Paul Colt's Blog

You may recall we started down the trail to this series reviewing films directed by Joseph Kane who gave us Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, singing cowboy icons near and dear the hearts of so many of us. Kane delivered. Research gave us a passel of fond memories of Gene, but Roy? Beginning with Under Western Stars Roy made something north of 90 films (not all with Kane). We looked at most of them looking for post material. We found titles, lobby cards, and maybe a paragraph description on plot – many didn’t even have that. Which brings us to Roy – One Way or Another.

We know the Leonard Slye story with The Sons of the Pioneers. We remember the matinee idol who became box office success to inspire all those films. We remember the ensemble following him. Roy rode onto the screen co-stared with Trigger. Who didn’t love that glorious palomino? We remember all those romantic leading ladies until Dale Evans hit Happy Trails on Buttermilk with Bullet. Sidekicks? Name one who didn’t ride with Roy – Andy Devine, “Gabby” Hayes, Smiley Burnette, Pat Brady, and Pat Butrum down shifting Nellie Belle. We crowned Roy King of the Cowboys right beside Gene and Randolph Scott.

Roy blazed an important trail in his 1940 contract with Republic Pictures. Republic got Roy’s movie and appearance money. Good agent counsel added a clause to the new contract giving Roy rights to his likeness, voice, and name. Sound precedent breaking? Ask Clayton Moore who later learned the Lone Ranger lesson the hard way. Roy’s name and image went on everything from action figures to comic books, watches, lunchboxes, radio show, television series and eventually a restaurant chain.

Roy and Dale became strong advocates of adoption, adopting several children of their own. Children’s charities were an important expression of their Christian faith. So there you have it. Roy – One Way or Another. Which brings us to the end of Joseph Kane.

Where to next? How about Movie Ranches? Turns out they played important roles in western film

Next Week: Movie Ranches
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Paul

For Hollywood cattle ranching and sheep keeping are a range war waiting to happen – but why? This week’s film Springtime in the Rockies poses answer to the question. According to the cattleman side of the dispute, sheep eat grass to the root, ruining the range. Go for your guns. But are they right? Researching the question, do grazing sheep ruin grass, the answer is a resounding yes … and no. The no takes proper management. Moving the sheep from pasture to pasture like rotating crops. Left to their own pursuits, sheep will damage grazing land leading to erosion. So for singing cowboy movie purposes, sheep are the cattleman’s worst nightmare.

Which leads us to Gene Autry, foreman of the Knight ranch, recently inherited by the owner’s daughter Sandra Knight. What would singing cowboys do were it not for lovely daughters inheriting stuff? Awaiting Sandra’s arrival, Gene heads off a range war between hot-head rancher Thad Morgan and would be sheepman Jed Thorpe, persuading Thorpe to get rid of his sheep. Unsuspecting Sandra hits town just in time to take the offensive sheep off Thorpe’s hands. Gene finds himself back in the business of fending off range war.

Gene takes Sandra and her sheep to a rocky patch of ground with a line shack he passes off as her ranch. Gene and Frog paint the sheep to make it appear they have hoof and mouth disease. Meanwhile Morgan gets wind of Sandra and the sheep. He offers her a pittance to buy her ranch. She agrees, thinking it is the rocky patch line shack and not her vastly more valuable real ranch. While papers are drawn for the ranch sale Morgan’s man Briggs tells Sandra about Gene’s sheep trick. She is furious with Gene and will have no part of his warning of Morgan’s swindle in the making.

Gene confronts Morgan who is wounded by Thorpe. Gene is blamed for shooting Morgan and is jailed. Frog springs him, (about as close to ‘springtime in the Rockies’ as the film gets). Sandra signs over her ranch. Briggs heads for the courthouse to file the deed. Gene catches up in time to rip up the deed. Thorpe is identified as Morgan’s shooter. All is forgiven between Sandra and Gene just in time for a romantic sunset ride. The End.

