(Courtesy of Jerry Cristman) Bob Tansey - mid 1940s

Robert Emmett Tansey 1897 - 1951

In the 1930s and 1940s, there were a few folks who performed various functions. Sometimes producing ... sometimes directing ... and sometimes authoring stories and / or writing screenplays. Occasionally, they may also have worked as production supervisor, second unit / assistant director, etc. Names that come to mind are Oliver Drake, Harry Fraser, Joseph Kane, and Bob Steele's father, Robert North Bradbury. Robert Emmett 'Bob' Tansey was another of these "multi-taskers" and his stats are shown below.

Above is the opening title screen for the Wally Wales short WEST OF THE LAW (Pizor/Imperial, 1934). Tansey was the director as well as the story and script author. Above and below are screen captures from several 1940s Tansey films showing two of his name variations.

On the prior Tansey Family opening webpages, there were highlights of the family and three sons. Parents Emma and Harry Tansey were actors, and sons Robert (born 1897), John (born 1901), and Sheridan (born 1904) appeared in child and teen roles on the stage ... or in silent films .. or both. By the early 1920s, the brothers were young adults and a career change was mandatory.

Father Harry passed away in 1910 in New York. At the time of the 1920 census, Emma and her three boys resided in Palisades Park, Bergen County, New Jersey. Bob had become a husband and father. He and wife Katherine Marie Stiehn (1901 - 1963) had two children, Robert Emmett Tansey (1918 - 1962) and Jeanne Helen Tansey (1925 - 1986) and both kids were born in New Jersey.

In the mid to late 1920s, Emma and sons migrated to California. John and Bob began working together behind the camera, writing, directing, producing, etc. Sheridan (Sherry) continued his acting career and became a fairly prolific henchman in some silent and many sound westerns and there's a profile on him in "The Henchies" section on the Old Corral.

Below are some highlights - and lowlights - of John and Bob's early days in the movie business. Factor in the arrival of talking pictures, 1929 Stock Market Crash, and the Depression, and the mid 1920s to mid 1930s had to be a difficult and chaotic period for the Tansey brothers in Hollywood.

• 1923 - Robert E. Tansey is directing two-reel shorts for All Nations Features, Inc. - one starred World Champion speed skater Bobby McLean titled KING OF THE ICE and another was about race horse Man O' War.
• November 15, 1924 issue of Universal Weekly: "ROBERT TANSEY, who has just finished directing 'Buffalo Bill, Jr.,' a series of Westerns for Approved Pictures, has been engaged to assist Charles Lamont, who is directing ... Buddy Messinger's latest starring vehicle for Century."
• October 27, 1926 Film Daily: "Robert (Bob) Tansey, former Century comedy director, who now is directing his own comedies for the independent market ..."
• 1928 - Bob Tansey is now working with producer Arthur Hammond.
• February 8, 1930 Hollywood Filmograph: "Many independents are preparing to make westerns. The Tansey Brothers have just bought 'Fightin' Mad,' an original screen play with dialogue, by Stephen Hurst. It is a western comedy-drama." ; "Jack Perrin is to play the lead; Edwin August (well known in the old 'Flying A' days) is to play the heavy." (This was released as ROMANCE OF THE WEST).
• April 9, 1930 issue of Variety has Tansey under Arthur Hammond's Tele-Film Studios: "Robert Tansey Prods. producing westerns for states righters. Made one about a month ago, but nothing set for future production."
• August 2, 1930 Motion Picture News has a poor review of ROMANCE OF THE WEST which starred Jack Perrin. A few quotes: "Robert and John Tansey directed. And even this double quota of directors contributed but little to pull the production from the depths of mediocrity." ; "sound and photoplay is passable."
• November 17, 1931 Film Daily reported that "Robert Tansey of Tansey Productions, Hollywood, yesterday contracted to make eight melodramas for Jack Kopfstein, who will distribute the films nationally."
• January 5, 1932 Variety reported the December 26, 1931 incorporation in Sacramento, California of Congress Pictures Corporation, Ltd., to Robert E. Tansey, John Tansey, Robert E. Wharff, Jay Chotiner, and G. Van Wieck.
• April 12, 1932 Film Daily: " 'Thirteen Steps,' produced by Congress Pictures with Cornelius Keefe and Barbara Bedford, has been acquired by Imperial Distributing ... it was stated by William Pizor yesterday. Picture will be released May 15 (1932)."
• May 24, 1932 Variety reported that "Cornelius Keefe, Barbara Bedford, and Franklyn Farnum have filed wage claims amounting to $737 against Robert E. Tansey of Congress Pictures. Amount is balance for working in 'Thirteen Steps,' an indie, made at the Standard Sound studio in January. Trio received $400 cash among them at the time, the rest promised within 60 days."
• August 9, 1932 Variety had more on Barbara Bedford and missing wages: "State labor commission is preparing to bring action against Tansey Brothers and Congress Pictures on behalf of Barbara Bedford, who claims $300 in unpaid salary."
• June 10, 1933 Motion Picture Herald had a lukewarm review of 'Taming the Jungle' which was produced by Paul D. Wyman and released June 1, 1933 by Invincible. Bob and John Tansey directed, and Bob was the cameraman. Quotes from the review: "... is little more than a pictorial record of the manner in which wild animals ... are trained for exhibition." ; "... doubtful if the film ... is strong enough to be the feature mainstay ... but it may serve as a special attraction ..."

