September 2017 32 SEPTEMBER 13TH: SPANKY SPANGLER DAY IN ARIZONA By Bob Roloff, “The Arizona Duuude” Dare you to climb that light pole!” Never backing down from a dare, Spanky climbs the light pole and shows his attraction to stunts at an early age. Hanging on by one arm as the football coach is hollering for him to get down from there. This is at Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona, in the mid-60s, where by the way, Linda Carter and Steven Spielberg graduated. Spanky went out for all sports, mainly football, baseball, and wrestling. Being highly competitive he excels in them all. Always challenging himself to do bigger and better things, he was always searching for a direction in life, like all of us when we were young. Movie stunt scenes began to catch his eye. Maybe he could find a future there. There was a movie set near Camelback Mountain, just a little south of Lincoln Drive called Cudia City. He managed to get some extra work and whatever else he could while they were filming. He remembers a TV series “26 Men” and a movie “Stagecoach West” in which he appeared. At this time he would hitchhike over to Hollywood, hoping to meet up with some of these guys that did stunt work. He made his way to Universal Studios and met some stuntmen. Spanky wanted to do the same things they did, and more. One day he arrived late in the afternoon at the Western set and the security guard said that they were closed. But Spanky said his mom had left her camera there and he just wanted to get it back. (Ha ha, Mom was back in Phoenix!) So in he went. Walking around behind the tallest false front building he saw stairways leading up to the very top. This was where the high falls were done for the audience out front. Making his way to the top, he stood there looking down. Spanky knew he was born for this. He never had a fear of heights, like most of us do. Not wanting to walk all the way back downstairs, he did a beautiful high fall onto the waiting mats below. Getting up dusting himself off, leaving an imprint like a snow angel on the mats that had been set up for the next day’s show. Just as he was walking away a stuntman that had worked late was leaving and stopped to talk to Spanky. He told about the live shows they did for the tourists. The stunt work, well most of it was ground-level stuff. The high fall was too dangerous and only a couple of stuntmen did those. As Spanky was walking away, the man glanced back and saw the fresh imprint on the mat. Realizing what Spanky had done, he hollered. “Hey kid, hey come back here a minute.” But Spanky just kept on going and waved over his shoulder and said, “Be seeing ya”. Always looking for a challenge in life, Spanky joined the Army. After graduating from jump school as an honor student, Spanky is sent to Fort Bragg North Carolina, (smoke Bomb Hill), attached to six special forces, (Green Beret). They wanted Spanky to extend his enlistment for more training. But no, Spanky wanted to get back to Hollywood to be a stunt man. So he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He arrived there attached to the 2 – 502 101st Airborne Infantry, the Screaming Eagles. After his tour in Vietnam and leaving the Army, he returned to Hollywood. Looking for old friends that could help him return to stunt work, and going back and forth between Hollywood and Phoenix, kept him busy. This is when I met Spanky. When he came to the group, I was working in Scottsdale for “Guns for Hire”. He showed us some of the things he had learned and maybe could use in our shows. We formed a lifetime friendship and keep in touch often. Then came a big break for Spanky when he went to work for NBC as a stunt coordinator. Before that he’d worked for ABC, CBS, and Fox. Producing and directing for “That’s Incredible” was an even bigger break. As if that’s not enough, he managed to fit in dome shows, car crashes, and high falls. Spanky has been involved in 350 TV shows, doing 96 TV shows with “Super Dave”. Spanky has done stunt shows in other countries from England to Dubai, China, India, Mexico, Canada and Japan. Today Spanky stays very busy coordinating stunts for shows for up and coming stuntmen. He just returned from Evil Knievel Days in Butte Montana. Spanky and Evil had been friends since the 60s. Evil, Spanky, and Bill Lundell started the Evil Knievel Days. Spanky was a pallbearer at Evil’s funeral. So I thought this being the September issue of Arizona Real Country, I would write about a real stuntman. Arizonan Spanky Spangler. For a real treat just Google or YouTube Spanky. Remember September 13th is Spanky Spangler Day in Arizona. You can follow Bob Roloff on Facebook. “ Crystal Pistol Saloon, Scottsdale, AZ. Spanky being shot by Rory Calhoun.