George Houston

This movie cowboy was actually born in New Jersey just before the turn of the 20th century, the son of a Protestant minister. He sang in his father's church choir, and after graduating high school he attended the private Blair Academy and then continued his musical training at New York's famous Julliard School (then known as the Institute of Musical Arts). Upon graduation he enlisted in the army and saw combat during World War I in France. After his discharge he taught music for a time in Bernards (NJ) High School. His musical career picked up some steam and he was hired by the American Opera Company, but after a while decided he was just spinning his wheels there and tried his luck on Broadway. He fared better on The Great White Way, and by the mid-'30s he had made enough of a name for himself that Hollywood came calling, and he headed west to make musicals. He appeared in about a half-dozen of them, then branched out to other genres, showing up in some dramas and even a western or two. He bounced around the lower-level studios for a while, then in 1941 he landed a job with bottom-rung Producers Releasing Corp. (PRC) for a series of singing westerns in which he would star as "The Lone Rider". PRC was not, to be charitable, noted for its lavish production values and the films were pretty threadbare. In 1942 "B" western star Robert Livingston became available after his contract with Republic Pictures ended. Houston was reportedly unhappy with the paltry pay scale at PRC and PRC was unhappy that his "Lone Rider" series wasn't doing better than it was. Livingston, who had been part of the well-received "Three Mesquiteers" series at Republic, was considered by PRC to be a bigger box-office draw than Houston. The combination of all these factors did not bode well for Houston's career, and after his 11th picture for PRC in 1942 he was let go and replaced by Livingston. Houston left the movie business after that, and in 1944 he collapsed on a street in Hollywood, dead of a heart attack.