TV Review : ‘Autry of the West’: a Pleasant Nostalgic Trip

As part of its weekend Film Preservation Festival, American Movie Classics is tipping its 10-gallon hat to cowboy star Gene Autry in the hourlong videography “Gene Autry: Melody of the West.”

And a nice piece of nostalgia it is, too. Narrated by singer Johnny Cash, the program takes a fond look back at Autry’s remarkable life and career, and the audiences who took the singing cowboy to their hearts. It’s almost a saga.

Autry was born in 1907 in Tioga, Tex., and was reared in Oklahoma. He witnessed firsthand the closing of the Western frontier and even saw some outlaws firsthand--he was robbed at gunpoint while working as a railway station clerk. It was on that same job that he was discovered--by Will Rogers, no less.

Autry began singing cowboy songs on the radio in 1928 and by 1934 had worked his way to Hollywood, where he appeared in a Ken Maynard Western. He next starred in a Mascot serial, “Phantom Empire,” which featured Autry’s singing, and the rest is movie history.

He went on to make 58 Westerns at Republic and another 34 at Columbia, starred on radio for 16 years and on television for five, and sold more than 50 million records, including the second biggest-selling single of all time, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”

“Gene Autry: Melody of the West” does an especially nice job of taking notice of some of the people who contributed to his career, including Gail Davis, his most frequent leading lady; Smiley Burnette and Pat Buttram, his longtime sidekicks; and Yakima Canutt, who performed many of Autry’s stunts in the early years.

Curiously, there is only one mention of Roy Rogers, the singer who got his start in an Autry movie and went on to become the biggest singing cowboy star of them all. Nor is there any mention of Autry’s business acumen, of the broadcasting empire he built, or of his frustrated ownership of the California Angels.

But maybe his younger fans would regard that as soft stuff, like kissin’ the pretty girl.

* “Gene Autry: Melody of the West” airs at 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday on cable’s AMC channel. The morning showing will be preceded by screenings of Autry’s only two color Westerns: “The Big Sombrero” at 7:30 a.m. and “Strawberry Roan” at 9 a.m.