8mm Forum: Gene Autry Sings

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Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 17, 2013, 02:56 PM:

Gene Autry Sings
1 x 200ft B/W

This black and white 200 footer was I believe released by Niles or ReelImage.
There is no story, just three of Gene's best selling songs from his Western short films.
Mexicali Rose shows Gene singing to a pretty girl, or his horse, I'm not sure which!
Home on the Range has Gene relaxing under a tree strumming his guitar, with some shots of cattle round ups.
Back in the Saddle, Gene's signiature tune, has some nice shots of Gene and Champion.
No one ever said Gene was a great singer, he manages to hit quite a few flat notes in Mexicali Rose, but he was very pleasant to listen to, and definately a good looking guy with a lot of charm, which comes through in this short. Many of his Christmas songs, including Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, which he wrote, are as popular today as when they first came out over 60 years ago.
If you remember the old movie days when Gene and Roy would solve the problems of the world without killing anyone or uttering one foul word, then you will like this reel.
Loaded with nostalgia, a nice little souvenir of Gene.
Print quality - sharp with good blacks and contrast.

Posted by Oemer Yalinkilic (Member # 86) on November 20, 2013, 04:02 PM:

I love Gene Autry and Roy Rogers movies.
Unfortunately the 16mm TV prints are often abridged and they cut the songs. In this case are the Super 8 prints much better.
Nice review, thanks
Oemer

Posted by Gerald Santana (Member # 2362) on November 20, 2013, 04:41 PM:

I love his films and have around 20 features from Gene Autry and some musical clips from random distributors. All of the orignal prints on 16mm are very sharp obviously but, some have turned VS. This is something I've found to be very common for his films in that format. The lady he is singing to in Mexicali Rose is Luana Walters.

Surprisingly, of all of the super 8 copies I've had (which were mostly Thunderbird prints), all have a very decent picture and good contrast. Smiley Burnette is one of my favorite character actors off all time, I only collect and keep the films in which he appears. Although they all have their moments, I prefer the films before 1940. He gave Gene a run for his money with his clever showmanship.

While Gene was a prolific songwriter and actor, Smiley invented musical instruments and a projector out of a flashlight. Here are the details from the Wikepedia article:

'In the 1940s, he invented and patented an early home audiovisual system called "Cinevision Talkies." Each package contained a 78 rpm record with four of his songs and fifteen 35mm slides. The slides were to be projected in order and advanced each time a short tone played on the record during the songs. An inside cover of the record album was white so that those with no projector and screen could simply shine a flashlight through the slides and view them on the cover.'

Posted by Pasquale DAlessio (Member # 2052) on November 22, 2013, 06:29 AM:

"Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a song written by Johnny Marks based on the 1939 story Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer published by the Montgomery Ward Company.

source:wikipedia

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 22, 2013, 06:34 PM:

Youre right Pat. But my mistake is a common one, since Gene is the singer by far the most associated with the song. Johnny Marks attributed the great success of the song entirely to Gene.
"Here Comes Santa Claus" is another iconic Christmas song associated with Gene, and he was in fact the originator of the storyline of the song.

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on November 23, 2013, 02:10 AM:

Can someone tell me if the songs are culled from some Autry feature (more probably),or were originally filmed for a Soundies-type series?

Posted by Oemer Yalinkilic (Member # 86) on November 23, 2013, 02:02 PM:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjniwIMFzgc

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on November 23, 2013, 04:46 PM:

???????????????

Posted by Oemer Yalinkilic (Member # 86) on November 23, 2013, 05:10 PM:

It´s looks like the clip is from a TV show. I don´t know if it was sung in one of his movies but I don´t think so.

Posted by Gerald Santana (Member # 2362) on November 24, 2013, 05:59 PM:

From the materials that I have and what I've read, Soundies came in to existence in 1940 so, Gene Autry's films pre-date Soundies. Much later, Official Films bought most or all of the Soundies stock, later retitling them and making compilations as well with three or four songs on one 400' roll.

Gene Autry's films were not included in those Castle, Offical and retitles that I can think of. He owned copyright to all of his material, that's where he began his fortune. I have Mexicali Rose and a couple others so I'll take a look at who released those when I get the film from storage.

Chances are they were probably pirate dupes but, people like Gene never went after those guys because, those pirate copies would bring in more business and keep him in the public eye. Snader Telescriptions and Studio Films, came in later to offer their own assortment of "new" country stars like Bob Wills, who were paving the way for Rockabilly, later rock music.

Gene was the first performer to make country music classy to a large public. For many years before hand, it was considered hillbilly and stereotyped as unsophisticated. All of that changed when he came on to the scene, he revolutionized film and music. Take a look at The Phantom Empire and see how he also added science fiction to the mix. I could see a young George Lucas and Steven Spielberg watching this series repeatedly as they planned Star Wars and the Indiana Jones movies...minus the singing cowboy!

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 24, 2013, 08:21 PM:

Gene has always been a hero of mine. When I was a kid watching his movies at the local Odeon, I thought he was the greatest cowboy ever. I still do.
But Genes talent extended far beyond his cowboy persona. He was a very successful business man, investing in highly profitable radio and TV stations, and he owned a football club. All the while retaining his sunny personality and true gentleman character.
A hero indeed.
Where are people like Gene today?

