Adventures of Red Ryder
Red Ryder was originally a character called Bronc Peeler; the name Red Ryder was a registered trademark, administered by a firm called Red Ryder Inc. that protected the trademark and oversaw any use of that character in other media than the original comic strip. The company ceased operations in the 1960s.,Chapter 11: Red has Cherokee's pistol with a rounded grip. After he shoots One-Eye, he carves a notch on a flat bottomed grip.,Opening crawl: 1870 - America's first great problem after the Civil War was the construction of a railroad to link our bordering oceans. Selfish interests, seeking to control the right-of-way, fought the work savagely - but the spirit of progress prevailed and the United States were bound together with highways of steel. But before the last spike was driven the Frontier flamed with the bitterest strife in its history.,Opening credits show a cartoon strip of "Red Ryder" with a "live" picture of Don "Red" Barry embedded in a panel.,Edited from The Lone Ranger Rides Again (1939),Oh! Susanna
Written by Stephen Foster,While the plot is old hash today( most notably Blazing Saddles) it was OK in l940. I am still haunted by the tragic later life of Don Barry. He was really talented and lifted this Saturday western serial genre to another level, although the supporting cast of Republic regulars were top notch thespians. As always, the sound track music(OL Sussana) was superior to anything Hollywood had to offer, and for me, added greatly to the action. I though Barry handled certain scenes as well as James Cagney in The Oklahoma Kid( avenging a father's death down to the last man) Although he had reached the age of 70, Barry was still trying to salvage his image when he shot himself in the presence of police apparently following a domestic quarrel. The great Burt Lancaster, it seems, had been trying to help him. Considering that for twenty nine westerns he was paid between one and two hundred thousand dollars by Republic and had many many parts into the TV era, we ordinary folk must wonder what these people do with their money. But the magic of today's technology enables us to see them at their very best, thank heaven.,