Flashback: Rawhide Incident at Rojo Canyon

Flashback: Rawhide Incident at Rojo Canyon  

I thought it was about time to visit a Rawhide episode here on the Archive. Aside from the dedicated Rawhide page, we don’t really get too many opportunities to remind ourselves of where it all really began.

Picking an episode to feature here is a tough one, so I selfishly (perhaps) decided upon ‘Incident at Rojo Canyon,’ the Season 3 opening episode which aired on September 30th, 1960. Why? Well, as a long-time admirer of the smouldering actress / singer Julie London, it felt like a good enough reason as any! 

Julie London made a guest (and memorable) appearance as Anne Danvers in the episode, and we got to see her perform the song, ‘perfect love’ which to my knowledge, never appeared on any of her studio albums. As well as featuring the full episode here, I also had a couple of nice behind the scenes colour photos on file which were taken during the filming – so it’s also a great excuse to pull these out.

Below: A couple of superb behind the scenes photos 

Aside from cast regulars Bobby Troup (who was married to Julie London) also appears in this episode as Anne Danvers manager Nelson Hoyt. Not knowing the Civil War is long over, a Confederate battalion defends an isolated canyon, as Gil's drive approaches. Following the cattle drive is a U.S. cavalry squadron, dispatched to stop mysterious raids on local farms. The green, young cavalry don't know the raiders are CSA veterans who are well dug in and itchy for serious battle. The much older U.S. cavalry sergeant looks suspiciously familiar to drover Jim Quince, who fought under flamboyant rebel General Jeb Stuart.

Below: The full episode, Incident at Rojo Canyon - My kindest thanks to the original uploader

            

There are also a few other little Eastwood connections which I like to tie-in to this particular episode, namely the director who was Ted Post. The director broke into movies and ended up directing Clint in his first American feature film, Hang ‘em High, and again for the Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force. Another (indirect) connection perhaps, is the song ‘Misty’ as featured in Play Misty for Me. Call it coincidental, but Julie London’s latest album (released at the time of this particular episode) was Around Midnight (1960), and featured on that album was... Erroll Garner’s ‘Misty’. 

Yes, I know it’s pretty thin right? But hell, I’ve always liked connectivity!