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Cowboys, Creatures and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures
In many of the films actress Anne Jeffreys made for Republic Pictures she played a damsel in perilous situations. Neither the studio nor the performer could imagine how much those movies would affect the lives of young, ticket buyers. A letter from a fan written to the motion picture studio in the summer of 1945 expressed what many males were thinking about the talented Ms. Jeffreys.
“The first time I saw her [Anne Jeffreys] in a movie her lovely image was secured permanently,” the admirer wrote. “She was not only staggeringly beautiful, but kind and warm, and understanding. If she only knew how many times I’ve swept her off a teetering bridge just before it collapsed; how many hoodlums I flattened with my powerful fists as they tried to force you, kicking and screaming, into their black limousine or into a stagecoach, for God knows what evil purpose; how many times, as you cradled my head in your arms (after I just saved your life AGAIN) and tearfully asked ‘Are you all right?’ I’ve replied: ‘It’s nothing, just a bullet wound in the chest.’
Born Anne Carmichael on January 26, 1926, in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Anne was one of Republic Pictures most versatile leading ladies. She played everything from a mobster’s girlfriend to a singing cowgirl. As a child she displayed outstanding musical talent. Her first professional appearance was on a radio program of mixed songs at Durhum, when she was ten. Anne’s mother was encouraged to take her daughter to New York to audition for various theatre companies. There she sang before a number of vocal celebrities; all agreed Anne was an operatic find and offered to finance her further musical education. Anne preferred however, to pay her own way by becoming a John Powers model.
The young North Carolina girl studied her music diligently, ultimately winning a scholarship with the Municipal Opera Association.
The Metropolitan, goal of all opera singers, seemed just around the corner when Mrs. Jeffreys decided her hardworking child had earned a vacation. Mother and daughter boarded a bus for Hollywood.
Even in a community well people with charming blondes, Anne’s blonde beauty attracted the attention of cinema talent scouts. Carefully trained by Lillian Albertson, a studio drama coach, Anne Jeffreys began appearing in motion pictures in 1942. In the beginning she played a number of background characters in such popular Republic Pictures as Moonlight Masquerade and The Flying Tigers. In 1943 Anne finally got her chance to costar in two movies opposite Bill Elliott and Gabby Hayes. The pictures, Calling Wild Bill Elliott and The Man from Thunder River, were westerns. Newspapers across the country reported on the studio’s decision to cast Anne in the film’s main female role.
Anne’s debut in the Bill Elliott films was applauded by moviegoers everywhere and Republic Pictures was praised for the decision to use the gifted songstress in such an inventive role.
“Singing cowboys are not new to the Hollywood scene, but blonde and gorgeous Anne Jeffreys can honestly claim the distinction of being the first singing cowgirl,” an article in the August 7, 1943 edition of the Hollywood Reporter noted. “She is Wild Bill Elliott’s leading lady in all his Republic Pictures now. In each of the pictures in the Elliott series Anne breaks into song at one point or another.”
