Fury

This is the range country where the pounding hooves of untamed horses still thunder in mountains, meadows and canyons. Every herd has its own leader, but there is only one Fury - Fury, King of the Wild Stallions. And here in the wild west of today, hard-riding men still battle the open range for a living - men like Jim Newton, owner of the Broken Wheel Ranch and Pete, his top hand, who says he cut his teeth on a branding iron...  FURY!..The story of a horse..and a boy who loves him.

So began each episode of Fury, a weekly dramatic TV series set in the then contemporary American West, which aired on NBC from 1955-1966 and later in syndication through the 1970's (retitled as Brave Stallion).  Fury starred Peter Graves as Jim Newton, the recently-widowed owner of the Broken Wheel Ranch in California, Bobby Diamond as Jim's adopted son Joey Clark Newton, and William Fawcett as ranch hand Pete Wilkey.    

As depicted in the first episode of the series, Jim Newton first meets orphan Joey Clark when he sees a group of young boys playing baseball in the streets of a small town, and the boys wrongly blame Joey for an errant baseball that breaks a nearby shop window.  Jim attends the court hearing where Joey is to be held responsible for breaking the window and tells the judge, who happens to be a friend of his, that Joey is innocent.  Jim offers to take the orphan Joey home to live with him at the ranch, and the judge lets Joey go free. 

Once at the ranch, Jim introduces Joey to Fury, a captured wild stallion that no one seems able to tame.  Fury seems drawn to Joey as a kindred spirit and allows Joey to ride him.  From then on, Joey and Fury become fast friends.  Subsequent episodes of the show usually revolved around a guest star who would find him or herself in danger, usually due to their own reckless behavior, and Fury and Joey would ride to their rescue.  Jim would also usually play a part in helping to resolve the situation and set things right, even if it meant taking part in a fist fight or two.   

Fury was one of a number of dramatic series in the 1950's, like Rin Tin Tin, Lassie, My Friend Flicka, and Sky King, that were set in the West and involved kids and horses or dogs (or airplanes) rescuing people.  The children in these series were usually orphans or only distantly related to the adults they lived with.  These shows were aimed at a family audience, and they combined action and adventure with clear moral lessons about right and wrong.  The starring adults were depicted as kind and nurturing but also strong and fearless, and always ready to right a wrong, rescue a hapless victim (even if they had gotten themselves into trouble through their own bad judgment), and capture a bad guy.  The kids served as the adults' assistants and apprentices, learning important values and moral lessons along the way.  The horses and dogs in these shows were depicted as proud, innocent, wise, and brave creatures who had a natural bond with children who, unlike some adults, were inherently good and innocent themselves.

Peter Graves, the actor who played ranch owner Jim Newton, later went on to star in other TV series, most notably Mission Impossible.  Sadly, he passed away on March 15, 2010. 

You can watch Fury on DVD in the Fury 2-Pack (Vol. 1 and 2), which includes ten episodes from the original series.   

 

Comments

[Steve Gorelick]

Hi Jo:

I have been meaning to post this FURY-related story for a few months but things kept getting in the way.

My grandparents had a vacation condo in Palm Springs that was made up of 6 ranch-style condos around a large pool. It was my favorite hangout as a kid. Palm Springs had a little bit of Vegas glamour but was mostly pretty sedate. One of the local residents, about ten blocks away, was a guy whose benevolence made at least part of your grad school education possible -- Walter Annenberg.

Anyway, our condo neighbors included Emil Newman, one of the three legendary Newman brothers who, between them, composed hundreds of well-known movie scores in the 40s and 50s.

Emil was one of the nicest, most fun guys I remember from my childhood, but he was far and away the least productive of the Newman brothers. Everywhere he went was an event, a party, for them kids staying in the condos (and their parents). What I only can see now is what subsequently became widely known -- Email was an alcoholic and plagued by a host of other problems.

In the last few years, one of the large remaining Hollywood sound stages and recording venues was named for the Newman brothers and, speaking at the dedication ceremony, their nephew Randy Newman (Oscar winning film composer) said something to the effect that while all the Newman Brothers had various problems, only Emil had all of them!

So why do I mention all this?

Emil may have been down and out, but he was a hero to us kids for one particular piece of work -- the theme song to FURY! Yup, he wrote it. We would run around the place, jumping in and out of the pool, laughing with Emil and singing the first few bars to that theme song at the top of our lungs. He would laugh uncontrollably but once explained that a good chunk of the condo came from FURY!

My favorite Emil Newman story: Palm Springs could be incredibly hot but, because the heat was dry, 110 - 112 degrees could actually be fun. One day, though, after a number of super hot days, the unheated pool was actually close to 90 degrees and not too refreshing. So, with no small amount of mystery, Emil assured us that he would take care of it.

Several hours later, we were sitting by the pool and a large truck drove across the grass and finely manicured grounds and parked itself right next to the pool. Before we knew what was going on, the truck began to dump over 100 blocks of ice into the pool which absolutely solved the problem, to our absolute joy.

When we asked him how much it cost, he simply winked and said:

"Don't worry, kid. FURY!"

[Steve Gorelick]

I now see, further complicating the whole Newman story, that -- while he did compose music for FURY, the actual theme for ther show was by Ernest Gold. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fury_(TV_series)

I do hate to let the truth get in the way of a great childhood memory.

[Jo Holz]

Thanks for sharing that wonderful story, Steve, even if Emil Newman didn't actually compose the theme music. You sure had an interesting childhood!