Next Week: Roy – one way or another
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Paul

Got to love the title of this one. Boots and Saddles A Call to Glory was my break through print title. A little known chapter in George Patton’s early career, the book holds a special place in my ‘start of it all’ memories. The title came in for some criticism at the time over similarity to Libby Custer’s sponsored biography of George Custer titled Boots and Saddles. Patton and Custer were both cavalry officers who rallied to that bugle call. So be it. Not so in the case of this Boots and Saddles film.

Gene Autry is foreman of a ranch inherited by young Englishman Edward Wyndam Earl of Granville. Edward arrives at his colonial holdings with no appetite for a ranch he intends to sell. Gene has promised Edward’s deceased father he will make a westerner of young man. The ranch is in debt to rival rancher Jim Neale (Bill Elliott) who is threatening to foreclose. Gene and Frog (Smiley Burnette) begin westernizing the young man who slowly comes around. With foreclosure threatened, Gene and Frog convince Edward they can pay off the debt by rounding up horses to fill an army contract out for bid. Neale gets wind of the plan and determines to offer a competing bid.

Edward earns his spurs and the nickname “Spud” rounding up horses for sale. They take a wagon to Fort Wayne site of the auction. Along the way they make a dusty pass by a buggy carrying Neale along with Colonel Allen and his daughter Bernice (Judith Allen). Bernice and Gene get off on a dusty wrong foot. When the bids come in, they are identical. Colonel Allen suggests a twelve horse a side race off to decide the winner.

The night before the race fire is set in the barn where Gene’s horses are stabled. He’s left with five for the race. Neale’s dirty tricks don’t stop with barn arson, still Gene manages to win the race. Neale’s dirty deeds are exposed, and the ranch is saved. Edward mends Gene’s fences with Bernice in time for happily ever after.

In case you missed it, Boots and Saddles A Call to Glory is available on Amazon. I know shameful self-promotion. Couldn’t resist.

Next Week: Springtime in the Rockies
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Paul

What happens when cattle rustling goes high-tech? Traditional law enforcement can’t keep up until the goin’ gets tough. This one warms my heart. I shall confess later.

Ranchers are plagued by an outbreak of rustling raids. The raiders locate herds by air, radioing the herd’s location to rustlers on the ground. The rustlers move in with refrigerated trucks, slaughter the cattle in the field and make off with the beef. Local law lead by Sheriff Matt Doniphon with deputies Gene Autry and Frog Milhouse (Smiley Burnette) can’t seem to catch on. Newspaper publisher Helen Morgan (Ann Rutherford) demands the old fashioned sheriff resign. Orphan Gene, raised by the sheriff defends him.

Suspicious cattle carcasses are found at the Chicago & Western Packing Co., owned and operated by Jack Shannon and his brother Jim. Gene and Frog to demand to see the hides to check for brands. Jim tells them the carcasses came from Thad Slaughter, and he has the hides. The sheriff is wounded in a shootout on the way to Slaughter’s ranch. Frog identifies Jim as the shooter. He is arrested and jailed. Fearful Jim may talk; Slaughter kills him through the bars of his jail cell window.

Townsfolk blame Sheriff Doniphon for the murder. They demand the town hire Eustace P. Quackenbush and his private detectives to stop the rustling and restore law and order using modern law enforcement techniques.
Meanwhile Frog and Stubby disguised as cows stake out a Bidwell ranch herd. When Bidwell goes to town with his men the rustlers move in. Frog radio’s Gene who broadcasts an alarm on his radio show. The rustlers make a break for it along with Frog and Stubby with an amorous bull on their tail for cow clothing. Quackenbush and his motorcycles and automobiles get stuck in the mud. Gene and the cowboys gallop by to round up the bad guys. Helen is taken hostage by Jack who is shot by the sheriff. Gene is left with Helen who sees old ways still work.

Ah the old ways. Grill? Hardwood charcoal. Christmas tree? Real. Gonna build a house with a fireplace? Wood burning. I’m a luddite at heart and a warm one at that.

