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White Hoss #1
The "horse with a mottled face and many names".
Let's call this one "Sheik".



(Courtesy of Boyd Magers)

Above - Tim McCoy and his trusty hoss "Pal" in the title lobby card from CORNERED (Columbia, 1932). This horse is easy to identify due to the unique face markings.


Above and below are images of a white horse used by Wally Wales, Tim McCoy, Rex Bell, Dave Sharpe, Buster Crabbe, Ray Corrigan, Smith Ballew, Jack Hoxie, Reed Hadley, and William 'Hoppy' Boyd. These images and the "recent spottings" noted below cover a period from 1930 - early 1940s.

This horse is easy to spot, as it has some unique mottling on the face as shown in the image on the left - note the longish streak under the right eye and a large curl or a "c" or "e" shaped mark under the left eye.

This hoss had many names ... it's "Pal" ... "Topper" ... "Duke" ... "Starlight" ... "Silver King" ... "Sheik" ... "Thunder" ... "Whitey" ... "Dynamite" ... oh, pick a name.

I vaguely recall this horse was from the Fat Jones Stable. Clarence Y. Jones, whose nickname was "Fat", owned the stable and supplied horses, wagons, etc. to the movie industry. His daughter Carol Elaine Jones was married to western movie actor and stuntman Ben Johnson.

If you spot this particular horse while you're watching a video, jot down the film name and who was the rider, and send the Old Corral webmaster an e-mail.



Recent spottings of this horse:

  • Reed Hadley rides him in the ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGION (Republic, 1939) serial.
  • I was watching some Hoppy DVDs and William Boyd was riding this horse in PARTNERS OF THE PLAINS (Paramount, 1938), HEART OF ARIZONA (Paramount, 1938), and CASSIDY OF BAR 20 (Paramount, 1938).
  • While the face mottling is well pronounced in the McCoy lobby card at the top of this page, the mottling appears much lighter in the McCoy starrer TEXAS CYCLONE (Columbia, 1932) which features a young John Wayne. And in TEXAS CYCLONE, McCoy calls this horse "Pal" on several occasions. McCoy also rode this hoss in TWO FISTED LAW (Columbia, 1932), THE WESTERN CODE (Columbia, 1932), CORNERED (Columbia, 1932), FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE (Columbia, 1932), and RUSTY RIDES ALONE (Columbia, 1933).
  • Ray 'Crash' Corrigan used several different white horses in his Range Busters films - he's riding this horse in THE RANGE BUSTERS (Monogram, 1940) and this steed also does battle with Glenn Strange in THE KID'S LAST RIDE (Monogram, 1941).
  • Jack Hoxie rides this horse in LAW AND LAWLESS (Majestic, 1932), and the animal is billed in the opening film credits as Hoxie's "Dynamite, the Wonder Horse".
  • Rex Bell rides this trusty steed in (FROM) BROADWAY TO CHEYENNE (Monogram, 1932), IDAHO KID (Colony, 1936), STORMY TRAILS (Colony, 1936) and LAW AND LEAD (Colony, 1936). This was Bell's horse in the early minutes of THE TONTO KID (Resolute, 1935), but in the later reels, Bell is atop a brown horse.
  • Smith Ballew rides him in RAWHIDE (20th Century-Fox, 1938) and PANAMINT'S BAD MAN (20th Century-Fox, 1938).


 

The above images and crops from images and lobby cards are from Les Adams (5 & 8), Ed Phillips (2), Minard Coons (1 & 3) and the Old Corral photo collection.


Keys to the above images:

Images numbered 1: John Wayne along with an enlargement of the horse's face showing the mottling. Wayne rode a white named Duke in his Warners series. In his many Lone Star/Monogram westerns, Wayne rode all kinds and colors of hosses (including Jack Perrin's white Starlight and there's a photo of Wayne on the White Horse #2 page).

Image 2: Tim McCoy still from his Columbia films which were released from 1931-1935.

Image 3: Tim McCoy (wearing a vest) chatting with Joyce Compton in a crop from a still from FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE (Columbia, 1932).

Take a gander at the saddle used in the Wayne and McCoy images 1, 2 and 3.

