The Official Website of Gene Autry, America's Favorite Singing Cowboy

Fun Autry Fact:

Gene always preferred his sponsor's product, Wrigley's Doublemint Gum, to smoking.

Television
The Gene Autry Show

The Star Toter

Flying A Pictures
Season 1, Episode 5 (1-05)
Production #6
Network: CBS
Running Time: 30 minutes
Black and White

Original Air Date:
Sunday, August 20, 1950

Sponsor: Wrigley's Doublemint Chewing Gum

Brief Synopsis:

Gene dons a sheriff's badge to pursue a homicidal bank robber with a ten-year-old wayward son.

Detailed Synopsis:

Gene takes over the star totin' job when Ben Foster, a bank robber, kills the sheriff. With a posse, Gene pursues a wounded Foster to his hideout where they find Foster's ten-year-old son, Jimmy, a confirmed law-hater. Later at the jail, Gene assumes responsibility for Jimmy's welfare. The boy meets with Reynolds, one of the gang, and promises to cooperate by playing friendly with Gene, who is planning to give Jimmy a party and Little Champ for his birthday. However, not knowing this, Jimmy takes Little Champ out of the barn, and Pat Buttram discovers the horse is gone. Jimmy heads for the town jail and slips his father a gun from Reynolds and later runs into schoolteacher Martha Neill, who thinks Gene has already given Jimmy his present and tells him so. Jimmy is bewildered by the generosity, but doesn't return to the ranch until the party is over. He confesses to taking Little Champ. Gene talks with him man-to-man, and the boy has a change of heart. He wants to rectify his error and so goes back to the jail to retrieve the gun. Gene follows Jimmy, but Foster kills the deputy and is about to leave just as Gene arrives unarmed. Foster uses his son as a shield in making his getaway. Later, Foster kills Reynolds when he asks for his cut of the bank money. Gene, hearing the shot, overtakes Foster, but Foster gets the drop on him. Jimmy arrives and covers his father until Gene can get his gun and return the outlaw to jail. In the end, Jimmy is a changed boy who looks up to Gene as his idol.


Cast:

Character: Performer:
Gene Autry Gene Autry
Pat Buttram Pat Buttram
Martha Neill Barbara Stanley
Ben Foster George J. Lewis
Jimmy Foster Billy Gray
Curry Robert Livingston
Reynolds House Peters, Jr.
The Deputy Sheriff Wes Hudman
Little Champ Little Champ
Champion Champion, World's
Wonder Horse

Songs:

Back in the Saddle Again Gene Autry

Crew:

Executive Producer Armand Schaefer
Associate Producer Louis Gray
Directed by Frank McDonald
Screenplay by Jack Townley
Director of Photography William Bradford
Film Editor Jodie Copelan
Musical Director Carl Cotner
Recorded by Glen Glenn Sound Company

Watch a Clip from The Star Toter: