receive your original message in my inbox. You do not need to resend your message. I apologize for this one-time inconvenience. Click the link below to fill out the request ..."

My response to these is pretty simple .... I don't respond to these, and immediately delete the original e-mail request.

Why the big deal and why do I get agitated with these - cuz over the years, it has occurred thousand of times to me (because so many ISPs have implemented spam controls and approved sender lists). Make sure my oldcorral e-mail address above is in your "allowed senders" list.

Trying to recall a movie, a TV series, or info on a person? Go to the Internet Movie Database and run your searches. Click HERE.