Exhibitor magazine’s top cowboy stars for 1951. Not a bad batch.
The Exhibitor, 1951.
January 12, 2023 by Toby
Posted in 1951, Gene Autry, George "Gabby" Hayes, Rex Allen, Roy Rogers, Tim Holt, William Boyd | 24 Comments
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Agonizing self-promotion. In 18 months, none of them will be in the film business. Gabby Hayes and Tim Holt are already gone. Hoppy too.
Barry, it’s sad that they would all be out of the movie business in less than two years, but times were changing. They all went into television, except Tim Holt, although he did host THE TIM HOLT WESTERN THEATRE(1957-1960), which aired on local Oklahoma tv stations KOCO Channel 5 Enid and Oklahoma City and KOTV Channel 6 Tulsa. The show aired many of his Western movies. The show was locally produced. Also, in 1961 there was a possible tv show in the works called MR. CALICO. It was planned to have Tim Holt take the lead role in this proposed Western series. Holt would be playing an itinerant salesman of calico. Mostly, the stories would be about real women of the West. Ed Chevie, the would-be producer of the series visited Tulsa, Oklahoma along with actresses Eve Brent and Judy Dan, to drum up finances for the show. Chevie said that if Holt turned down the role, Zachery Scott was interested in it. Apparently nothing ever came of the proposed series.
Barry, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The 1950 lineup is almost the same, with Charles Starrett in Rex Allen’s place. By the end of ’52, only Gene Autry and Rex Allen would be making theatrical films — with Autry bowing out in “53 and Allen in ’54.
Toby, yes, it came to an end, but their movies lived on and are still with us today, thanks to technology.
Gene Autry filmed LAST OF THE PONY RIDERS(1953) in Lone Pine country in March, 1953 and the movie was released in November. Rex Allen filmed his last THE PHANTOM STALLION in September-October, 1953 and it was released in February, 1954. William Elliott filmed THE FORTY-NINERS in December, 1953 and it was released in May, 1954 and this was his last Western Movie.
Thinking about these good movies and their stars brings back fond memories from my youngsterhood of viewing them on Saturday tv. Those were the days.
Exactly, Walter, and Happy New Year to you.
Toby, this has triggered my interest. I found another 1951 listing of the topliner Western Stars from the MOTION PICTURE HERALD, which was an American movie industry trade paper, of the day. The votes for the Western topliners came from both the circuit and independent movie theater exhibiters in the USA. Tops at the box office were (1) Roy Rogers (2) Gene Autry (3) Tim Holt (4) Charles Starrett (5) Rex Allen (6) William “Wild Bill” Elliott (7) Smiley Burnett (8) Allan “Rocky” Lane (9) Dale Evans (10) Gabby Hayes.
In Canada the Western stars lined up as follows among the money-makers (1) Roy Rogers (2) Gene Autry (3) George “Gabby” Hayes (4) William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd (5) Tim Holt (6) William “Wild Bill” Elliott (7) Smiley Burnett (8) Charles Starrett (9) Dale Evans (10) Andy Devine.
In Great Britain the top six Western star money-makers were listed as (1) John Wayne (2) Alan Ladd (3) Randolph Scott (4) Roy Rogers (5) Joel McCrea (6) Gene Autry.
There was also THE BOX OFFICE POLL: TOP TEN WESTERN STARS which differed from the others though, like them, it listed Roy Rogers at No.1 and Gene Autry at No.2.
By 1953 the MOTION PICTURE HERALD list was reduced to a Top Five: 1) Roy Rogers 2) Gene Autry 3) Rex Allen 4) Bill Elliott 5) Allan ‘Rocky’ Lane
I find these lists interesting and fun.
I’m with you on that, Jerry. I find them really interesting given the trajectory we now know the genre had in the 50s, and these lists reflect a lot of that.
As far as B Westerns go, most of my favorites are from the last few years they were out there — Holt, the Elliotts for Monogram/AA…
Me too, Toby. I would have to add the Lane series too. That series kept up a good quality pretty much to the end. They were driven by good writing.
