Historic Newspaper Archives

He now owns a regulation plane but finds many towns he visits do not have airports. In addition, he hopes to keep the 'copter parked in his garage at the North Hollywood home so he can fly quickly to the Pioneertown location for his 52 TV films a year.

Pioneertown, whose normal population of 75 doubles when the Autry show personnel clutters up the neighborhood, is a tiny cluster of buildings in the baked Mojave desert, just 30 miles north of swanky Palm Springs, but about 60 years behind that ritzy resort. Autry finds the location ideal as background for his TV films because of the surrounding 80 acres which can duplicate the scenery of seven different western states. This, plus the fact the town itself looks like a, sure enough, cowboy town to fool Wild Bill Hickock.

Gregg Barton, Western heavy, has been signed for a character lead in "Last of the Pony Express," current Gene Autry starrer for Columbia being directed by George Archainbaud and produced by Armond Schaefer. This marks Barton's fifteenth appearance with Autry in the last four years. "Last of the Pony Express" is being filmed on location at Pioneertown.