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Red Ryder | |
---|---|
Author(s) | Stephen Slesinger and Fred Harman |
Current status/schedule | Ended |
Launch date | November 6, 1938 |
End date | September 30, 1965 |
Syndicate(s) | Newspaper Enterprise Association |
Genre(s) | Western |
Red Ryder is a Western comic strip created by Stephen Slesinger and artist Fred Harman which served as the basis for a wide array of character merchandising. Syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, the strip ran from Sunday, November 6, 1938, through 1965. [1]
In 1938, Harman met publisher, writer and comic syndicator Slesinger. At the time, Slesinger had scripted a new comic strip called Red Ryder and was seeking an outstanding Western artist with knowledge of authentic period details and who had a natural gift for drawing scenes from dramatic perspectives. Harman fit the description and was a genuine cowboy who was the ideal spokesperson for the Red Ryder Character franchise.
Slesinger brought Harman to New York and worked with him for a year before Red Ryder was ready to be launched through a carefully planned rollout from comic pages, to movies and radio shows, contests, merchandising tie-ins, and personal appearances by Harman at charity benefits, schools, and civic and Red Ryder youth enrichment events.
Slesinger pioneered the concept of synergy between radio, films, Big Little Books, novels, serial chapters, radio programs, events, rodeos, powwows, commercial tie-ins, and licensed products, such as the Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun, to build brand equity and create lasting and consistent impressions. By the time he launched Red Ryder, Slesinger had already proven his formula for creating evergreen character franchises with characters such as Tarzan, Winnie the Pooh, and many other golden-age newspaper comic characters.
Red Ryder became the longest-running and most popular comic character of the Western genre in movies, radio, comic strips, comic books, mass market retailing, and the collectors' market. Today, Red Ryder has some of the longest business relationships in the history of the licensing industry.
Red Ryder had two topper strips on the Sunday page: Little Beaver (Nov 6, 1938 - Aug 25, 1946) and Red Ryder's Corral of Western Lingo (Sept 8, 1946 - Oct 10, 1948). [2]
Astride his mighty steed Thunder, Red was a tough cowpoke who lived on Painted Valley Ranch during the 1890s [3] in the Blanco Basin of the San Juan Mountain Range, with his aunt, the Duchess, and his juvenile Native-American sidekick, Little Beaver, who rode his horse, Papoose, when they took off to deal with the bad guys. Little Beaver spoke in the pidgin English now considered an offensive caricature. (His most famous catchphrase was "You betchum, Red Ryder!") Other notable characters were Red's girlfriend, Beth Wilder, arch enemy Ace Hanlon, and ranch hand Buckskin Blodgett.
Harman was eventually acclaimed as one of the finest Western pen-and-ink artists, known for his dramatic sense of perspective and authentic action. Contributing artists and writers worked in Stephen Slesinger, Inc's New York studio and contributed to Red Ryder over the years, including Jim Gary, Edmund Good, John Wade ("Johnnie") Hampton, Robert MacLeod, and Bill Lignanti (of The Palm restaurant fame), Gaylord Du Bois (wrote scripts, circa 1939-1940), and Stephen Slesinger who drew detailed storyboards and scripted and approved all of the stories until he died in 1953, when Shirley Slesinger stepped into her husband's shoes, working closely with Bill Lignanti and Jay Rowland.
Charlie Dye, Johnnie Hampton, Joe Beeler, and George Phippen were co-founders of the Cowboy Artists of America, of which Harman was also a charter member. When Harman left Red Ryder in 1963 to concentrate on his paintings, MacLeod continued writing the story continuity for the strip, with staff artists of Red Ryder Entp., Inc.