Next Week: Boots and Saddles
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Paul

In the Yodelin’ Kid from Pine Ridge we have a western set in the southeast where cattlemen and turpentiners can’t be friends. Turpentiners? Turpentiners. Folks who make a living harvesting pine sap. That’s where Pine Ridge comes in. Cattlemen would burn the trees down for grazing land. Turpentiners won’t take that lying down. When cattle turn up missing, the turps are accused of rustling.

Cattleman Arthur Autry, a rustling victim, blames the turps. His son Gene (Gene Autry) opposes his father, warning Bayliss Baynum, leader of the turpentiners of the plan to burn them out. Baynum’s step daughter Milly is Gene’s girlfriend. Arthur is wounded in the turpentiner firefight. Believing Gene has betrayed him, Arthur disowns his son.

Gene joins Colonel Frog Millhouse’s Wild West Show (Smiley Burnett). Two years later the show plays Pine Ridge. Gene reunites with Milly only to discover his father has been bankrupt by rustling. Milly tells Gene she has seen his father’s cattle grazing on a distant range. Gene investigates and is captured by rustlers who work for cattleman Len Parker.

Gene escapes. He sends for the sheriff and heads to his father’s ranch. He finds his father dead. Alarmed he goes on the Baynum cabin where Bayliss has been murdered, beaten to death with Gene’s gun. Gene is arrested for the murder. He knows the rustlers had his gun.

Turpentiners think cattleman Gene will get off the murder charge. They plan to take matters to the end of a rope. The sheriff, Frog and Milly slow the mob down while Gene escapes. Gene finds a bill of sale for his father’s stolen herd in Parker’s office. Parker, who is responsible for both murders along with the rustling, makes a run for it. Gene and his band run them down and off them to jail, in time for song thirteen and matrimonial bliss.

Not a bad story from a writers perspective if you get past the eastern setting and pine sap premise. Kind of like Hollywood pitching the Hatfields and McCoys as a western. You could have set this story in Texas with wildcatters prospecting oil on grazing land. Same story different premise. Oh well, I guess paint brushes do need cleaning.

Next Week: Public Cowboy No. 1
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Paul

Singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) gets a telegram from his brother Tex who is prospecting for diamonds in South Africa. He and his partner made a big strike and need the biggest horse herd Gene and Frog (Smiley Burnett) can round up and wrangle onto a ship – no really. Gene, Frog, and whole Texas herd board ship for South Africa. End of western. Cue the singing . . .

Tex and partner Ed Barclay need the horses to pay off Dunbar saloon owner John Cardigan who staked them to their diamond expedition. Cardigan has other ideas. His men ambush Tex and Ed as they return to Dunbar from their Suspicion Valley claim. Ed is killed. Tex is wounded but taken prisoner for his knowledge of the claim location.

Gene, Frog, and a semi-seasick herd reach Dunbar hoping to find Tex. Cardigan tells them Tex is wanted for Ed’s murder. Gene knows his brother and doubts the story Cadigan is peddling. Cardigan takes a dislike to Gene when he horns in on Cardigan’s romantic interest, catching the eye of Ed’s daughter Gwen who sings in his saloon. Cardigan henchman Craig Johnson sets Gene and Frog up for arrest when he pays Frog for a horse with an uncut diamond. Uncut diamonds require a South African license Frog and Gene don’t have. Both are taken into custody.

Cardigan, Johnson, and Gwen set out to find the diamond claim. Gene and Frog escape arrest and catch up with them in time to be captured by local tribesmen who decide to make a fine sacrifice of them. Frog saves the day when he teaches the chief’s children to sing. The chief will let them go if Frog stays to teach the kids music.

Cardigan and Johnson head for Cardigan’s jungle camp where Tex is being held captive. Gene and Frog follow freeing Tex. Cardigan and Johnson make a break for it. Frog catches up with Johnson. Gene fights it out with Cardigan who falls off a cliff to his death. Police clean up the rest of the gang. Gene, Gwen, and Frog board ship bound for Texas and happily ever after.

