Spin & Marty

I don't know what on earth just now caused Spin & Marty to pop into my head--or, I should write, Spin & Marty (though both are correct).

When I was a wee lad--living in Oklahoma, wishing I were a cowboy (knowing I'd be a cowboy)--I was a fan of Mickey Mouse Club (1955-96 on ABC--and, no, I was not watching it on into the 90s--just the early years). I didn't really care for Jimmy Dodd, who hosted the show, but there were a couple of (female) Mouseketeers who, uh, attracted my, uh, attention.

I knew I had no chance for Annette (every guy I knew at school was in love with her), so I focused on Doreen, who also "interested" me--and I spun lies with my friends at Adams Elementary School, lies that involved our being "pen pals."

No one ever bothered to ask me to produce evidence (whew!), but it was probably because they knew I was lying--and lying so patently that there was no point in calling me out.

In self-defense: I was only 10 when that show first aired.

I just checked: Doreen Tracey was a year older than I--and died in 2018. She'd been battling cancer and died of pneumonia.

Anyway, that old show had several features: an opening number (those kids could sing and dance--and Cubby, pictured above, could play the drums--and Cubby O'Brien is still alive), a closing cartoon, and in between ran some serial stories, including Spin & Marty, starring, respectively, Tim Consadine and David Stollery. 

It took place on a contemporary dude ranch where Marty, a spoiled rich kid, comes; Spin works there--he's skilled with horses and "real" life. There were lots of class conflicts (even a fight--see video below), but eventually they became friends.

The stories became immensely popular (they ran between 1955-1957)--even a series of comic books about them appeared. The boys become celebrities, as well--and Consadine had a decent film career afterward; Stollery became an industrial designer; both are still alive at 79).

So, this morning, my mind, roaming around, settled on these two--and, once again, the magic carpet whirled me back to the mid-1950s when all things were possible for a ten-year-old boy sitting in his elementary school classroom, a boy supposed to be dong an arithmetic worksheet but thinking instead of joining Spin and Marty a bit farther West. On a horse.

Link to some video.

PS--I just read, by the way, that there was an updated version of the series in 2000. Wikipedia (!) says it "bore almost no resemblance to the original."