![\"\"](\"http:\/\/spclarke.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/autry.jpg\" "\\"autry\\"")
<\/a>For three decades Gene Autry nobly rode his gallant horse Champion across boundless arroyos and prairies, fighting for the causes of justice and righteousness in a B-movie portrayal of the American old west; while stirring the imaginations of millions of young boys and girls. He was one of the first singing cowboys to appear\u00a0 on the silver screen (John Wayne was the first, but he did not actually do his own singing). And, certainly, he was the most successful.<\/p>\nBut it was not only the fact that Gene Autry did his own singing, but that he wrote, or co-wrote hundreds of the songs he sang, including \u201cBack In The Saddle Again\u201c and \u201cHere Comes Santa Claus,\u201d which made of him the one true \u201cSinging Cowboy.\u201d He had nine gold records and innumerable hits among the 635 songs he recorded. In fact, he was the first person, ever, to receive a gold record. During his career he sold over one hundred million records.<\/p>\n
He was a musical influence upon countless musicians who followed after him- including Roy Brown, whose 1947 release \u201cGood Rockin\u2019 Tonight\u201d helped to usher in the rock and roll era; Fats Domino, whose version of \u201cBlueberry Hill\u201d was released sixteen years after Gene\u2019s original 1940 rendition; and Jerry Lee Lewis, whose raucous career was built from a childhood spent listening to Gene Autry on records and the radio. The popular cowboy trio Riders In The Sky would have no reason to exist whatsoever, if not for the career of Gene Autry.<\/p>\n
Gene Autry is the only person to have five stars on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, one each for radio, records, movies, television and for live performance- including rodeo and theater appearances. Not only that, a city actually changed its name to \u201cGene Autry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gene Autry owned a vast empire of radio and television stations. He was the long-time owner of the Los Angeles Angels baseball team. In 1992 the Angels players retired uniform number 26, symbolic of his participation as the club\u2019s 26th player. But in the end, he is best remembered as the \u201cSinging Cowboy.\u201d Though Gene did not necessarily recall his long singing career with complete fondness.<\/p>\n \u201cIt occurs to me that music,\u201d he said in his biography, \u201cwith the possible exception of riding a bull, is the most uncertain way to make a living I know. In either case,\u00a0 you can get bucked off, thrown, stepped on, trampled- if you get on at all. At best, it\u2019s a short, bumpy ride.\u201d Gene Autry\u2019s ride was anything but short, but it had its share of bumps along the way<\/p>\n Orvon Gene Autry was born September 29th, 1907 on a ranch near the small town of Tioga, Texas, located just north of Dallas. His parents, Delbert and Elnora Ozmont Autry, were of French, Scottish and Irish ancestry. Delbert was a trader of horses and livestock. Gene\u2019s grandfather, William T. Autry was a Baptist preacher and a descendant of some of the earliest settlers in Texas. An Autry died in the siege at the Alamo in March of 1836. In need of additional voices for his church choir, William taught his five year old grandson to sing. His mother encouraged the young boy\u2019s inclination toward music. She took great joy in teaching him traditional hymns and folk songs.<\/p>\n Gene and his guitar quickly became a familiar sight in the area. He performed before any audience he could manage to attract. \u201cBy my fifteenth birthday,\u201d he noted in his biography, \u201cI knew my way around whatever stages the town had. I was in all the school plays. I began to earn money in a Tioga caf\u00e9 where the nightly collections [from passing the hat] amounted to about fifty cents.\u201d It was Gene\u2019s keen ambition to avoid, at any cost, the prospect of having to make a living as a farmer.<\/p>\n One of those \u201cstages the town had\u201d to which he referred was at his job as a an apprentice telegraph operator at the Tioga railroad depot. It is said that Gene spent his free time on the job entertaining various local passersby and assorted passengers on the MKT railroad. Many passenger trains passed through Tioga through the course of the average day, providing Gene with a constantly fresh supply of potential audience members. It could be said that young Gene was something of a ham. In addition to his prowess as a musical performer, Gene had acquired a reputation at Ravia High School as being a very capable baseball player. In 1926, at age nineteen, he attended a try-out with a farm club of the St. Louis Cardinals. He was offered a contract by the team, for $100 a month. But Gene turned it down. He was already making $150 a month as a telegraph operator.<\/p>\n After Gene had concluded his impromptu recital, the customer commented that with some hard work he might have a future on the radio; suggesting that Gene should consider pursuing a career as a singer. Gene took the stranger\u2019s words to heart, for he had recognized him the moment he had entered the office and was well aware that the man knew a thing or two about radio. It was Will Rogers!