1885-1969
Two legendary character actors in as many days! The man the world knew as "Gabby Hayes" was born George Francis Hayes on this date in Stannards, New York--a small town located close to the state line with Pennsylvania. He was to become one the most well known, if not the most famous, western sidekick ever. He was actually the most unlikely of actors to eventually to become known thusly. He came from a very patrician background; from a well off family that included members who were executives and business owners (one of his uncles was a vice-president at the company General Electric; his own father was a long time hotel owner in his home town, and a pillar of the community). Hayes actually got his start in vaudeville in the eastern part of the country. When he married in 1914, he had already been in the business for at least a dozen years; upon his marriage, his wife joined him on the stage and together they became a very successful vaudeville act. They were so successful in fact, that Hayes was able to afford early retirement to a nice home on Long Island at the age of 43 in 1928. This was not to last however; the family lost nearly everything the following year in the infamous Wall St. crash. This meant that Hayes needed to go back to work. And back to work he went, immediately. Instead of returning full time to the stage, he went into film work. He appeared in three early talkies in 1929: The Rainbow Man--an all sound musical distributed by Paramount, Smiling Irish Eyes--a Vitaphone mono dramedy made by Warner's and loaded with songs, and finally, Big News--a comedy mystery directed by Gregory La Cava for Pathé Exchange with sound by RCA. With these appearances, his film career was off to a fast start. He next appeared in another Warner film--Playing Around, a film shot in 1929 and released in January 1930. He then took minor roles that had no actual credits assigned to them (such as "poker player" in the short comedy She Who Gets Slapped [1930]--no doubt a comedic send of up of Victor Sjöström's 1924 He Who Gets Slapped; or "projectionist" in the Laurel & Hardy short The Stolen Jools [1931]). Hayes would not appear in his first western until 1931, when he was cast as "Stingaree Kelly" in the independently produced God's country and the Man. The rest, as they say, is history! Not that he didn't have roles between westerns playing minor characters from time to time, but it was the westerns that allowed his vaudeville background to shine. For this work, he had to learn how to master riding a horse convincingly...in his mid 40's. To be sure, western or otherwise, almost all of the films in which he appeared early 1930's were Poverty Row films--a "class" of lower budget movies also brought about as a result of the Wall St. crash and the Great Depression that it caused. Again, being the horror film lover that I am, I have to at least mention House of Mystery, a poverty row horror mystery that includes one of the era's favorite vehicles for mayhem, namely a killer ape, in which he actually has a named credit. By 1935, Hayes was becoming popular enough as the quirky bearded character in westerns that he started getting second billing. See, for example: Rainbow Valley with John Wayne and Smokey Smith with Bob Steele. But it was as a sidekick to Hop-A-Along Cassidy and Roy Rogers that Hayes is well remembered for. He appeared in his first Cassidy film in 1935 when the role was created and taken by the man most young people simply thought was "Hopalong Cassidy" for real: William Boyd. So, he was in the Hopalong franchise from its inception, but it would not be until the third film--Bar 20 Rides Again that his character of Windy Halliday was introduced (in the first two films he played two completely different roles). He stayed in this role until 1939, when he left Paramount, the studio responsible for the distribution of the Hopalong films, over a pay dispute. It was his move to Republic Films, where he would be paired up with Rogers--among others--that the name "Gabby" became attached to his name in life. Since Paramount owned the rights to the name of Windy; Republic came up with the character of Gabby Whitaker to replace it. The first time that the character appears in a film came in In Old Caliente, released in June of 1939. It would lead to other characters that he played also being named "Gabby" (see: Robin Hood of the Pecos (1941)--Gabriel "Gabby" Hornaday, Nevada City (1941)--Gabby Chapman and Bad Man of Deadwood (1941)--Professor Gabby Blackstone). Hayes stayed with Republic through the bulk of the 1940's, but starting in 1946, he also began appearing in the occasional RKO film (a notable first is the Randolph Scott picture Badman's Territory). He also went back to playing various roles whose first name was "Windy" (see: Wyoming (1947)--Windy Gibson and The Untamed Breed (1948)--Windy Lucas; both of which are Republic productions). His last feature film came in 1950 on the Randolph Scott vehicle The Cariboo Trail, distributed by 20th Century Fox. After this, he retired to television acting. He was given his own show: The Gabby Hayes Show on NBC, of which he was the host; the show aired for several seasons. A new version of the show then premiered on ABC in 1956 for a short run. He was also featured in Howdy Doody Shows 8 Birthday episode of the The Howdy Doody Show, which aired on New Year's Eve of 1954. He sporadically showed up as himself on television after this through the 1950's, but retired completely by 1960. Like his hotel owning father, he had investments in real estate and spent the reminder of his life managing an apartment building that he had purchased in North Hollywood, along with other land holdings that he held in an investment portfolio. During his lifetime, he also spent a considerable amount of time on the radio; and, one of his stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame is for his contribution to the medium. He also contributed ideas to children's books and western comics toward the end of his acting career. Hayes passed away from an heart ailment on the 9th of February at the age of 83. He and his wife, who passed away in 1957, never had any children. In life, Hayes was a sophisticated gentlemen--always well quaffed and spoken...in other words, the EXACT opposite of the Windy/Gabby characters that made him famous. He is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial at the Hollywood Hills location, next to his beloved wife Olive.
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| [Photo credit: A.J. {Find A Grave}] |
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| [Photo credit: A.J. {Find A Grave}] |
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