Tumblin' Tumbleweeds...A chat with Sagebrush Entertainment
We are also hoping to restore the lost serial Daredevils of the West.
Tim: What is the primary goal of Sagebrush productions? What is the companies history?
Mr Rosenthal: Sagebrush Entertainment, Inc. is an off shoot of U.S. Television Office, Inc. I (Jerry Rosenthal) was president of U.S. Television Office, Inc. which acquired the rights to Hopalong. Cassidy from the estate of William Boyd aka Hopalong Cassidy in 1985. Up till that time from 1975 U.S. Television Inc was the syndicator for them and helped in the eight year law suite proving up copyrights.
The partners in U.S. Television Office, Inc., did not want to get into the marketing area... only licensing. In 1995 Frank Whitehead and myself... both with extensive marketing backgrounds opened Sagebrush Entertainment, Inc. The goal was to establish ourselves as the source of the best quality video material available of the "B' Westerns.
Since much of the material "B" westerns is in the "Public Domain" there is a lot of tired versions being sold to the market. It has been our goal to find the best material available to produce what we sell. We work with many collectors and owners of material such as Dusty Rogers for Roy Rogers and have been appointed the Rogers distributor. Dusty Rogers has opened up the private collection of Roy Rogers for this purpose.
We have a deal with Republic to release 150 western titles from their vaults (Sunset Carson, Allen Rocky Lane and more).
The problem we find is that the studios sit on the material and since most of the people in charge do not recognize the "B" western or even the names of some of the leading actors the refuse to make deals to release this material to the market that make it financially reasonable.
We find our market is well over 45 years...and it surprises us the loyalty the fan has for the cowboy they grew up with. It not a huge market but an interesting one.
There is still a great interest in the American Cowboy and the films that Hollywood produced. Twenty-Five Thousand people show up in western clothing at the annual Santa Clarita Festival, the same number at the "End of The Trail" get to together in Norco, CA We've had close to 500,000 hits on our website www.hopalong.com. over fifteen thousand on our mailing list.
Tim: With all of your projects thus far, what is your favourite?
Mr Rosenthal: Hoppy and Roy... the market looks at the Lone Ranger, then Hoppy and Roy... Gene Autry
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