<\/p>\n Less than a year after that, Gene used his railroad pass to travel to New York; auditioning for an artists and repertoire representative for the prestigious RCA-Victor record label. It was determined that Gene\u2019s unique voice was not particularly well suited to popular music. The representative advised that Gene should find material better suited to his style. Gene returned to Oklahoma and soon was making a nightly appearance as \u201cOklahoma\u2019s Yodeling Cowboy\u201d on radio station KVOO in Tulsa.<\/p>\n Gene then returned to New York a few months later; and on October 9, 1929, he cut his first record, “My Dreaming of You,” backed with “My Alabama Home,” for Victor. Ironically, just as his first records were being released, his mother, who had been so essential to his early musical education; died at just forty-five years of age.<\/p>\n Victor began to pressure Gene to sign an exclusive contract. Instead, he chose to sign with the smaller label, the American Record Corporation (which did have an affiliation with Columbia records). Arthur Satterly, ARC general manager, had convinced Gene that while he would be just one small light in a constellation of stars at Victor, ARC would consider him their most important act. Gene was duly impressed with Satterly\u2019s candid sincerity and astute business acumen.<\/p>\n In 1931 Gene released his first hit record, “That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine,”\u00a0 which he had written with his friend Jimmy Long, one night back in the telegraph office. The song sold thirty thousand copies within a month of its release, half a million copies within a year. American Records celebrated the achievement with the public presentation of a gold-plated copy of the record. ARC awarded Gene a second gold record when sales later broke the one million mark. That began the ongoing tradition of the Gold Record Award.<\/p>\n The hit record also led Gene to a greater presence on radio, as he became a regular performer on the National Barn Dance broadcast from station WLS in Chicago. It was on that show that Gene was launched into stardom. Thanks to the national radio exposure, his record sales soared.<\/p>\n Another key partner was Carl Cotner, who played fiddle, and several other instruments and became Gene\u2019s music arranger. Cotner transformed Gene\u2019s raw musical ideas into complete, concise band arrangements. In addition, many well-known musicians passed through Gene\u2019s band. Mary Ford (Les Paul\u2019s wife and partner) sang with the band for a time. In 1936 a teenaged Merle Travis was hired to play guitar.<\/p>\n In 1934 Gene was chosen to sing a song in the film In Old Santa Fe, which starred former silent film cowboy star Ken Maynard. Maynard had made an attempt at singing in a prior film. Though he was no vocalist, the plot device of a character singing a song proved popular with audiences. Nat Levine, the producer of In Old Santa Fe, had decided to experiment with the formula by casting a role for his film in which\u00a0 a professional would sing the musical number. Gene was selected for the part. While he appeared in just a single scene, to sing his song and call a brief square dance, that scene was one of the most popular in the movie.<\/p>\n Several others of Gene\u2019s movies in the \u201830s and \u201840s, including South Of The Border and Mexicali Rose, bothreleased in 1939, were based upon his million-selling hit records. The basis for the 1940 film Back In The Saddle was Gene\u2019s 1938 gold record \u201cBack In The Saddle Again,\u201d which he co-wrote with his friend Ray Whitley. Again in 1940, Gene had another gold record with \u201cYou are My Sunshine,\u201c from his movie Stardust On The Sage. In 1942, \u201cBe Honest With Me,\u201d which he co-wrote with Fred Rose, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song, from the 1941 film Ridin\u2019 On A Rainbow.<\/p>\n In January of 1940, \u201cGene Autry\u2019s Melody Ranch\u201d radio show debuted on the CBS broadcast network, becoming a national institution. Beyond his recording and film careers and his radio program, Gene also toured extensively with an elaborate stage show, which featured roping and riding demonstrations, Indian dancers, comedy, music and horse tricks by Champion. His popularity was so great, that in 1941 the little town of Berwyn changed its name to Gene Autry, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n Gene particularly did not care for \u201cRudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer\u201d and was extremely wary of recording the song. But his wife, Ina Mae, adored the song. \u201cThere was a line in the song,\u201d he said in his biography, \u201cabout the other reindeer not letting Rudolph join in any reindeer games, and she was touched by it. She said \u2018It reminds me of the Ugly Duckling. The kids will love it\u2019\u201d Even with that vote of confidence however, Gene only reluctantly recorded the song at the very end of a session and in a single take, at that.<\/p>\n Also in 1949, Gene had a hit with “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky,” a song written by a former forest ranger named Stan Jones, It became both a country and pop music standard, recorded by everyone from Vaughan Monroe to Duane Eddy, the Ventures, Frankie Laine, Johnny Cash and\u00a0 the Blues Brothers, among many others.