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Ken Curtis: Rejected Hollywood songwriter
Who knows what could've been!
Sometimes, what seems like a great opportunity is only a stepping stone to something better. Just think back to some of the things you've wanted most in your life. If you'd gotten them the way you wanted, how different would your life be now? Most likely, getting what you wished for would've spun your life into some unforeseen avenues, changing irreparably the life you have now.
Not getting exactly what we want can be a blessing, as was the case for Gunsmoke's Ken Curtis back at the beginning of his career.
According to an interview in the Akron Beacon Journal, Curtis graduated college with hopes of becoming a doctor. However, his work in a campus musical production pointed him in a different direction. Curtis, emboldened by his stage success, sought his fortune as a songwriter in Hollywood. So, like so many cowboys of TV fame, Curtis hitched his wagon and headed West, searching for gold in the Hollywood hills.
However, when he got there, things didn't go the way Ken Curtis hoped.
“I was told my songs were pretty bad,” he said, “but it was suggested that I might make a career out of singing.”
So, he gave it a shot.
Anybody who may have bought Ken Curtis' records back in the day will know that he was pretty successful in this new endeavor. In fact, it was his time as a singer that attracted the attention of Columbia Pictures, where he began another career.
“Honestly,” he said, “I had never thought of acting until Columbia called me.”
That Columbia interest led to a series of "singing cowboy" roles. Eventually, Curtis was cast in The Searchers, which provided him with yet another turning point.
“One day [co-star Jeffrey] Hunter and I got to kidding,” said Curtis, “and I started talking in my dry land dialect. Director John Ford overheard me and asked me to talk that way in the movie. As a result, my ‘romantic’ scene with Vera Miles was burned into a comedy scene.”
Of course, it wasn't long before Ken Curtis found himself in Dodge City, living out his days as Festus on one of TV's greatest Westerns ever.
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