(Courtesy of Ed Tabor) Above, from L-to-R are: Roger Williams, Custer and George Morrell in a lobby card from AMBUSH VALLEY (Reliable, 1936).  Les Adams was able to ID Jack Evans (on the far left in the shadows), and between Williams and Custer are Buck Morgan (in the center w/ moustache) and Ed Carey.

(Courtesy of Ed Tabor) (Courtesy of Les Adams) Note the mention of "Bob Custer Productions, Inc." at the bottom of the poster.

Biographical info on Custer is minimal, and I'm not sure of the accuracy. Perhaps one of the Old Corral visitors can furnish more accurate information, particularly of Custer's life after he retired from films.

Purportedly, Custer was born Raymond Anthony Glenn in Kentucky, graduated from the University of Kentucky with an engineering degree, and somehow wound up doing rodeo or ranch work. In the early 1920s, he was in Hollywood, and his film credits show him working under his real name of Raymond Glenn.

The bios mention that he retired from the film business around 1937, worked in shipbuilding, and then was employed by the City of Los Angeles as a building inspector. However, his obituary notes that he was the Superintendent of Building and Safety for the city of Newport Beach, California. (Perhaps an Old Corral visitor who lives in the Newport Beach area will volunteer to visit the town hall or local government center and do some checkin' on Custer's employment.)

Film Booking Office (FBO) was a prolific little production and distribution company of the late silent era, and was the forerunner of RKO. In the later part of the 1920s, President John F. Kennedy's father, Joe Kennedy, ran the business, and they churned out scores of silent sagebrushers starring Bob Steele, Tom Tyler, teenager Buzz Barton ... even Tom Mix did a few for FBO in 1928.

Raymond Glenn was also a member of FBO's stable of cowboy heroes and on the big screen, he was known as Bob Custer. The Custer FBO westerns were churned out by Jesse J. Goldburg's Independent Pictures Corporation and FBO handled the releasing. Appears that one of Custer's FBO silent westerns survive - NO MAN'S LAW (FBO, 1928).

After FBO, Custer's next stop was a low-budget production outfit called Syndicate. W. Ray Johnston was the founder of Syndicate Pictures and Syndicate Film Exchange as well as Rayart (which became Continental Talking Pictures at the beginning of the sound era). Ultimately, Johnston's creations became Monogram Pictures of the 1930s, and that firm was part of the 1935 merger/consolidation that formed Republic Pictures.

Under the Syndicate logo, and a producer/director named J. P. McGowan, Custer labored for several years, doing about twenty programmer westerns that were silents, silents with musical scores, and finally, full-fledged talkies. Several of the Custer silents are available on videotape, including THE LAST ROUNDUP (Syndicate, 1929). Then came several with music, and finally, four were issued in full sound and dialog. Custer's first with Syndicate and McGowan was released in 1928, and his Syndicate finale occurred in 1931.

There were several other things popping at Syndicate. In 1929, two former FBO cowboy stars arrived - Bob Steele and Tom Tyler. Steele would do ten silents during 1929 - 1930, all with McGowan as the director. Tyler did eleven releases from 1929 - 1931. Most were silents, and McGowan was in charge of all.

At the conclusion of their Syndicate runs, Steele went to work at Tiffany. Tom Tyler continued to work for W. Ray Johnston who, along with producer Trem Carr, formed the Monogram organization. As to Bob Custer - he found work with the ultra low budget Big 4 Film Corporation.

Big 4 had been founded by John F. Freuler in the late 1920s and released its product to the states rights markets. Around 1932, Big 4 went under, and Freuler then put together Freuler Film Associates, sometimes referred to as "Monarch", and it lasted until about 1934. Custer did four talkies for Big 4 which were released during 1931-1932. Guess who was the director - yup, J. P. McGowan.

Then Custer was off the screen for a year or two before playing second banana to Rin-Tin-Tin, Jr. and Rex, the Wonder Horse, in Nat Levine's THE LAW OF THE WILD (Mascot, 1934), a 12 chapter serial directed by Armand Schaefer and B. Reeves "Breezy" Eason.