Image 4: is a crop from the Wally Wales starrer TRAILS OF DANGER (National Players/Big 4, 1930). Supposedly, Wales used Fred Thomson's "Silver King" ... and he did in some films. But Silver King's face was clear. See below for the differences between this horse and another white mount that Wales used.

Image 5: is from the pressbook for KING OF THE SIERRAS (Grand National, 1938). The white horse is billed as "Sheik The New Wonder Horse". The pinto is "Thunder" and the colt is "Cappy".

Images numbered 6: shows Rex Bell and his steed along with a closeup of the face of the horse which Bell rode in films including (FROM) BROADWAY TO CHEYENNE (Monogram, 1932) and IDAHO KID (Colony, 1936). He also rides this horse in the early minutes of THE TONTO KID (Resolute, 1935), but in the later reels, Bell is riding a brown horse.

Images numbered 7: stuntman Dave Sharpe and the titled cayuse from SILVER STALLION (Monogram, 1940), and the opening credits on the film as well as pressbook material list the name of the horse as "Thunder".

Image 8: is of Buster Crabbe and he rode this horse in his early films as PRC's Billy the Kid (before he got his regular steed "Falcon"). Crop from a 1943 lobby card.



(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above is the title lobby card for SILVER STALLION (Monogram, 1941). Stuntman Dave Sharpe is the hero and is billed as 'David Sharpe', along with Chief 'Tonto' Thunder Cloud, LeRoy Mason, Captain Boots, Famous Police Dog ... and "Thunder the Wonder Horse". The heroine pictured - but not credited - is Janet Waldo (1920 - 2016) who is best remembered as the lead in radio's MEET CORLISS ARCHER and the voice of 'Judy Jetson' in the long-running THE JETSONS TV show.



(Courtesy of Bruce Hickey)

Above are "Silver King", Tim McCoy, and the white horse with the mottled face in McCoy's RUSTY RIDES ALONE (Columbia, 1933). This was McCoy's only film with a canine helper.



(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above - a pressbook ad for KING OF THE SIERRAS (Grand National, 1938). In this film, Hobart Bosworth rides this white horse. Rex and Sheik are both listed in the film title credits (Rex is "El Diablo" and Sheik is "Whitey").
 

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Above from the SILVER STALLION (Monogram, 1941) pressbook.

That pressbook also mentions that Jack Saunders was the horse trainer.



(Courtesy of Ed Phillips)

Above is Tim McCoy riding that horse with the mottling on its face.




(Courtesy of Minard Coons)

Above - a publicity still of Wayne atop the "white horse with a mottled face and many names". This was definitely not Duke, the horse he rode in his six Warners westerns. And I've yet to find him riding this particular white horse in his Lone Star/Monogram series as well as his first batch of oaters for Republic Pictures. Methinks Wayne was at a stable for publicity stills and he just happened to climb aboard this particular horse for this photo.



(From Old Corral collection)

William Boyd rode a white horse named 'Topper' in 66 Hopalong Cassidy films released from 1935 - 1948 and his 1950s TV program. In the early Hoppy adventures, he rode a variety of rental horses. Screen capture above of Boyd riding White Hoss #1, "the horse with a mottled face and many names", in PARTNERS OF THE PLAINS (Paramount, 1938).



(From Old Corral collection)

Above - Dave Sharpe chit-chatting with 'Thunder, the Wonder Horse' in SILVER STALLION (Monogram, 1941).



(Courtesy of Les Adams)

In his early PRC westerns including his first, BILLY THE KID WANTED (PRC, 1941), Buster Crabbe rode the mottled face horse (before he got his regular mount, 'Falcon').



(From Old Corral collection)

Above is a well worn lobby card from TRAILS OF DANGER (National Players/Big 4, 1930), one of the early talkies starring real life cowpoke Wally Wales. The gal is Virginia Brown Faire. Some folks suggested this horse may have been Fred Thomson's Silver King which was ridden by Wally Wales in the 1930s. But the answer is no. It's the "horse with a mottled face and many names".

Below is a publicity shot of Wales and Silver King from CARRYING THE MAIL (William Pizor/Imperial, 1934). Note the different face on this horse.



(From Old Corral collection)




(Courtesy of Les Adams)

Lobby card of Fred Thomson and Silver King from SILVER COMES THRU (FBO, 1927).



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