THE RANGE RIDER

"In the summer of 1949, television sets were large and television screens were small; wrestling, quiz shows and test patterns dominated the air waves, and Milton Berle was the undisputed king of the medium.  Onto that range rode television's first cowboy hero, Hopalong Cassidy, on Friday evening, June 24.  During the years that followed nearly two hundred horse operas galloped into countless millions of American living rooms." -- Gary A. Yoggy, Riding the Video Range: The Rise and Fall of the Western on Television

Hoppy and Topper

Yep.  Hoppy was the first of many Western heroes who would come to dominate TV programming.  Just three months later he was joined by the masked rider of the plains, The Lone Ranger.  Unlike Hoppy, who had been a long-time motion picture star, this hero originated on radio.  True, he had been the subject of two chapter serials made by Republic, but had never been a regular movie series hero.  But he would enjoy great success on TV and after his network run, syndication would allow him to ride the range for many more years.

Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were the only two B-Western movie cowboys to surpass Hoppy in popularity.  And a year after Hoppy made his TV debut, Autry joined him on the small screen and a year after that Rogers made the transition.

Autry's Flying "A" Productions not only produced his own series, but was also responsible for launching four other series that were set in the West: Annie Oakley (1954 premier; starring Gail Davis); Buffalo Bill Jr. (1955 premier; starring Dick Jones); and even a series starring Autry's horse, The Adventures of Champion (1955 premier; starring Champion, of course, but featuring Ricky North and Jim Bannon).

Better than those three, however, was The Range Rider, which premiered in 1951, starring Jack Mahoney (for now; the name would change) as the Range Rider and Dick Jones as Dick West. 

"....and Dick West, All-American boy."

Each episode opened to the strains of "Home on the Range," followed by scenes of The Range Rider (Mahoney) mounting his buckskin horse, Rawhide, and galloping after a runaway stagecoach whose driver had been wounded.  Mahoney leaps from his horse onto the stage.  Then there is a scene of Dick West (Jones), the All-American boy, leaning out of the saddle to fire his six-shooter underneath the neck of his galloping pinto, Lucky.  

It is obvious in the program's intro that Mahoney is doing his own stunting.  And why not, he was one of the greatest stuntmen of all time, ranking with such notables as Yakima Canutt, Davey Sharpe, Cliff Lyons, Tom Steele, and Chuck Roberson.  In fact, he was even capable of performing stunts that were even beyond the capabilities of that inestimable group. 

His young sidekick, portrayed by native Texan Dick Jones (1927-1914), was no slouch either when it came to the action scenes.  A former child actor, billed at age six as "The World's Youngest Trick Rider," he excelled at horsemanship and like Mahoney was able to perform his own stunts. 

Mahoney (1919-1989) was born in Chicago, but grew up in Davenport, Iowa.  Of French and Irish heritage, his birth name was Jacques Joseph O'Mahoney.  He entered the University of Iowa where he participated in several varsity sports.  When WW II began, however, he left school and enlisted in the Marine Corps, eventually becoming a fighter pilot.

After the war, Mahoney moved to Los Angeles where he broke into the movie business as a stuntman.  He would eventually appear in over 200 movie and TV productions as a stuntman or actor or both.  Tall (6-4) and lanky, he was a perfect stunt double for actors such as Gregory Peck, Errol Flynn, Randolph Scott, and Rod Cameron.  In some of the films he also was given supporting roles, usually as a villain.

In the late '40's, billed as Jacques O'Mahoney, he signed on with Columbia Pictures, where he became the stunt double for the studio's long-time B-Western star, Charles Starrett.  By this time, Starrett was portraying a character called the Durango Kid.  Since Durango wore a mask it was possible for Mahoney to do all the stunts without anyone being the wiser.  It also made it appear that Starrett, approaching age fifty, was becoming more athletic as the years went by.

