Episode 016: Paying Tribute to a Friend from College and a Review of "The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch"

Frank has a heavy heart this week because an old friend from Texas Tech, Jay Leeson, passed away last week at the age of 44.  While he had lost touch with Jay, he summarizes Jay's life as a journalist in several different forms across Lubbock and West Texas, and tells some funny stories from their time in college.  

Then Frank reviews The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch, a made for TV movie from 1982 for which Priscilla Barnes received top billing.  It is typical Aaron Spelling fare--a comedy, romance, and western with the American Civil War as a backdrop.  It is full of melodrama and multiple plots.  Definitely worth a look.

The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch is available on YouTube.

The theme song is called Retro Funk by SoulProdMusic and can be found at pixabay.com.

--The best way to contact is:
Twitter: @frankwebertx
Web:  frankwebertx.com
Email:  frankoweber@hotmail.com

Transcript

Frank: 0:00

Well, on this episode of Frank Weber's party, I'm going to pay tribute to an old college friend of mine who just suddenly and very sadly passed away a few days ago. I'm going to tell you some great stories about him during our times in school. And then I'm going to do a review of an old ABC made for TV movie called The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch, which stars the lovely Priscilla Barnes from 1982. You're going to love it. Please stay tuned. Hello, and welcome once again to Frank Weber's Party. This is your host Frank Weber. I, welcome you once again to the party and hope that, you're in good spirits today. I'm in good spirits today as well. I had a pretty good weekend, Texas Tech won after I kind of went on my rant in the last episode. played a much more complete game, we have to wait and see, but, they defeated the Houston Cougars, so I just wanted to mentioned that to you, especially after you heard what I said last week, but we'll see how the season goes from here and kind of getting ready for fall around here. the last few months of the year are usually kind of tough on me. a lot of things going on, change of weather. birthday coming up and then you have to deal with things like Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was actually thinking about doing a little commentary on Halloween and how it's essentially all the month of October with people going out of their way. Some people going out of their way to decorate their houses and everything, but I'm going to save that for another time. I had something else come up late last week and. I wanted to talk about it a little bit here. I had an old friend from Texas Tech that I knew in a couple of different circles named Jay Leeson, who, passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly on Thursday, which was September 28th. He was only 44 years old. He had a wife and four kids, died from what was described as a brief. An escalated battle with a long term illness, and that's all that we know, but, uh, I wanted to mention this before I tell you a little bit about Jay and what's been written about him so much. I haven't seen him since probably the year 2000 when I graduated from Tech, went to dental school, and I haven't lived in Lubbock full time, but he's since become a big Lubbock. And West Texas for that matter, media personality. And then I picked up a few things from, certain media outlets like LinkedIn, the Lubbock avalanche journal newspaper, the daily Toria door, who he really kind of started with in journalism. That's, the Texas tech student newspaper that used to be called the university daily when I was there, as well as the KCBD. website. Jay was a West Texas media personality, political advocate, and an award winning cartoonist. I believe he had an award through Columbia University in New York. nearly 25 years working in media, telling stories, unpacking complex issues, teaching others, had a radio show called The Other Side of Texas, which, It eventually became a podcast. I had no idea he was in podcasting, described himself as a prairie populist, which the term populist, I haven't discussed this on the show here, but I don't get why that's such a bad word in history books as well as in our media. in a country that is for the people and by the people. But a great media personality known all around Lubbock. I didn't know much about his work since I didn't live there full time and I had heard about him here and there and we never reconnected. That's kind of a sad thing for me, I mean you know people at certain points in your life and then it's difficult to stay connected and I don't hear a lot about deaths, I only heard about his because he was such a media personality and people knew him down there and, I, Would have loved to kept in touch. He seems like he also knows a ton about