By Henry C. Parke
On Nov. 15, Julien’s Auctions will conduct the Gunsmoke & Western Legends Auction, in which 568 lots, over 230 of them from the estate of Gunsmoke star James Arness, will each be sold to the highest bidder.
It’s a one-time, one-of-a-kind opportunity for fans of the series, and of the man who played Matt Dillon for over 20 years. These events are not put together overnight, but it’s a little surprising just how long ago this one started.
Janet Arness, James’ widow, reveals, “It’s been in process for almost 50 years. Jim’s original business manager started collecting things and would have Jim sign them. And then when we got married in 1978, I just kind of kept it going. When Jim would bring something home from the studio, I’d say, ‘Oh, this is great. Why don’t you sign it?’” she recalls with a laugh. “I don’t even remember him signing half the stuff, but he did.
“And for years, fans have asked for Jim’s items. It’s been hard to let go; I’ve treasured them and had them in storage and babied them. And so finally I said, ‘my children have picked, and my grandchildren have picked what they want; it would be so wonderful to share them with the fans.’”
Janet did some unanticipated time-traveling in the process. “I’d open a box and I’d say, ‘oh, yeah, I remember that.’” Some items are more difficult to part with than others. “Especially Jim’s saddle. It’s the same saddle he used the 20 years of Gunsmoke, and every (TV movie) of Gunsmoke: that was his saddle. And of course, his gun; that’s hard. And his badge.”
There are in fact three badges, and they’re nearly identical at first glance. “But there was a little scroll on the Marshall’s badge at the beginning, and then later they took that off.
“The other one that was hard to give up is the chair that they made for Jim on the set. It has his name, and then Jim signed it on top of his own name.”
Many of the items are personal. “There’s a trunk that Jim brought from Minnesota when he came out here to California. He wasn’t actually coming out to be an actor. He was just coming out to get away from the Minnesota snowstorms. But it’s an antique trunk, it belonged to his father, and Jim kept it all these years.”
It’s no surprise that Matt Dillon’s 45-caliber single-action Colt is much desired, but that this example, used in 1960 and ’61, caused some consternation, is a testament to the eyesight of the viewers. The problem wasn’t the gun itself, but the stag grips, “Because they were plastic,” Janet recalls with a laugh. “The fans recognized that, and they changed it later. And his holsters were made by special people; those are great.”
One of Arness’ holsters was made by legendary holster designer and fast-draw artist Arvo Ojala, who was also the man that Dillon outdrew and shot in the opening of every episode for the first nine seasons.
There are some items not in the auction, things Janet decided she shouldn’t part with after all.
“When they came here from Julien’s to look at the things, they started pulling stuff aside. I said, ‘Wait a minute. You can’t have that one!’ One was the replica of the statue that they built in Dodge City, and it looks so much like him. We went to the unveiling there, and the artist presented me with a smaller version—not the 6-foot-9 statute. There are a number of things, some paintings that Jim bought over the years and were special to both of us. I kept quite a few of those.”
Among the unique and personal items for sale are coffee mugs, which are part of a long-standing tradition started by John Wayne. Beginning in 1951, with Flying Leathernecks, Wayne gave hand-painted, personalized coffee mugs to each member of the cast and crew of the film and would do so for every film for the rest of his career.
Wayne was among the first to appreciate Matt Dillon’s talent, and before Gunsmoke, Arness was under contract to Wayne’s Batjac Productions. Arness made five movies for Wayne, “And I have three of the cups that John Wayne gave Jim, when Jim was at Batjac,” from Big Jim McLain, The Sea Chase, and Hondo. “Those are hard to find.”
They often sell for over $1,000 apiece.
Arness liked the idea of the mugs so much that he decided to follow Wayne’s lead. “Jim’s cups were given out over 20 years,” to Gunsmoke cast and crew, a different design each year.
Between 1955 and 1964, Dennis Weaver played Deputy Chester Goode in nearly 300 episodes of Gunsmoke and won an Emmy for that role.
“You know, Dennis and Jim were great friends. Dennis and his wife Gerry and Jim and I would get together all the time. The auction house said, we have a few things from Dennis’s family, they’d like to put up. Do you mind if we put those up? And I said, ‘no, no, I don’t mind.’”
Not surprisingly, a number of those items are the mugs that James gave him, and one in particular says, “Dennis from Jim.”
In fact, Miss Kitty, Amanda Blake, got into the act and started giving cast and crew English-made pewter mugs every year, some offered from the Arness estate and some from the estate of Gunsmoke writer and producer Ron Honthaner.
There are many items from the estate of Burt Reynolds, who played Quint, the blacksmith, from 1962 to 1965 on Gunsmoke, and went on to become one of Hollywood’s greatest stars. He wrote the foreword to Arness’ autobiography and, despite his phenomenally successful movie career, would often say that the best times of his life and career were spent on Gunsmoke.
Janet is happy at the thought that Jim’s things won’t be locked away. “I did contact [a museum] at one time, but I think they just have so many Western items, and I just had a feeling they might not get on the floor. And if they don’t display it, I don’t want it stuck down in a storage room somewhere. I would say to the fans—I’m gonna get a little choked up, you know—that I hope whoever buys Jim’s items enjoys them as much as I have enjoyed them over the years.”
For more details on the auction, click here.
About Henry C. Parke
Henry’s new book, The Greatest Westerns Ever Made, and the People Who Made Them, was published by TwoDot in February. The Brooklyn-born, L.A.-based writer has contributed articles to the INSP blog since 2016, been Film Editor for True West since 2015 and has written Henry’s Western Round-up, the online report on Western film production, since 2010. His screenwriting credits include Speedtrap (1977) and Double Cross (1994). He’s the first writer welcomed into the Western Writers of America for his work in electronic media. He’s done audio commentary on over thirty Spaghetti and domestic Westerns.
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