Charles Starrett as The Durango Kid

Jacques O'Mahoney as The Durango Kid

"I certainly had the best stuntman.  Jocko was just beautiful.  He was like a cat." -- Charles Starrett


"Columbia left the Starretts up to me.  I'd walk around the location and find interesting things to do, and they would plain just write them into the script." -- Jacques O'Mahoney


Mahoney was also given featured roles in these films and it was said that he was being groomed to take over the series from Starrett who was contemplating retirement.  However, it was almost the end of the B-Western, its demise hastened by the popularity of Hoppy, Roy, Gene, and the Lone Ranger, all of whom could be watched for free on TV.  Instead of continuing with a new star, the studio decided to pull the plug on the series in 1952. 

Mahoney did star in three chapter serials made by Columbia, all Westerns.  But by that time serials were also rapidly losing their audience to television and soon thereafter they too disappeared from movie screens.   

In the final years of his movie career, Autry's B-Westerns were independently produced by his Flying "A" production unit, but were released through and distributed by Columbia Pictures.  It was this association that made Autry aware of Mahoney and led him to use him in a number of his films as both an actor and a stunt double.  Therefore, when Autry decided to launch The Range Rider series in 1951, he knew who he wanted to play the role.  However, he did request that Jacques O'Mahoney change his name to Jack Mahoney.

He agreed, for now.

With the exception of the anthology series, Death Valley Days (1952 premier), all the early TV Western series shared in common the fact that they, like the B-Western movies that they were replacing, were aimed at a juvenile audience.  Hoppy, Roy, and Gene portrayed the same characters on television that had appealed to juvenile audiences in the movie theaters and the TV Lone Ranger was very much the same character that had attracted juvenile listeners during its long tenure on radio.

It was a winning formula for now, and Autry and his Flying "A" Productions staff did not intend to drastically depart from that formula as it prepared to launch its other TV series.  However, since the cast of one series was headed by a female and another by a horse, there was at least some new ground being broken.  And although The Range Rider series was produced with that formula in mind, it did differ in some respects from the other Western series of that period. 

For example, there was the hero's sidekick.  During the B-Western movie era it became mandatory that the hero have a sidekick, somebody to offer humor, since it wasn't considered dignified for the actions of the hero to be a laughing matter.  The sidekick was nearly always older than the hero, too.  If, however, the sidekick was young, he would also have to be the one who wooed the ladies, because that was also out of bounds for nearly all the heroes.

Dick Jones, as Dick West, filled the bill.  Although he was twenty-four years old when the series began, because of his small stature (5-7) and boyish looks, he easily passed for the nineteen-year old that he portrayed.  His character also had an eye for the ladies.  The fact that Mahoney towered over Jones made it easy to believe that he was much older and more mature than his young friend, while in fact he was only eight years his senior.

As mentioned earlier, Jones had been a trick rider at age six.  He ended up in California due to performing in a rodeo that also featured the old cowboy, Hoot Gibson.  After watching Jones perform, Hoot told the boy's mother that her boy should be in the movies.  She thought that was a good idea and she and her young son headed to Hollywood.  After arriving, Dickie Jones, as he was billed, became a very busy little actor.

The young actor's most famous movie role was one in which he wasn't even seen on the screen.  It happened in 1940 when at age ten he provided the voice of Pinochio in the Disney animated feature of the same name.

As a sidekick, Jones was responsible for more than humor or the romantic angle.  Unlike many of the other Western sidekicks, he could handle the action and thus was able to chip in and provide the support the Range Rider needed to best the baddies.

 

I have to admire the actor holding the pistol.  He knows that a big galoot is about to jump on his back, but he can't even flinch.

The hero was different, too.  His horse wasn't a white or black stallion and there was no fancy bridle or saddle.  He wore buckskins and his belt and holster were as plain as could be.  Nor did he sport fancy boots and spurs.  He didn't even wear boots; he wore moccasins.  Perhaps that was to look different, but it was also because that particular footwear made it easier to perform stunts.

He was unconventional in another way, too.  He rarely mounted or dismounted his horse in a conventional fashion.  He nearly always created some little piece of business in making his mounts and dismounts even when the horse was at a standstill, and did so with an effortless leonine grace.

Seventy-nine episodes were filmed in 1951-1953.  The show didn't end there; it went into syndication and ran for many years afterwards.  

