page_title: Bill Cody (actor)
section_title: Ray Kirkwood Productions
hierarchical_section_title: Bill Cody (actor) / Ray Kirkwood Productions
caption_attribution_description: English: Lobby card for the 1934 film Frontier Days with Bill Cody and Chico.
context_page_description: Páll Valtýr Pálsson or "Bill" Cody Sr. was a Hollywood B-Western actor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and father to Bill Cody Jr.
  Cody began his acting career in the early days of film and just happened to have the same name as "Buffalo" Bill Cody, although he was not a relation. Cody's name was what initially drew producers to him; however, he soon proved to be a charismatic performer in his own right.
context_section_description: Late in 1934, producer Ray Kirkwood signed Cody to a contract, to make a series of cowboy thrillers for release through Spectrum Pictures. Kirkwood, a native of Pennsylvania who had once been a production manager for Thomas Ince and later a film distributor in South America, turned producer with the release of Frontier Days, a lively and entertaining feature which opened to exceptionally good reviews. Cody and his pinto, Chico, were joined by leading lady Ada Ince, silent film veterans Franklyn Farnum and William Desmond, one-time leading man Wheeler Oakman, and Cody's 9-year-old son, billed simply as Billy, Jr. 
  As the first father-and-son team starring together in B-Westerns, both Cody Sr. and Billy showed considerable promise in the first film of the series. It was followed by Six Gun Justice, The Cyclone Ranger (a tale of mistaken identity from the pen of prolific western writer Oliver Drake), The Texas Rambler (another Oliver Drake screenplay, this one with a strong element of mystery), and The Vanishing Riders (in which Cody and his son masquerade as ghosts to demoralize a gang of despicable, superstitious rustlers). 
  The Codys went on tour with a wild west show and circus. When they returned to Hollywood, Kirkwood – experiencing a financial squeeze – replaced writer Drake with his own wife, Zarah Tazil, who wrote the remaining screenplays for the series. Director J. P. McCarthy succeeded in getting from Cody one of his best performances in The Lawless Border, featuring Molly O'Day as leading lady. Blazing Justice and Outlaws of the Range concluded the Spectrum series on a pleasant but less ambitious note.
  Cody was the star attraction with the Downie Brothers Circus when it opened its 1935 season in Macon, Georgia, to a capacity house. "With all equipment resplendent in new red paint the show opened with the Cavalcade of Splendor. Bill Cody was then introduced by Harry Mack," Downie's press agent. Cody was replacing Jack Hoxie, who had headlined the 1933–34 season. 
  In May 1935, Billboard reported that Cody and "the new seal act were going over big." In August, two of Cody's sons joined him from their school vacations, and one report said that Cody was at work on a circus film, which was to be one of eight he made for Spectrum Pictures. The September 28, 1935, Billboard reported that Cody "closed several weeks ago" but does not give a date or reason for his leaving.
  Prior to joining Downie, Cody was a feature on the Miller Brothers' 101 Ranch show in 1929 and the Bostock Wild Animal Circus in 1934, the year he starred in The Border Menace, called by some "the worst B-Western ever made."
caption: Frontier Days lobby card
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