media and communications. Like I said, the podcasting, I think he would have been a great guest on this podcast and could have shared a lot of laughs and we shared a lot of views, which I'll get into in a little bit, but, just finishing up some of his accomplishments. He was also had a bachelor in arts, and journalism from Texas Tech University. And then a few years later, got a master's of divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. In 2017, he opened Leeson Communications, LLC, and, he's going to be sorely missed as, uh, just a personality around the area, very knowledgeable on politics and social issues, faith issues, and, also a very huge Texas Tech supporter, just like I am. And I'm going to tell you A few stories, how I met him, and a few stories there that hopefully you'll find very funny and entertaining. So, I probably met Jay Leeson in 1997 or 1998. We both went to a campus ministry at Tech called the Wesley Foundation. That was the United Methodist Church. campus ministry, their presence on campus. He was always a pretty vocal guy about a lot of issues. but a sweet guy, friendly guy. I think he cared for a lot of people. politically, and I don't know if he's changed a little bit. we were both pretty center right in terms of our politics and social issues and faith. that may have changed a little bit over the years. Like these days, I kind of think of myself as a little bit more libertarian, but I'm still pretty much center, right? And he was very vocal on a lot of issues, particularly politics, and, we kind of bonded over, a dislike of Bill Clinton and his administration. Now, regardless of what you think about Bill Clinton, the man, or his policies, or even his behavior in office back in the day, you know, we're talking second term, by then. he set the, country on the path that it's kind of on right now, or at least contributed to that. there was a divisiveness that started during that era in the nineties that concerned a lot of us. And we haven't gotten off that train yet after having what seemed like a period of relative unity during the eighties. And I would also tell you that in the nineties and going to a large public university, the Clintons. bringing politically correct speech into the mainstream and possibly the big diversity push started on campuses back then. So we were having to deal with that somewhat at Tech. Jay was very politically active, and his views actually went against A lot of the other views at the Daily Toreador, which back then was called the University Daily. He caused some controversy there, but he was a great cartoonist early on. Did a lot of his cartoons in the style of a guy known as Dirk West, who did a lot of cartoons, of Texas Tech mascots, as well as other Big 12 mascots. Mostly, Dirk West was a sports guy, but... Jay expanded into politics and social issues and faith. And I didn't think he really fit that well at the university daily, but he managed to make it work and was one of his first jobs while he was studying journalism. Kind of made that a stepping stone. He was a very direct guy, kind of intimidating looking. I thought he kind of looked like he was in the army with his haircut back then. but again, like I said, he was a sweet guy. He was a kind guy. He cared. For everybody, we had a number of heart to heart talks. And, he dated a girl in college. they wound up breaking up, I believe before I graduated and I don't believe she became his wife, but he dated a girl named Tice Conway, who was a very lovely, very sweet girl, very kind girl. she, I believe, had aspirations to become an attorney. And for a time, I believe, interned with the George W. Bush administration. I thought I may have run into her. At a restaurant in Austin around 2007 and we kind of looked at each other, but never said anything. So I don't really know what happened there. But anyway, he was. I fell madly in love with her when we were in school at Texas Tech and, one year I think it was particularly right at the retreat that I'm going to talk about in a few minutes. She was going to go on an exchange program to Spain and he was worried about losing her to a Spaniard because Spain is Like a lot of European countries kind of touchy feely, like the soccer boss that just got fired for laying a smooch on one of the players, even though I never thought that was really wrong. What he did. I mean, it was kind of Richard Dawson ish to me, which I always thought was just fine. I mean, that's how I grew up, right? Eighties. But, he was worried that a Spaniard was going to take ties away and yeah. Turns out that a Spaniard did not. She came back. Okay. But I don't think they continue their relationship much longer than that. He was from originally a nearby town called Abernathy, not too far up the road from Lubbock, Took a group of us from the Westley Foundation. One time to a high school game there. I can't remember who they were playing. I want