In the mid 1930s, Bob and John went their separate ways. Bob connected with William Pizor's Imperial Pictures and did multiple functions on a batch of western shorts with Wally Wales (Hal Taliaferro) and Buffalo Bill, Jr. (Jay Wilsey). His next stop was writing scripts / stories for three John Wayne Lone Star/Monogram and early Republic oaters which were produced by Paul Malvern. He also did the stories and scripts for a couple Tom Tyler oaters for Reliable Pictures. And Bob also worked on westerns starring Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams and Rex Bell for Max and Art Alexander's Normandy and Colony Pictures companies.

Amidst all of this, Bob tried (unsuccessfully) to create a series of "Northwest Action Thriller" mountie films starring John Preston as "Morton of the Mounted". That effort was short-lived, marred by a breach of contract lawsuit brought by Tansey and his company against producer / distributor Louis Weiss.

Circa 1936, Tansey's luck changed for the better when he began a long assocation with producer Edward Finney on the Tex Ritter westerns. Finney and Ritter did 32 films together, with the initial entries released through Grand National. When Grand National folded, Finney took the Ritter series to Monogram ... and Tansey followed along. During the years 1936 - 1941, Bob was involved in 25 of the Ritter adventures, mostly writing stories and screenplays but occasionally functioning as production manager and / or assistant director.

The move to Monogram with Finney and Ritter brought Tansey more work - initially doing stories and scripts, and later, directing and producing. His various credits at Monogram include sagebrush adventures with Tim McCoy, Jack Randall, and two groups starring Tom Keene, one in the late 1930s and another in the early 1940s.

After wrapping up Keene's eight film series for 1941 - 1942, Tansey helmed several of Monogram's Range Busters trio adventures which were produced by George W. Weeks. At that time, Ray 'Crash' Corrigan had briefly exited the series and his replacement was stuntman Dave Sharpe. Tansey directed the four 1942 - 1943 Busters which featured Sharpe. However, the end was near for the Range Busters. Corrigan returned and four more were released in 1943. And then the Range Busters were history.

Monogram needed a replacement and Tansey formed the Trail Blazers, which starred sagebrush veterans Hoot Gibson and Ken Maynard (later incarnations included Bob Steele and Chief Thunder Cloud).

Bob exited Monogram circa late 1944 - early 1945, and his interest turned to Cinecolor and a singing cowboy named Eddie Dean. He was in charge of Ken Maynard's last starring film HARMONY TRAIL (Walt Mattox, 1944?) which featured Dean. Astor released that bit of mediocrity in 1947 under the title of WHITE STALLION. There was another with Dean - WILDFIRE (Action Pictures / Screen Guild, 1945) had Eddie as a lawman helping hero Bob Steele in a Cinecolor adventure ... about a hoss named Wildfire.

Tansey's next stop was at Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) where he initiated a series starring Dean, and several featured a black-garbed Al LaRue before he became 'Lash'. At PRC, Tansey did nine with Dean, five of which were shot in Cinecolor.

He became friends and / or business friendly with William T. Crespinel, the boss of the Cinecolor company. Crespinel even did color supervision on several of the Dean adventures. Featured in the series was a young actor named "Lee Bennett" who happened to be Crespinel's son, William Arthur Louvain Crespinel (1914 - 2010).

But all good things come to an end and PRC opted to prune the budgets by dropping Cinecolor and filming in plain ol' B&W. 1946 was also the beginning of some organizational shuffling at PRC, and a year or so later, it was merged / absorbed into the Eagle-Lion company. September, 1946 trades covered Tansey's breakup:

• September 4, 1946 Variety: "Jerry Thomas takes over the producer chores on the Eddie Dean series of westerns at PRC, recently relinquished by Robert Tansey."
• September 7, 1946 Showmen's Trade Review: "Robert Tansey, producer-director of the Eddie Dean films, won his release from his PRC contract, after winding up the latest picture starring the singing cowboy, 'Stars Over Texas.' "
• September 16, 1946 Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin: " 'Stars over Texas', one of the Eddie Dean specials ... is now in production on the lot. Robert Tansey, serving as producer-director on the film, will make this his last for PRC. He is leaving the company immediately upon completion of the film and will form his own company to work exclusively in Cinecolor specials."