Gaylord Du Bois, a prolific comic book writer associated with Slesinger, scripted Red Ryder and Little Beaver for a short period in 1938 and again in the early 1940s. [3]
The first Red Ryder comic book was published by Slesinger's Hawley Publications, Inc. in September 1940, followed by Hi-Spot comics for one issue. [4]
Dell Comics launched its Red Ryder in August 1941, changing its title to Red Ryder Ranch Magazine with #145, and then to Red Ryder Ranch Comics with #149. Red Ryder Comics consisted of reprints of the newspaper strip until issue #47 (June 1947), when it began producing original material. Altogether, Red Ryder Comics enjoyed a first run, for a total of 151 issues, ending in 1957, one of the longest continuous newsstand runs in the U.S., for any Western comic. [5] Over the next four decades, under license from Red Ryder, Enterprises, Inc., King Features Syndicate distributed comic reprints translated into 11 languages, while unauthorized translations have been printed in 30 languages. [6] However, by far, the largest circulation for Red Ryder Comics are those produced in Spanish and distributed throughout the Spanish-speaking world. From 1954 to 1984, under an exclusive licensing agreement with Red Ryder Enterprises, Inc., Novaro distributed 474 regular editions plus extras and specials in 21 countries and territories. [7]
The Red Ryder radio series began February 3, 1942, on the Blue Network. [8] broadcast three times a week at 7:30 pm Pacific time. When the Blue also acquired The Lone Ranger from the Mutual Broadcasting System, Mutual decided to compete by airing Red Ryder in the same period. Thus, Red Ryder aired on the East Coast that year from May 20 to September 9 on Mutual. The series beat The Lone Ranger in the Hooper ratings, but the success was short-lived. Red Ryder was sold to a regional sponsor, Langendorf Bread, and after four months was no longer heard in the East.
Mutual and Langendorf continued the series on the West Coast Don Lee Network through the 1940s at 7:30 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, always with the familiar organ theme, "The Dying Cowboy" ("Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie"). Announcers on the show included Ben Alexander and Art Gilmore.
The continuing characters of the comic strip were also found in the radio series, produced by Brad Brown with writer-director Paul Franklin and writer Albert Van Antwerp. Reed Hadley portrayed Red Ryder on the radio from 1942 to 1944, followed by Carlton KaDell (1945), and Brooke Temple (1946–51). Arthur Q. Bryan had the role of Roland "Rawhide" Rolinson, and Red's sidekick Buckskin was played by Horace Murphy. Jim Mather provided Indian voices.
Numerous actors played Little Beaver, including members of the Hopi, Jicarilla Apache, Southern Ute, and Navajo Nations. One of the most notable was Robert Blake (on credits as Bobby Blake), Tommy Cook (1942 on), Frank Bresee (1942–46, alternating with Cook), Henry Blair (1944–47), Johnny McGovern (1947–50), and Sammy Ogg (1950–51). During the same mid-1940s time frame, Henry Blair also portrayed Ricky Nelson on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet .
Billed as "America's famous fighting cowboy," Red Ryder was notable because he did not kill his enemies but instead aimed for their guns to disarm them. Such sound effects were handled by James Dick, Monty Fraser, and Bob Turnbull.
Red Ryder appeared in a 1940 12-chapter serial, followed by a series of 27 movies (the last four of which were in color). It began in 1940 with the 12-chapter Republic movie serial The Adventures of Red Ryder , played by Don "Red" Barry, who got his nickname "Red" from the role and Tommy Cook as Red Ryder's young Indian sidekick Little Beaver. Subsequently, Wild Bill Elliott and Allan "Rocky" Lane portrayed Red Ryder in several films, both working with Robert Blake as Little Beaver. The last four Red Ryder movies starred Jim Bannon as Red Ryder and Don Kay ("Little Brown Jug") Reynolds as Little Beaver. Both Bannon and Lane filmed pilots for a Red Ryder television series, created by Stephen Slesinger, but neither version was picked up by a network. Both pilots survive and appear in various western DVD collections. An episode of Gunsmoke entitled "I Call Him Wonder" was produced in 1963 as a backdoor pilot for a new Red Ryder and Little Beaver TV Show. [9]
Stephen Slesinger's Telecomics Presents produced three television pilots from 1949-1952.
The pilots were filmed on The Little Beaver and Red Ryder Ranches, in Colorado's Blanco Basin, near Pagosa Springs. The Little Beaver Ranch was built, by Slesinger, to resemble a Western Town. Guests stayed in cabins with facades such as The Court House, Saloon, and Jail.
To film a cut-away Cattle Stampede, Slesinger paid local ranchers fifty cents, for each pound their stock lost, as a result of running in the stampede.
