Trivia: Born Leonard Slye, Rogers moved to California as a migratory fruit picker in 1929. He formed a singing duo with a cousin, later changing his name to Dick Weston and forming a singing group, the Sons of the Pioneers; the group became successful, and appeared on Los Angeles radio and later in films. In 1935 he began appearing in bit roles in Westerns onscreen; by the early '40s Rogers had succeeded Gene Autry as "King of the Cowboys." His success was aided by the fact that Autry went to war and Rogers didn't; he also copied Autry's singing cowboy formula and wore clothes that went one better than Autry's ostentatiously fancy duds. Through the early '50s he starred in dozens of Westerns, often accompanied by his horse, Trigger (billed "the smartest horse in the movies"), and his sidekick, Gabby Hayes; his female lead was often Dale Evans, whom he married in 1947. From 1951-57 he starred in the TV series "The Roy Rogers Show." Meanwhile, he formed a chain of enterprises in the '50s; eventually this combination (a TV production company, Western products distributor/manufacturers, real estate interests, cattle, thoroughbred horses, rodeo shows, and a restaurant chain) was worth over $100 million.

Trivia: Smiley Burnette, said his longtime partner and boss Gene Autry, "couldn't read a note of music but wrote 350 songs and I never saw him take longer than an hour to compose one." Arguably the most beloved of all the B-Western sidekicks and certainly one of the more prolific and enduring, Burnette had been a disc jockey at a small radio station in Tuscola, IL, when discovered by Autry. The crooner prominently featured him both on tour and on Chicago's National Barn Dance broadcasts, making certain that Burnette was included in the contract he signed in 1934 with Mascot Pictures. As Autry became a major name in Hollywood, almost single-handedly establishing the long-lasting Singing Cowboy vogue, Burnette was right there next to him, first with Mascot and then, through a merger, with the newly formed Republic Pictures, where he remained through June 1944. The culmination of Burnette's popularity came in 1940, when he ranked second only to Autry in a Boxoffice Magazine popularity poll of Western stars, the lone sidekick among the Top Ten. Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea -- his style of cute novelty songs and tubby slapstick humor could, on occasion, become quite grating -- Burnette nevertheless put his very own spin on B-Westerns and became much imitated. In fact, by the 1940s, there were two major trends of sidekick comedy in B-Westerns: Burnette's style of slapstick prairie buffoonery, also practiced by the likes of Dub Taylor and Al St. John, and the more character-defined comedy of George "Gabby" Hayes, Andy Clyde, et al. Burnette, who would add such classic Western tunes as "Song of the Range" and "Call of the Canyon" to the Autry catalog, refined his naïve, but self-important, Frog Millhouse character through the years at Republic Pictures -- called "Frog," incidentally, from the way his vocals suddenly dropped into the lowest range possible. But the moniker belonged to the studio and he was plain Smiley Burnette thereafter. When Autry entered the service in 1942, Burnette supported Sunset Carson, Eddie Dew, and Robert Livingston before switching to Columbia Pictures' Durango Kid series starring Charles Starrett. But despite appearing in a total of 56 Durango Westerns, Burnette was never able to achieve the kind of chemistry he had enjoyed with Autry and it was only fitting that they should be reunited for the final six Western features Gene would make. Although his contribution to Autry's phenomenal success was sometimes questioned (minor cowboy star Jimmy Wakely opined that Autry had enough star power to have made it with any comic sidekick), Smiley Burnette remained extremely popular with young fans throughout his career, and although not universally beloved within the industry, he has gone down in history as the first truly popular B-Western comedy sidekick. Indeed, without his early success, there may never have been the demand for permanent sidekicks. When B-Westerns went out of style, Burnette spent most of his time in his backyard recording studio, returning for an appearance on television's Ranch Party (1958) and the recurring role of train engineer Charley Pratt on Petticoat Junction (1963-1967). He died of leukemia in 1967 at the age of 55.

Trivia: Nominated by film historian William K. Everson as "the best western badman of all," American actor Fred Kohler Sr. began appearing onscreen in 1911. A homely man with a burly physique and huge, bearlike hands, Kohler seemed born to play characters who'd sell liquor to Indians, kidnap the sheriff's daughter, burn out homesteaders and shoot stagecoach guards in the back. In virtually all his films, Kohler wore the same costume: a stained frock coat, ostentatiously flowered vest and sloppily knotted string tie. As the principal heavy in 1924's The Iron Horse, Kohler had a rugged fistfight with leading man George O'Brien; these two actors continued to clash on-screen into the B-westerns of the '30s, including Kohler's final picture Lawless Valley (1938). This last-mentioned film is worth noting because it teamed Kohler with his equally unsavory-looking actor son, Fred Kohler Jr. (Senior's wife was one-time musical comedy actress Maxine Marshall, whom he'd met in vaudeville.) Apparently, if the part was good enough and the character bad enough, Fred Kohler Sr. would appear in any sort of film, from such top-drawer epics as Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer (1938), to such meager-budgeted fare as the Three Stooges short Horses Collars (1935).

