 Above, Gene Autry is assisted by the Cass County Boys in this lobby card from ROBIN HOOD OF TEXAS (Republic, 1947). The Cass County Boys were Freddy Martin on accordian, Bert Dodson on bass, Jerry Scoggins on guitar. In the early 1940s, Gene Autry had Jimmy Wakely, Eddie Dean and others in vocal groups on his MELODY RANCH radio program. Am unsure of the exact date, but the Cass County Boys joined sometime in the mid 1940s, and were with the Autry radio show until it's end in the mid-1950s.  Above are the Cass County Boys: Bert Dodson on bass, Freddy Martin on Accordian, Jerry Scoggins on guitar.  (Courtesy of Mary Jane Johnson Dodson and Minard Coons) Above, Gene Autry's MELODY RANCH radio program ran on CBS from 1940-1956. The program was off the air for a 2+ year period - from late Summer, 1943 through late September, 1945 - when Gene was in the Army Air Corps doing WW2 duty. Celebrating the 12th Anniversary of that show are Autry and his singing group, The Cass County Boys, and from L-to-R are: Bert Dodson, Autry, Freddy Martin and Jerry Scoggins. Bert Dodson passed away on October 3, 1994 in Clearwater, Florida.  (Courtesy of Hank DeCato) Above are Jerry Scoggins (left) and Hank DeCato. Below are Hank with Freddy Martin (left) and Jerry Scoggins (right). Both photos are circa 2000.  (Courtesy of Hank DeCato) Special thanks to Hank DeCato for the above photos and for a Christmas, 2002 update on Fred Martin and Jerry Scoggins. Hank writes: "I got Christmas cards from both Jerry and Fred and talked to them both for Christmas and they are doing fine. Jerry is 91 and Fred is in his late 80's. I met the boys when they joined Gene Autry and we would see each other at least two times a year for over 30 years that they were with Gene. We became great friends and went out to dinner with Gene many times through the years and I would go to the radio stations with them when they would play for Gene. At times, Ray Whitley, Jimmy Wakely and Johnny Bond would join us. Those were great days and I'll never forget them. I plan to take Jerry to the Gene Autry museum in LA soon. I took him to Melody Ranch last August and he really enjoyed that." Rhino Records has a TV Themes recording which includes "The Ballad Of Jed Clampett" from THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. The deep-voiced singer on the TV show theme was Scoggins. Lester Flatt (of Flatt and Earl Scruggs fame) did the singing on the Columbia record release. A brief audio cut of the Scoggins/TV show theme, which you can download/play on your PC, is available at Rhino Records: http://www.rhino.com/store/productdetail.lasso?number=78231& Jerry Scoggins passed away on December 7, 2004. Jim Tipton's Find A Grave website has a photo of the marker for Scoggins at the Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park, Westlake Village, California: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10061868 |