WEB PAGE NO. 2804 24th July 2021 Four Feather Falls 1ST PICTURE: Tex Tucker with the four feathers in his hat

2nd PICTURE: The Indian Chief

3RD PICTURE Gerry Anderson and Kenneth Connor

4TH PICTURE The DVD

Four Feather Falls This was the third puppet TV show produced by Gerry Anderson for Granada Television. It was based on an idea by Barry Gray, who also wrote the show's music. Thirty-nine 13-minute episodes were broadcast by Granada from February until November 1960. The setting was the late 19th-century fictional Kansas town of Four Feather Falls, where the hero of the series, Tex Tucker, is a sheriff. The four feathers of the title refers to four magical feathers given to Tex by the Indian chief Kalamakooya as a reward for saving his grandson: two of the feathers allowed Tex's guns to swivel and fire without being touched whenever he was in danger, whilst the other two conferred the power of speech on Tex's horse and dog. Tex's speaking voice was provided by Nicholas Parsons, and his singing voice by Michael Holliday. The series was sporadically repeated on British television until 1968, and was released on DVD in 2005. Gerry Anderson considered the original puppets with static heads, made for his earlier productions, to be unacceptable because the viewer could not tell which character was talking unless its puppet moved up or down. His aim was to make the puppets look as realistic as possible, the beginning of the Supermarionation puppetry process, although that term was not coined until his next series, Supercar. The puppets' papier-mâché heads were replaced by interchangeable hollow fibre glass heads with internal rods that could move the eyes from side to side. The heads also contained sound-activated solenoids, which allowed the puppets' lips to move automatically in synchronisation with the dialogue. The electronics of the day required more space than would be available in a human-scale head, therefore all the puppets in Four Feather Falls had oversized heads. Except for the pilot episode the series was produced in a converted warehouse in the Slough Trading Estate. The cast assembled to record each script without seeing the puppets and synchronization of each character's speech with the movement of its puppet's mouth was performed later. The show was filmed in black and white. Its tight budget precluded the use of special effects, and less-costly alternatives were used. For example, to achieve the effect of muzzle flashes, small specks of black paint were carefully applied to the 35 mm negatives so they would appear as white flashes on the finished prints. The wires used to control the puppets were eight feet long and made of tungsten. Being shiny, the wires had to be blackened. The puppets were made one-third life size with the puppeteers on a bridge eight feet above the set. The horses moved by being pulled along on a trolley, which meant the viewer never saw their feet when they were moving. In the first episode, Grandpa Twink related the story of how it all began to his grandson, Little Jake. Tex is riding up from the valley and comes across a lost and hungry Indian boy, Makooya, and saves him. Tex is given four magic feathers by the boy's grandfather, Chief Kalamakooya, as a reward for saving his grandson. The characters of the town are Grandpa Twink, who does little but rest in a chair; his grandson Little Jake, the only child in town; Ma Jones, who runs the town store; Doc Haggerty; Slim Jim, the bartender of the Denison saloon; Marvin Jackson, the bank manager; and Dan Morse, the telegraphist. The villains included Pedro, who was introduced in the first show and Fernando, who first appeared in the second episode as a sidekick and someone Pedro could blame when things went wrong, as they always did. Big Ben was another villain who appeared from time to time, as did Red Scalp, a renegade Indian. Not many people remember that Nicholas Parsons was the speaking voice of Sheriff Tex Tucker and Michael Holliday the singing voice). Kenneth Connor was Dusty the Dog / Rocky the Horse / Pedro the Bandit / Big Chief Kalamakooya / Bank Manager Marvin Jackson. Denise Bryer had worked with Gerry Anderson on The Adventures of Twizzle, and he wanted her to play some of the voices in Four Feather Falls. He visited her at her home with some scripts and asked her husband, Nicholas Parsons, to help by reading some of the other parts, including the sheriff Tex Tucker. Anderson liked Parsons' interpretation and offered him Tex's speaking voice. The show's music and song lyrics were composed by Barry Gray. Michael Holliday provided Tex's singing voice, and Tommy Reilly performed the harmonica pieces. The best known song to come out of the series was "Four Feather Falls", sung in some episodes by Michael Holliday in the style of Bing Crosby. The closing theme song was "Two Gun Tex of Texas." Michael Holliday was paid £2000 for his singing work on the pilot episode, equivalent to about £38,000, a significant part of the show's £6000 budget. In all, Michael Holliday recorded six songs for the series: "Four Feather Falls", "The Phantom Rider", "The Rick-Rick-A-Rackety Train", "Happy Hearts and Friendly Faces", "My Home Town", and "Two Gun Tex of Texas". The show was adapted into comics form and published as an ongoing strip in The TV Comic. The Four Feathers Falls strip was drawn by Neville Main, and appeared from issue 439 (14 May 1960) until issue 564 (6 October 1962). Jonathon Writes:- You may or may not remember a serialised story in 15 episodes in D.C Thompson's comic the Wizard in the mid 50's entitled the Yellow Sword set in the then future 1969..... It featured a conquering army called the Kushantis from Asia (read China) who conquered all of Great Britain except the mountainous parts of Scotland. It is all about this horribly cruel oppressor who the British underground fighters took on and eventually destroyed. As an 8 year old boy very into Biggles and Gimlet I found the series very very exciting. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com