“The Devil Always Gets the Best Lines”

There’s something comforting about being on Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, up in Newhall, California. Passing through the gate and onto the lot, there’s a real familiarity to the place, even if the boulders are hollow, affixed in the back with crossed timbers, and the ancient, broken steer skulls that mark the signs are barely held together by wires. Boomers like myself were in some ways raised here, the place where Matt Dillon, Hopalong Cassidy, the Lone Ranger and dozens of other cowboy h