Trivia: Gene Autry, the archetype of the guitar strumming, singing Hollywood cowboy, is one of American cinema's most beloved figures. Born Orvon Autry, his entry to showbiz has a story book quality. During the 1920s he was working as a telegraph operator when American folk hero Will Rogers overheard him singing and convinced him to give show business a try. By 1928 he was singing regularly on a small radio station. Three years later, he was starring in his own national radio show (The National Barn Dance) and making records for Columbia. He first made his mark in films starring roles in the 13-part Republic serial Phantom Empire (1935) and the movie Tumblin' Tumbleweeds (1935). Then he went on to make dozens of Westerns, usually with his famed horse Champion and his comic sidekick Smiley Burnette. He was the top Western star at the box office from 1937-42, and is the only Western actor ever to make the list of Hollywood's top ten attractions, an achievement attained in 1940, '41, and '42. His career was interrupted by service in World War II (he served as a flight officer), during which his place was supplanted at Republic by singing cowboy Roy Rogers. Between 1947 and 1954, now working for Columbia Pictures, Autry trailed behind Rogers as the second most popular western star. His films focus exclusively on action, with little romantic interest. Autry's special twist, though, was to pause from time to time for an easy-going song, creating a new genre of action films that is considered by film historians to constitute a revolution in B-movies (one that went on to have many imitators). As a recording artist, he had nine million-sellers; and as a songwriter, he penned 200 popular songs including the holiday classic "Here Comes Santa Claus." After 20 years as a singing cowboy, Autry retired from movies in 1954 to further his career as a highly successful businessman (among many other investments, he eventually bought the California Angels, a major league baseball team). However, he continued performing on television until the '60s. In 1978 he published his autobiography Back in the Saddle Again, titled after his signature song.

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: A pretty brunette, Sally Payne was something as unusual in B-Westerns as the heroine's comic sidekick. Payne had the field virtually to herself in the early '40s and she made the most of it, whether exchanging verbal blows with George "Gabby" Hayes or flirting with him. She had made her screen debut in a Western, the 1936 Gene Autry vehicle The Big Show, and horse operas would remain her bread and butter. But Payne also showed her versatility in comedy shorts at RKO (replacing Florence Lake as the wife in the Edgar Kennedy two-reelers) and MGM. In the end, she earned her greatest popularity opposite Roy Rogers at Republic Pictures, playing Calamity Jane to Roger's Young Bill Hickock (1940) in the first of ten Westerns they made together. Despite her growing popularity, Payne retired in 1942 to marry an airline executive. In her later years, she ran a bookstore in Bel Air, CA.

Trivia: Steely-eyed, mustachioed Edward Cassidy (or plain Ed Cassidy) bore a striking resemblance to Theodore Roosevelt, whom he played three times onscreen, including a brief appearance in the MGM musical Take Me out to the Ball Game (1949). But the McGill University graduate was more at home in B-Westerns and serials, of which he did an impressive total of 218. Cassidy could occasionally be found on the wrong side of the law, but more often than not, he would portray the heroine's (or hero's) beleaguered father, the stern sheriff, or a troubled rancher. Retiring after his 1957 appearance in the television series Circus Boy, the veteran supporting player died from undisclosed causes at the Motion Picture House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA.

Trivia: A seasoned vaudeville and burlesque comedian, Lew Kelly came to films in 1929. The wizened, pop-eyed Kelly quickly became a comedy "regular," appearing in support of such star comics as Laurel & Hardy, W.C. Fields, and Wheeler and Woolsey. In dramatic films, Kelly could be found in bit parts as night watchmen, bartenders and doctors; one of his best roles of the 1940s was the derelict drunken doc in Bela Lugosi's Bowery at Midnight. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Lew Kelly worked steadily in two-reelers, appearing with the likes of Charley Chase, Andy Clyde, Harry Langdon and the Three Stooges.

Trivia: From In Old Santa Fe (1934) and all through the television years, songwriter/steel guitarist Frankie Marvin (born Frank James Marvin) was a highly visible member of Gene Autry's onscreen coterie. Marvin, who had earlier performed with Autry on radio, would occasionally play a minor role as well, often as Gene's foreman, a ranch hand, or a cowboy. He would even join the bad guys in non-Autry vehicles such as the 1941 serial Adventures of Red Ryder, in which he attempted to poison the Circle R's water supply. In all, Marvin appeared in more than 80 feature Westerns and at least six serials.

Trivia: American character actor Earl Dwire was most closely associated with the B-Western movie mills of the 1930s. Dwire frequently played the antagonist in the low-budget vehicles of such cowboy stars as Bob Steele and Johnny Mack Brown. In the early '30s, he was virtually a regular in the John Wayne Westerns produced by the Lone Star outfit. He also occasionally accepted such contemporary minor roles as a priest in Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and a gangster in Accidents Will Happen (1939). Earl Dwire's last known film credit was the Universal serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940).

