The Singing Cowboys Cowboys were singing and writing poetry long before America knew what a western movie was all about. The campfire was the original place where singing cowboys sang their songs. They sang about life on the trail and the hardships and dangers they faced while pushing cattle for miles each day on the trail. Much of the traditional cowboy music has been written and recorded by the movie cowboys, men such as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Monte Hale. Modern day cowboys such “Riders in the Sky” and Don Edwards have continued this legacy, and have thus preserved the cowboy heritage and his music. The last of the Republic Picture singing cowboy stars have passed now. With the passing of Monte Hale they are all gone. The singing cowboys have left us with a rich legacy of western music. One thing about cowboys and western movies is that people from around the world could relate to them, but none more than our friends in Mexico. When making a western movie, Hollywood learned much from the Hispanic neighbors, and filled westerns movies with ther culture. We named our westerns movies with titles such as; “Mexicali Rose, South of the Border Down Mexico Way”, “Bells of Rosaria”, “The Border Legion”, “Hands Across the Border”, “The Cowboy and the Senorita”, and “On the Old Spanish Trail”. Hispanic actors such as Ramiro Gonzalez Gonzalez, Pedro Armendáriz, Alfonso Bedoya Pascual Antonio, Aguilar Barraza, and Chris Pin Martin are some of my personal favorites. I believe that all of them should have moved on to better parts in the movie business, but unfortunately they became type-casted. Many of these Hispanic actors and actresses entertained us for years before we knew who they were. This list includes Dolores del Río, Ramon Novarro, Lupe Vélez, Gilbert Roland, Pedro Armendáriz, Katy Jurado in “High Noon” (She was the first Mexican National actress to be nominated for an Academy Award), Ricardo Montalban, Antonio Aguilar Barraza, Anthony Quinn, and Eulalio Gonzalez gave us many hours of entertainment. How could we forget Fernando Soler in his roles where he played the part of a, roly-poly comic character where he would be bumbling and clowning with a slow acent. He was of Mexican heritage and spoke in broken English, but yet was a very entertaining actor. Chris Pin Martin acted in over one hundred films between 1925 and 1953, including over 50 westerns. His most remembered western film role was as a sidekick on Gordito and Pancho in nine of the Cisco Kid films. Pascual Antonio Aguilar Barraza, most commonly known as Antonio Aguilar, was a Mexican singer, actor, producer, and writer. During his career he made over 150 albums and sold 25 million copies. He also made 167 movies to add to his legacy. He was known for his corrido music, which was a popular romantic style of music and poetry form. The Mexican Television brought two other Hispanic actors our way - Duncan Ranaldo and Leo Carillio. Duncan Ranaldo said he that he was not sure himself where he was born, but his earliest memories were of Spain. In the late 1940s, Renaldo starred in several Hollywood westerns as the Cisco Kid. In 1950 he began playing this role in the popular television series. Leo Carrillo (Poncho) was an actor, vaudevillian, and political cartoonist, but was best known for playing the sidekick of the Cisco Kid on television. In Hollywood he appeared in more than 90 films, usually playing a supporting or character role. The history of the Hispanic community runs deep within the TV western movie culture, and we are the better for it. I cannot imagine what the westerns and Hollywood would have been like without them.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 04:28:22 +0000
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