Trivia: After considerable experience on the New York stage, Morgan Wallace entered films at D.W. Griffith's studio in Mamaroneck, Long Island. Wallace's first screen role of note was the lecherous Marquis de Praille in Griffith's Orphans of the Storm (1921). Thereafter, he specialized in dignified character parts such as James Monroe in George Arliss' Alexander Hamilton (1931). A favorite of comedian W.C. Fields (perhaps because he was born in Lompoc, CA, one of Fields' favorite comic targets), Wallace showed up as Jasper Fitchmuller, the customer who wants kumquats and wants them now, in Fields' It's a Gift (1934). Morgan Wallace retired in 1946.

Trivia: Actress Lynne Roberts began her film career in minor roles in 1936. Upon being signed by Republic, she co-starred with the studio's newest singing cowboy Roy Rogers. From 1939 to 1942, she was billed as Mary Hart, reportedly so that Republic could advertise their own "Rogers and Hart" screen team. During this period she was also a regular in the studio's Higgins Family series, co-starring with James, Lucille, and Russell Gleason. Upon moving to 20th Century Fox in 1942, she became Lynne (or Lynn) Roberts again, and remained so until her retirement in 1953.

Trivia: In films from 1919 onward, stocky American actor Wade Boteler hit his stride in talking pictures. Blessed with a pit-bull countenance, Boteler was in practically every other "B" western made between 1930 and 1935, often cast as a hard-hearted sheriff or crooked land baron. Affecting an Irish brogue, Boteler was also in demand for policeman roles, notably as Inspector Queen in the 1936 Ellery Queen opus The Mandarin Mystery. His most effective lovable-Irishman stint was as conclusion-jumping cop Michael Axford in the 1940 serial The Green Hornet; in fact, when fans of the Green Hornet radio version would ask Detroit station WXYZ for a picture of Axford, the station would send off an autographed photo of Boteler, even though Gil O'Shea essayed the part on radio. Frequently on call for bit parts at 20th Century-Fox studios, Boteler was seen in such Fox productions as In Old Chicago (1938) and A-Haunting We Will Go (1942). Wade Boteler's final film was Warner Bros.' prophetically titled The Last Ride (1944), released one year after Boteler's death.

Trivia: Following his film debut in the 1916 adaptation of King Lear, actor Edwin Stanley returned to his first love, the stage. Stanley's next appearance was a featured role in the 1932 Columbia "special" Virtue. He spent the next 14 years playing military officers, theatrical producers, and other dignified take-charge characters. A familiar figure on the serial scene, Edwin Stanley played such chapter-play roles as Odette in Dick Tracy (1937), General Rankin in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938), Dr. Mallory in The Phantom Creeps (1939), and Colonel Bevans in The Mysterious Dr. Satan (1940).

Trivia: Succinctly described as "portly and pompous" by B-Western aficionado Don Miller, American character-actor Horace Murphy was the Eugene Pallette of the sagebrush. Spending most of his career in cowboy flicks, Murphy was usually cast as intrusive sheriffs, know-it-all doctors, and orotund snake-oil peddlers. In 1937, he made the first of several appearances as comedy-relief sidekick Stubby in the films of Western hero Tex Ritter. In non-Westerns, he could usually be found playing bartenders, burgomeisters, and train conductors. Horace Murphy made his last screen appearance in 1946.

Trivia: American actor Joseph Crehan bore an uncanny resemblance to Ulysses S. Grant and appeared as Grant in a number of historical features, notably They Died With Their Boots On (1941) and The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944). Appearing in hundreds of other films as well, the short, snappish actor's field-commander personality assured him authoritative roles as police chiefs, small-town mayors and newspaper editors. Because he never looked young, Joseph Crehan played essentially the same types of roles throughout his screen career, even up until 1961's Judgment at Nuremberg. Perhaps Joseph Crehan's oddest appearance is in a film he never made; in West Side Story (1961), it is Crehan's face that appears on those ubiquitous political campaign posters in the opening Jets vs. Sharks sequences.

Trivia: The embodiment of businesslike dignity, actor Robert Emmett Keane was active in films from his 1929 debut in the talkie short Gossip through the 1956 second feature When Gangland Strikes. Because of his distinguished, above-reproach demeanor, Keane was often effectively cast as confidence men, shady attorneys and mystery murderers: after all, if he can convince the gullible folks people on-screen that he's honest, it's likely the audience will fall for the same line. Keane is warmly remembered by Laurel and Hardy fans for his roles in three of the team's 20th Century-Fox films of the '40s, playing con artists in two of them (A-Haunting We Will Go and Jitterbugs). In the early '50s, Keane played Captain Brackett in the national touring company of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical triumph South Pacific. In private life, Robert Emmett Keane was the husband of Claire Whitney.