When Gene Autry decided to produce a new series to be called Buffalo Bill Jr, he did so with Dick Jones in mind to portray the lead character.  Forty-two episodes were filmed and were aired in 1955.  Jones continued to act throughout the '50's before calling it quits to pursue a career in business.

Buffalo Bill Jr.

 

Meanwhile, one final time Mahoney changed his name.  He now became Jock Mahoney, though his friends always called him Jocko.  After filming ended on The Range Rider, he went on to star in a number of Western features, mainly at Universal.  But he also realized one of his fondest dreams when he became the thirteenth actor to portray Tarzan.  And it almost killed him.

Back in 1949, he had auditioned to replace Johnny Weissmuller in the role.  It was not to be, however, for the role went to Lex Barker instead.

But now at age forty-two for the first film and forty-four for the second, he became the oldest actor to ever portray the character.  But that wasn't the problem.  On location during the second filming, he battled dysentery, dengue fever, and pneumonia.  His weight plummeted, which became apparent to movie viewers, and yet he persevered to the end and finished the film.


"I loved the role of Tarzan because it was such a distinct challenge. I remember being 40 feet up in a tree, sunburned as hell. And I thought to myself, 'What is a 42-year-old man doing 40 feet up in a tree, getting ready to swing out over a bunch of thorn bushes that if you ever fell into you would be cut to ribbons and damned near killing myself to get up there?' So I laughed and thought, 'Well now, who wouldn't want to play Tarzan??!'" -- Jock Mahoney

     

REPUBLIC PICTURES: In the Beginning.....

Republic logo, 1935-38

Created in 1935, Republic Pictures dominated B-Western and serial production until both were killed off by television in the 50's.  The Republic product was so popular in the rural areas and small towns of the country that, in one theater at least, its logo was the only one to ever be cheered by the young Western film experts sitting in the front row.

Herbert Yates, founder of Republic Pictures

The studio was the brainchild of businessman Herbert Yates.  He was born in Brooklyn in 1880 and educated at Columbia University.  He then became an advertising executive with the American Tobacco Company.

He began investing in movies as early as 1912 and a few years later founded Consolidated Film Laboratories, which processed films for a number of small Hollywood studios.  

By the early 30's, several of the companies owed Consolidated large sums of money.  Yates seized the opportunity that the situation created for him and forced six of the debtor companies -- Mascot, Monogram, Liberty, Majestic, Chesterfield, and Invincible -- to merge with Consolidated, thus creating Republic Pictures in 1935.

It wasn't the first film to be produced by Republic, but it was the first to be distributed by the studio.

The main asset that Monogram contributed to the merger was to bring along a cowboy actor who had been starring in B-Westerns since 1932.

His name was John Wayne.

In 1932-33, he had starred in six Westerns at Warner Brothers.  They were exciting and well-done features primarily because they were remakes of Ken Maynard silent films.

Maynard, who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag and never looked realistic throwing a punch, was nevertheless one of the most accomplished horsemen to ride the Western celluloid range.  And his best efforts were during the silent era before his girth began to expand and he did not have to struggle with dialogue.

Therefore, the emphasis could be place on what he did best, which was action involving him and his horse Tarzan.

Wayne was a better actor than Maynard (and who wasn't) and he didn't have to much worry about the action because his films made much use of stock footage from the Maynard films, making it appear that Wayne was a much better horseman than he was.

After the Warner Brothers series ended Wayne began a series of films that were independently produced by Lone Star Productions and released and distributed by Monogram Pictures.  Most of them were produced by Paul Malvern.

In the middle of that series the merger that created Republic occurred.  Since the Lone Star film WESTWARD HO! was already in the hopper it became the first film to be released under the Republic logo.  Wayne went on to star in seven other Westerns which, after a couple of holdovers from his previous series, eventually became full-fledged Republic productions.  

After the series concluded in 1936, he left Republic for what he thought would be greener pastures at Universal.  They weren't -- and he would return.

The Monogram component of the merger had made a major contribution with the John Wayne series and had greatly aided the fledgling Republic in getting off to a good start.  But bringing even more to the table was Mascot's Nat Levine, not just because he was an experienced film producer, which he was, but because coming along with him was a singer by the name of Gene Autry.