Next Week: Yodelin’ Kid from Pine Ridge
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Paul

Singing cowboy Gene Autry (Gene Autry) opposes Doris Maxwell drilling for oil out of concern ranchers water supply will be contaminated. Their feud which includes Gene shooting out the tires on Doris’s car and Doris stealing Champion keeps the pair too busy to notice oil rig foreman George Wilkins defrauding Doris’s banker father Maxwell. Wilkins play is faking a dry well to extract more money for the project while running out Maxwell’s lease on the well claim. He plans to bring in the well after taking over the lease with money extorted from Maxwell’s bank. Nice work if you can get it.

Doris attempts to compromise Gene’s position on the well by playing his songs on her radio station during a program sponsored by the oil company … Get Along Little Dogies. Gene’s rancher friends figure he’s sold them out. Gene goes after Doris, catching up with her in time to thwart a payroll robbery staged by Watkins as part of his money grab. About this time Gene learns oil will bring the railroad to everyone’s benefit. He changes his position. Watkins has his men capture Gene to get him out of the way until he gains control of the oil lease. He covers the bank’s loss of funds with a faked bank robbery he blames on Gene. Whipping Gene’s rancher friends and bank depositors into a lynching mood. Gene escapes. He learns the only encouragement the well needs to come in is a little dynamite. Gene and Frog blow the well in along with prosperity and order for all. The End.

The song, “Get Along, Little Dogies,” also known as “Whoppie Ti Yi Yea,” is a classic cowboy ballad with a history all its own. The song is based on a traditional Irish folk song. The western adaptation was discovered by Owen Wister, author of the classic western novel the Virginian. “Get Along, Little Dogies,” has been recorded by an all-star lineup including Roy Roger, Bing Crosby, The Kingston Trio (nothing says Jamacia like dogies), and The Sons of the Pioneers. Western Writers of America (of which your author is a member and voter) listed “Get Along, Little Dogies” among the top 100 Western songs of all time. The same Western Writers of America whose lifetime achievement award is named for … Owen Wister. And now you know the rest of that story.

Next Week: Round-up Time in Texas
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Paul

John Fairbanks owns a water company and a dammed up reservoir desperately needed by local ranchers and farmers suffering the effects of the dust bowl. Roy Rogers and his men take matters into their own hands, opening the dam to release needed water. A sympathetic mayor fines Roy a dollar and suggests he run for congress to win federal assistance with water rights. Pretty contemporary premise for a 1938 film.

Roy mounts a successful campaign on the water issue easily beating the incumbent backed by Fairbanks. Roy reaches out to congress members seeking to build support for a Federal water bill. Fairbanks uses his political connections to obstruct Rogers though Roy gets secret support from Fairbanks daughter Eleanor. Roy gets his message to fellow congressman Ed Marlowe, at a party where he puts his constituent plight into the song Dust. Marlowe agrees to lead a congressional delegation to assess the water shortage.

The congressional delegation tours the district, dismissing the water shortage as less dire than reported.
Before leaving, Marlowe’s wife insists on a drive through the countryside. Roy sees opportunity for further persuasion. On the drive, the delegation is stopped by outlaws who steal their cars, leaving them to return to town on horseback. A long, hot, dusty, waterless ride. When a severe dust storm blows up the lawmakers are forced to seek shelter at a homestead. There Roy’s outlaw gambit is exposed. He explains his methods may be unconventional, but the water shortage conditions are real. A bemused Congressman Marlowe has to agree and lends his support to the Federal water bill.

With prospects for relief in hand, Roy gets word a group of farmers and ranchers plan to blow Fairbank’s dam to permanently solve the water rights issue. Roy rides out to intercept the explosives and defuse the situation with the promise of legislative relief. With order restored, Roy and Eleanor find a happier trail …

Gene Autry was originally cast in Under Western Stars. He was replaced by Roy in a contract dispute. Gene co-wrote the song “Dust” and sued Republic over use of it.

