Mike Jackson’s Hartland Photos:
Bill Longley—The Texan

Text & Photographs Copyright Mike Jackson 1998-2009
Bill Longley: #827
This is one of my favorite sets. The Hartland sculptors did a great job capturing the likeness of Rory Calhoun and set him in a very dynamic action pose. Being one of the later sets, he is very hard to find.
After several years of watching this set, it is fairly clear that Bill Longley did get a special horse with the smoother tail. That mold variation was later than the Cochise style horse with the larger wavy tail.

For the sake of argument, I have included the Cochise style horse to show the full wavy tail. A couple of collectors insist this is a correct variation, and recently a “Mint in the Box” set was sold on eBay which had that larger tail.

Until about the last year or so, I don’t think I paid much attention one way or the other. They were just black and white semi-rearing horses to me. Since someone mentioned it to me, I have been keeping an eye out for the combinations and it seems that the slender tail is more commonly paired with the Longley figure. That’s how I have them in my collection now, too.

Number Show
Name		 Star’s
Name		 Figure’s
Name		 Studio Show
Years		 Brochure
Years
827 The Texan Rory
Calhoun		 Bill Longley Rorvic
Productions, Inc.		 1958-
1960		 1959-1961

Some information in this chart from “Total Television” by Alex McNeil 1996, 4th Edition
 Mold Mark
Longley figure: “©1959 Rorvic Productions, Inc.” on the back of the left arm.
Bill Longley’s box is the colorful Crystal Palace box with his name and information printed on the front, typical of the later sets. He has a blue and white tag with blue thread. His brochure photo is one of few that have any sort of background.
Bill Longley’s Hat normally has an 827 inside the crown but it can also have 27 or 72 (sometimes backwards). It has an oval crown and fits the figure’s nicely.


Longley’s saddle is one of the “rifle holed” saddles, commonly used on the later sets. His optional rifle would have been one of the two shown here. Many of the early horse and riders received regular silver pistols, but by the time Longley was being sold, I believe many of them had the brown or black pistols shown below.