The Durango Kid

The Durango Kid

When The Durango Kid was playing at the Gem Theater that’s where I went on Saturday morning. In truth, the Gem Theater played a lot of the great cowboy movies, like Lash LaRue, Hopalong Cassidy, and The Durango Kid.  The Durango Kid was very popular among the kids, probably because he wore a mask and all black. But we always knew he was Charles Starrett, or so the movie posters claimed. And when he took the mask off, he was Charles Starrett. Only later did we learn that a stunt double portrayed Durango in the action scenes.

Ted Mapes was the early stunt double for Durango, but was later replaced by Jock Mahoney. Mahoney had come out of the circus as a trapeze performer, and went into movies as a stuntman. He performed some really amazing feats while masked as Durango, too.

There were over 60 films of Durango between 1940 and 1950. Besides the movies, we also had The Durango Kid comic books. He was a natural to draw young readers to the comic books. His white horse was named Raider, while Charles Starrett rode Bullet when not in the mask.