Tom Tyler

Remembering some of the B-Western cowboys we saw at the Gem Theater. Here's Tom Tyler's Cyclone Range.

Rose Theater

Rose Theater. Here is another theater that is slowly disappearing.

The Phantom Detective

Here's the first issue of The Phantom Detective comic book. The Phantom Detective was a costumed crime fighter in the pulp magazines beginning in 1932. When the publisher went into comic books in the 1940s, one of the first featured The Phantom Detective. I have all the pulps featuring this character, and  believe all the comic book appearances, but in b&w, not color (sigh).

Roy Rogers & Trigger

Roy Rogers & Trigger: The singing cowboy of the Saturday Matinees. One of the best of our heroes of my youth in Wichita Falls, Texas in the 1940s

Buck Jones

Buck Jones starring in Durand of The Bad Lands: When hitting the streets on Saturday Matinee days in Wichita Falls, I always started at the Gem Theater across the street from us on Ohio Street, and then made my way around to the Ritz, Tower and Texan. One of those theaters always had something I wanted to see, and I wouldn’t need to go any further. Besides, the State, Strand, and Wichita Theaters were usually too expensive for my pocket change. It was always a treat to find a Buck Jones western like the movie poster advertises here. Of course, if The Durango Kid or Lash LaRue was playing at the Gem Theater, that’s as far as I got on Saturday morning.

The Shadow Magazine

The Shadow Magazine for March 15, 1933, “Murder Trail” by Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson.

The Shadow Comics

The Shadow Comics from 1947: We moved to Wichita Falls in the summer of 1947 and I discovered the Golden Age comic books fore the first time. I think at the time my favorite comic book was Batman, but Superman was a close second, and Wonder Woman third. Later Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family would replace Batman as my favorites. I also found The Shadow comics during that 1947 period, and at the time was a big fan of The Shadow on radio. I knew nothing about the novels in the pulp magazines then, and wouldn’t until long after I grew up. But I thoroughly enjoyed The Shadow comics.