Those future plans were overly optimistic, especially in the post World War II years when the B western was in decline. Tansey did continue tinkering with Cinecolor and there were some jobs including about a half dozen ultra low budget features for producer Jack Schwarz (1896 - 1987) ... who was also fascinated with Cinecolor. Some examples follow of Tansey in his post World War II years:

• he directed the Cinecolor doggie yarn SHAGGY (Paramount, 1947) which starred Brenda Joyce and was a Pine-Thomas production for Paramount.
• Tansey was the second unit director on MAN-EATER OF KUMAON (Shaff Prod / Universal, 1948) which starred Sabu and Wendell Corey.
• Tansey was the director and Frances Kavanaugh wrote the story and screenplay for the Cinecolor THE ENCHANTED VALLEY (Jack Schwarz Prod / Eagle-Lion, 1948).
• June 17, 1948 Film Daily reported that "Robert Emmett Tansey, who was slated to direct the first two 'Cisco Kid' productions for Philip N. Krasne, has stepped out and Wallace Fox has taken over."
• he and Jess Bowers did the story and screenplay for Whip Wilson's RIDERS OF THE DUSK (Monogram, 1949).
• tradezines indicated that Tansey worked with the animal trainers on the Sabu jungle adventure SONG OF INDIA (Columbia, 1949).
• he helmed THE FIGHTING STALLION (Jack Schwarz Prod / Eagle-Lion, 1950) with Bill Edwards and Doris Merrick and filmed in Cinecolor.
• Tansey did multi-functions on the Johnny Carpenter BADMAN'S GOLD (Jack Schwarz Prod / Eagle-Lion, 1951).

As noted, producer Jack Schwarz was also a Cinecolor fan. Under his Equity Pictures brand, Schwarz hired Jim Bannon for four Cinecolor Red Ryder adventures which were released in 1949 by Eagle-Lion. Schwarz was also responsible for the B&W GOLD RAIDERS (Jack Schwarz Prod / United Artists, 1951) which had George O'Brien as the hero and featured the chaotic Three Stooges (Moe, Shemp and Larry). No Tansey involvement in any of these.

Born June 8, 1897 in Brooklyn, New York to Harry and Emma (nee Purcell) Tansey, Robert Emmett Tansey suffered a heart attack and passed away June 17, 1951 in Glendale, California.

While some criticize his creations, he was able to thrive in an environment with miniscule budgets and production niceties ... and he worked up until his death in 1951. His best was the Dean and LaRue Cinecolor WILD WEST (PRC, 1946) (which was later re-issued in an edited B&W version titled PRAIRIE OUTLAWS (Eagle-Lion, 1948)).

In summary, Bob Tansey was a jack-of-all-trades, working behind the camera as a producer, director, story and screenplay author, assistant director, production manager, et al.

He was a man of many names, some of which were spelling errors - and his Hollywood career lasted 20+ years - over 40 years if you include his child and teen acting roles on the stage and silent films. He was Master Robert Tansey, Robert Emmett Tansey, Robert Tansey, Bob Tansey, Robert Emmett, Robert Emmet, Robert Emmnet ... and probably a few more variations.

(Courtesy of Dave Tansey)

Left are Bob Tansey and Faith Tansey (brother John Tansey's wife), and the family album has this photo marked as THE FLIRT (1926). In the mid 1920s, Tansey was working on the Century comedies at Universal, and this still is probably from THE FLIRT (Universal, 192?) which featured youngster Buddy Messenger.

(Courtesy of Jack Jones) The above photo is the cast and crew working on the short, THE SUNDOWN TRAIL (William Pizor/Imperial, 1934), which starred Wally Wales. Below is a crop/blowup of that photo with some numbers overlaid on the people whom we can identify. 1. Wally Wales 2. Fay McKenzie (teenager when she did this film; later, a frequent heroine in Autry films) 3. Eva McKenzie (Fay's mother) 4. Robert Emmett Tansey 5. Barney Beasley 6. Fred Parker 7. John Bridges (in a few Tansey films including the Trail Blazers) 8. Jack Jones (stuntman and supporting player - he was the double for Wales) 9. Sherry Tansey There's lot of faces huddling around the camera. Brydon Baker was the cameraman on the Pizor shorts and one of these is probably him. Producer William M. Pizor is not in this photo.

(Courtesy of Les Adams) Above is the 1938 roster for Monogram Pictures which included Robert Tansey, Paul Malvern, Lindsley Parsons, and Edward Finney as Production Supervisors (producers). 1942 Monogram Pictures organization chart. Production Supervisors (producers) included Lindsley Parsons, Ed Finney, Sam Katzman, A. W. Hackel, Bob Tansey, and George W. Weeks. They reported to Vice President of Production Scott R. Dunlap. Prescott Pictures, Inc. was the production company created by Tansey for the Tom Keene and Trail Blazers series which were released through Monogram. This organization chart shows up in the 1943, 1944 and 1945 Film Daily Yearbook, available at the Internet Archive. Script and story writer Frances Kavanaugh worked with Tansey on about 30 films. And old timer Fred Hoose was an actor and production supervisor who did over a dozen of the Tom Keene and Trail Blazers films with Tansey. Bob's wife Katheryne (spelled with a Y) was on the board of directors. Several of the Keene series were shot at Prescott, Arizona, and that filming location was probably the source of the Prescott Pictures, Inc. name. Above is the 1946 organization structure for Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC), and Robert Emmett Tansey was one of the producers.