Gene Autry's Melody Ranch is a Western variety radio show in the United States. A 15-minute pilot show aired on December 31, 1939. The program ran from January 7, 1940 to August 1, 1943, and from September 23, 1945 to May 16, 1956. The show's entire run was broadcast over the CBS radio network, sponsored by Doublemint gum. The approximately two-year interruption resulted from Autry's enlistment in the United States Army to serve in World War II. Initially titled Doublemint's Melody Ranch, the show's name was changed to Gene Autry's Melody Ranch in early 1941. Episodes were 30 minutes long except for a 15-minute version that ran from September 23, 1945 to June 16, 1946. The theme song was "Back in the Saddle Again".
In its early years the show was broadcast live before a studio audience from the CBS Columbia Square KNX Playhouse at Sunset and Gower in Hollywood and preserved on acetate disc. Later on it was taped prior to airtime, usually at KNX. When on tour, the show would originate through the facilities of local CBS affiliate stations. Sometimes it took place at a special event. In 1951 the program had an 8:00 p.m., Saturday night, 30 minute time slot. The show for August 11, 1951 originated from the Illinois State Fairgrounds at Springfield, Illinois. The guests were Governor of Illinois Adlai E. Stevenson II and 12-year-old 4-H Club member Shelby Jean Thomas of Kilbourne, Illinois.
Background
The William Wrigley Jr. Company selected Autry's program for sponsorship after hearing an audition episode. The show replaced Gateway to Hollywood, which the company had sponsored. An item in the January 1, 1940, issue of Broadcasting magazine reported that the program "will feature Gene Autry, singing cowboy, and dramatics" and that it would be carried on 67 CBS stations.
Format
Centering on the talent and popularity of the star, singing cowboy Gene Autry, each episode of the program "consisted of a Western adventure interspersed with interludes of music." John Dunning, in his reference book, Tune in Yesterday, summarized the format as follows: His own show changed little over the years. It featured a slightly sophisticated version of his 1929 act—Autry stories and songs, projected in a campfire atmosphere. Autry told his listeners that his broadcasts were coming directly from his home, Melody Ranch, in the San Fernando Mountains. He surrounded himself with a cast of regular foot-stompers ... The music was decidedly Western, with heavy accordion emphasis. There was usually one "Cowboy Classic" by Autry. [Pat] Buttram's acts were inserted for comic relief and consisted mainly of back-and-forth banter with Autry ... The highlight of each show, at least for the juvenile listeners, came when Autry told a 10- to 15-minute story, fully dramatized, of some recent adventure. An article in Movie-Radio Guide in 1941 gave a couple of examples of plots used on the show: "Sometimes they're initiating an eastern tenderfoot visiting the ranch; sometimes they're saving the school teacher and her children trapped in a ring of fire." Two episodes of the program featured notable variations from the standard format. One involved the changing of the name of Berwyn, Oklahoma, to Gene Autry, Oklahoma. From there, on November 16, 1941, the Melody Ranch program aired as a part of the name-changing ceremony. An Oklahoma Gazette article from September 3, 2009, included the following information:He is also the namesake of an Oklahoma town, population 99. Born in Texas, Autry was raised north of the Red River near Ravia after his parents moved there in the 1920s. Autry's Flying A Ranch, where the famous cowboy kept his rodeo stock, was located adjacent to the town that was, at the time, known as Berwyn. In honor of the presence of cowboy royalty in its midst, the town was renamed Gene Autry in 1941.
To mark the occasion, Autry broadcast his Gene Autry's Melody Ranch radio show from the Flying A, and more than 35,000 people turned out for the festivities, which included Autry parading through the town atop a flatbed car. At the time, the population of the newly re-christened town was around 300 people, according to Mary Schutz, director of programs and publicity at the Gene Autry Oklahoma Museum there.
Three weeks later, on Sunday, December 7, 1941, from the CBS KNX Playhouse, Studio C, in Hollywood, the live broadcast of the Melody Ranch program was delayed for a 15-minute news update regarding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which had commenced some six hours earlier in the morning at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time. Probably not yet aware of the attack, everyone in the KNX studio was stunned. Somehow they managed to get through a shortened program after the cue was finally given to begin.