Rex Allen — the Arizona Cowboy — in the Shootout at the Fury Corral

Rex Allen

Rex Allen was one of the last of the singing cowboys, chalking up a string of credits in B-Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s and headlining his own TV show, "Frontier Doctor," in the late 1950s. The Arizona Cowboy, as he was known, was a regular on the Iverson Movie Ranch.

Here's a shot of Allen from "Frontier Doctor" in which the doc is engaged in a shootout at the Fury Set on the Upper Iverson. He did as much shooting as healing on the series, but always for a good cause.

Visible behind Allen are a number of features of the Rocky Peak area in the Santa Susana Mountains to the west of the Upper Iverson. "Frontier Doctor" aired in syndication for one season — 39 episodes — in 1958 and 1959. This shootout took place in the episode "Drifting Sands," which premiered March 28, 1959.

Fury Barn, in "Frontier Doctor" (1959)

The bad guy, who was holed up in the Fury Barn, quickly gives up, enabling the episode to wrap up in under 30 minutes. The TV show was produced under the banner Hollywood Television Service, which was part of Republic Pictures as the company was winding down its movie operation and shifting its focus to TV.



Allen had an accomplished career as a recording artist, including scoring a country hit with "Don't Go Near the Indians" in 1962. (You can hear the song on the video file above.) His biggest hit was "Crying in the Chapel," released in 1953 — about seven years before Elvis Presley recorded his well-known version of the song.

Allen also was the star of a series of comic books, with a number of the covers — including the one seen above — shot on the Iverson Movie Ranch. The cover above includes one of the most important background features when it comes to identifying Iverson — a feature I call the Triangle Brand.

Here's the same comic book cover with the Triangle Brand identified. The "brand" appears on Oat Mountain and is seen in the backgrounds of hundreds of productions shot mainly on the Upper Iverson.

Hills northeast of the Iverson Movie Ranch as they appear today

The darkened triangular area on Oat Mountain is created by vegetation and has held up over decades of filming at Iverson. It can still be seen in the hills above Chatsworth, Calif., today — it's visible at the far left in the above shot.

Oat Mountain, the Triangle Brand and other features of the hills above Chatsworth, Calif.

Here's the same recent shot with some of the key features identified. All of these features appear in the backgrounds of hundreds of B-Westerns, TV Westerns and other productions.

"Frontier Doctor" comic book

Allen's TV show "Frontier Doctor" shot portions of most of its episodes on the Iverson Movie Ranch, with additional outdoor footage shot on the Republic Pictures backlot in Studio City. "Frontier Doctor" also became a comic book.

Rex Allen Memorial, Willcox, Ariz.

Allen is an icon in his hometown of Willcox, in Cochise County, Arizona, where a memorial to the Arizona Cowboy can be found. Rex's faithful horse Koko is said to be buried at the foot of the statue of Rex.

Willcox, Ariz., is also home to the Rex Allen Museum.