Horses and Hollywood
| Some of the best-loved early motion picture and television stars have been horses. Beginning with the Great Train Robbery (1903), the Western became one of film's dominant themes and depended inevitably on the horse. The horses of the screen became as familiar as the heroes who rode them to fame and fortune: William S. Hart and Fritz, Tom Mix and Tony, Gene Autry and Champion, Roy Rogers and Trigger. With the advent of television, another host of heroes and horses entered: the Lone Ranger and Silver, Tonto and Scout, Hopalong Cassidy and Topper, as well as such individual stars as Fury, Flicka, and the sage, Mr. Ed. |