Radio
Legends:
Gene Autry's Melody Ranch, Volume 2
Liner notes written by Harlan Zinck
A
young man was working the night shift as a railroad telegraph operator when a
stranger walked in to send a wire. Noticing the young man's guitar in the
corner, the stranger said, "Boy, knock me off a tune." The young man did, and
the man said, "You're wasting your time here. Why don't you get out and head for
radio?" The stranger turned out to be Will Rogers, and a young telegrapher named
Gene Autry decided to take his advice.
Born on September 29, 1907 in Tioga, Texas, Gene Autry grew up on a small ranch
and sang in the local church choir. Throughout his youth, he worked on ranches
in Texas and Oklahoma -- but frequently lost jobs due to his desire to sing more
than to work. Accompanying himself on the guitar, Autry worked a few stage shows
and county fairs and finally landed a spot on the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based KVOO,
where he sang songs and spun yarns of life on the range. Billed as "Oklahoma's
Yodeling Cowboy," the demands of a daily fifteen-minute show got him interested
in songwriting; when Autry and train dispatcher Jimmy Long wrote "That
Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine," he found his career beginning to soar. His popular
recording of the song led, in 1931, to Sears-Roebuck hiring him for a
fifteen-minute program on WLS Chicago for the princely sum of thirty-five
dollars a week. Shortly thereafter, he began making appearances on "The National
Barn Dance" and "The National Farm and Home Hour," also broadcast by WLS.
His movie career began in 1934 at Republic Studios, one of the leading
proponents of the B-Westerns so popular then with the Saturday matinee crowd.
Autry's first film, "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," established a new genre, the
'singing Western,' with the title derived from the picture's central Western
ballad. Autry used his own name in the film, and the cast included sidekicks
such as Smiley Burnette and George "Gabby" Hayes, as well as others from the
"Barn Dance" show. The troupe was completed with Autry's horse Champion -- who
had his own billing and even received his own fan mail.
By late 1939, he had made thirty-nine Westerns for Republic, combining this with
appearances on popular radio variety shows such as Rudy Vallee's "Fleischmann
Hour" and "The Eddie Cantor Show." The J. Walter Thompson advertising agency,
looking for a personality to match the Wrigley's Gum account, approached Autry
to audition for a proposed radio series in which he would star. The audition was
a success, leading to one of the longest-running series in radio history: "Gene
Autry's Melody Ranch," a CBS Sunday evening show that would run almost
continuously from January 1940 until May 1956. (Autry joined the Army Air Corps
in July of 1942, taking his oath on the air, and the series took a three-year
hiatus shortly thereafter.) Combining music, comedy exchanges with cast members
including country comedian Pat Buttram, and dramatic sequences featuring Autry
as a moral, but two-fisted hero, the Wrigley people could not have been more
pleased with their star -- or with the big sales that resulted from their
on-going sponsorship of "Melody Ranch."
Heard today, "Gene Autry's Melody Ranch" offers a pleasant and tuneful chance to
hear Autry perform a wide range of musical favorites, as well as to enjoy the
banter between Autry and country comedian Pat Buttram -- best remembered today
as the wheeler-dealer Mr. Haney on the cult sitcom favorite "Green Acres."
In this second Radio Legends collection,
we offer another twenty shows from the CBS network series, as edited by Autry
for syndicated distribution in the early 1950s. Taken from high quality source
recordings, these excellent-sounding shows may not contain the tantalizing
advertisements for "delicious and healthful" Wrigley's Gum, but you'll
find plenty of familiar melodies and some rip-snorting western action -- perfect
family-friendly entertainment to play and enjoy for many years to come.
Here is the complete content of this 10-CD Radio Legends collection:
Jeff Marlowe Killed
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Jeff Ross is Murdered
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
La Paloma
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Maisie Clark
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Mama Maria's Restaurant
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Mike Carter Comes to Melody Ranch
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Mike Connor's Story
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
New Owner at the Square D
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Pat Buttram, Private Eye
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Pat Loses Champion in a Shell Game
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Ranger Cliff Howard
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Ross Kendall and the Sentinel
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Sam Crawford is a Wanted Man
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Sourdough Shorty
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Steve Larkin Dams Up Green Creek
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
Steve Williams Held Captive
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
The $18,000 Payroll Robbery
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
The Concertina
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
The Rafter M Payroll is Stolen
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
The Red River Valley
1950s - 30:00 - Syndicated
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