Champion the Wonder Horse films from 1950 to 1953 and in all 91 television episodes of "The Gene Autry Show" and all 26 episodes of "The Adventures of Champion" during the 1950s. Throughout the years, several other "Champions" served as doubles for film stunts and personal appearances, including Little Champ, Lindy Champion, and Touring Champion. In 1940, Lindy Champion became the first horse to fly from California to New York to appear with Autry at Madison Square Garden for the World's Championship Rodeo. Touring Champion, a darker sorrel with a medium blaze and four white stockings, became one of Autry's most reliable horses for
Gene Autry's Melody Ranch stock, was located adjacent to the town that was, at the time, known as Berwyn. In honor of the presence of cowboy royalty in its midst, the town was renamed Gene Autry in 1941. To mark the occasion, Autry broadcast his "Gene Autry's Melody Ranch" radio show from the Flying A, and more than 35,000 people turned out for the festivities, which included Autry parading through the town atop a flatbed car. At the time, the population of the newly re-christened town was around 300 people, according to Mary Schutz, director of programs and publicity at the Gene Autry Oklahoma