Working Actors, Accidental Icons: Joe Cornet on the Mitchum Brothers
Marley Majcher takes Every Day's a Train Wreck on the road — broadcasting live from the Louie Ortega Room inside Oklahoma City's National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum during their annual awards gala. Her guest is Joe Cornet, filmmaker and publisher, who has dedicated years to resurrecting the forgotten half of one of Hollywood's greatest brotherhoods: John Mitchum, younger brother of Robert, who quietly racked up 800 television episodes, 150 films, and the role of Clint Eastwood's detective partner across all three original Dirty Harry films. Joe shares the improbable American dream story of two boys who rode the rails during the Depression and stumbled into stardom, the historical bombshell about Howard Hughes bailing Robert out of a 1947 marijuana arrest via his all-Mormon staff, and his mission to adapt John Mitchum's memoir Them Ornery Mitchum Boys into a limited series without surrendering creative control. Also: scorpions, Sam Elliott sightings, and the revelation that Joe's cinematographer Toby is a genuine 25-year oil and gas land man who did background work on Landman.
✨ Inside the Episode:
- The Forgotten Mitchum Brother — John Mitchum — younger brother of Robert — appeared in over 800 television episodes and 150 films, yet almost nobody knows his name. Joe Cornet is on a mission to change that.
- Clint Eastwood's Detective Partner — John Mitchum played Clint Eastwood's detective partner in Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, and The Enforcer — a fact that lands like a thunderclap on both Marley Majcher and the audience.
- Howard Hughes and the Mormon Staff — When Robert Mitchum was arrested for marijuana in 1947, Howard Hughes — who owned the studio and had three Mitchum pictures in production — bailed him out through his trusted all-Mormon staff without ever leaving his house.
- The Scorpion Blood Story — Joe Cornet's unprompted confession about stepping barefoot on a California scorpion and treating it with Benadryl and elevation is the funniest two minutes of the episode, culminating in his claim to have 'scorpion blood' à la Charlie Sheen.
- Toby: The Real Land Man — The episode's best structural surprise — Joe's quiet cinematographer Toby turns out to be a 25-year oil and gas industry veteran who was an actual land man and even did background work on the Paramount+ series Landman.
- Protecting the Vision — Joe explains why he refuses to hand the Them Ornery Mitchum Boys limited series to a larger production entity: 'When you give it to somebody else, it becomes their vision, and your vision is lost.'
- The American Dream, Distilled — The Mitchum brothers didn't set out to be famous — they were just two kids riding the rails who got stopped on a street and asked if they'd ever considered acting. Their answer: 'How much does it pay?'
🔗 CONNECT WITH JOE
You can find Joe Cornet here:
Instagram: @sanrafaelproductions
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