Mollie Lane

For the Love of Fury

By Gail McIntyre

The untimely passing of Peter Graves on March 14, 2010 brought back those early childhood memories when local TV stations in New York brought forth the finest in syndicated children’s television.  Weeknights around 7pm on WPIX-TV, you could relax after a rough day at 2^nd grade to the site of a majestic black stallion galloping down a steep hill running to meet his human soul mate named Joey,

heralding the opening to another episode of “Fury”.  Running originally on NBC from 1955 – 1960, the opening of the show has a remarkably similar format to The Adventures of Superman including classical theme music and the announcer reading the show’s beautifully written prologue with a remarkably familiar cadence.   The episodes too are similar to the Superman series in that there is often a didactic purpose to each one.  The series tackles social issues including step parenting, widowhood, juvenile delinquency, animal cruelty, drunk driving, ecology and more.  The first episode of “the story of a horse and the boy who loved him” explains how a black stallion named Fury, who had been recently captured by rancher Jim Newton (Peter Graves), is actually being abused by one of the ranchers and is saved in the nick of time by Joey (Bob Diamond), who himself is saved by Jim Newton from living on the streets as an orphan.  Their first meeting takes place in juvenile hall where Joey has been wrongly accused of breaking a window.   Newton speaks up for the child who otherwise would have ended up in reform school.  This scene has a poetic irony to it in that Bob Diamond went on as an adult to become a civil attorney in California.  Thanks to my wonderful friend Beverly Washburn, I had the pleasure of speaking with Bob about his memories of the show and the cast members.  Born in 1943, Bob Diamond started out doing photo work which led to bit parts in movies and TV and ultimately landing the part of Joey.  Of working with Peter Graves, he said,

 

 

 

“he was always a good guy; very easygoing.  He would talk to you if you wanted to talk, mostly in the evening; I would listen most of the time; everyone got along”.  Obviously there was a bit of an age difference with the two of them.  Bob mentioned that at the age of 10 – 16 you don’t really communicate with others on an adult level and he lamented not ever having had the opportunity to speak with Peter Graves as the conversation today would have been very different.  He did get a chance to see him once on the set of Mission Impossible and at an event where Peter was being roasted which was about 7 years ago and had actually been trying to reach him recently about appearing at a celebrity autograph signing when he got word that he had passed away.

Working with animals on an acting set brings its own unique challenges so I asked Bob if there were any scary or funny moments he recalled involving the horses or other animals.  While he did not do his own stunts he did do all of his own riding and fell off the horse once and sustained a concussion.  Although there were actually five different horses used for the part of Fury, the one that is most well known for the role is the award winning Highland Dale who was first featured in “Black Beauty” in 1946, Elizabeth Taylor’s horse in “Giant” in 1956 as well as a host of television shows including “Bonanza”.  On another occasion, they were filming an episode that featured a lion.  Just when someone was heard saying nobody could break thru the glass, the lion came running toward the glass and went right through it!  As luck would have it Bob just happened to have a camera and managed to film the whole scene.  He recalled that everyone ran for their lives but as it turned out the lion was more afraid than anyone else.

One episode that really stands out in my mind is called “Joey Sees it Through” which featured Beverly Washburn playing the role of Betsy Parker, a little girl still mourning the death of her biological father and rebelling against her mother who wants to remarry. Betsy gets turned around by Joey when she learns that he too is being raised by a man who is not his biological father. It’s a wonderful episode to watch, especially knowing that to this day, Beverly and Bob are good friends and keep in touch with one another.  Beverly and Bob are both animal lovers, especially dogs.  Bob has always had dogs and shared with me that he recently lost two Labrador retrievers to old age and just adopted a black lab from his local shelter.  Beverly recalled her appearance on Fury and of Peter Graves she said, “I do remember that Peter Graves was a very nice man and made me feel so welcome on the show. It’s so sad that we are losing so many people”.

In addition to Beverly Washburn, Bob also still keeps in touch with Ann Robinson who played Joey’s school teacher Helen Watkins. In fact, Bob and Ann recently appeared together at an autograph signing show in California this past fall.    He is also still good friends with Jimmy Baird who played the part of Joey’s friend Pee Wee and is today a high school English teacher, perhaps inspired by William Fawcett who played the part of Pete, Jim Newton’s top ranch hand and was also at one time an English teacher.  And he noted that acting has been good to him as he transitioned into a career as an attorney because acting helped him to not be afraid to get up and talk; “when you are doing a closing argument where you put it all together, acting is very helpful”. 

For those of you who grew up in the range country and you cut your teeth on a branding iron, be sure to make a trip back to the broken wheel ranch for there is and will always be only one Fury.

My sincerest thanks to Mr. Robert Diamond, Ms. Beverly Washburn and Mr. Bruce Dettman for their kindness and support of this article.

May 2010