Restored Gene Autry Films Give Fans Something to Sing About

Legendary singing cowboy Gene Autry was thrilled when he learned before his death last October that work was underway to restore all of his 91 feature films to their original glory.

In fact, Karla Buhlman, vice president of Gene Autry Entertainment, consulted him about the massive undertaking.

“I said, ‘Mr. Autry, you have done a lot of films. Are there any in particular you want me to work on first?’ He was so sweet. He said, ‘Well, honey, whatever you work on will just be fine. I loved all my movies.’

“I was very happy to know I was putting this stuff out so future generations would enjoy the music and the movies and the entertainment of them all,” Buhlman says. “He touched people’s lives.”

So far, Buhlman has restored 16 of Autry’s classic musical westerns, which also starred Champion, the “Wonder Horse.”

Buena Vista Home Video’s new “Gene Autry Collection” features the first six restored titles: “Gaucho Serenade,” “Melody Ranch,” “Back in the Saddle,” “Bells of Capistrano,” “Sioux City Sue” and “Trail to San Antone” ($15 each; $75 for the set). Proceeds from the sales will go to further the educational and cultural mission of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles.

Several of Autry’s films were previously released on video, Buhlman says, but this collection marks the first time they have been presented uncut and fully restored. “All the songs are in them, all of the scenes are in them,” she explains. “I have even gone to great lengths to try to make sure I had the correct Republic Pictures logo.”

When the films first aired on television, they had been edited to fit into a one-hour slot. “So the easiest thing for them to remove would be the songs,” she says. “People who grew up watching Gene Autry [on TV] haven’t seen the full films.”

Luckily, says Buhlman, “we were able to get awesome source material” from UCLA Film and Television Archives, Utah’s Brigham Young University and Autry’s personal copies of his movies.

“I keep saying he was a genius,” Buhlman says. “He had such foresight. He would always get a 16-millimeter print of his movies. So we have material on everything.”

Still, some of the prints have deteriorated and some soundtracks are damaged, so Gene Autry Entertainment is busy scouring the archives. Currently, they are looking for missing scenes from Autry’s first feature film, “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.”

“We have got people looking like you wouldn’t believe in the far reaches of the world,” she says. “We are looking in Mexico’s archives and talking with people from Germany and Russia to go through their archives.”

Buhlman is planning to release another collection featuring six more titles later this year or next spring.