Where’s Her Museum?

Tourists to Los Angeles who love westerns often make time to visit the Autry Museum of Western Heritage created in memory of singing cowboy Gene Autry, of the 1930s and 40s. What they don’t learn is that a female screenwriter, Betty Burbridge, wrote the bulk of his most popular movies.

Born on December 7, 1895 (or 1894, cites vary) in San Diego, Burbridge, thanks to her lineage, had both westerns – and writing in her blood. Her grandfather had been a Union general in the Civil War. Her mother Mabel Burbridge ghost wrote the syndicated “Prudence Penny” homemaker column for the Hearst syndicate. Editing that column taught Burbridge enough about writing so that she, too, could contribute columns under that moniker, however, the newfangled movies proved more interesting.

As with many female screenwriters like Jeanie Macpherson, Burbridge began as an actress, appearing in nearly 75 shorts between 1912 and 1916. Among her earliest roles, she played love interest Molly O’Reilly in the serialized adventures of Slim Hoover, a western comedy that ran 15 episodes across two years.

She could have continued that career but chose to use her writing chops so in 1914 she both starred in – and wrote – The Gangsters and the Girl (1914), the tale of a poor girl accused of a crime who exonerates herself. That must have sparked her interest more as she quit acting in 1917 to focus solely on writing. Several of her stories involve women born in poverty, others deal with alcoholism, domestic abuse, and other political topics of the day. Perhaps these illustrate her interest in the progressive movement of the day, spearheaded by women like Jane Addams and her Settlement House.

In 1924 Burbridge wrote her first western film – Rough Ridin’ and she apparently never looked back. Long before meeting Gene Autry, Burbridge had written over 40 westerns. Her first collaboration with the guitar-playing cowboy came when Republic Pictures hired her to write Melody Trail (1935). She followed that up with The Singing Vagabond the same year and eventually wrote a full 13 films with him as lead.

Soon the other singing cowboy – Roy Rogers – came calling for stories and Burbridge obliged with Under Western Stars (1938) which earned an Academy Award nomination for “Dust” as Best Music, Original Song, written by Johnny Marvin. Later that year a non-singing cowboy, John Wayne, starred in her Sante Fe Stampede and for another western actor (less-well-known today) Robert Livingston, Burbridge wrote several films. Her last film credit came in 1949 when she jumped into television.

The new medium showed an instant love of the western genre, making room for women like Burbridge who could write about the justice and morality of “good guys vs. bad guys”. She freelanced for The Cisco Kid (1950-51) and as would be expected, when her most frequent collaborator created a full production company - Gene Autry's Flying A Productions – Burbridge wrote episodes of The Gene Autry Show and The Range Rider.

It seems Burbridge retired in 1952 at the age of 57. Though she lived to be 91 she left behind no further record of work, of marriage or of any children. At least she left her papers to the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming so that historians can learn more about her work. Many female screenwriters left no records which is another reason they fell out of history. Burbridge died in Tarzana, California, on September 19, 1987.

For more on Betty Burbridge - and the many other women who wrote westerns - check out my interview with Autry Curator Josh Garrett-Davis “When Women Wrote Westerns”.

Research for this column comes from the book When Women Wrote Hollywood, edited by Rosanne Welch.

If you’d like to learn more about the women highlighted in this column, and about the art of screenwriting while earning your MFA, our low residency Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting is currently accepting applications.