Trivia: An important screen director in the 1910s, Illinois-born Lloyd Ingraham had been a stock manager for California entrepreneur Oliver Morosco prior to entering films directing Broncho Billy Westerns for Essanay in the early 1910s. He went on to direct some of the silent era's biggest stars, including Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, and would specialize in robust outdoor adventures and Westerns. An equally busy supporting player who appeared in scores of silent films ranging from Intolerance (1916) to Scaramouche (1923), the white-haired, ascetic-looking veteran became an actor for hire after the advent of sound, appearing mostly in low-budget Westerns and almost always playing the heroine's father or a lawman. Spending his final years as a resident of the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA, Ingraham's death was attributed to pneumonia.

Trivia: Her mysterious death obscuring whatever qualities she had as an actress, brunette Lillian Drew had entered films in 1912 along with her husband, actor/director E.H. Calvert. A musical comedy star of some note, Drew publicly declared a propensity for "heavy drama" and was mainly cast as "vampires" (read: villainesses). Often appearing opposite her illustrious husband, Drew later starred in such potboilers as In the Palace of the King (1915) and Vultures of Society (1916) and delivered a funny Effie Floud in Ruggles of Red Gap (1918). Her popularity waned in the late 1910s when "vamps" fell out of favor and she suffered a nervous breakdown in 1920. By the time of her death in February 1924, Drew was recovering from both a car accident and a difficult breakup with Calvert. Attributed to veronal poisoning, the death was eventually ruled an accident.

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: Along with his brother Bill, Joe Yrigoyen began his screen career performing stunts for pennies at Nat Levine's ramshackle Mascot Pictures, the early sound era's busiest provider of serial thrills. The Yrigoyen brothers stayed with the company when it was incorporated into Republic Pictures, doubling for the action studio's cowboy and serial stars, and most of their villains too. Joe Yrigoyen, who also worked tirelessly on such television shows as Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Davy Crockett, retired in the late '70s. In 1985, he was awarded the prestigious Golden Boot Award, presented to him by old friend Roy Rogers.

Trivia: Short, portly, and possessed of a high-pitched laugh that cuts through the air like a buzzsaw, Massachussetts-born Dick Elliott had been on stage for nearly thirty before making his screen bow in 1933. Elliott was a frequent visitor to Broadway, enjoying a substantial run in the marathon hit Abie's Irish Rose. Physically and vocally unchanged from his first screen appearance in the '30s to his last in 1961, Elliott was most generally cast in peripheral roles designed to annoy the film's principal characters with his laughing jags or his obtrusive behavior; in this capacity, he appeared as drunken conventioneers, loud-mouthed theatre audience members, and "helpful" pedestrians. Elliott also excelled playing small-scale authority figures, such as stage managers, truant officers and rural judges. Still acting into his mid 70s, Dick Elliott appeared regularly as the mayor of Mayberry on the first season of The Andy Griffith Show, and was frequently cast as a department-store Santa in the Yuletide programs of such comics as Jack Benny and Red Skelton.

Trivia: Sometimes he was Hal Price, other times he was Harry Price. Sometimes (in fact, much of the time) he wasn't billed at all. Whatever the case, Hal Price was one of the more ubiquitous performers in the field of B-Westerns and serials. He was the bald, mustachioed frontiersman who usually said something like, "We got a nice, quiet town here, stranger...and we aim to keep it that way."

Trivia: Actor Harry Harvey Sr. started out in minstrel shows and burlesque. His prolific work in Midwestern stock companies led to film assignments, beginning at RKO in 1934. Harvey's avuncular appearance (he looked like every stage doorman named Pop who ever existed) won him featured roles in mainstream films and comic-relief and sheriff parts in B-westerns. His best known "prestige" film assignment was the role of New York Yankees manager Joe McCarthy in the 1942 Lou Gehrig biopic Pride of the Yankees. Remaining active into the TV era, Harry Harvey Sr. had continuing roles on two series, The Roy Rogers Show and It's a Man's World, and showed up with regularity on such video sagebrushers as Cheyenne and Bonanza.

Trivia: Actress Carol Hughes was 13 years old when she married comic actor Frank Faylen. Hughes' own film career began in 1936: while sometimes enjoying full supporting roles, e.g. Frank McHugh's nagging wife in Three Men on a Horse (1936), she generally made do with bits, such as the Modiste Salon salesgirl in 1939's The Women. In 1940, Hughes replaced Jean Rogers in the role of Dale Arden in the third and last of Universal's "Flash Gordon" serials, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars. She retired from films in the early 1950s, after playing Gil Lamb's leading lady in a series of RKO Radio 2-reelers. Carol Hughes is the mother of actress Carol Faylen, who appeared in the 1964 TV sitcom The Bing Crosby Show as Crosby's daughter Joyce.