News Archive: 2014

Many of Gene Autry's musical Westerns feature Texas in the story or in song, and this Gene Autry Double Feature highlights the Lone Star State. Trail to San Antone includes the Cass County Boys, a Texas trio who sang with Gene Autry in his post-war films, Melody Ranch radio shows, The Gene Autry Show television series, and personal appearance tours. Night Stage to Galveston features Gene Autry and Pat Buttram as former Texas Rangers along with three terrific songs about Texas.

In honor of the Autry Museum's colorful exhibition Floral Journey: Native North American Beadwork, this Double Feature presents The Strawberry Roan and The Big Sombrero, the only two color motion pictures Gene Autry made.

With the new exhibition Route 66: The Road and the Romance, you'll be in the mood for a road-trip-themed Double Feature. Start your ride with songs like "Highways Are Happy Ways" and "Knights of the Open Road" from the film Mountain Rhythm. Then prepare for some automotive hijinks as Gene Autry and Smiley Burnette go on a rip-roaring, cross-country trek that includes a runaway bride, an amateur talent show, gangsters, mistaken identity, and Champion in a horse trailer.

Gene Autry's Westerns are known for their music, comedy, and action. In Boots and Saddles Gene sings the classic tunes "Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddle" and "The One Rose That's Left in My Heart," Smiley provides the comedy, and there is plenty of action in a cross-country horse race. In Gold Mine in the Sky, Gene once again sings terrific tunes along with the Stafford Sisters and J. L. Frank's Golden West Cowboys, and Smiley sings the humorous songs "That's How Donkeys Were Born" and "I'm a Tumbleweed Tenor." Chicago racketeers, cattle rustling, kidnapping, and an attempted murder bring plenty of action for Gene, Smiley, and Champion.

Get into the spooky spirit of the season with a pair of ghost-themed Westerns that find Gene searching for the truth behind eerie ghost riders. Gene's an investigator in Riders in the Sky, and with the help of his sidekick Pat Buttram, he tries to clear an innocent man of murder. Then it's up to circuit-riding Judge Gene and his sidekick Smiley Burnette to unravel the mystery in Goldtown Ghost Riders.

This month you are sure to hear Gene Autry sing his iconic Christmas song "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)." The song might conjure up images of evergreen trees, woodland animals, and of course, Santa. You'll find all that and more in the films Sunset in Wyoming and The Cowboy and the Indians.