Mingo Women

Facial Expressions

2007-03-11T22:14:00Z

One post-er in the DB Yahoo Group to which I belong mentioned once that she liked Ed Ames' non-verbal Mingoisms -- the acting Mingo did as the sidekick which would add to the scene without him necessarily saying any lines. I had noticed this myself in a couple episodes but hadn't really put any sort of description to what he was doing, except to think that he was staying in character even though nobody'd given him many lines to say (another oversight on the part of the producers and writers, IMO, especially with that voice!).

Here is but one of many many examples of Mingo adding to a scene without saying a word. What caption shall we come up with for this look?

Technology can be wonderful!

2007-03-11T21:23:00Z

Through several miracles of technology, it is now possible to capture images (even ones not really meant to be captured in the first place), and post them for others to enjoy.

For example, there's a scene in The Aaron Burr Story where Mr. Burr is hosting a "hoe-down" in the Boonesborough tavern to celebrate... something. While most of the settlers are dancing, Mingo is standing to one side with Cincinnatus, Jericho and Dan'l. What I noticed when I watched this scene was a split-second of time as the camera first switches to a close-up of this group on the side, when Ed Ames maybe didn't realize the camera was rolling. He made a funny sort of face that one might make while bored and waiting for something to happen, then a split-second later realized the camera WAS rolling, and got back in character. So I took that moment and stepped through it using DVD player software, and lo and behold, we have what looks for all the world like Mingo either assessing some pretty woman across the room, or maybe even blowing a kiss.

It's a fun thought to go with a fun image:

Welcome!

2007-03-10T16:16:00Z

Well, here it is, the blog I've been thinking about setting up for awhile now and have finally gotten around to. The purpose of this blog is for all the self-described "Mingo Women" out there to have a place to share their thoughts and feelings about this character that we all adore so much. He may be a completely fictional TV character, but he has most definitely captured many hearts and minds and feelings of real women around the world. And he did that after existing for only a few short years on the TV show Daniel Boone, originally airing in 1964.

Mingo (played by Ed Ames), full name CaraMingo, was the half-breed, Oxford-educated Cherokee Indian who becomes friend and sidekick of Daniel Boone (played by Fess Parker). Mingo's character is wonderfully complex, somewhat mysterious, and unfortunately never fully developed or explained in the few short years he was on the show (Mingo appears sporadically in Season 1, then in most of the Seasons 2 and 3 episodes, back to sporadically in Season 4, then never again in the remaining 3 seasons). Many fans have made a pretty obvious analogy to the character of Spock on the original Star Trek series, except that Leonard Nimoy appeared in just about every (if not every) ST episode, whereas Ed Ames as Mingo unfortunately does not appear in every DB episode -- a terrible oversight on the part of the show's producers and writers, in the opinion of all Mingo Women.

After loving the show since its inception in the mid-60s, and loving Mingo waaay more than a sane person should, I was thrilled to find a resurgance of interest in the show with airings on TVLand and then DVD releases of Seasons 1 and 2. In my excitement, I went searching on this wonderful thing called the Internet, found some chat groups and blogs about the show, and discovered there are a lot of other women out there who go all warm and squishy over this same character. We call ourselves "Mingo Women" and love to just talk about the effect that character had and still has on us. We know he's fictional, we know Ed Ames is approaching (a very handsome) 80 years, we know it's probably kinda silly, but we love Mingo.

So I decided to create this blog just for that reason -- it's a place for Mingo Women to gather and share those thoughts and feelings. We can certainly talk about all other characters, other aspects of the show, heck, the weather today for that matter. But all posts about Mingo are always welcome! Photos, too

In fact, here's one now!

Ahhhh, those arms, the strength there, the love he shows his friends. I'll just imagine myself juxtaposed in young Israel (Darby Hinton)'s place. That's where I'd like to be

C'mon, all you other Mingo Women, let's hear from you!!