Lash La RueAlfred "Lash" LaRue was a famous western motion picture star of the 1940s and 1950s. Lash LaRue had extraordinary skill with the bull whip, and taught Harrison Ford how to use a bullwhip in the Indiana Jones movies. Lash LaRue was one of the first recipients of the Golden Boot Awards in 1983. Lash LaRue began acting in films in 1944 as Al LaRue, appearing in two musicals and a play before being given a role in a Western film that would result in his being cast in a cowboy persona for virtually the remainder of his career. Lash LaRue was given the name Lash because of the 18-foot long bullwhip Lash LaRue used to help bring down the bad guys. The popularity of his first role as the Cheyenne Kid, a sidekick, not just flaunting a whip but using it expertly to disarm villains, paved the way for Lash 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, Lash LaRue starred in quirky B-westerns from 1947 to 1951. Lash LaRue 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. Lash LaRue 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 Lash LaRue physically resembled. His use of a bullwhip, however, was what set him apart from bigger cowboy stars. His influence was felt throughout the dying medium of B-westerns; for example, Lash LaRue had an impersonator, Whip Wilson, who starred in his own brief series, and even Roy Rogers started picking up and using a bullwhip in some of his Westerns made in the same period. Lash LaRue also made frequent personal appearances at small-town movie theaters that were showing his films during his heyday of 1948-1951, becoming the only cowboy star most children of the time ever got to see and meet in person. 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. In the later 1950s, Lash LaRue was featured in actual footage numerous times on the children's program, The Gabby Hayes Show. Lash LaRue appeared several times on the syndicated television series 26 Men, true stories of the Arizona Rangers. Lash LaRue appeared seven times in different roles in the 1956 TV Western, Judge Roy Bean, with Jack Buetel and Jackie Loughery. One of his roles on Judge Roy Bean was as the outlaw John Wesley Hardin. La Rue also had the continuing role as Sheriff Johnny Behan on ABC's The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. However, after decades of popularity, interest in Westerns faded and Lash LaRue 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. Late in his career, Lash LaRue appeared in two low-budget horror films shot in the South, Alien Outlaw and The Dark Power. In the latter, Lash LaRue plays a park ranger who makes extensive use of the bullwhip to battle wild dogs and attacking zombies. New Products For December - Lash La Rue |
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