Buck Jones and Tim McCoy had been among the "top guns" of Hollywood sagebrush stars in both silent and sound features.  But the careers of both men had waned due to their age and the influx of singing cowboys.  Scott R. Dunlap, the production boss at Monogram Pictures, was a close personal and business friend of Jones and knew that Buck's career could be boosted if given the right screen property.

In 1941, the deal was struck for a new western trio series called the Rough Riders, starring Charles "Buck" Jones, Tim McCoy and Raymond Hatton.  Interestingly, all three performers were fifty years of age or older when the series began.

Production values were solid, the storylines were decent, and the charisma/interaction between the three movie veterans was quite enjoyable to watch, as they seemed to be having fun.  Though a tad slow in the action department, the eerie GHOST TOWN LAW (1942) is my favorite RR film.  Many western critics and fans, self included, consider the Rough Riders among the finest of the B-western series.

In the films, Jones portrayed Marshall Buck Roberts, McCoy was Marshall Tim McCall, and Hatton was Marshall Sandy Hopkins.

But the best laid plans don't always come to fruition.  WWII arrived and Colonel Tim McCoy returned to active duty.  Jones and Hatton did one more film together portraying their Rough Rider characters, in a 70 minute epic titled DAWN ON THE GREAT DIVIDE (1942).  This was not advertised as a Rough Riders film.

But before DAWN was released, Jones died a hero saving people in the November 28, 1942 Coconut Grove nightclub fire in Boston, which killed nearly 500 people.  The badly burned Jones was rushed to the Massachusetts General Hospital but passed away a few days after the fire.  The exact reason that Jones was in Boston is lost in Hollywood history, but the general consensus is that he was there to promote his Monogram films, or do some War Bond work, or do a little of both.  Dunlap was also injured in the fire, but did recover.

As to Raymond Hatton, he took his Sandy Hopkins character and became the sidekick to Monogram's new sagebrush star, Johnny Mack Brown.  The initial entries in the Brown series utilized ideas and scripts that were originally planned for the second season of the Rough Riders.

There was a standard, nostalgic ending in the RR films --- Ray Hatton would note that he's returning to Texas; McCoy was heading home to Wyoming; and Jones back to Arizona.  All three would bid farewell by saying "so long, Rough Riders", and then gallop off in three different directions as the RR theme song came up.  Remember the theme? It began with:

Overall, the Rough Riders was a great series and certainly ranks among the finest achievements of little Monogram Pictures.

So long, Rough Riders !