Next Week: Get Along Little Dogies
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Paul

Gene Autry plays small town sheriff Gene Autry with a talent to sing when not rounding up bad guys. The Old Corral starts back east when blues singer Eleanor Spenser (Irene Manning) witnesses a mob hit on nightclub owner Tony Pearl. Spenser hops the next bus west hoping to get lost before mobster killer Mike Scarlotti finds out she’s gone. Her escape is compromised when her picture appears in newspapers across the county.

The bus makes it as far as Turquoise City, New Mexico where the singing O’Keefe Brothers (Sons of the Pioneers) hold up the bus as a publicity stunt in hopes of breaking into radio. Sheriff Autry collars all but Buck (Leonard Slye, uncredited) and Tom who escape. While Gene is locking up the O’Keefes, Blue Moon saloon owner Martin Simms recognizes Eleanor from her newspaper photo. Seeing opportunity for a buck, Simms persuades Eleanor to take a gig at the Blue Moon while he quietly wires Scarlotti her whereabouts.

Gene discovers who Eleanor is from her picture in the newspaper. Knowing Simms he suspects she might be in danger. He goes to the Blue Moon to warn her and ends up with an opportunity to do a duet – who knew. Gene tracks Buck and Tom O’Keefe to The Old Corral where they are hiding out. He hires them along with the rest of the brothers to entertain at an event in the town plaza.

Scarlotti and his men arrive in town during the event. He demands Simms give Eleanor up. Deputy Frog (Smiley Burnette) whisks Eleanor away to hide out at The Old Coral. Scarlotti gets wind of her escape and follows. Gene turns the O’Keefe singing gig into a posse to go after Scarlotti and his gang. They stampede a herd of cattle into the city slicks. Gene arrests Scarlotti and Simms. Eleanor identifies Scarlotti as Tony Pearl’s murderer. Gene releases the O’Keefe Brothers for another song in time for happily ever after with Eleanor.

The Old Corral released in 1936. The following year Gene walked out of Republic Pictures in a contract dispute. Lenard Slye renamed Roy Rogers, signed with Republic to star in his first feature film, Under Western Stars. The rest as they say – is singing cowboy history.

Next Week: Under Western Stars
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Paul

The U. S. Cavalry takes over peacekeeping from the Texas Rangers in post-civil war Texas, determined to make peace with the Comanche. With the Rangers disbanded, former Rangers Gene Autry (Gene Autry) and Frog Milhouse (Smiley Burnette) and scout Rufe (Max Terhune) join the cavalry. The cavalry is under the command of Colonel Summerville, post commander at Fort Adobe. Sommerville is convinced hot headed Texans are responsible for Indian unrest. Assisted by a Commanche interpreter known as Duval, Summerville invites peace negotiations to begin. Lieutenant Autry’s Ranger experience makes him suspicious of Duval. Romance blossoms with the Colonel’s daughter Dixie (Kay Huges).

Gene and Rufe spot the expected Comanche peace party coming to the parley in war paint. They smell trouble and confront the small band. When gunfire breaks out, the larger war party loses the element of surprise and escapes. Colonel Summerville doesn’t believe Gene’s explanation of Comanche hostile intent.

Gene is demoted to trooper. To clear his name, Gene confronts Duval in his saloon. A brawl breaks out. Gene and Frog are court-martialed for the fight. When Gene tries to warn Summerville of Duval’s suspected involvement with the Comanche, he is arrested for the murder of a Commanche brave and sent to the stockade.

With the troublesome ex-ranger out of the way, Duval puts his real plan into action. Fort Adobe is expecting a supply shipment with an arsenal load of ammunition. Duval reroutes the supply train into a Commanche ambush. Gene escapes the stockade and rides to warn Texas Governor and former Ranger Major Crosby. The Governor reinstates the Rangers while Gene rides to warn the supply train. Gene joins the fight as the Comanche attack. Frog arrives with the Rangers in time to save the cavalry and carry the day.

Duval, known to the Commanche as Chief Tavibo, is killed in the fighting. With peace restored and Duval’s duplicity exposed, Colonel Summerville admits his mistake and pardons Gene making way for happily ever after with Dixie.

Next Week: The Old Corral
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Paul