THE REEL COWBOYS; FORMER BAD GUYS KEEP WEST'S WILD IMAGE ALIVE.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

It's a tough fight these old movie and TV cowboys have picked for themselves - keeping the Old West alive.

They've been hit with a big one-two punch this year - losing Roy Rogers in July, and now Gene Autry. The ranks of our six-shooting cowboy icons are thinning rapidly.

Most of the men sitting around a booth at Big Jim's Restaurant in Sun Valley on Saturday morning have been beaten up and shot by some of the biggest movie and TV cowboy stars to ever climb into a saddle.

There's John Locke, who drew his gun against Sheriff Matt Dillon out on the main street of Dodge City in the seventh episode of ``Gunsmoke'' - back when ``Miss Kitty was still very young,'' he says.

You might remember him. He was the guy getting dragged off the dirt street at the end of the show while the credits were rolling, and Matt was walking back into the Long Branch Saloon to have a sarsaparilla with Miss Kitty.

There's Big Al Fleming - all 6 feet 8 inches of him - who got beaten up and shot by the good guys in ``Have Gun, Will Travel,'' ``Rawhide,'' ``Gunsmoke'' and numerous other westerns.

There's Al Cranston, Jack Iversen and many more who worked with Autry and Rogers on their movies, TV or radio shows.

``You miss 'em,'' Cranston says. ``It wasn't like working with a star, and you're just a supporting player. It was more like working with your buddies. You could forget all that caste-system stuff.''

Once a week, these men - who call their group Reel Cowboys - gather in the booths over at Big Jim's to stay in touch and mull over ways to breathe new life and interest into western movies.

I first met them in December, when they were down on their hands and knees over at the Glendale YWCA, playing with some little kids who had been physically abused by the adult men in their lives.

The Reel Cowboys were throwing them a Christmas party, trying their best to wipe the fear out of those little eyes and show these kids that not all men were like the bad ones who had hurt them.

Later on, the guys gathered back over at Big Jim's, wishing the day would come when they had the chance to put some fear into the eyes of the men who had beaten those kids.

In the movies and on TV, they had to play the bad guys. In real life, they were as good as they come.

``You look at those old westerns, and you see our heritage, our royalty, in a way,'' says Iversen. ``Those B western movies that Autry and Rogers starred in sustained the (movie) industry for a long time.

``We're trying to bring back that feeling, perpetuate the whole idea of the western movie, keep it alive.''

They're not fooling themselves, though. Old cowboys like Rogers and Autry would be dated today because we've long passed what Cranston calls ``the age of innocence'' in these movies.

``You look back at Gene's old Melody Ranch, at the intimacy and bonding among cowboys in the age of innocence, and you realize you wouldn't see something like that again up on the screen in our high-tech world,'' he says.

But something should be up there, these men say. The legacy of our Old West should be offered to kids today, like it was to past generations of children growing up on Autry and Rogers, on ``Gunsmoke'' and ``Wagon Train.''

``We're trying to keep the memories alive with the new generation of kids coming up,'' Big Al says. ``The cowboy has always been the American icon around the world.

``When I grew up, we still had them as heroes. Those old serial cowboys were our heroes. Today's kids don't have heroes, unless you think gangsters and rap artists are heroes. I don't.''

The frustrating thing, Locke says, is that the market for a new western hero is still there.

``I go across this country a lot, staging gunfights at Wild West shows and giving talks about preserving the Old West,'' he says. ``Everywhere I go, people say they want westerns back on TV. But where are they?''

Yes, it's a tough fight these old movie and TV cowboys have picked for themselves - keeping the Old West alive.

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Reel Cowboys members, from left, John Locke, Jack Iversen, Fred Smoot and Big Al Fleming are among the longtime movie and TV cowpokes who are working to preserve the legacy of the American West as portrayed in films.

Andy Holzman/Daily News

(2--Color) no caption (Movie poster for Gene Autry's ``Winning of the West'')

(3) Singing cowboy Gene Autry, shown with his horse, Champion, died Friday at his Studio City home at age 91 after becoming a hero to generations of fans.

File Photo