Singing cowboy Sandy's elaborate costumes. While other western actors, such as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, only dabbled in singing roles, some actors became known mainly for their parts as singing cowboys. The most famous of them was Gene Autry, and the moniker "the singing cowboy" usually refers to him in particular. When Wayne declined further singing cowboy roles, Republic looked for a replacement. Former rodeo rider Autry was chosen because he was the one candidate who could both sing and ride a horse, namely Champion the Wonder Horse. The choice was so successful that, at the time of his death in
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Fleischer cartoon short, is no longer in print, but a revised Little Golden Books version of the storybook was reissued in 1972. Perhaps the most well-known version of all the Rudolph adaptations is the Rankin/Bass version of 1964. Filmed in Tokyo, Japan, with all sound recordings done in Toronto, Canada, the show premiered on NBC. As the producers of the special only had the song as source material and did not have a copy of the original book, they interpolated an original story around the central narrative of the song, one that differed from the book. This re-telling chronicles Rudolph's