Gene Autry's Melody Ranch
Volume 2



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 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.

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