Gene Autry starring role by Levine in 1935 in the 12-part serial "The Phantom Empire." Shortly thereafter, Mascot was absorbed by the newly formed Republic Pictures Corp. and Autry went along to make a further 44 films up to 1940, all B Westerns in which he played under his own name, rode his horse, Champion, had Burnette as his regular sidekick, and had many opportunities to sing in each film. Pat Buttram was picked by Gene Autry, recently returned from his World War II service in the United States Army Air Forces, to work with him. Buttram would co-star with Gene Autry
Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere name of a large robot, who was one of the series' most popular characters. Calling a villain "Dr. Tobor" may have been intended to fool young theater-goers into thinking they would see the robot in the serial. In fact, the only robots on view are the odd fedora-wearing robots from the 1935 Gene Autry serial "The Phantom Empire". This was the second of only three science fiction serials released by Columbia. The third, "The Lost Planet" (1953), is a virtual sequel although with different character names, The slaves of "The Lost Planet"'s evil extraterrestrial dictator Reckov (also Gene Roth) inexplicably