THE TRAILBLAZERS

After Monogram’s popular TriggerTrio series, The Rough Riders, ended due to the death of Buck Jones and Tim McCoy’s entry into the military during World War II, the company brought Hoot Gibson and Ken Maynard out of retirement and partnered them with Bob Steele as the Trail Blazers. Some of their films include The Law Rides Again (1943) and Westward Bound (1944), both featuring Betty Miles as the female lead, who proves she can hold her own with the Trail Blazers. Maynard and Gibson were past their prime and overweight, so Steele was the one who got the romantic parts. The Trail Blazer films were Wild Horse Stampede (1943), The Law Rides Again (1943), Blazing Guns (1943), Death Valley Rangers (1943), Westward Bound (1944), and Arizona Whirlwind (1944).