Four Feather Falls

“Four Feather Falls Snap” No 6587 by Tower Press, c.1960. After the success of “Torchy the Battery Boy” in 1959, the first TV puppet series made by Gerry Anderson, came “Four Feather Falls” in 1960. Big improvements were made in the filming techniques for this new series and it went on to be even more successful than its predecessor. Of course, still to come were the huge hits of this genre, culminating in “Thunderbirds” in 1966. See the Rules►

Above: Four Feather Falls by Tower Press, c.1960. One of the last Tower Press games before they were taken over by Waddington’s.

Tex Tucker was the sheriff of Four Feather Falls and he had four magic feathers in his hat which had been given to him by an Indian Chief called Kalamakooya for rescuing his son in the first episode and proved very useful during the series. The first feather enabled his dog, Dusty, to speak. The second let his horse, Rocky, speak. The third and fourth controlled the two six-guns which fired themselves in a crisis. Tex’s voice was provided by Nicholas Parsons. There were 39 episodes of the programme shown in 1960 and the card game is contemporary with the programme. Dusty the Dog and the villain Pedro were voiced by Kenneth Connor. Other characters were Ma Jones, the storekeeper, Grandpa Twink and his grandson Little Jake, Doc Holliday and a couple of Sidekicks for the Villain Pedro called Fernando and Bog Bad Ben. Michael Holliday sang the occasional song in the programme and also the opening song “Two Gun Tex”

By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)

Member since January 30, 2009

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Rex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.

His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.

Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.

Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.

His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.