Jerry and Toby, I’m with you and I find this enjoyable and fun looking at the lists of names that moviegoers put down their money to see. The fans knew what they wanted and the producers, writers, directors, photographers, editors, actors, actresses, and everyone involved gave the fans(all of us) some grand enjoyment and some valuable lessons learned.
40 or more years ago I attended my first London B Western Convention, spending the day watching about 8 well-chosen B Westerns (series westerns such as those we have been discussing here). Of course in those days the films were 16mm films shown on a big projector.
Over the years, as audiences gradually got smaller (older) the films were shown from video tape and finally DVD. I well remember the excitement of buying video tapes made from 16mm films and being able to watch a favourite or two at home at last. Little could we have realised that those smeary efforts would be replaced by some truly fantastic restored prints eventually. We are so fortunate today to have all these films in good shape and available to us. Happy Trails!!
Went to lots of those shows as a kid, and saw so many cool movies there.
Still have a few 16mm prints. Love seeing movies that way.
Getting geared up to work on the Hopalong Cassidy set has really driven home how great these new restorations and stuff are.
Jerry and Toby, I have fond memories of finally being able to view some of the 1930’s B-Westerns of Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and others on the big screen in 1980, courtesy of Ray Nielsen producer/host of our local PBS station’s THE GOOD TIMES PICTURE SHOW(1976-1998). Little did I know that later in the 1980’s I would be renting and then purchasing vhs tapes of William S. Hart, Hoot Gibson, Harry Carey, and others. What we can get today is amazing too me.
I look forward to the William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd movies. I first viewed them on Memphis’ WREG Channel 3 in 1975. I had earlier viewed the Hopalong Cassidy tv show in syndicated reruns on Little Rock’s KARK Channel 4 in 1968. Anyway, I’m a “Hoppy” fan.
Does anyone have an educated guess regarding the budgets of Bill Elliott’s last series at Allied? Even uneducated will work
My guess is thirty to forty thousand per picture.
Barry, I’ve never seen any of the budget figures for the Vincent Fennelly productions of 1950-57, but they were small budgets, I’m sure.
I applaud producer Fennelly’s efforts in keeping the series B-Westerns alive as long as he did with Whip Wilson, Johnny Mack Brown, Bill Elliott, and Wayne Morris. Fennelly’s last gasp was THE LAST OF THE BAD MEN(filmed 1956, released 1957) with George Montgomery. Fennelly moved on to television where he would produce such Western series as RAWHIDE with Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood.
You’re right, Barry. In his book, producer Walter Mirisch says the Elliotts for Monogram/AA cost between $35,000 and $40,000. I knew I’d seen it, sorry it took me so long to run it down.
Compare that with the $90,000 RKO were spending on the Holts by the time they ceased.
The Holts have production values the Bs hadn’t seen much of since the Hopalong Cassidy pictures. Both series made good use of Lone Pine, which tells you something.
Talk about a “big bang for your bucks.” The old-time B-Western moviemakers took a little and did a lot with it. I think moviemakers of today should take lessons from these “Masters.” The so-called critics of today are calling Walter Hill’s DEAD FOR A DOLLAR(filmed 2021, released 2022) a low budget movie. What is considered low budget today?
I’ve read that Tim Holt’s first post-World War II Western for RKO Pictures, THUNDER MOUNTAIN(filmed 1946, released 1947) cost $177,000 to make and his last for RKO, DESERT PASSAGE(filmed 1951, released 1952) cost $99,000. The Tim Holt Westerns well made quality movies, in my opinion.
Of course, the money mattered, but I think it was the people that made the big difference with these things. RKO put ace cameramen on the Holts and the casts were full of pros. And of course, directors like Lesley Selander knew how to put every nickel on the screen.
Toby, I agree completely. The people make the difference at the end of the day.
Here is what Bruce Dern had to say about the cost of making a Western Movie today, “the people I know can make a Western for $2 million.”
You can make a western for less, but Dern’s comment about $2 million seems like a direct translation of dollar values, then and now.