Lash LaRue

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Lash LaRue

Lash LaRue, from the cover of Lash LaRue Western #2 (Fawcett Comics, Nov. 1949)
Born Alfred LaRue
(1917-06-15)June 15, 1917
Gretna, Louisiana, United States
Died May 21, 1996(1996-05-21) (aged 74)
Burbank, California
Other names Al LaRue
Occupation Actor
Years active 1944–1951
Spouse(s) Reno Browne
Barbara Fuller

Alfred "Lash" LaRue (June 15, 1917[1]–May 21, 1996) was a popular western motion picture star of the 1940s and 1950s. He had exceptional skill with the bull whip, and taught Harrison Ford how to use a bullwhip in the Indiana Jones movies. LaRue was one of the first recipients of the Golden Boot Awards in 1983.

Biography

Early life and education

Born Alfred LaRue in Watervliet, Michigan, he was reared in various towns throughout Louisiana, but in his teens the family moved to Los Angeles, California, where he attended St. John's Military Academy. However, California death records show his father's last name as Wilson and that he was born in Michigan.[1]

Films

He began acting in films in 1944 as Al LaRue, appearing in two musicals and a serial before being given a role in a Western film that would result in his being cast in a cowboy persona for virtually the rest of his career. He was given the name Lash because of the 18-foot (5.5 m)-long bullwhip he used to help bring down the bad guys. The popularity of his first role as the Cheyenne Kid, a sidekick of singing cowboy hero Eddie Dean, not just brandishing a whip but using it expertly to disarm villains, paved the way for LaRue to be featured in his own series of Western films. After appearing in all three of the Eddie Dean Cinecolor singing Westerns in 1945/46, he starred in quirky B-westerns from 1947 to 1951, at first for Poverty Row studio PRC, then to Eagle-Lion when they took over the studio and later for producer Ron Ormond. He developed his image as a cowboy hero dressed all in black and inherited from Buster Crabbe a comic sidekick in the form of "Fuzzy Q. Jones" played by Al St. John.

He was different from the usual cowboy hero of the era; dressed in black, he spoke with a "city tough-guy" accent, somewhat like that of Humphrey Bogart, whom he physically resembled. His use of a bullwhip, however, was what set him apart from bigger cowboy stars such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. His influence was felt throughout the dying medium of B-westerns; for example, he had an imitator, Whip Wilson, who starred in his own brief series, and even Roy Rogers started picking up and using a bullwhip in some of his Republic Studios Westerns made in the same period.

He also made frequent personal appearances at small-town movie theaters that were showing his films during his heyday of 1948-1951, a common practice for cowboy stars in those days. However, his skillful displays of stunts with his whip, done live on movie theater stages, also convinced young Western fans that there was at least one cowboy hero who could do in real life the same things he did on screen.

Lash LaRue Western

Lash LaRue Western comic books were published first by Fawcett Comics and later by Charlton Comics, between 1949 and 1961. They were among the most popular Western-themed comics of the era, running for more than 100 (usually monthly) issues.

For a time he was married to Reno Browne, a B-western actress, who together with Dale Evans was one of only two Western actresses ever to have their own comic book fashioned after her character. He later married Barbara Fuller who was an accomplished actress of both radio (Clauda on One Man's Family) and motion pictures and television, having played opposite Charles Boyer.

Lash LaRue comic books sold over one million copies around the world and many of them featured Lash and Barbara's godson, J.P. Sloane.

Television

In the later 1950s, LaRue was featured in archival footage numerous times on the children's program, The Gabby Hayes Show. He appeared several times too on the syndicated television series 26 Men, true stories of the Arizona Rangers. He appeared seven times in different roles in the 1956 TV Western, Judge Roy Bean, starring Edgar Buchanan in the title role, with Jack Buetel and Jackie Loughery. One of his roles on Judge Roy Bean was as the outlaw John Wesley Hardin.

LaRue and Steve Brodie shared the role of Sheriff Johnny Behan of Cochise County, Arizona, an historical person, on ABC's The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, starring Hugh O'Brian. LaRue appeared five times; Brodie, nine times.[2]

After decades of popularity, interest in westerns faded and he was forced to make a living from appearances at conventions for western film buffs and sometimes as an evangelist on the rodeo and country-music circuit. Problems with the Internal Revenue Service made it difficult for him to work.

A role as the villain in a pornographic western, Hard on the Trail, led him to repentance as a missionary for ten years, as he had not been informed of the adult nature of the film and would not have consented to appear in the film. He did not actually appear in any of the pornographic scenes. The film was later released without the pornographic scenes and retitled Hard Trail to eliminate the double entendre.[3]

Late in his career, he appeared in two low-budget horror films shot in North Carolina, Alien Outlaw and The Dark Power. In the latter, he plays a park ranger who makes extensive use of the bullwhip to battle wild dogs and attacking zombies.

Musician

LaRue often returned to Louisiana, where he grew up. He became a regular at the jam sessions at the Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans. In his autobiography, Backbeat, drummer Earl Palmer recalls:

"Lots of white people wanted to come to the Dew Drop. Most were turned away, but they let a few in. Every time the cowboy actor Lash LaRue came in town, he came by. He played a hell of a guitar and was a regular guy that people liked."

Faith and death

He was a born-again Christian who was baptized at Shreveport Baptist Tabernacle by pastor Jimmy G. Tharpe. Tharpe initially met LaRue in Alexandria, the seat of Rapides Parish, when LaRue was visiting the home of his daughter. He and another minister, Don Chelette of Alexandria, were proselytizing door-to-door when they met LaRue and his daughter. Tharpe thereafter declared a "Lash LaRue Day" at his church at which LaRue gave his Christian testimony: "He came, and we had a wonderful service in our gymnasium. There were thirty-seven people saved in the gym that day. He cut paper from the mouth of Debbye, my daughter, with his whip. We all rejoiced over Lash LaRue and his testimony. I introduced Lash to others, and several churches invited him to give his testimony, and he accepted."[4]

He was one of several people injured by a tornado while in attendance at the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia, Missouri, on August 20, 1952.

He died of emphysema at St Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California, and was cremated at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

In popular culture

Professional wrestler John LeRoux borrowed his ring name from LaRue, dubbing himself "Lash LeRoux" in 1999.

In the film Pulp Fiction, Winston Wolf refers to Vincent Vega as Lash LaRue and asks if he can keep his spurs from jingling and jangling.

70's pop band Starbuck included a tribute song to LaRue on their album Moonlight Feels Right.

He was mentioned in The Statler Brothers song "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott", and the Tom Paxton song "My Pony Knows the Way". He is also referenced in the Dave Stamey song, "If I Had a Horse".

He is incorrectly described as a Jew who changed his name to Lash LaRue in the song "Take A Walk On The Kosher Side" by Gefilte Joe and the Fish.

In The Rockford Files episode "A Material Difference," Jim asks if Angel is moonlighting as Lash LaRue.

WCCO Radio personality Steve Cannon named one of his "little Cannons" "Backlash Larue".

In an episode of The Partridge Family, "Partridge Up a Pair Tree", a broke Keith Partridge takes his girlfriend Carol to a Lash LaRue "kiddie matinee" with his last dollar.

Quotes

  • (Winning a fight handily, pauses) "You sure you don't want to try something else?"

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Ernest N. Corneau (1969), The hall of fame of western film stars, p. 254 
  2. ↑ "Lash LaRue". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved August 10, 2013. 
  3. ↑ Hardy, Phil (editor). The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: The Western, Aurum Press, 1983. ISBN 0-906053-57-9.
  4. ↑ Jimmy G. Tharpe, Mr. Baptist, Springfield, Missouri: 21st Century Press, 2003, pp. 74-76.
  • Lash LaRue, the King of the Bullwhip, by Chuck Thornton and David Rothel (Empire Publishing, NC, 1988). ISBN 0-944019-06-4.
  • The King of the Bullwhip: Lash LaRue, the Man, not the Legend, by Charles M. Sharpe (Sharpeco, NC, 1996). ASIN B0006QS5T6.

External links

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