The only problem with The Gay Ranchero is that I don’t know who the gay ranchero is! (But this movie does have the greatest theme song ever!) Roy Rogers is a sheriff in 1948. He’s after some thieves who keep stealing gold from an airline. (The planes have to land for various reasons, and the thieves, on horseback, steal the gold shipments.) The airline and its associated spa are going to have to close if Rogers can’t solve the case. These old Roy Rogers Westerns seem a lot more like TV episodes in terms of cinematography, editing, storytelling, etc. And before TV had become common in American homes, I’m sure that’s what they were: hour-long fillers in Saturday matinées. It’s not a bad way to spend an hour, but it’s more historically interesting than entertaining. H/T>
The Death of the Hippies
In 1967, just after the Summer of Love, The Atlantic published “The Flowering of the Hippies,” a profile of San Francisco’s new youth culture. “Almost
