Buffalo Bill Jr. (childrens western, starring Dick Jones)

    (Syndicated, 1954)

    [aka: "Buffalo Bill, Junior";
     Produced by Gene Autry's Flying 'A' productions;
     
     Dick Jones was the professional name of Richard Percy Jones.
     He was 24 when this filmed TV series began production. Earlier
     he had been the voice of "Pinocchio" in the 1940 Walt Disney 
     animated film. At that time Jones, who was 13 years old,
     also modeled a costume as the puppet character for the 
     animators to draw.]

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Logo Theme 1: "Western Theme"

    [For the opening THEME, the 8-bar introduction of This MUTEL 
     library track was spliced onto the custom Luboff/Keith THEME 
     below -- most likely as a kind of Signature Logo behind 
     Gene Autry's Flying 'A' Productions emblem...

     The orchestral introduction was spliced onto the beginning of 
     opening THEMEs for other western TV series produced by the
     same company -- including The Range Rider.

     After the signature opening intro, this broad western melody
     resembles "The Old Trail" THEME by Rex Koury (used for the
     radio and TV series "Gunsmoke".) But it is NOT however the
     same melody.

     This THEME was remembered by many as a Closing Theme used
     for Annie Oakley, produced by Gene Autry's Flying 'A' Prods.
     although its origins are a bit murky; The MUTEL (Music for
     Television) library of David Chudnow often hired B-picture 
     composers to revise cues originally written for low budget films;
     MUTEL suggested the composers could save time for such a low fee
     if they used a previously written cue and change a few notes of 
     the melody; These cues were re-arranged for a 40-piece orchestra
     and re-recorded in France under the baton of George Tzipine;

     It is not known if Joseph Mullendore was the sole composer of
     this piece or whether it was co-written with Herb Taylor, who was
     one of the MUTEL composers (who also composed the "Twenty Mule
     Train" THEME for "Death Valley Days), by Herschel Burke Gilbert,
     or by someone else MUTEL hired;

     It is also possible that this piece was written purposefully as a
     "sound-a-like" of "Old Trail" expressly for the MUTEL library, or
     whether it was taken from a B-picture End Title originally written
     years earlier by Mullendore, Taylor or Gilbert;

     MUTEL also licensed this piece as one of the THEMEs for the series
     "Sky King" under the MUTEL title "Western Theme" with a fictitious
     name on cue sheets of "Joseph Solon" as verified by the CBS Music
     Director in the 1980s; Later the name "George Lee" was attached to
     the BMI credit for "Western Theme Reel 3"; these names apparently 
     were used to collect royalties since no known U.S. radio/TV/film 
     composers existed by those names; 

     MUTEL sub-licensed their library to Capitol Special Products, a 
     division of Capitol Records, for uses on live local radio & TV
     which named this library the "Capitol 'Q' Series." From this
     source many local stations used the THEME to introduce local
     western movie shows;

     So this piece was one of the most famous (but anonymous) THEMEs
     heard on television during the 1950s.
     
     The fictitious names George Lee and Joseph Solon were pseudonyms 
     for collecting royalties used by David Chudnow's MUTEL Music Service,
     who presumably split the royalties with Chudnow;
     
     Joseph Mullendore was the real name of one co-writer who collected
     royalties under his own name.]

     Composers: Joseph ("Joe") Mullendore (ASCAP/BMI),
                George Lee (BMI)
               [pseudonym of Joseph Mullendore as a ghost writer for the MUTEL music service], and
                Joseph Solon (ASCAP)
               [pseudonym of Herbert Taylor as a ghost writer for the MUTEL music service]

     1978 Publishers: Byron Music Company (BMI)

     1999 Publishers: Byron Music Company (BMI)
                        of Beverly Hills, CA
                      
     Copyright Date:
     Renewal   Date:

     Recordings:
         From the MUTEL music library
               [original versions]

         78rpm reference disks in the Capitol "Q" Series library
               Q-99:  cut 1: Theme No. 215 - OPENING (Western-Full)
               Q-99:  cut 2: Theme No. 215 - CLOSING (Western-Full)
               Q-101: cut 1: Theme No. 215 - Long Version (Western)

         CD: "TV Classic Themes: 25th Anniversary Edition"
              Breakable Records DPMC 105 (1999)

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Theme 2: "Buffalo Bill, Junior"

     Composers: music by Norman Luboff (ASCAP), and
                lyrics by Marilyn Keith Bergman (ASCAP)
                         [aka Marilyn Keith]

     1978 Publisher: Walton Music Corp. (ASCAP)

     1999 Publisher: Walton Music Corp. (ASCAP)
                        of Parsippany, NJ

     Copyright Date: Aug. 22, 1955; Eu 407 544.
     Renewal   Date: Dec. 21, 1983; RE-184-615.

     Recordings:

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