Back from duty, Rogers joins the Texas patrol and quickly learns that the notorious Arizona Jack is the ringleader of various local crimes. Rogers and his buddies are Rough Riders, veterans of the Spanish- American war. Rogers gets into a row with a sinister foreman and is thrown in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Starring: Roy Rogers, George “Gabby” HayesĪn ex-sheriff from Texas strolls into town with only a knapsack and a smooth voice, but the townsfolk think he’s murderer Billy the Kid. To which Ford, who’s maxim was the reason for making a film was to “tell a damn good story.” Ford also understood the fact that movies were more about entertainment than reality, quipped, yes and that would have been the end of the movie.10 Classic Westerns Starring Iconic Cowboys Roy Rogers and Gene Autry! He pointed out that had this been the real West the Apache would have killed the lead horses and that would have been the end of the chase. When John Ford’s Stagecoach hit the theaters in 1939 Hart pondered the length of time spent on the pursuit of the stagecoach by the Apache warriors. He died June 23rd, 1946 at the age of eighty-one.Ī story is told that in his later years Hart was critical of what he considered the movies having little regard for authenticity. This was followed by a long lawsuit that was finally settled in Hart’s favor in 1940. It was a success however, Hart had a run-in with United Artists because he felt they hadn’t promoted it properly. The film, about the 1893 Cherokee Strip land rush in Oklahoma. Paramount dropped him and in 1925 Hart produced his own western, Tumbleweeds. The public had grown tired of his moralistic themes and had become enamored with the younger, flashier, fast-action cowboys wearing flamboyant costumes. was born but the marriage ended in 1927.īy the early 1920s Hart’s career was on the wane. He made a few popular films and in 1921 was married to a young actress named Winifred Westover. In 1917 he accepted a lucrative offer from Adoph Zukor to join Jesse Lasky’s company which became Paramount Pictures. In 19 he was the biggest money-making star in the United States. The Old West was still a recent memory and he became friends with Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. His films were also known for their authentic props and costumes. He had a high moral theme with relative realism. He was the first to attempt to portray the “good” bad man of the West.
Born in 1864, he was 49 when he made his first film in 1914. The next star of the silver screen was a former Shakespearian actor named William S. In the early 1920s he planned to make a comeback but by then a new, more dashing breed of silver screen cowboys had become popular. He gets the credit for instigating both the star system and the “B” movie.īroncho Billy quit making westerns in 1915 spent more time writing. He also became the first person to receive screen credit of any kind. He created an audience demand for a leading man. He wasn’t dashing or handsome and didn’t look much like a cowboy but the public liked him.
Over the next few years he proceeded to crank out a series of 300 Broncho Billy movies. In 1909 he produced and starred Broncho Billy and the Baby.
Modeling them after the popular dime novels.Īronson changed his name to Broncho Billy Anderson and would go on to become the first cowboy movie star. His first films were short comedies but remembering the success of The Great Train Robbery, he soon turned to westerns. Up to then the tight-fisted studios, knowing a leading man would demand more money had avoided turning anyone into a “star.” So in 1907, Aronson and a friend established the Essanay Company. He saw the missing ingredient- movies needed a star. In one scene he unceremoniously fell off his horse, an unbecoming beginning for America’s first cowboy movie star, especially after telling the director he could ride like a Comanche.
It marked the birth of the genre of the western.Īn actor named Max Aronson had a bit role in the film. Women screamed and fainted while men dove for cover under the seats.
The unsophisticated audience, unaccustomed to such realism, panicked. When a bandit fired his pistol directly into the camera. It was the first motion picture with a story-plot and cost only $150 to make. Filmed in the wilds of New Jersey, it lasted just nine minutes. Porter’s, The Great Train Robbery hit the silver screen in 1903.