(From Old Corral image collection) Above, from L-to-R are RCMP Bob Custer, Eddie Dunn, Buddy Shaw, and William Walling in RIDERS OF THE NORTH (Syndicate, 1931). (From Old Corral image collection) Above from L-to-R are Rin-Tin-Tin Jr., Victoria Vinton, Custer, John Elliott, and prone on the floor is Wally West, in VENGEANCE OF RANNAH (Reliable, 1936).

After that, only three more starring roles would occur, all 1936 releases, and all for Bernard B. Ray and Harry S. Webb at Reliable Pictures: VENGEANCE OF RANNAH (with Rin-Tin-Tin, Jr.), AMBUSH VALLEY and SANTE FE RIDES. And the answer is "Nope!" - Harry Webb was the director on Custer's final trio of starring films, not J. P. McGowan.  More Custer adventures were in the works, but never came to fruition due to the financial situation at Reliable which folded in 1937. On the right is the announcement of the series which was included in one of the pressbooks given to prospective exhibitors.  As mentioned, AMBUSH VALLEY and SANTE FE RIDES were completed, but the remaining four titles were not.  And SANTE FE RIDES marked the end of Custer's starring career.

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

On Les Adams' Prolific Performers page on the Old Corral, Custer's total sound era work is small, only a dozen or so true "talking pictures". That isn't much - and the wages he received working for these Poverty Row production companies were certainly meager. Therefore, it appears there's a chunk of real life missing from Custer's background - i.e., while he was doing occasional 1930s filmwork, he had to be employed elsewhere in order to generate income to support himself, wife Mildred, and son Raymond Jr.

Film reviews, as well as writers on the B western, include comments that Custer was 'wooden', 'laconic', 'had a monotone delivery', and other negatives. Clearly, he didn't have the dynamics of a Ken Maynard nor the magnetism of a Buck Jones. Yet, he also wasn't the only western film hero that faded during the turbulent Depression era of the 1930s. Others that came and went included Buddy Roosevelt, Buffalo Bill Jr. and Reb Russell. Today, only a few remember Bob Custer. Thankfully, some of his silents and most of his talkies are available on videotape for us to view and critique.

The Motion Picture Herald and Boxoffice polls were conducted from about the mid 1930s through the mid 1950s.  With a few exceptions, the annual results would list the Top Ten (or Top Five) cowboy film stars. In most cases, the winners were what you would expect - Autry, Rogers, Holt, Starrett, Hoppy, etc. Bob Custer never achieved a Top Ten ranking in these polls.

You may want to go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral, and then to the California Death Records database.  There you will find a record for: Raymond A. Glenn, born 10/18/1898 in Kentucky, and he passed away on 12/27/1974. There is a corresponding record in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).

(Courtesy of Les Adams) Above - J. P. McGowan

J. P. McGowan (1880-1952) was married to silent serial heroine Helen Holmes, but the pair divorced in the mid 1920s. McGowan's full name was John Paterson McGowan. In the Old Corral section The Best (and Worst) of the West, Boyd Magers has info on McGowan under his review for Lane Chandler's OUTLAW TAMER (1935 Empire). Boyd writes: Australian born McGowan (1880-1952) was an adventurous workaholic. Writer/actor/producer/director/editor - McGowan often tried to do too much. In the '30s, after his glory days in silents from 1911-1929, his workaholic disposition led him to poverty row outfits like Empire where there simply was no budget for his ambitious attitude, so, much of his directorial work with Tom Tyler, Bob Custer, Bob Steele and Buzz Barton is hurried and crudely fashioned. For OUTLAW TAMER, obviously made on the cheap by a company who only stayed in business 18 months and turned out just nine films, much of the outdoor sequences seem to have been shot silent with sound poorly dubbed in later. McGowan also plays the Sheriff in this one.

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Bob Custer and J. P. McGowan.  Click below:

Jim Tipton's Find A Grave website notes that Bob Custer/Raymond Anthony Glenn is interred at Green Hills Memorial Park, Rancho Palos Verdes, California: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10821106