In summers Fred Harman's Red Ryder Ranch and Stephen Slesinger's Little Beaver Ranch hosted settlement house boys and other youth. In July 2020 The Red Ryder Cowboy Honor Club celebrates the 80th Anniversary of these outdoor youth programs. 2020 is also the 70th Anniversary year, of the Red Ryder Roundup Rodeo and July Fourth Celebration, in Pagosa Springs.
Gunsmoke's 1963 TV Episode "I Call Him Wonder" was an authorized test for a New Red Ryder TV series that was not picked up. It features Little Beaver as Wonder, and is adapted from the original story of how Red Ryder and Little Beaver first met. Red Ryder Enterprises, Inc., retains the copyright and trademark rights to the Red Ryder characters, names, art, and stories.
Slesinger's marketing synergy for Red Ryder and Little Beaver products was trail-blazing. Red Ryder toys; novelties; gifts; accessories; sporting goods; and rugged outdoor, work, and play clothing were sold nationwide and exported by leading North American manufacturers to Europe, Latin America, and as far as Egypt, India, and Japan.
At JC Penney stores across the country, Slesinger created Red Ryder "outposts for dependable American quality and value." These stores within the store were called "Red Ryder Corrals." In addition to educational and sportsmanship contests, special events, and personal appearances, they supplied Red Ryder brand rugged clothing for men and boys. In addition to Red Ryder and Little Beaver outdoor products, licensing included school supplies, lunch kits, and other Red Ryder character hardware and sporting goods. [10] [11]
The outposts also included the legendary Daisy Red Ryder Carbine, which became a father-to-son Christmas gift tradition as memorialized in the 1983 Jean Shepherd film A Christmas Story . The story revolves around the author's childhood memories and a boy trying to get a "Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle BB gun with a compass in the stock and a thing which tells time" for Christmas. The film was adapted from the autobiographical fiction of Jean Shepherd, by permission of Red Ryder Enterprises, Inc., which owns the Red Ryder trademarks and copyrights. [11]
Buckaroo Bugs (1944) features Bugs Bunny in the Wild West with "Red Hot Ryder" as his nemesis.
Fred Charles Harman II was an American cartoonist, best known for his popular Red Ryder comic strip, which he drew for 25 years, reaching 40 million readers through 750 newspapers. Harman sometimes used the pseudonym Ted Horn.
Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois was an American writer of comic book stories and comic strips, as well as Big Little Books and juvenile adventure novels. Du Bois wrote Tarzan for Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics from 1946 until 1971, and wrote over 3,000 comics stories over his career.
Stephen Slesinger was an American radio, television and film producer, and creator of comic strip characters. From 1923 to 1953, he created, produced, published, developed, licensed or represented several popular literary characters of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
Bronc Peeler was a Western adventure cowboy comic strip created by Fred Harman in 1933, and ran until July 2, 1938. Harman is best known as the artist for the Red Ryder comic strip, which he created with Stephen Slesinger.
King of the Royal Mounted is an American comics series which debuted February 17, 1935 by Stephen Slesinger, based on popular Western writer Zane Grey's byline and marketed as Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted. The series' protagonist is Dave King, a Canadian Mountie who always gets his man and who, over the course of the series, is promoted from Corporal to Sergeant. King has appeared in newspaper strips, comics, Big Little Books, and other ancillary items.
The Adventures of Red Ryder is a 1940 American 12-chapter movie serial from Republic Pictures, directed by William Witney and John English and starring Don "Red" Barry and Noah Beery, Sr., based on the Western comic strip Red Ryder by Fred Harmon. This serial is the 18th of the 66 serials produced by Republic.
Shirley Slesinger Lasswell was an American marketer. She was the wife of comics artist Stephen Slesinger and, after his death, Fred Lasswell. She is furthermore best known for losing a lawsuit with The Walt Disney Company due to her company's judicial misconduct in a dispute over Winnie-the-Pooh royalties.
James Clarence Wakely was an American actor, songwriter, country music vocalist, and one of the last singing cowboys. During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, he released records, appeared in several B-Western movies with most of the major studios, appeared on radio and television and even had his own series of comic books. His duet singles with Margaret Whiting from 1949 until 1951, produced a string of top seven hits, including 1949's number one hit on the US country chart and pop music chart, "Slippin' Around". Wakely owned two music publishing companies in later years, and performed at the Grand Ole Opry until shortly before his death.
