Perspectives
by ED CHERRYHOLMES
I was an adolescent B.T. (before television!). Every Saturday afternoon our neighborhood gang would go to the Ideal or Parsons Theatre for a double header. Most of the time each movie lasted about 90 minutes and each feature was a cowboy movie. Our heroes were very familiar to us. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were the favorites, but there were many lesser lights such as Johnnie Mac Brown, Hopalong Cassidy, Bob Steele, The Durango Kid, Don “Ray” Brown, Red Rider and others.
Pitted against the good guys were a host of bad guys who always lost in the end. My favorite bad guy was Charlie King. Ever heard of him? Don’t feel bad; he was always on the outside. Charlie wore all black and had a rotund tummy. It seems like he was always getting punched out and yet he seemed to be in every film. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers got wealthy and well known and liked, while poor Charlie King didn’t have anyone on his side. He was a bit actor who was in a lot of pictures but never became wealthy.
Charlie’s trademark was a thin black mustache and his stomach, which had to be over 40 inches. He was the prototype of the bad guys who proved the good guys would always win. Of course life taught us differently and we had to live with that reality.
Not long after TV moved in, we became interested in other TV shows and we stopped going to the movies on Saturday afternoons. I appreciate those who helped us to get a better perspective on life.
A survey a few years ago found that only 15 percent of members in the Screen Actors Guild did not have to work an outside job in order to make ends meet. We owe a debt of gratitude to those bit actors who dedicated their lives to the stage. Most had to work in films with the knowledge they would always be poor, but glad to be in pictures and the theater is better for their contribution.
Charlie King, we salute you and your like for making us better adults. Not everyone can wear a white hat and ride a white horse and become rich and famous. Others are like the bit actors making a contribution to life with the knowledge that they will never be rich or famous. Charlie King, you are my hero!
