Zitate

[1982] Annie Oakley had to deal with the same ruthless characters - rustlers and killers - that the cowboys dealt with. And she did it without ever killing one of them.

[on Stanley Andrews] I loved him almost as much as my father. My dad passed away quite some time before I met Stanley. He was so wonderful to me all the time we worked together. He wasn't my real father, but it felt like that.

[on Johnny Mack Brown] He was a gentleman. The sweetest man. He loved people, he loved animals, and the crew just adored him. I'm sorry I only got to make two films with him (Six Gun Mesa (1950) and West of Wyoming (1950)).

[on shooting Annie Oakley (1954)] I was up at four o'clock every morning to braid my pigtails, have breakfast, and head for the ranch. We worked from sun up to sundown. We worked in Pioneertown (a western town location near Palm Springs) and there was a big tall mountain out there called Panic Peak, and we could get the last shot of the day on the top of that mountain at about 8:30 at night. By the time we took the bus back into town it was 9:30, get a bite to eat, go to bed and get back up at four o'clock the next morning. When we first started, we were doing three shows a week; working seven days a week when we were on location.

[on Smiley Burnette] I loved Smiley. He's a legend. It's wonderful, the laughs he brought all the people where he toured. Not only that, he did so many kind things for people when he went on the road. And cook? Good heavens, could that man cook! He used to have his trailer and we'd be doing one-night stands and Smiley'd say, "Come on in, Gail. Let's get some flapjacks and molasses", or he'd fix fried chicken for dinner. He was really down home.

Really and truly I wanted to be a musical comedy star. I thought, jeepers, they were super. That's the thing I wanna do. Unfortunately, I didn't have the voice or the feet.

[on her real-life abilities as a markswoman] Let's just say I'd hate to get into competition with those police boys.

[on Overland Telegraph (1951)] It was a good part for the girl - not just one of those smile into the sunset pictures. Tim [Tim Holt] was really cute; he had a friendly personality but was a bit of a kidder. So was Dick Martin [Richard Martin], but both were very conscientious about their pictures.

My father was a doctor back in Little Rock. He liked to go hunting with a .22 rifle, so I learned early how to shoot.

[on auditioning for the titular role in Annie Oakley (1954)] They came up with the idea of a western series for a girl - it'd never been done before. So they ran a contest throughout the United States, trying to find someone who could ride and shoot *and* act. I got very upset because this was right down my alley, really a part I wanted. I felt it was me. I went to talk to the producer, Mandy Schaefer [Armand Schaefer], and he said no. So, I went home and put on my bluejeans, a gingham shirt, put freckles on my nose and put my hair in pigtails and I walked back in to Mandy's office and said, "I think I should play the part". He said, "You got enough courage to do this - let's give you a test". We did the test - and I guess I passed. I've been Annie ever since.