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TEXAS RANGERS TV TRACKDOWN
By David K. Dorward

Here is a fine photo of Robert Culp as "Hoby Gilman" that was submitted for this article by Don Raker.

Many obituaries on Robert Culp, who died aged 79 in March 2010, do not even mention his first major television role as Hoby Gilman a "former Texas Ranger who lost his taste for confrontation during the Civil War. He returns from the carnage and finds his home town in the grip of an ex-Confederate tyrant who kills one Ranger and threatens to kill anyone who succeeds him. Hoby is moved to take up the challenge, though reluctantly." Culp played the role in 70 (71 episodes in another source) black and white episodes starting in October, 1957 when Culp was only 27 years old. The role helped make Culp a star. In an unpublished article by fellow Canadian Debbie Young-Groves destined for the now defunct Television Chronicles "A Quarterly Magazine for Home Archivists," she says: "To my mind, NEVER was a Western lead character ever portrayed with such power. It was my first memory of television. I was five and a half years old."

When he introduced the pilot for Trackdown called Badge of Honor, Dick Powell explained the show this way: "The Texas Rangers were formed to fight the Comanches and in order to qualify, a man had to ride like the wind, trail like an Indian and shoot like an outlaw. They were called the 'Western Minutemen.' Of course, the Texans put a stop to that when they learned that Paul Revere had to ride for help. A Ranger was armed with a rifle, a brace of pistols, a hunting knife and fifty rounds of ammunition. He was literally the B17 of the desert. Texas history records some fantastic stories about the Rangers. For instance in 1906, James Dunaway was sent to Groveton to stop a riot....one Ranger, mind you. In the fight that ensued he was shot nineteen times. Nevertheless, he sent a wire to the governor which read, 'Riot stopped. Shot to pieces. Nothing serious.' "

The series ran for only two years and featured such then up and coming actors as James Coburn, Steve McQueen (a personal favourite as a neighbour, Director Norman Jewison, directed Steve in two big screen movies before his untimely death) who appeared as Josh Randall which was spun off to became the great hit TV Western, Wanted: Dead or Alive and DeForest Kelley of Star Trek fame (Bones) appears a number of times. Unfortunately all three of these actors died before Robert Culp and have gone to the great round-up in the sky. To prepare for the series Culp spent a weekend with actual Texas Rangers which endeared him and the series to them. Robert Culp always strived to bring authenticity to his roles as you can see below in his approach to the personal side arm he used in the series.

I wanted to mention the cap guns this series featured as I was fortunate enough to purchase one high quality reproduction made by outstanding holster maker David Stanley of Kentucky from veteran collector Don Raker in January, 2011. Don had been looking without success for an original Trackdown holster for about 20 years before he commissioned the one I eventually purchased from him in January 2011.

Don found a 1959 Sears Roebuck catalogue illustration, showing the Trackdown holster paired with a Lone Star made gun with Apache written on the side. Lone Star also made a cap gun with Rebel written on the side.

There does not appear to be a specific Trackdown cap gun made and Western cap gun collector extraordinaire, Chuck Quinn, recommended a Halco .44 Texas Ranger in either nickel or bronze or a Halco Remington model to pair with my holster as a good match in the absence of a specific Trackdown gun. I am still trying to source examples of these Halco cap guns for my holster and if anyone has any suggestions where to locate same please contact me at dkdorward@sympatico.ca.

There is a fascinating history to the gun actually used in Trackdown. Here is a quote from an interview Robert Culp did with the now defunct magazine, Television Chronicles, Issue Number 3, (1993): "Once I knew I wasn't gonna use that gimmicky thing with the thong on the end of it that we had in the pilot (BADGE OF HONOR) I didn't know exactly what I was gonna use as my gun. I was resisting the idea in my own mind, although nobody discussed it with me, about using a PEACEMAKER which is the weapon of choice on every other television show. Long barrel, short barrel, whatever, it's kinda boring. Well, I never said anything to anybody, but the prop man came up to me one day, and said, 'Come here, I wanna show you something.' And he took me over to his prop box and he pulled out this gun. He said "This is different from any gun that anybody else is carrying on television! It's legitimate. A lot of guys carried it. Although most of them carried 44's, this is a 38.' The 38 was what caused the gun to be made in the first place and given as a gift to GRAND DUKE ALEXEI of Russia, who appeared, as a matter of fact, in ... MAVERICK. He was a real person. He really did exist, and the Grand Duke Alexei hunted throughout the West and travelled with a big entourage. It was a Smith & Wesson Russian Model #3. They called it the Russian Model because it was the one that had been made with very fancy engraving and and a brace of them was given to the Grand Duke Alexei as publicity for S & W. It was a top break. That was what made it very special, also it made it somewhat undependable, because that top break, through normal wear and tear, sometimes would come loose on you and cause the gun to explode. (top break meaning the top of the gun opens forward instead of the cylinder coming out to the side the way it does on a Colt or a Peacemaker or a Pioneer. An extra piece of metal was welded on the hammer to make it flatter, so I could get to it. You couldn't fan the regular hammer on a Russian Model #3. It was so stiff. You could scarcely get it back, and you certainly could never fan it, and I did a lot of that. I think I'm the only guy I know of who, in the course of business, could fan three and make it sound like one. I did that. It's on film. Somewhere. It's in an episode. To draw and fire and fan the next two, one with your thumb and one with your little finger, and make it sound like one shot, that's fanning three. It's not really fanning, but you do one normally, and then fan right on top of it, two, three. I did it once, only once. I spent the next ten takes trying to get it in close-up, but I couldn't do it. I could not do it with regularity. I have done it more than once, but not on film."

The article "Culp The Perfectionist" by John Lachuk contains further information on the gun used in TRACKDOWN: "Despite the fact that TRACKDOWN producer Vincent Fennelly told Bob in the beginning to play down the quick draw angle as Gilman, he discarded the clumsy studio holster and belt as soon as he could get his own fast-draw rig. 'I altered the gun by welding an extension on the hammer to make it easier to cock, had the action hand-tuned for smoothness, and began practicing between scenes,' said Bob."

At every break, Culp practices draws, twirling and such juggling tricks as flipping the gun over his shoulder from the back and catching it in front. This sort of dedication has made him lightning quick on the draw and an expert at handling a six-gun. "I guess practicing has turned into a sort of reflex with me. I do it without thinking, just from habit."

There may have been a Canadian variant version of the Trackdown holster and I am continuing to try and source an example of this. Anyone with knowledge of this, please contact the author at the email address noted above.

I will be 60 this year (2012) and I continue to long more than ever for the days of the late 1950's when there were over 30 western series on television including; Wyatt Earp, Cheyenne , Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rebel, Bonanza and Gunsmoke, to name but a few. Younger people don't know the treasures of youth they missed. While current TV has much better production values, they seem to lack moral values and do not produce any cool cap guns for us to treasure!

David K. Dorward



A good photo of Robert Culp as Hoby Gilman from the TV show.


Another good scene from the show.


Hoby and his horse.


Most westerns had a femme fatale.


Hoby and his special pistol.


Don't round up the bad guys without your badge.



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