There must be some of you out there who remember this vintage 1955 TV show, Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion. This theme music has been lodged in my memory ever since I was six years old.
Captain Gallant starred Olympic swimmer Buster Crabbe, famous for his roles as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, with a stint as Tarzan, too–his was a name to conjure with, back then. His real-life son, Cullen “Cuffy” Crabbe, co-starred with him in this show. What they were supposed to be doing, stationing a little kid at a Foreign Legion post which was always getting attacked by the Arabs, is difficult to imagine. But if I remember rightly, the same motif was used in Rin Tin Tin, a memory which I’ll get to on another day. I guess it was done to keep children in the audience.
Buster Crabbe! What a big name he was, once upon a time!
I wonder if I can fit him into my Bell Mountain movie.
Buster Crabbe was huge in his day, just like Lindbergh, Audie Murphy, or Milton Beryl. Yet ask young people today who these people were and you most likely will draw a blank. They don’t even know who the Rat Pack were. All I can say about this is: “Yo Rinnnnnnnnnnnny!”
Lived just down the street from the Crabbe family in Terrenia, Italy where they filmed the final year of the series. Used to hang around with Cuffy occasionally as he had a Vespa. I was a year or so younger. Visited the set during filming several times….very cool memories. Had not thought about that in many years until Kirk Douglas died yesterday and it jogged my memory so I went to google and found this and other sites.