to say Rawls, but I'm not sure if that's correct. But, went to the game, enjoyed the game. Nice small town high school football game. Even went up to the press box and announced. That we were all there and we'd love to welcome Jay Leeson and his friends from the Texas Tech Wesley Foundation for coming to the game and afterwards they have a tradition at Abernathy and I don't know if they still do this or if this is true of some other towns in Texas but we went to this restaurant there in Abernathy and The team would be there as well as some of the fans and they would always invite the visiting team to come over for a meal after the game. So everybody sat down and enjoyed some good food and fellowship. something that I didn't expect to see in 1998 and not sure if it still exists now. Very unique situation to say the least. That was one big memory I had. The other one, besides that entice actually was, we were at the same table, the same group in a walk to Emmaus retreat in January of 1999, which is also called, a chrysalis. and they sing this song, de coloris, a very spiritual thing. I thought, because, a Methodist minister, Phil McClendon was running it. That year that it was a, Protestant Christian retreat, strengthening of faith, great food, a lot of learning, a lot of prayer, and some hijinks as I'll get into as well. I don't really know how that originated. we had it at a Catholic church in Slayton and the rumor there was that the priest was not happy with the walk to Emmaus movement. Perhaps because of a theological difference, but then, the Catholic version of it is called the axe retreat, which I think is very similar. Not only do they do axe retreats at the Catholic retreat center in Amarillo, but I think they do the walk to Emmaus as well so I'm not really sure how that all started or Who is credited with that We had a great group. we were kind of locked up, for three days, and, we wound up doing this skit, one afternoon and Jay Leeson had been talking almost since the beginning of the retreat that part of this skit should involve mooning the audience where, you turn your back and you pull down your pants and you show your ass. And, and seemed like it would be okay. I mean, it's mostly men there, I think everybody was kind of modest and stuff. But, Jay was the one who pioneered that idea and I was kind of against it, but we went ahead and we wound up doing it that day. It was still mostly men, but there was probably a couple of women there, including ties and we mooned them. Phil's son who played football at Tech said something like one of us forgot to wipe or whatever. I don't, I don't remember if that was me because I had a lot of gas and a lot of fart problems then. So there may have been some. Some moisture kind of near my butthole and not to mention, there's a lot of hair on my ass, just like there's a lot of hair on my chest. So that was probably different from the other guys too. But if you were there, you would have thought it was really funny. I also think about mooning if you do it just right, some guys scrotum or ball sack will be visible. I'm not sure if mine was or not. I don't know if my balls were showing. I don't know. That's another thing that I think about but that was his idea. as I mentioned already, great commentator, great storyteller. I'm trying to remember all the stories he told me again. That would be another reason why he'd be great on a podcast. He would have been great here. And, Politics, social issues, very tremendous in terms of his faith and his family. A great Texas Tech fan. A lot of sports cartoons as well as political ones. But he was, reading his resume here, he was all over the media in Lubbock. Whether it was spoken word, audio like this, or written word, or cartoons. Being on TV even and he looked quite a bit different in the latest picture that I saw online but I'm very saddened those were some of the big memories that I remember about him and Really would have liked to reconnect with him recently and I think that's the one of the biggest things is just Reconnect with friends, catch up with them, see how they're doing. We could have done it here. And just a brilliant guy, great thinker as well. I don't know if I told you this or not. he won the Big Texan 72 ounce Steak Challenge three times apparently. In addition to other awards that he's received. was working on a biography of former Texas House Speaker Pete Laney. Who, was a Democrat and I believe is still alive, kind of wondering, if Jay has reconciled that because when I knew him, he was a staunch Republican, but if you talk to people enough, you find that, you have a lot in common with them. But, I just hope that was funny and I hope you enjoyed those stories. I mean, I do have a little bit of a heavy heart there. I really would like to know about other people who have passed away, but he certainly made a good name for himself and a great memory for a lot