I have a treasured copy of The Complete Unabridged Super Trivia Encyclopedia, Fred L. Worth, Pub. 1979, manufactured in the United States Of America.
This is the only work of reference I know which gives Columbo’s first name.
Fred is not 100% accurate throughout the book, and I am wondering if this is an item which Fred fails to verify:
Tonto’s horse Scout: earlier also White Feller, Paint. On radio Tonto originally rode double with the Lone Ranger on Silver.
This is a curious piece of information. Apart from the extra weight placed upon Silver’s back, which is probably an Animal Rights issue best taken up in another forum, you would have thought the person responsible for budgetting the radio series would have remembered to buy a horse for Tonto.
There may even have been a bulk discount available from the supplier, thus defraying the Horse Costs even more given a two horse scenario.
I never listened to the programmes Fred refers to, so I am also wondering what happened when the presence of a posse was required, a circumstance which is by no means unusual in Westerns. For any given posse, was there a fixed mathematical formula in use for calculating the number of horses required as a fraction, or percentage, of the human element this posse?
Anyway, if anyone can confirm the tandem horse situation I will be grateful, and if anyone knows where I can find an updated copy of Fred’s book, I will be pleased about that as well.
I must say, when one rides double in a western saddle it is a most uncomfortable proposition.
The original radio program came out of WXYZ Detroit, and Tonto was of the Potawanomie tribe indigenous to that area. How he got way out west, I’ll never know.
I would just caution you that Fred Worth has admitted himself that he seeded his book(s) with incorrect trivia. I don’t know whether or not that “Phillip” Columbo is one such copyright trap, but it is definitely not true. Columbo’s first name was never, ever disclosed (unless “Kate Columbo,” in that short-lived series, mentioned it).
I don’t think his wife’s name was ever mentioned, either. I seem to remember Peter Falk being asked in an interview what Columbo’s wife’s name was. IIRC, he answered, “Mrs. Columbo.”
As far as the original radio series having enough in the budget for two horses, perhaps you were being facetious, but keep in mind that while the Foley artist could do one horse (pair of coconut halves in a large pan of sand & gravel) or many horses (a lot of coconut halves on a wooden frame in a large pan of sand & gravel), it would probably require two Foley artists to do just two horses. And that runs into money.