ROOTS of Country Music

Dennis 'Denny' 'Smoky' Moore(1908-1964)

Real name: Dennis Meadows. 

Smooky Moore couldn't land a job as a solo hero in a cowboy series.  He did a brief stint as one of the three heroes at the tail end of the Monogram Range Busters series. Later at Monogram, he was the saddle pal to Jimmy Wakely.

When Johnny Mack Brown left Universal, Moore came in to give Tex Ritter a hand in a film or two. Producers Releasing Corporation used Moore several times as the helper to both George Houston and Bob Livingston in the Lone Rider series. 

Moore had better luck in cliff hangers, and was the hero in several, including Raiders of Ghost City (Universal, 1944) and The Purple Monster Srtikes (Republic, 1945). 

A decade later, Moore was the star/co-star in the last two serials that were filmed, Blazing the Overland Trail (Columbia, 1956) and Perils of the Wilderness (Columbia, 1956).

Note: Producers Releasing Corporation was one of the more humble Hollywood film studios on Povert Row in the late 1930s-mid-1940s. PRC, as it was commonly known, intentionally made mostly small-budget B-movies. The company was substantial enough to not only produce but distribute its own product and operated its own studio facility.

Researched and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music, Nov. 19, 2011.