Trivia: Virtually the prototype of all grizzled old-codger western sidekicks, George "Gabby" Hayes professed in real life to hate westerns, complaining that they all looked and sounded alike. For his first few decades in show business, he appeared in everything but westerns, including travelling stock companies, vaudeville, and musical comedy. He began appearing in films in 1928, just in time to benefit from the talkie explosion. In contrast to his later unshaven, toothless screen persona, George Hayes (not yet Gabby) frequently showed up in clean-faced, well groomed articulate characterizations, sometimes as the villain. In 1933 he appeared in several of the Lone Star westerns featuring young John Wayne, alternating between heavies and comedy roles. Wayne is among the many cowboy stars who has credited Hayes with giving them valuable acting tips in their formative days. In 1935, Hayes replaced an ailing Al St. John in a supporting role in the first Hopalong Cassidy film, costarring with William Boyd; Hayes' character died halfway through this film, but audience response was so strong that he was later brought back into the Hoppy series as a regular. It was while sidekicking for Roy Rogers at Republic that Hayes, who by now never appeared in pictures with his store-bought teeth, earned the soubriquet "Gabby", peppering the soundtrack with such slurred epithets as "Why, you goldurned whipersnapper" and "Consarn it!" He would occasionally enjoy an A-picture assignment in films like Dark Command (1940) and Tall in the Saddle (1944), but from the moment he became "Gabby", Hayes was more or less consigned exclusively to "B"s. After making his last film appearance in 1952, Hayes turned his attentions to television, where he starred in the popular Saturday-morning Gabby Hayes Show ("Hullo out thar in televisium land!") and for a while was the corporate spokesman for Popsicles. Retiring after a round of personal appearance tours, Hayes settled down on his Nevada ranch, overseeing his many business holdings until his death at age 83.

Trivia: A mainstay in B-Westerns, especially serials, since the mid-1920s, narrow-faced Al Taylor (born Albert Clark Taylor) could play both ranchers and rustlers. His almost 40 appearances in serials may well be a record for a supporting player. In his final years, Taylor supplemented his decreasing income as a performer by also working as a stagehand. He died at the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Los Angeles.

Trivia: A tough-talking character actress from Missouri, Betty Roadman usually played prison matrons (Trade Winds, 1938 and Passport to Destiny, 1944) but was also effective in Westerns, i.e. as "Buckskin" Liz, the owner of a beleaguered stagecoach in Return of the Durango Kid (1944). Roadman became a special favorite of producer Val Lewton, who cast her as Jane Randolph's cleaning woman in Cat People (1942), Margo's mother in The Leopard Man (1943), and other colorful bit roles. Roadman ended her screen career in 1947.

Trivia: A skinny supporting player and stunt-rider in scores of B-Westerns from 1934-1955, Charles "Art" Dillard could play any role needed, from a nasty henchman to an upstanding townsperson and everything in between. He was even a Native American on occasion, like in the 1943 Republic serial Daredevils of the West. Retiring in the early '50s after nearly 200 Westerns and serials, not to mention such television shows as The Gene Autry Show and Wild Bill Hickock, Dillard resided at the time of his death in Chatsworth, CA, the location site of countless B-Westerns and serials.

Trivia: On screen from the late '20s, roly-poly B-Western and serial perennial Jack Kirk (born Kirkhuff) began turning up in low-budget Westerns after the advent of sound, usually as a member of various music constellations bearing names like "Range Riders" and "Arizona Wranglers." He later essayed scores of scruffy-looking henchmen and, as he grew older and more settled, began playing bankers, sheriffs, and ranchers. Under term contract with B-Western industry leader Republic Pictures from July 12, 1943, to July 11, 1944, Kirk found roles increasingly more difficult to come by thereafter and left films in 1948 to work on a fishing vessel in Alaska. The former actor reportedly died of a massive heart attack while in the process of unloading a night's catch.

Trivia: Perky brunette leading lady Sheila Ryan became a television pioneer when, in 1938, she appeared on camera in an experimental Los Angeles broadcast. In 1940, Ryan was signed by 20th Century Fox, where she played energetic if unmemorable roles in such films as The Gay Caballero (1940) and Dressed to Kill (1941). She also appeared opposite Laurel and Hardy in two of their Fox vehicles, Great Guns (1941) and A-Haunting We Will Go (1942). Her best opportunity at Fox came in The Gang's All Here (1943), in which she was not only permitted to sing, but was afforded a special-effects "curtain call" in the film's finale. By the late '40s, Ryan's career had dwindled to B-pictures at the lesser studios. While co-starring with Gene Autry in 1950s Mule Train, Ryan fell in love with Autry's sidekick, Pat Buttram; they were married shortly afterward, and remained that way until Ryan's death in 1975. Sheila Ryan retired in 1958 after a handful of TV appearances and a featured role in something called Street of Darkness.