Road Show Six

Boyd began his career in radio broadcasting, working for 15 years (‘62-‘77) at various stations around the country using the air name Alan Boyd. He was program director at most of the stations where he worked. Leaving radio in 1977, Boyd established VideoWest, Inc. specializing in vintage western films and TV series by mail order. He built up a fine reputation and consistent business around the world.

Since 1994 Boyd has self published and distributed WESTERN CLIPPINGS to over 1,000 subscribers. Celebrity columnists include Will Hutchins (TV’s “Sugarfoot”), screen badman Michael Pate and stuntman Neil Summers. He has also self published several one-shots: TOP 100 COWBOYS OF THE CENTURY, WESTERN LADIES #1-5, THOSE GREAT B-WESTERN LOCATIONS and WESTERN MOVIE THRILLERS.

Boyd’s  first book, WESTERNS WOMEN, published by McFarland in ‘99, contained 50 interviews with leading ladies. LADIES OF THE WESTERN, the sequel, was published in January 2002. Both are now in their second printing. His third book, SO YOU WANNA SEE COWBOY STUFF? (THE WESTERN MOVIE/TV TOUR GUIDE), was published by Empire in the Spring of 2003. A fourth book, THE FILMS OF AUDIE MURPHY was published by McFarland in July 2004.  BEST OF THE BADMEN, was published by Empire in November ‘05.  314 western screen heavies (badmen) with complete bios and photos. Boyd’s latest is GENE AUTRY WESTERNS, just published in August ’07 through Empire, fully authorized by Gene Autry Entertainment.

Boyd has provided research data and material over the years to many other books:

§         LEONARD MALTIN’S CLASSIC MOVIE GUIDE (’05)
§         VIDEO MOVIE GUIDE (reviews in all annual editions) by Mick Martin and Marsha Porter
§         SHOOT ‘EM UPS (‘78) by Rainey and Adams
§         SHOOT ‘EM UPS RIDE AGAIN (‘90) by Buck Rainey
§         FEATURE PLAYERS (‘86) by Tom and Jim Goldrup
§         THE JIMMY WAKELY STORY (‘92) by Linda Lee Wakely
§         LAWMEN IN SCARLET (‘90) by Bernard Drew
§         TIM HOLT (‘94) by David Rothel
§         FILMS OF HOPALONG CASSIDY (‘88) by Francis M. Nevins
§         FILMS OF THE CISCO KID (‘98) by Francis M. Nevins
and over 30 other books on westerns.

Research data for several TV and straight to video documentaries has been provided by Boyd on John Wayne, Dick Tracy, Pioneertown (“The Last Western”), Roy Rogers (for “Entertainment Tonight”),Charles Starrett,  “TV’s Greatest Heroes” and others. A special section of The Old Corral website is devoted to his look-back analyses of westerns. Over 2,100 are currently online at <www.surfnetinc.com/chuck/ magers.htm> More are added regularly. The Westerns Channel has done on-air interviews with him regarding Tombstone, AZ, related films and other westerns.

Knowledgeable about all phases of westerns and film, over the last 15 years Boyd has moderated over 150 western celebrity guest star discussion panels at various film festivals in Lone Pine, CA,  Memphis, TN, Knoxville, TN, Charlotte, NC, Apache Junction, AZ, Sonora, CA, Tombstone, AZ, Kanab, UT, Victorville, CA, Phoenix, AZ, and at the Autry National Center.

Boyd worked closely with the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, IA, for a three month western movie exhibit (January-March ’03) and another in June 2004 with many of my own authentic movie artifacts on display. He moderated several symposiums with film celebrities there. Other exhibits of his vast collection of western movie memorabilia were on exhibit May-November 2006 at both the Clinton Presidential Library in Arkansas and the Kansas Historical Center where he also moderated western film celebrity symposiums.

He regularly consults various western celebrities, helping them to acquire material on their careers or films they’ve appeared in. He has also amassed a personal collection of western film related artifacts (which one day will be donated to a museum). The collection includes items from such legends as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, and many others.