of people. And I hope you're listening up there in heaven, Jay, and hope his family will maybe. Listen to this tribute here because there's not really another way that I found so far to, give my condolences, to the family, but, really sad to hear that you passed away and hope you're in a better place. We miss you and we love you. And, hopefully we'll have, some more great conversations up there someday. I want to take a quick break now and We're going to move on here to a, made for TV movie and Aaron spelling production. In fact, the guy who did the love boat and a number of other shows, like Starsky and Hutch and hotel, which Priscilla was also in. Well, she stars top billing in this movie. Called The Wild Women of Chastity Gulch and it's a pretty wild movie just like that title suggests and we'll be right back I shouldn't really do this. But when I take these breaks, I always Remember to say things that I think I forgot while I was telling you but Jay was only 44 years old I'm almost 46. We'll be in a couple of weeks so that's We're concerned, sometimes about my mortality and the mortality of others around me as well. But I should also tell you that the mooning incident at the walk to Emmaus our pastor, Phil McClendon, got into trouble, some kind of trouble for that, And now we're going to get into a made for TV movie for ABC called the wild women of chastity Gulch. It aired October 31st, Halloween night of 1982. That was a Sunday night. And so it aired on the ABC Sunday night movie. As I've said before, whether it was Sunday night or Monday night or Saturday night or whatever, movies of the week were pretty big back then. you may or may not have had cable, but that was when they played big blockbuster movies on televisions, possibly for the first time and definitely for the first time, if it was a made for TV movie like this, Priscilla has the lead role in it. Possibly because she was in her second season on Three's Company by this time and had gotten a bit of stardom as a result of that. she also appeared, in a number of other, Aaron Spelling's weekly shows as a guest star, and sometimes more than once. I've always wondered why maybe she could have had a starring role in one of his shows at some point. A lot of people loved working for Aaron Spelling, said he was really good and paid well and originally from Texas. she had some trouble, of course, as you may have read with the producers on Three's Company, didn't get along with them well, even though, She got along great with the other actors. So there's lots of things I can tell you about this movie. I get very detail oriented and really kind of excited and intrigued about a lot of this. As far as genre goes, this movie is a, made for TV movie. So it's not really theatrical quality, but it's not bad. It's pretty typical of an Aaron Spelling show with multiple plots. good one liners, happy endings, that sort of thing. So if you view this on YouTube, you know, you can treat it as such, but it's a comedy romance Western. Maybe the biggest thing is that it happens during the civil war and the backdrop is the civil war. It takes place in a town called Sweetwater, Missouri, which is near a place called chastity Gulch, which the name of the movie Now, Missouri's involvement in the Civil War, I had to look this up. the Civil War is perhaps a very misunderstood conflict in our history. I don't know how many people... Recognize that I really know that and Missouri's involvement is also pretty complex. They're both nuanced as well The war itself was about multiple issues not just slavery But also states rights in today's world. We don't have slavery in that form anymore but we do still have ongoing issues with states rights versus federal government rights and Right now, for example, in Texas, whose responsibility is it to protect the border? is that the federal government's? Well, it's supposed to be the federal government's, but the state of Texas and Governor Abbott have to step in and do something about it to protect us as well. So that is actually a state's rights issue. And, interestingly enough, another tangent, of the immigration thing is related to human trafficking, which, is a form of slavery for apparently a lot of times women and Children. so that's just a nuanced topic there for you. So the Civil War is nuanced. Missouri's involvement in the Civil War was nuanced. It was a very divided state. A number of Southerners had come in and settled on the Missouri River, and they were sympathetic to the Confederate cause. And a lot of the rest of the state, was sympathetic to the Union cause. and initially the state actually sided with the Confederacy, but was largely a Union state during the war. is a confederate sympathizing town. So this town of Sweetwater, all the men that are left able bodied men, there's a couple of clownish type characters who are still there, but have lost appendages and a blast and they're not recruited to the war, but all the rest of the men are recruited to the war. And, Joan Collins, who was on dynasty at this time, big star, Annie McCulloch, who is the, owner of a brothel or a Bordello. She basically runs the town and, other kind of investments around town. So she's kind of a big deal, but she's also dying. And, the ladies of the Bordello. Along with the good and proper ladies elsewhere in town tend to have this little rivalry. And Annie calls her niece up, which is Maggie McCulloch, played by Priscilla, who is a doctor and brings her to town and promptly makes her the mayor. Women doctors were very unusual back then. It does give me a little reminiscence of another show Dr Quinn, medicine woman. However, Priscilla is also quite young in this show, maybe too young to be a doctor. It's hard to tell from back in the day, but In real life, she was only 27 or 28 at this time. And, her aunt puts her in charge of the town to be mayor for six months. They have no men around to protect them. And there's an ongoing concern that Union forces are going to come there, ransack the town, burn it down. And then rape and murder the women, which brings me into another concern about how war is believed to have happened or portrayed. the Civil War movies have always seemed very brutal to me and unnecessarily violent. But then there's also a rules of engagement or standard out there in other movies where you don't mess with the women and children. And animals, possibly even their other property. and that's always something that I wondered about. So this theme about keeping their virtue in this town happens throughout this movie. Dr. Maggie McCullough is a virginal character. She's an idealist. She believes that people are generally good, especially after she does a favor for a union colonel in this movie. And, let me tell you a little bit about the plot here. actually, let me go ahead and do the characters first. So the cast is really a who's who of... Anybody who was in TV at the time, some of which were other Aaron spelling shows. I already mentioned Joan Collins and dynasty. Lee Horsley is also in it. He's a Confederate doctor, Captain John Kane. he'll come into the plot in a little bit and winds up being the love interest of Dr. Maggie McCulloch. he was in Matt Houston around this time. Never really watched that show too much. It was basically another spelling detective show. You had, Lisa Welchel, who was on the Facts of Life, played Blair. She plays Amy in this movie, who is a love interest of a Confederate soldier, I'm sorry, not a Confederate soldier, a Union soldier, played by Donny Osmond. That's Frank Isaacs, who the two doctors patch up, and then he is left in the town for a few days to rest up, and they, of course, fall in love. You have Phyllis Davis, who plays, Sugar Harris, I think was her name. Of course, Phyllis had been on the Vegas TV series with Robert Urich. She has a little bit of a rivalry with a prim and proper lady in town named Sarah, I believe, who I believe is played by Pamela Bellwood. That was an interesting story because Phyllis Davis is one of the town prostitutes, had a sexual relationship with Sarah's husband, you know, based on the business there. And then, Sarah's and her husband's son tries to go in and get a peek of Phyllis Davis, I guess nude or having sex with somebody, I don't know. He did that a couple of times, but there was a little rivalry going on in there, one of the other subplots. let's see, you had... Morgan Brittney, who was in a bunch of stuff back then, played, Lenny or Lanny? I can't really remember now, but she was more of a helper to everybody involved. Older Lady Jeanette Nolan was in there. and then Howard Duff played Colonel Sam Isaacs from the Union Forces. Very hard nosed, really asshole type guy. who had no use for the rebels and the confederacy and he and his men were busy burning downtowns and like raping and murdering, pillaging and all that, very renegade and very, not tolerant of the opposition, if you will. But what happens is one day, Maggie has already arrived in town, has agreed to stay on as mayor for six months, despite the fact that there's no men there, as they have been sent off to fight for the South. And Colonel Isaacs of the Union forces comes to town, with, Captain Kane, or Dr. Kane, who is his prisoner, and Dr. Kane is injured. He's a surgeon, but can't do surgery. And then, Isaac's son, of course, Frank, who's played by Donny Osmond, is badly hurt. He's demanding a doctor see him for emergency surgery. And they seem to cut a deal with him if they can patch up his son. And ultimately they wind up leaving him there for a few days to rest up. that he will spare the town and everything. But, Captain Kane doesn't believe that to be the case. And so Maggie, the young, inexperienced doctor, is able, not mistake free, but is able to patch up Frank Isaacs. and allow him to rest in the town