Gene Autry's Bio

 

 

Gene Autry on stage
Gene Autry making a jump


The Gene Autry we see today in genial and dignified old age is an icon, legendary as a singer, songwriter, actor, movie star, businessman, executive, and baseball magnate. He is gifted enough to also have been a successful television producer, telegrapher, pilot, musician, and more. His gracious stillness -- the very essence of the Western hero -- tends these days to overshadow the memory of the energetic, confident (though not brash) blond youth who nearly 70 years ago thought he could take on the world, and against the odds managed to do just that, and win.

What unshakable confidence it must have taken to join a medicine show as a teenager, to sing for Will Rogers as a young man, to face the unimaginable terrors of New York, to be rebuffed more than once only to come back stronger, to build a career on music already archaic and deliberately folksy in its day. It was the same quiet confidence that led him to persevere in an entirely new film genre, with an entirely new style of acting, scripting, and presentation; to take on the head of a powerful film studio more than once; to produce his own films and television programs; to jump headfirst into the world of business; to create a major museum. No one could have expected this from the medium-sized, fair-haired, pleasant-voiced, sweet-smiling kid from Texas and Oklahoma.

It wasn't so much his overcoming adversity -- plenty of successful people in and out of the entertainment business have come from far more deprived circumstances -- as it was how far he exceeded expectations. For behind that pleasant, comfortable, likable, almost bland exterior lay talent, ambition, ferocious intelligence, and a supreme self confidence. In retrospect, Gene Autry's remarkable success seems not to have been the astonishing series of lucky flukes detractors saw, but instead a careful and ambitious rise to prominence in a half-dozen fields. Was there some luck involved? Sure, there is in every career. But Gene Autry took advantage of the luck that came his way with intelligence, instinct, and foresight -- the same attributes that fueled his rise in music and films.

This astonishing saga begins in the quiet crossroads of Tioga, Texas, about two-thirds of the way between Dallas-Fort Worth and the Oklahoma border, where young Orvon Gene Autry, the first of four children, was born to Delbert and Elnora Ozment Autry on September 29, 1907. He was exposed to the life of the cowboy and the traditions of the West by his father, a livestock dealer and horse trader, and to music by his mother, who taught him to play the guitar, and then by his grandfather, William Autry, a Baptist minister who had a five-year-old Gene singing in the church choir. He absorbed the music he heard on record and on trips to Fort Worth and Kansas City with his father. Some time during his mid-teens, he had learned and practiced enough to tour with The Fields Brothers Marvelous Medicine Show as a singer prior to his finishing high school. Upon his graduation in 1925 he took a series of positions with the Frisco Railroad in Oklahoma (where the Autrys and their four children had moved some years before), eventually rising to the post of relief telegrapher.

Growing up in the West, if not on the frontier, surely shaped his life, as did his mother's frail health (she died in 1930 at the age of 45) and his father's boom-or-bust occupation, which left them alternately flush or broke. They moved to Achille, