August 15, 2024
Volume 54 - No. 33
Hoppy, Gene, Roy . . .
. . . and Me Gene Autry by lyle e davis Those of us who have more than a few years under our belt occasionally take the time to stop and look back at the trails we have traveled. With that look back toward our younger years we often bring back memories - pleasant memories mostly. Memories of being kids . . . of going to the movies on a Saturday afternoon and paying a whole nine cents for admission. And seeing the good guys like Hopalong Cassidy, Lash LaRue, Wild Bill Elliot . . . Bob Steele, and other cowboy stars from a bygone era.
Roy Rogers
Hopalong Cassidy
We would sit on the edge of our seats and see if the good guys would win again, or if the bad guys would finally prevail. Often, we’d have to wait a week because the adventures were in serial fashion. You’d have our hero right in the middle of an impossible situation . . . surely he could not escape this time. We’d just have to come back next Saturday to see how, or whether, he escaped.
tion called the television set that had regular programs starring our favorite good guys. Soon, ‘The Big Three’ emerged as the most popular of the B Western movies. They were Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy.
About this same time there were ‘The Big Three’ cowboys. Not only were they on the silver screen but there was this new-fangled inven-
I’ll start with Gene Autry first because that’s the cowboy with whom I have the closest, somewhat tenuous, contact.
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Oh, there were a lot of other movie and tv cowboys . . . and we’ll get to them in a bit. But first, let’s look at “The Big Three.”
Back in 1968 and 1969 I managed KGUD radio station in Santa Barbara, for Dick Clark (yes, that Dick Clark). My secretary was a gal named Peggy Rogers. She had been Gene Autry’s private secretary for years at Republic Studios and had his home number as well as his private office number. They spoke frequently by phone. While I never met Mr. Autry, I heard plenty of tales about him. His real name was Orvon Grover
Hoppy, Gene, Roy . . . and Me See Page 2