while, daddy Isaac sent his men go and rape and pillage and do all the stuff that they're going to do. I also need to mention that any McCulloch who was Joan Collins character. She was alien from an unknown. Disease. And she dies about halfway through the movie. You said her heart just stopped on her. and Maggie, Goes to her grave a little bit later. actually, she gave the surface for her. A funeral. It goes to her grave a little bit later when they hear. These men coming back and possibly doing these on thinkable things. And. Tries to get some strength from her. in whatever way she can. In the meantime, they try to get these women to work together. they had been fighting, they couldn't do a fire drill, you know, try to put fires out before and doing other things that the men would normally do during this time. But Captain Kane trains them in shooting and possibly in the need to defend this town. When. Colonel Isaacs comes back for his son in the meantime, of course, you get these subplots Between both of the doctors, of course falling in love as I mentioned and then you have sugar and Sarah talking to each other and making up for what's happened sugar actually tells Sarah that The husband needs more attention. So they have a repute saying well This is what he really needs and this is how you can Make your marriage better, almost kind of like a love boat plot if you think about it. And then of course you also have Amy, which is Lisa Welch's character falls in love with Frank who's young Donny Osmond this by the way was right before Donny Osmond's music career became a joke for about a good decade or so He did some acting and I think he's a fairly good actor in this but Frank and Amy fall in love during this time as well. And of course, eventually Colonel Isaacs comes back, to get his son so glad that his son is in good shape, and ready to be returned to him. But. Because the war is allegedly still going on. He is going to take his son and then he's going to rape and pillage his town. He already told his men that they were going to destroy it, but in a good bit of positive feminism, the women who have been trained by Captain John Kane, they are able to repel the threat and the dad, winds up, writing off without his men. So I don't really know what happens to him. Frank, his son, Well, he has to deal with it. he didn't like what his dad was doing, but he's technically a deserter now. I don't know that that was ever resolved, then the movie, ends with Dr. Maggie and Dr. Kane talking and news comes home that the war is now over and, the men who had just been recruited are now returned home to the ladies. You know, kind of a miraculous nice bow tie at the end of the movie type thing that you're would see back in the day and particularly from an Aaron Spelling production. But Priscilla's character poses the question, you know, after all that fighting everything, nobody bothered to ask who won. And, it's not exactly the same thing, but it reminded me a little bit of Kelly's heroes, which was a anti war movie set. In world war two, where they were just glad that the fighting had stopped because they thought the war was pointless, but, that's how it ends. I recommend it, it's available on YouTube from a couple of different sources. I really wish I could find. Some of her other made for tv movies, I've seen a couple of others. Vacation in Hell was a big movie from 79, that I think went into syndication, but I haven't found it anywhere. I'm just thinking out loud there. I'd give it... A grade of a B. There were a lot of scenes that were fairly melodramatic. Priscilla was a little melodramatic at times, especially talking with Colonel Isaacs, the mean union colonel, who himself was actually kind of, melodramatic and threatening the surgeons that if they didn't properly patch up his son that he was going to kill him. And because of the melodrama and Priscilla being a part of that too, I also give her a B in this I hope, you enjoyed the show today, really enjoyed bringing it to you each and every week. still, looking at ways to grow this podcast and hopefully make this thing pretty big. And, I'm so glad that you're here each and every week, tuning in and listening to what I have to say. I know. A lot of times maybe it is just bullshit, but... This is my attempt to connect with you and, we really need to connect with each other on a personal level a little better in this world. I think we've kind of lost some of that, I think, with the internet and social media. But, I thank you again. Please feel free to contact me, leave questions and comments. I said a number of things in this show. That should be thought provoking and, opinion provoking. but with that, I'm going to leave it right there and, just tell you that, this is Frank Weber signing off and thank you for listening to Frank Weber's party. The theme song is called retro funk by soul prod music and is available at pixabay. com.