The Exhibitor (Nov 1939-May 1940)

THE EXHIBITOR 33 When Hayden (first or last name, it does not matter) left home to make his mark in the world, he went to Hollywood and began attending night classes of the University of Southern California, for, during the day, he worked at odd jobs to further his screen ambitions, becoming a laborer at Paramount. Graduating from the pick-and-shovel brigade, Hayden landed a job in the studio’s laboratory. His next step was joining the Harry Sherman outfit as business manager. At that time James Ellison was portraying the juvenile leads in the Hopalong Cassidy series, in which William Boyd was featured. When Ellison accepted a spot in Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Plainsman,” Hayden stepped into the Sh erman vacancy, first appearing in “Hills of Old Wyoming” (1937). Since then he has become almost as inseparable from the Hopalongs as William Boyd himself. Hayden is six feet, two inches tall, and weighs 180 pounds, has black hair-, black eyes, and is an all-round athlete, as well as an expert horseman. Prior to his film career, Hayden appeared in several Little Theatre shows, directed by Lela Rogers, mother of Ginger Rogers, and scored hits in “Fly Away Home” and “Funny Man.” Gene Autry Since the time, back in 1934, when he appeared as a singing “super” in “In Old Santa Fe” with Ken Maynard in the star role, Delbert and Nora Autry’s big boy, Gene, has gone places — and is still going places, with no signs of releasing his hold on the position of Public Cowboy Number One. In the taking of a radio performer and adapting him to the screen is no particular feat, but when this is done by an independent producer — and for a horse-opera player! — it is indeed notable, and becomes the more astounding when that person is given a professional build-up, the like of which even an established star might be envious. But that is the story of Gene Autry. Since that day in 1934, when Nat Levine proved his hunch about a singing cowboy as being what “the doctor ordered” to pep up westerns, there has been put behind Gene Autry a nation-wide publicity campaign, which has been backed by pictures in which the star performs to the high standard set by his advance scriveners. And to further him, Autry has been sent on personal appearance tours that have taken him even to Ireland and other points in the British Isles. Perhaps Autry did have a ready-made audience when he entered pictures, for he had been on radio station KVOO since 1930 (when 22), and was a Victor recording artist, but his story since that time has been augmented by his own high quality work in a series of westerns into which has gone not only unprecedented sums of money, but story and production values as well. When westerns were young, many a star — like “Broncho Billy” Anderson and William S. Hart — was made largely because there was little else to engage the attention of, at least to satisfy, an expectant public, enthralled with a new entertainment medium. Then, too, westerns also seemed to be ideally suited to camera treatment — an outdoor action story which could be easily caught with little acting, and the whole staged against Nature’s own backdrop. In this day it is different, what with all the various types and kinds of pictures available. Accordingly, now, more than ever before, merit counts — but it must be deemed worthy. Not only has the public been told of Autry’s merits, but the public at large has recognized not only his merit as a performer, but also the quality of entertainment that Republic has put into his pictures. Now that Autry has become the subject of a newspaper cartoon-strip, his fame will spread, and it cannot but help to pay dividends at theatres playing his pictures. And the fact that he has been borrowed by 20th Century-Fox for a picture will not cause any depreciation in his stock. One heard not infrequently remarks about the lack of westerns. There is no lack of westerns. They just do not play the theatres at which these quasi-commentators see their motion pictures. History may yet record, as Gene Autry’s brightest achievement, the re-instatement of the western in its once-eminent position in the entertainment world. Surely, there are few, if indeed any other one, who can, by virtue of his position and his pictures, put westerns back on the screens of the United States for other purposes than to bring the kids in on a Saturday matinee. If 20th Century-Fox can, for example, sell four Cisco Kid stories as part of its regular program, why cannot unmitigated westerns (with running times, of course, somewhat more than the present average of 58 minutes) be included on a regular production schedule? Republic knows how to make westerns, and it has Gene Autry. Need we say more? nmuetsanj Lj tee tin, f6 Thank You Exhibitors Gene Autry November 29, 1939