Posted by Oemer Yalinkilic (Member # 86) on November 25, 2013, 03:04 AM:

Yes Gene Autry was very important for the later popular music.
But you don´t forget the very first one, it was Jimmie Rodgers. I have a 16mm short, maybe it was released by Blackhawk? he sing 3 songs. Jimmie Rodgers the singin brakeman, The Carter Family, Gene Autry and Hank Williams had clear the way for modern music.

Posted by Gerald Santana (Member # 2362) on November 25, 2013, 03:59 AM:

Yes Oemer, Jimmie was great, no doubt a major influence for many country western artists. And I agree Paul, he's the hero in all of his films and one of mine as well. Another source for great country music in it's transition into rock n' roll is an obscure show produced by the U.S. Army used to promote "Choice Not Chance" new military recruits.

I have nearly a full run of all of the Bradley Studios television and radio program Country Style U.S.A and another called Hometown Jamboree or Community Jamboree, and wow--what a line-up of stars. Johnny Cash, Eddy Arnold, Patsy Cline, Hank Snow, Chet Atkins...the list goes on. Sadly, Gene is missing from the bunch, since he never recorded at the Bradley Studios. Eventually I'll upload clips of the program to you tube.

So, I went into the archive and pulled out the same 200' (400' on 16mm) as Paul's and I took some shots of Mexicali Rose (retitled 'Mexicali') . Like I thought, it was a pirate dupe with good contrast. And I defiantly agree, I'm not entirely sure who he is singing the song to but, the final shot may provide a little clue...

Posted by Oemer Yalinkilic (Member # 86) on November 25, 2013, 04:48 AM:

I have a 16mm print of the TV show "Ranch Party" with Tex Ritter. I watched on video tapes lot of shows and they are all great. They are guest appearance of Johnny Cash, George Jones, Carl Perkins etc. and on every show is a Rock and Roll song from the Collins Kids. Unfortunately someone cut from my 16mm print the Collin Kids number.

I have also two Super 8 columbia color footage from the Grand ole Opry, with Webb Pierce, Joe Maphis and lot of more. Anybody know this release? I have a 400 reel and another 200. Maybe Columbia had more released?

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 25, 2013, 10:58 AM:

For anyone interested in reading about Gene's amazing life, including great photo's and beautiful color prints of Gene's Western film posters, this recently published book by Holly George-Warren is the definitive biography:

Publisher is Oxford University Press

Incidentally, Gene was the only performer to ever earn 5 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Johnny Cash said " Reflecting upon the great people I have known, as an all American image of goodness, justice, good over bad, nothing or no one comes closer than Gene Autry. He made the world look better to me ".

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on November 25, 2013, 03:09 PM:

Carmel was a home movie company.The copyright is 1948 so, the clips are older.A (very quick) look at the imdb filmographies of Autry and Luana Walters (if she is Luana Walters) did not bring results.Perhaps they came from some very short-lived Soundies competitor.I will have to search deeper (!!!).
Similarly,we don't know the origin of the other "orphan" soundie-type film, LET'S SING WITH POPEYE,which comes from the first Popeye cartoon,with added bouncing ball and projected lyrics.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on November 08, 2014, 03:15 PM:

In the shopping mall today they were playing Gene's recording of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer. Made me realize that Gene will be with us forever just through this one song.

Posted by Clinton Hunt (Member # 2072) on November 10, 2014, 04:45 PM:

I've got on Super8 a George Formby song collection like the Youtube link posted here by Oemer Yalinkilic that has audience participation....actually I am lucky enough to have 2 reels of the same super8....the first I bought was jumpy all the way through and then I came across another one that plays great.

Posted by Jeff Missinne (Member # 3373) on November 21, 2014, 10:38 PM:

Carmel-Hollywood Films was another name for Hollywood Film Enterprises, the laboratory and distributor that for decades manufactured 8mm and 16mm home movie editions of Walt Disney's cartoons. It's safe to assume this was not a pirated item.

It appears to me this short, and another reel titled "Horses and Guns," were made specifically for the home market. Carmel-Hollywood had some kind of deal with Autry himself, through which they also offered excerpts from some of his Columbia features, which Autry's Flying A company produced and owned.

"Western Songs" is pretty crude production-wise; it's obviously lip-synched to existing records, and has visible editing splices in the negative (Bell & Howell diagonal splices, which indicates it was probably originally shot in 16mm. Splices of that type appear in some other Carmel releases.) This and "Horses and Guns" both contain some overlapping footage, indicating they were both shot at the same time. (Possibly the same day!)

Hollywood Film Enterprises later released several home movie editions of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, adapted from TV episodes of "The Roy Rogers Show," rather than Rogers' feature films.

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on November 22, 2014, 01:44 PM:

Thank you Jeff for,at last,unveiling the mystery of GENE AUTRY SINGS! It was one of those rare instances where home movie companies made original films for the home market. Now,can you also unveil the mystery of the LET'S SING WITH POPEYE "soundie", with the bouncing ball and projected lyrics?

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on November 23, 2014, 07:35 AM:

Here is the box for the HFE Roy Rogers westerns.A friend collector has one which, by chance,I have complete in std 8 sound.I don't know its sourse,it is possibly from England.It was sold titled Masked Bandit on the box and on the leader (there are no beginning titles on the film itself).By doing some research,I found the episode's original title.It is The Return of the Larrabee Kid

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