''The Adventures of Champion'' is an American adventure serial

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

directed by William Burch about screen cowboy

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

's horse Champion. Each 15-minute episode was broadcast weekday afternoons on the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

in 1949 and 1950. (Another source says that the program ran "June to November 1949.") The

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

mystery tales focused on 12-year-old Ricky West, who is raised in the wilderness by his adoptive Uncle Smoky, and his

German Shepherd The German Shepherd or Alsatian is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. It was originally bred as a herding dog, for he ...

named Rebel. Champion was depicted as a wild horse who let only Ricky ride him. While the series covered gold mines, rustlers, and Indian problems, the primary focus was on the faith and loyalty between a boy, a dog, and a horse. Stories ran in five installments each, beginning on Monday and ending on Friday. The radio series was a spin-off from ''

Gene Autry's Melody Ranch ''Gene Autry's Melody Ranch'' is a Western variety radio show in the United States. A 15-minute pilot show aired on December 31, 1939. The program ran from January 7, 1940 to August 1, 1943, and from September 23, 1945 to May 16, 1956.French, Jack ...

'', a

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio ( duplex communication) type ...

Sunday-afternoon program featuring the

singing cowboy A singing cowboy was a subtype of the archetypal cowboy hero of early Western films. It references real-world campfire side ballads in the American frontier, the original cowboys sang of life on the trail with all the challenges, hardships, and d ...

from 1940 to 1956. (Jack French and David S. Siegel, in their book ''Radio Rides the Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929-1967'', opined: "''The Adventures of Champion'' was not a spin-off of his ene Autry'spopular radio show, ''Melody Ranch'', even though both programs had the efforts of the same people. Just grasping the basic scenario of ''The Adventures of Champion'' required a substantial suspension of belief in what its juvenile listeners knew to be gospel. Champion was Autry's horse and had a major role in all of his movies, television programs, and personal appearances.") Little is known about the cast of the program. French and Siegel wrote, "However, one of the most curious mysteries about this series was who played the leads of Ricky and Uncle Smoky; contemporary accounts of the program have been unsuccessful in unearthing their identities, and the vast Autry Library and Research Services in Los Angeles, CA, has no record of who the performers were." One participant who was identified was Dave Light, an animal imitator who provided sounds of all animals on the program. A television series called ''

The Adventures of Champion ''The Adventures of Champion'' is an American adventure serial radio drama directed by William Burch about screen cowboy Gene Autry's horse Champion. Each 15-minute episode was broadcast weekday afternoons on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 194 ...

'' aired for 26 episodes on CBS during the 1955–1956 season and starred

Barry Curtis Barry Curtis may refer to: * Barry Curtis (actor) (1943–2019), American film and television actor * Barry Curtis (mayor) (born 1939), served as mayor (1983–2007) of Manukau City, New Zealand ** Barry Curtis Park, a park in south Auckland, New Z ...

and

Jim Bannon James Shorttel Bannon (April 9, 1911 – July 28, 1984) was an American actor and radio announcer known for his work on the '' I Love a Mystery'' and ''Red Ryder'' series during the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Born in 1911 in Kansas City, Mis ...

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Matinee Classics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adventures of Champion, The American radio dramas 1940s American radio programs 1950s American radio programs Mutual Broadcasting System programs Western (genre) radio series

See also

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