TOP BILLING FOR LITTLE BEAVER?

[cmvgor]

It was an impulse buy at the checkout counter: $1.00 for a DVD with two
early B&W westerns on it. The title that caught my attention was Stagecoach To Denver (1946), one of the old Red Ryder filcks. It's points:
1. Ex-defendant Robert Blake had top billing on the lable. When the opening credits rolled, of course, he was 13 year-old "Bobby" Blake in the
roll of Little Beaver.
2. The star was Allen Lane, having his first go at the role after Wild Bill
Elliott gave it up. (Bobby Blake was in the series from beginning to end --
26 films.)
3. I knew more about Red and Little Beaver from comic books than from
movies; they were in the theaters before my time. But Red in the movies
seems to have had something in common with Red in the comics -- he seemed to always wear his chaps, no matter what the place or the
situation. Even indoors as someone's guest, he was always dressed to
jump on his horse and ride through high underbrush.

That Christmas - season movie where the kid only wants a Red Ryder carbine-action two-hundred shot air rifle with a compass in the stock?
Movies from this series give you a look at the hero that had impressed
the lad. But the word is that the Wild Bill Elliott titles are better. I won't
go out of my way to find out, but I wonder how the billing goes on those lables.

[cinemalover]

cmvgor,
The movie you're referring to is the fantastic A Christmas Story 1983. A modern day classic that would stack up well against TCM's normal fare. In all the hundreds of "B" westerns that I've watched over the years, I'm not sure that I've ever seen a Red Ryder film. Sounds like you scored, my friend.

[cmvgor]

Yo, Chris;
Thanks. While typing, I could remember Jean Shepard (scripter and narrater), Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon (actors) and the character name "Ralphie", but I could NOT remember that title! (Googling for this stuff later, I ran across an ad for a Christmas Story-inspired Leg
Lamp for just $129.99, if anyone is interested.)

Reflection and a night's sleep has brought up some other questions:

1. Is former homicide defendant Blake entitled to compensation for this
changed use of his name? Is he getting it?

2. Did either Wild Bill Elliott or Alan Lane ever realize any income from
the sale of the Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred round etc, etc,etc?

3. Is a cowboy character who seemingly was always,
always wearing chaps, appearently as a fashion statement, entitled to a mention in the current "Screened Out" essays?

I'm really not sophisticated enough to answer questions like this.