John Wayne would eventually win fame and fortune as the most famous and most popular Western actor in the business, but that fame, fortune, and popularity was not based on his B-Western tenure, nor was it a result of his years at Republic. Gene Autry, on the other hand, would be Republic's savior, ensuring that the studio would survive.  

He was a former radio country-western singer who ventured out to Hollywood in an attempt to break into moving pictures.  He made connections with Nat Levine at Mascot.  

In 1934, Ken Maynard, in-between studios at the time, agreed to make two films for Levine, one a feature and the other a serial.  It was in these two films that Autry made his first screen appearances though he was uncredited in the casts of both.

The feature came first.  It was IN OLD SANTA FE and Autry had a brief scene singing a song while being accompanied on the accordion by his buddy, Lester "Smiley" Burnette, who had come West with Autry. 

Mascot serial in which Gene Autry made his second screen appearance

In the serial, MYSTERY MOUNTAIN, Autry appeared in four of the twelve chapters (Burnette was in three).  

 

Then Levine, whose specialty was producing serials, which he had been doing since 1927, and who was not afraid of trying something different, cast Autry and Burnette in THE PHANTOM EMPIRE (1935).

It was different -- strange and different.  As far as I know, it is the only hybrid Western - musical - science fiction movie to ever be filmed (there couldn't be much demand!).  

In it Autry played a radio singer who finds himself involved in a struggle for survival with an evil underground empire, but each chapter he would have to hustle back to perform on his radio show which was broadcast from his ranch.  (I don't want to go into more detail because I don't want to spoil the plot.  Just kidding; that was the plot.)

This is the first film to feature Gene Autry in a starring role.  It has to be seen to be believed, and maybe not even then.

As absurd as it was as a film, it did serve to introduce the singing cowboy.  And that's where things stood when Levine agreed to the merger that created Republic Pictures.  

Part of the agreement between Levine and Yates was that Levine would be the production chief for the studios' serials and Westerns.  

As noted earlier, the independently produced Wayne film, WESTWARD HO!, which was released in August 1935, would be the first film to be distributed by Republic.  The second was TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS, the first true Republic film, which was released just a month later, starring Autry with support from Burnette, produced by Levine, and directed by Joseph Kane (directorial debut).

Gene Autry's first starring feature film and the first "true" Republic release

The combination of rookie studio, rookie star, and rookie director did not bode all that well for the film and the finished product does leave much to be desired.  

But the public, or at least that part of the public that went to theaters to view B-Westerns, ate it up. Why?  

The only answer has to be that like THE PHANTOM EMPIRE it was different.  For better or worse, it launched the singing cowboy as a dominant force in B-Westerns.

With the immediate popularity of Autry other studios quickly launched series starring singing cowboys, but none came close to the popularity of the Autrys.  

In fact, during the first full year (1936) of Autry films, he finished third, behind Buck Jones and George O'Brien, in the Motion Picture Herald's annual popularity poll of B-Western stars.  The next year he was number one and he would occupy that position through 1942 when he enlisted in the military.  

At that point, one of Republic's other singing cowboys, Roy Rogers, would take over the top spot and remain there until the end of the B-Western era.

As mentioned earlier, when John Wayne's contract came up for renewal in 1936 he decided not to sign.  He went off to Universal for a couple of years, but he would return.  

To supplement the Autry series, Republic contracted with A.W. Hackel's Supreme Pictures to distribute two Western series, starring Johnny Mack Brown and Bob Steele, respectively.  They started appearing in theaters under the Republic banner in the fall of 1936.

Republic now had three series in circulation, but only one was truly a Republic product, and the decision was made to create a second home grown series.

One of the writers on THE PHANTOM EMPIRE had been William Colt MacDonald, who had written four novels featuring a trio of cowboys known as the Three Mesquiteers.  

His characters would be the basis for the new series and it would debut at about the same time that the Mack Browns and Steeles went out stamped with the Republic logo.  

And much, much more on the Mesquiteers later.

THE END 

(For Now)