Gene Autry's Melody Ranch, Volume 1 - 10 hour set #RA104
Alternative Views:	Enjoying a sixteen-year run, "Gene Autry's Melody Ranch" featured the singing cowboy performing musical favorites, bantering with sidekick Pat Buttram, and playing the lead in dramatic two-fisted adventures. Enjoy ten full hours of tuneful western entertainment in this collection. Our Price: $29.98 Availability:: Usually Ships in 24 Hours Product Code: RA104 Qty:

Description List of Shows   Gene Autry's Melody Ranch Volume 1 Born in Tioga, Texas on September 29, 1907, Gene Autry grew up on a small ranch and sang in the local church choir. Throughout his youth, he worked on ranches in Texas and Oklahoma -- but frequently lost jobs due to his desire to sing more than to work. Accompanying himself on the guitar, Autry worked a few stage shows and county fairs and finally landed a spot on the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based KVOO, where he sang songs and spun yarns of life on the range. Billed as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy," the demands of a daily fifteen-minute show got him interested in songwriting; when Autry and train dispatcher Jimmy Long wrote "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine," he found his career beginning to soar. His popular recording of the song led, in 1931, to Sears-Roebuck hiring him for a fifteen-minute program on WLS Chicago for the princely sum of thirty-five dollars a week. Shortly thereafter, he began making appearances on "The National Barn Dance" and "The National Farm and Home Hour," also broadcast by WLS. By late 1939, he had staked his claim in Hollywood, having made thirty-nine Westerns for Republic Pictures combined with musical appearances on popular radio variety shows such as Rudy Vallee's "Fleischmann Hour" and "The Eddie Cantor Show." The J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, looking for a personality to match the Wrigley's Gum account, approached Autry to audition for the starring role in a proposed radio series. The audition was a success, leading to one of the longest-running series in radio history: "Gene Autry's Melody Ranch," a CBS Sunday evening show that would run almost continuously from January 1940 until May 1956. Combining music, comedy exchanges with cast members, and ten- to fifteen-minute dramatic sequences featuring Autry as the moral two-fisted hero, the Wrigley people could not have been more pleased with their star -- or with the big sales that resulted from their on-going sponsorship of "Melody Ranch." Heard today, "Gene Autry's Melody Ranch" offers a pleasant and tuneful chance to hear Autry and his musicians perform a wide range of musical favorites, as well as the banter between Autry, his fellow musicians, and sidekick Pat Buttram (best remembered today as the wheeler-dealer Mr. Haney on the cult sitcom favorite "Green Acres.") The twenty shows in this collection also give us a chance to revisit a time when the good guys always wore white hats, a really good on-screen fist fight made for a rousing afternoon of movie entertainment, and when a singing cowboy might have flirted with an attractive young lady -- but usually ended up crooning to his horse as the screen faded to black.   Average Customer Review: Based on 1 reviewsWrite a review.

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Good To Have Them Back September 18, 2009 Reviewer: Hans P. van der Vink from Netherlands   Thank you so much for the order I received a while ago. We are enjoying the sets tremendously. The restoration job is wonderful and listening to them is a great pleasure! Since I wasn't brought up in North America I cannot say that I remember all of this, but in Europe the language may have been different, but the message was the same: in the Netherlands I listened to Paul Temple (the equivalent, I guess, of 'The Saint'), and others programmes of that ilk. My interest in American programming was heightened by listening to the Armed Forces Network. (I recall listening to the famous Ella Fitzgerald 'Concert in Berlin' in the early sixties). The network also broadcast other variety shows which piqued my interest, so in a way it is good to have them back! Was this review helpful to you?