<\/p>\n However, his vast wealth and diverse business holdings became even more complex in the \u201860s. Besides owning\u00a0 seventeen active oil wells in Texas, a hotel\/entertainment complex in Palm Springs, California, and Golden West Broadcasters, a chain of radio and television stations, he became the owner of the California Angels baseball team. His passion for baseball had remained undiminished since his tryout with the Cardinals farm club forty years earlier.<\/p>\n In the late \u201880s and through the \u201890s, Gene slowly sold off his vast business holdings, leaving him a billionaire. In 1991 he sold the last ten acres of his Melody Ranch film set, which had been the location for the shooting of innumerable westerns over the years, including High Noon. The Melody Ranch being developed as an historical site.<\/p>\n The Singing Cowboy For three decades Gene Autry nobly rode his gallant horse Champion across boundless arroyos and prairies, fighting for the causes of justice and righteousness in a B-movie portrayal of the American old west; while stirring the imaginations … Continue reading <\/a>Among scores of honors and awards bestowed upon him, he is a charter member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, as well as a recipient of the Songwriters Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. He was feted by his fellow songwriters with a Lifetime Achievement award from ASCAP.<\/p>\n<\/a>When Gene was still a child, he studied the saxophone, but he chose to explore the guitar, because he could sing along as he played that instrument. At age twelve, after saving up enough money for the purchase, baling and stacking hay on his Uncle Calvin\u2019s farm, Gene bought an $8 guitar from the Sears & Roebuck mail order catalog. With his mother\u2019s help, he quickly learned to play enough chords on the guitar to accompany himself, while singing all the songs he had learned as a boy.<\/p>\n
\nIn 1924, Gene moved north with his family to the tiny rural community of Ravia, Oklahoma, located outside the town of Chelsea, about fifty miles Northeast of Tulsa. Gene soon found a job at the telegraph office at the railroad depot in Chelsea, resuming his practice of singing and playing guitar in his spare moments.<\/p>\n<\/a>He was working the swing-shift at the telegraph office in Chelsea one evening in the summer of 1927, singing and playing guitar, as had become his custom, when a patron entered the office. Encouraging him to continue, the stranger listened intently to Gene\u2019s performance, while preparing the message he intended to have sent.<\/p>\n<\/a>In December of 1929, Gene recorded his first six songs for ARC. The music was a stylistic mix of hillbilly, country, blues, and yodeling cowboy ballads. In a brilliant business move, Satterly was able negotiate a deal with Sears & Roebuck to not only offer Gene\u2019s records in their mail order catalog; but to act sponsor for the \u201cGene Autry Program\u201d radio show.<\/p>\n<\/a>During those early years Gene became associated with several key musicians, among them Fred Rose (later known as \u201cthe song doctor,\u201c who wrote hundreds of songs, including \u201cYour Cheatin\u2019 Heart\u201d and \u201cBlue Eyes Cryin\u2019 In The Rain\u201d) with whom Gene wrote several of his hits, including \u201cBe Honest With Me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Though he was deemed to be an actor of limited ability and range, Gene\u2019s film career was underway and for the next twenty years it would compete with his music career; though, for many years, the two careers seemed to feed one another. In 1935 Gene scored a million-selling hit with the title song from Tumbling Tumbleweeds, a film vehicle specially created for him; in which he starred with the Sons of the Pioneers (among whose members included one \u201cDick Weston,\u201d who later was to become Roy Rogers).<\/p>\n<\/a>World War II interrupted Gene\u2019s career. He became a flight officer with the Air Transport Command, being sworn in live on his radio show After the war, he resumed his acting and recording careers. Between 1944 and 1951, he released a string of twenty-five successive Top 10 country hits. He also had six Top Ten pop hits, including gold records with the now-classic holiday standards \u201cHere, Comes Santa Claus,\u201d \u201cFrosty The Snowman,\u201d \u201cPeter Cottontail\u201d and, in 1949 \u201cRudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.\u201d the first record ever to go platinum. \u201cRudolph\u201d eventually sold over thirty million copies.<\/p>\n<\/a>In 1950 Gene began a series on the fledgling CBS television network, \u201cThe Gene Autry Show.\u201d Over the course of the next six years, he produced ninety one half-hour shows. During the same period, his television production company turned out a half-dozen other series as well. He retired from show business by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n<\/a>On October 2nd, 1998, just after his 91st birthday , Gene Autry died, after a long illness. However, his musical legacy lives on still, at the very roots of contemporary country music. His plaintive, monotonal voice sang to the heart of the American psyche, simple words that bore great emotional impact and depth. As long as there are dusty trails to be ridden and vile villains to be foiled, there will remain a place in the heart of every American for Gene Autry, the singing cowboy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"