One film genre that will probably never
make a comeback is that of the Singing Cowboy. Almost from the inception
of sound in film, cowboys began to sing in film. These were almost all B
films produced by Monogram or other budget companies but they were for about
15 years immensely popular and some of the actors/singers became huge stars.
A couple hundred of these films were made and a lot of them are up on YouTube.
One of the very first might surprise you - John Wayne as Singin' Sandy Saunders
in the 1934 Riders of Destiny. Of course Wayne could not sing a lick and
he was dubbed - but he became so embarrassed when people asked him to sing
that he told the film company that he would not do any more though he was
to do one more called Lawless Range in 1935. It was probably a good decision
as I have heard his career turned out all right. After Wayne wisely bowed
out Monogram looked for another singer and found one in a singer who could
not initially act - Gene Autrey who went on to become one of the biggest
stars in films and to mass a huge fortune - he owned the Los Angeles Angel
baseball team.
One of the young actors who appeared in
Autrey's films was a fellow called Roy Rogers and his group the Sons of the
Pioneers. Rogers was soon to break away with his wife Dale Evans and horse
Trigger and became a star as well and earned over $100 million dollars. There
were others as well - names that aren't too familiar any more - Ken Maynard
(who was actually the first singing cowboy), Bob Steele, Herb Jeffries (who
was a black singing cowboy in all black films - later he sang for Duke Ellington)
- a female Dorothy Page who made a few of these films and of course the star
of this film Tex Ritter.
Ritter (father of John Ritter) already
was a successful singer before he moved west to enter into the singing cowboy
market. There was gold in them thar hills. He has a wonderful deep baritone
and is probably best known for singing the theme song to High Noon. He made
over 40 of these films. Not a great actor by any means but a fine singer
and he could ride with the best of them. In fact, in most ways these Singing
Cowboy films are very traditional B Westerns with some great stunt work and
shoot-outs - but the boys liked to relax at times while riding or sitting
around a camp fire and sing. And some of the music is fine and is part of
the genesis of country music. This film has about 8 songs if I recollect
- You are My Sunshine being the only one I knew - and we have the added pleasure
of the presence of Bob Will and his Texas Playboys.
Wills is of course a legend in early country
music though his was called Western Swing and I am a big fan of his
- he always had fabulous guitar and fiddle players in his band. He only appeared
in a handful of films so this one is a special treat as he sings 4 songs
and he and his band help Tex round up the bad guys. The plot is pretty generic
- Tex, his horse White Flash and his comedic sidekick Slim (Slim Andrews
- who gets a song as well) - leave Oklahoma to help a friend in trouble.
A gang is destroying the stages of the woman he loves and killing the drivers
- jump to the runaway stage scene that these films always seem to have -
and once in town Tex realizes he needs help and sends for Bob Will and his
Texas Playboys. Thankfully there is a town shindig so we get Wills playing
a bunch of songs. That is all I needed to make me happy.
