Motion Picture Herald (Mar-Apr 1947)

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM Pioneers Group Marquee Asset by WILLIAM R. WEAVER Hollywood Editor If you're not billing the Sons of the Pioneers when they're in a picture, you're neglecting one of the few opportunities a showman gets to bring the elder generation of customers to the box office. And if you are billing them every time they come along in a Roy Rogers picture you're not risking the ire of that Number One Western star, because he was a Son of the Pioneers himself in the beginning and still is in spirit and professional association. If you're billing both, of course, you're getting the whole family into the theatre. The special appeal of the Sons of the Pioneers for folks of middle age and upwards— about 50 per cent of their fan mail comes from people over 45 — traces to their policy of digging up old songs, of both the prairie and the folk variety, for use on the radio, where the boys work out once weekly on a national commercially sponsored original broadcast and five times weekly via transcriptions, and in their pictures. Some 85 radio stations carry their transcriptions, with local sponsors, and the dimensions of this phase of the Sons of the Pioneers activities are such that the young men operate their own company, Pioneer Radio Productions, to keep this outlet supplied. They also formed, six months ago, the Tim Spencer Music Company, to publish their own songs, of which they have written no less than 450 since founding their organization in 1932. "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and "Cool Waters" are among the top hits, already recognized as American folk classics, in their list of successes. Popularity Grew Steadily In that year, which you needn't be an oldster to remember as the one in which this nation's and the world's economy hit an all time low, Roy Rogers, Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer were three members of a group singing over Hollywood's radio station KFWB for general manager Jerry King, PREVIEW OF TRADE SHOW A FOUR-WAY conversation may seem at little involved but Robert Hutton. Martha Viekers, Jam's Paige and Jack Carson seem to be getting along all right in Warner Brothers' "Love and Learn" which will be tradeshown March 24. William Jacobs produced; Frederick de Cordova directed. who encouraged them to make transcriptions of their strictly localized broadcasts and send them around the country. They caught on so well that a sponsor bobbed up prepared to buy the three away from the group and start a commercial program. From that point forward their air popularity grew steadily. The next step was to crash pictures, specifically Western pictures, which were in the doldrums at the time, and they started with Columbia, working for that studio three years, during which time the then revolutionary idea of throwing songs into shoot'em-ups became standard practice. Some while later, Roy Rogers got off on his meteoric starring career, and the Sons of the Pioneers went along with him. Between the start of their Columbia contract and now they have appeared in 71 pictures, 28 for that studio, 36 for Republic, four for Warner Brothers — in one of which they started Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In" on its way to the Hit Parade — and three for other studios. And between those points in time the production of Westerns has undergone change. Says Mr. Spencer, answering the several questions reflected in the foregoing. "We used to do a Western in 12 days. Our last one took 58. But the essential appeal of the Western is still the same. They like to see riding and action, in the period of the West and without phony elements introduced. The kids and youngsters come to see Roy — as long as there are kids there'll be Western fans — and the oldsters come not only to see him and follow the story but also to hear the kind of music we give them, music that reminds them of the time when they were young." Which brings this account back to that observation in the first paragraph. 14 RKO Radio Features Are Now Being Scored RKO Radio is currently scoring 14 features. Constantin Bakaleinikoff, head of the studio's music department, is in charge. The features include : "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer," "Honeymon," "Magic Town," "Out of the Past," "They Won't Believe Me," "Trail Street," "Desperate," "The Woman on the Beach," "So Well Remembered," "Banjo," "Dick Tracy's Dilemba," "Thunder Mountain," "Memory of Love" and 'What Do I Want With Money." COMPLETED MONOGRAM Louisiana PRC Gangway for Murder REPUBLIC The Trespasser STARTED COLUMBIA Swing the Western Way EAGLE-LION Red Stallion MGM Good News MONOGRAM Law Comes to Gunsight RKO RADIO Crossfire REPUBLIC Saddle Pals SHOOTING COLUMBIA Man from Colorado Her Husband's Affairs (formerly "Lady K n e w H o w") Assigned to Treasury (Kennedy Buchman) EAGLE-LION Out of the Blue Love from a Stranger MGM Song of the Thin Man The Hucksters MONOGRAM Sarge Goes to College The Gangster (Allied Artists) PARAMOUNT Big Clock Road to Rio Albuquerque (Clarion) RKO RADIO Tycoon Indian Summer If You Knew Susie Bishop's Wife (Goldwyn) REPUBLIC Springtime in the Sierras SELZNICK Portrait of Jennie Paradine Case 20TH CENTURY-FOX Scudda Hoo, Scudda Hay Ghost and Mrs. Muir Captain from Castile Forever Amber UNITED ARTISTS Atlantis (Nero) Body and Soul (Enterprise) UNIVERSALINTERNATIONAL Jeopardy For the Love of Mary Singapore Secret Beyond the Door (Diana) Brute Force (Hellinger) WARNERS Voice of the Turtle Two Guys from Texas W allflower The Unfaithful The Unsuspected (Curtiz) iiniMiiiinm 32 MOTION PICTURE HERALD, MARCH 15, 1947