Wild Bill Elliott was an American film actor. He specialized in playing the rugged heroes of B Westerns, particularly the Red Ryder series of films.
Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century. The term is generally associated with an American comic books genre published from the late 1940s through the 1950s. Western comics of the period typically featured dramatic scripts about cowboys, gunfighters, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, and Native Americans. Accompanying artwork depicted a rural America populated with such iconic images as guns, cowboy hats, vests, horses, saloons, ranches, and deserts, contemporaneous with the setting.
The San Antonio Kid is a 1944 American Western film directed by Howard Bretherton starring Wild Bill Elliott in the role of Red Ryder. It was the fourth of twenty-three Red Ryder feature films that would be produced by Republic Pictures and the first shot without George "Gabby" Hayes who had starred with Elliott since he relocated to Republic Pictures. The picture was shot on the studio's back lot along with outdoor locations at Iverson Ranch, 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Tucson Raiders is a 1944 American Western film directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet and starring Wild Bill Elliott in the role of Red Ryder. It was the first of twenty-three Red Ryder feature films that would be produced by Republic Pictures. The picture was shot on the studio’s back lot along with outdoor locations at Iverson Ranch, 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles.
Cheyenne Wildcat is a 1944 American Western film directed by Lesley Selander and one of the 23 Republic Pictures Red Ryder features. The film, starring veteran western actor, Wild Bill Elliott as Red Ryder, was based on the comic strip "Red Ryder" created by Fred Harman (1938–1964), and licensed through a special arrangement with Stephen Slesinger. Costarring as Little Beaver, was actor Robert Blake.
Sheriff of Las Vegas is a 1944 American Western film directed by Lesley Selander and starring Wild Bill Elliott in the role of Red Ryder Costarring as Little Beaver, was actor (Bobby) Robert Blake. It was the sixth of twenty-three Red Ryder feature films that would be produced by Republic Pictures.
Vigilantes of Dodge City is a 1944 American Western film directed by Howard Bretherton and starring Wild Bill Elliott in the role of Red Ryder and costarring as Little Beaver, actor (Bobby) Robert Blake. It was the fifth of twenty-three Red Ryder feature films that would be produced by Republic Pictures. The picture was shot on the studio’s back lot along with outdoor locations at Iverson Ranch, 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Lone Texas Ranger is a 1945 American Western film directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet starring Wild Bill Elliott in the role of Red Ryder and costarring as Little Beaver, actor (Bobby) Robert Blake. It was the eighth of twenty-three Red Ryder feature films that would be produced by Republic Pictures. The picture was shot on the studio’s back lot along with outdoor locations at Iverson Ranch, 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Red Ryder was an American radio western series based on the popularity of the comic strip Red Ryder by Stephen Slesinger and Fred Harman. It debuted on February 3, 1942 on the NBC Blue Network and was broadcast three days a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. After the sixth episode Langendorf Bread became its prime sponsor. The final episode was broadcast in 1951.
Phantom of the Plains is a 1945 American Western film directed by Lesley Selander starring Wild Bill Elliott in the role of Red Ryder and costarring as Little Beaver, actor (Bobby) Robert Blake. It was the ninth of 23 'Red Ryder' feature films that would be produced by Republic Pictures. The picture was shot on the studio’s back lot along with outdoor locations at Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Cowboy and the Prizefighter is a 1949 American Western Cinecolor film directed by Lewis D. Collins and written by Jerry Thomas. It is based on the comic strip Red Ryder by Fred Harman and Stephen Slesinger. The film stars Jim Bannon, Don Reynolds, Emmett Lynn, Marin Sais, Don Haggerty and Karen Randle. The film was released on December 15, 1949, by Eagle-Lion Films.
Telecomics is the name of two American children's television shows broadcast from 1949 to 1951. Along with Crusader Rabbit and Jim and Judy in Teleland, the Telecomics broadcasts were some of the earliest cartoon shows on television, although they were essentially a representation of comic strips on screen, with a narrator and voice actors talking over still frames, with only occasional moments of limited animation.