Yes, there really was a ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ that honored God
Note from WND News Center Editor-in-Chief David Kupelian: Dr. Ted Baehr, a longtime friend and ally of WND, is chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission and publisher of Movieguide, which evaluates motion pictures and other entertainment products from a wholesome Christian perspective. His books include “How To Succeed In Hollywood (Without Losing Your Soul)” and “The Culture-Wise Family.”
Ted’s latest book, “Behind the Scenes of The Golden Age of Hollywood and Broadway: The Legacy of Robert Allen,” is much more than a compelling retrospective of his father, Irving E. Theodore Baehr – better known by his Hollywood stage name, Bob (“Tex”) Allen, the original star of Colombia Pictures’ popular “Texas Ranger” movies during the early “Golden” days of Hollywood. Woven throughout Ted’s heartfelt reflection on his dad’s life and the glamour and excitement of a bygone and more innocent era, is a powerful series of lessons about the fleeting nature of fame and fortune, and ultimately, about the love and mercy of God.
Here’s what Hollywood legend Pat Boone says about “Behind the Scenes”: “Anything my friend Ted Baehr writes you should read! Ted has had an amazing life, he’s accomplished magnificent things for society and the Kingdom of God – and happily, he is a phenomenal writer. I can’t remember starting a book that kept me so glued to it as this one. I honestly didn’t want to stop, and when I did I could hardly wait to get back to finish it. … I find myself literally ‘glued’ to the story as he tells it in such a winning way, and hasty to turn the pages and keep going. I’ve never said that about a book, except The Bible itself. And by the way, he knows The Bible backwards and forwards. Please do yourself a favor and spend a couple of hours reading what this man tells you in such an engaging way.”
Actress, producer and best-selling author Roma Downey says: “This book shows that fame and wealth are fleeting, but God’s love never fails.”
And Christian filmmakers, actors and influencers Kevin and Sam Sorbo say: “In ‘Behind the Scenes,’ Ted Baehr exposes Hollywood’s most guarded secrets, reveals what a life in entertainment is really like, and ultimately, unerringly shows that God’s love extends to everyone who truly seeks Him.”
The following excerpt from the last section of Ted Baehr’s “Behind the Scenes” is headlined “A Legacy of Faith”:
There is a banquet table in heaven with a special place reserved for those who know Jesus and love Him. We know this to be true because Jesus told us so.
Many of the good guys from the Golden Age of Hollywood have gone ahead of us to join the festivities. We know that there is rejoicing and probably a lot of wonderful conversations with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has wiped away all their tears.
Some of the good guys are very well-known: Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Jimmy Stewart, and a host of others.
Among that host of well-known was my father, Bob “Tex” Allen, the original Texas Ranger. He ranks among them, having won a Box Office award for his lead in “Love Me Forever” and was rated next to Tim McCoy with his Western series that still airs on Turner Network Television.
Regrettably, we live in a cynical age, which has drifted away from good and evil, as Nietzsche told us it would – an age in which we have forgotten God.
So we look back at that Golden Era and sometimes don’t realize that these men not only manifested virtue on the screen, but also in their lives off the screen.
My father, a great rider and roper, was born in 1906, when the cowboys still existed, and before the last U.S. Cavalry battles with the Comanches and Apaches in 1910-1912.
Unlike the portrait painted in today’s movies, I remember the stories from those old-timers who said that in the Old West – when one was in a world where death was so close and danger was just around the corner – you lived in awe of God.
Therefore, these real cowboys were good guys who wore high white hats, who didn’t curse, who kept their word, and who manifested love and compassion.
In his personal life, my father manifested so much integrity, virtue, and compassion that his example helped me to know God the Father, and the truth of Jesus Christ.
Among other wonderful virtues, he was a mentor and a friend, giving and decent, full of kindness and grace. Rudeness and crudeness so shocked him that I am relieved he has gone on to glory before today’s degradation of our government and the officials who act like rude barbarians and hooligans.
It is hard for us to remember, but there was a Golden Age.
There were those who tried to live by standards that are today being torn apart by evil. If we truly love those heroes of the silver screen, we can, perhaps, tell the truth of their stories instead of dragging those stories into the filth of our Freudian decadence.
If we love them, we can try to emulate the virtue that so easily and so well suited them. It is a legacy worth considering.
The Bible tells us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, who are none other than those wonderful saints that went on to glory before us.
A saint is a person set apart by God when that person is born again through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. I remember quite well the very moment that my father said the sinner’s prayer and was born again in my home in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1982.
At the Glen Cove Hospital in the final days of his life, he reaffirmed his faith in Jesus Christ while all my family was gathered around his bed weeks before he died.
However, despite the secure knowledge I have that my father has gone on to glory to a mansion prepared just for him in heaven, I wept when my father died.
Jesus gave His precious life to purchase eternal life for each and every man, woman, and child who would accept His gift.
Although Jesus lived at an extremely pagan time – where life was cheap and disposable, where pleasure took precedence over life, where people were murdered in the Roman Colosseum to entertain the populace, where babies were left to die outside the city gates, where bodies were thrown into stew pots to feed the outcasts – Jesus knew how unique each one of us is, and so He alone redeemed us. He, of course, knew the mission and ministry to which He appointed each of us.
God designed my father to be a gentleman in every way. He possessed great talent, a wonderful mind, and was extremely handsome. He was open, decent, and humble in ways that caused most of those who knew him to love him. Throughout his life, he got better. In spite of all his gifts and talents, my father dedicated himself to his children, often at great cost to himself.
He would often come and visit me in Atlanta and then Hollywood, although it cost him interviews for movies, plays, and TV programs. He would then hasten back home to his beloved Oyster Bay because he loved my sister so much. He wanted to spend as many months a year with her and then with me.
An actor’s life is extremely difficult. Getting a part is dependent on having the right look and being at the right place at the right time. When you have a major part, things are great, but when you don’t, there is nothing.
I remember many days when we had nothing, but my father always had faith that God would provide. God always did. He provided in miraculous ways.
In spite of the financial highs and lows, my father never complained. He trusted God so much that he sent Kathy to Westover and Vassar and me to St. Paul’s and Dartmouth. Thus, my father prepared me for faith in God and for the vagaries of ministry.
Furthermore, when I came to know God after years of rebellion, I saw how much of Him was reflected in my father, who gave himself so selflessly for his family.
Although I wept at his passing, I also rejoiced that Dad had gone ahead of me.
Today, we are confused about what is right and what is wrong, and about what makes us happy and what makes us sad. Many have forgotten that life is tenuous and can be cut short in an instant. Many who ponder the afterlife want it their way without thinking about the consequences.
They are in a sense like the inhabitants of the TV program “The Twilight Zone,” who get what they want only to find out that it is not what they really want.
My father was not confused. He lived his values and was certain about the meaning of life. He listened to his family and blessed those who knew him. He saw his whole family come to know the Truth that set them free from the confusions, delusions, and demons of our age. He came to know and understand that Jesus Christ is the only Way.
God gave him faith, which is a gift.
I miss Dad. I love him and thank him for what he did for me. And I look forward to joining him in heaven.