(Courtesy of Les Adams) (Courtesy of Les Adams)

Geremino 'Jerry' Bisceglia was born January 17, 1910 in Harrison, New York.  Scuttlebutt is that the young Jerry worked at a local theater where he became a fan of silent westerns and the Hollywood cowboy hero.  He learned to sing and play a pretty good guitar, and by the 1930s, was working in radio where he became known as the 'Lonely Cowboy'.  He wound up at New York's WOR radio, part of the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Now let's take a minute to refresh ourselves with some background on the low-budget B western, circa late 1930s.  Republic Pictures had been formed in 1935 with the merger of Monogram Pictures, Mascot Pictures, Consolidated Film Laboratories, et al, and included in the formation of the new company was that producer Nat Levine (owner of Mascot) would become part of the firm.  Levine brought with him a singin' cowboy named Gene Autry, and the rest is Hollywood history.  The new Autry musical oaters became popular and were financially successful.  And very quickly, other studios and production units hopped on the singing cowboy bandwagon, and some examples include: Spectrum's Fred Scott (the Silvery-Voiced Buckaroo), Bob Baker at Universal and Jack Randall at Monogram.

This was also a period of churn and upheaval for many of the lowly B film production outfits.  Outfits like Reliable Pictures (Tom Tyler westerns), Sam Katzman's Victory Pictures (Tyler and McCoy), and many others would disappear during this period just prior to WW2.  Grand National Pictures churned out a variety of films, and they too would fail.  Grand National's westerns and outdoorsy adventures Included the early Tex Ritter yarns, the Dorothy Page 'Singing Cowgirl' series, and the 'Renfrew of the Mounted' flicks with James Newill.  Examples of their non-westerns included a couple based on the Shadow radio series, THE SHADOW STRIKES in 1937, and the sequel INTERNATIONAL CRIME in 1938.

In late 1938, Tex Fletcher connected with the Arcadia Production company and Grand National Pictures, and a deal was cut for a new series of sagebrush musicals.  The initial film of the series, SIX-GUN RHYTHM (Grand National, 1939) was released in early 1939, with Tex playing a college football hero who goes west to discover the killer of his father.  When I view this film, I always do a double-take since Fletcher carries his six-shooter on the left side and strums the guitar from that side also.  (There were a few other western film performers that were left-handed --- one was villain John 'Bob' Cason and another was former President Ronald Reagan.)

The director and producer of this film was Sam Newfield, one of the most prolific creators of the B grade film, and his work includes the George Houston/Bob Livingston 'Lone Rider' and Buster Crabbe Billy the Kid/Billy Carson oaters at PRC.  In later life, Newfield would do early TV programs such as CAPTAIN GALLANT OF THE FOREIGN LEGION with Crabbe.

But Grand National was in deep trouble by this time, and would soon file bankruptcy ... and a year or so later, all of their assets were auctioned or sold off.  The Tex Ritter and the Newill/Renfrew series moved over to Monogram Pictures.  And other production companies already had their own talent --- Columbia had Charles Starrett and Bill Elliott, Universal had Johnny Mack Brown, and Republic had Autry and a newcomer named Roy Rogers.

Thus, Tex Fletcher's career as a silver screen cowboy was over, after only one film.  He returned to New York and his radio show.  But WW2 would intervene, and Tex did his duty in the Army.

He continued doing work on radio as well as television, and some references note that he was in the Songs of the B-Bar-B radio program which ran on Mutual from about 1952-1954, and his role was that of Tex Mason, the singing foreman.  There was also an early TV variation on the Bobby Benson B-Bar-B theme which was done at WOR in the mid 1950s.  Fletcher was a member of that program, and some references mention that he portrayed Tex Mason.

Fletcher's career as an entertainer and on records spanned from the 1930s through the 1960s, and he recorded for Decca/Montgomery Ward, Flint, MGM, Waldorf Music Hall, and many other labels.

George Fletcher adds:  "... my father was never known as Tex Mason on the Bobby Benson series. When he came on board for the radio and TV series, he did so as Tex Fletcher, The Singing Cowboy.  Davy Sharp stunted in several scenes for dad in SIX GUN RHYTHM.  Not many, as Tex was a good horseman, but a few and enough so that dad always mentioned him fondly for his skills and apparently easy-going personality."

(Courtesy of Les Adams)

On the left is a Hollywood tradepaper article from Monday, January 9, 1939 confirming that Tex was to star in a six film series for Arcadia with Grand National handling the releases.  The working title of RHYTHM RIDES THE RANGE was changed to SIX-GUN RHYTHM. Les Adams adds that the shooting began Tuesday, January 10, 1939 and the first and only film in the projected series was released on February 17, 1939.

(Courtesy of Ed Phillips) Above, Fletcher with pretty Joan Barclay in SIX-GUN RHYTHM (Grand National, 1939). Barclay had the lead in a couple dozen B films in the late 1930s to the mid 1940s, including westerns with Tim McCoy and Bob Baker, mysteries such as the Falcon and Charlie Chan series, and a couple of serials, SHADOW OF CHINATOWN (Victory, 1937) and BLAKE OF SCOTLAND YARD (Victory, 1937). (Courtesy of Ed Phillips) Above, left-handed Tex Fletcher serenades Joan Barclay in SIX-GUN RHYTHM (Grand National, 1939).

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Tex Fletcher: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0282129/.

Jim Tipton's Find A Grave website notes that Tex Fletcher is interred at the Saint Charles Cemetery, Gardiner (Ulster County), New York: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10037407

Info on Fletcher's D-42 Martin guitar: http://www.mandoweb.com/1_Acoustic.htm

The Classic TV Themes website is a great reference source on the music used on old TV shows.  Fletcher wrote the closing theme music to the Guy Madison/Andy Devine WILD BILL HICKOK TVer: http://www.classicthemes.com/50sTVThemes/themePages/wildBillHickock.html

Jerry Haendiges' OTR (Old Time Radio) site has an article authored by Jack French on the several radio and TV variations of the 'Bobby Benson' series (also called the H-Bar-O Rangers and B-Bar-B), and Fletcher was in the cast of the second TV series which was done at WOR-TV Channel 9 in the 1950s: http://www.otrsite.com/articles/artjf002.html

The Old-Time Radio website has a 'What Was On the Radio - Tuesday, May 28, 1935' schedule for New York City.  Check the 9:15 a.m. time spot on WOR (Mutual Broadcasting Network) at: http://www.old-time.com/otrlogs/350528.html