Thanks to Kaaren Andrews, Joan Gibson and Nancy Forsythe for suggesting the name “Lash LaRue” in honor of the real Lash LaRue, who made over seventy-five Western movies and starred in  his own television series.

We are scraping wall paper off of the bedroom wall in preparation for a new painted color and we found this cowboy behind the outer wallpaper layers. I asked for help in naming him.

I promised  a signed book to anyone with the best name for us, and I’ll send one to teach of you if you’ll send me your s-mail address: [email protected].

And thanks to the couple of hundred people who sent me suggested names through e-mail, texts and  on social media. This time, I asked for the advice and was delighted to get it. There were some great names offered.

And people love to join in stuff like this.

I was drawn to the name Lash La Rue right away – it had style and when I started looking online, I really got hooked.

The critics say the era of the Western movie was over by the 5o’s,  LaRue was the last of the series Western stars.

I was up until 3 a.m. watching some old La Rue westerns. His main weapon wasn’t a gun but an 18-inch bullwhip he kept coiled in his holster and drew like a gun.

LaRue trained Harrison Ford to use a bullwhip for his role in Indiana Jones. he died in 1996 at the age of 78. People thought he looked so much like Humphrey Bogart that movie fans often came up to him asking for Bogart’s autograph.

I watched his breakthrough movie – he was the Cheyenne Kid in “Song Of Old Wyoming” in 1945. I couldn’t stop watching, those movies were fun and easy to take. I can’t say he was a great actor, but he made for a good Jimmy Stewart kind of hero – few words, all business, and always victorious. There is no tension about who’s going to win in those movies.

There are no fuzzy boundaries between the good guy sand the bad guys.

LaRue tried to look more like a bad guy than a hero by wearing an all black outfit and showing his bullwhip when necessary. But he was always on the side of justice and law and order.

Fawcett comics published a series of La Rue comic books but the western movie fad crashed quickly by 1960.  LaRue made a living doing appearances at western film buff conventions, he put on a show with his bullwhip while running a souvenir sales booth.

Like many actors of that era, LaRue lost his savings as the result of alcoholism, several divorces and drug abuse. A preacher named Bob Woodward converted him to Born Again Christianity and he became an evangelist on the rodeo and country music circuit.

LaRue died of emphysema and was cremated in the Calverton National Cemetery in Suffolk County, New York. His real name was Alfred LaRue.

I think that’s a perfect name for our cowboy, who will remain in his place on our bedroom wall. This restoration begins in earnest tonight, on New Year’s Eve. I’ll be scraping alongside my wife.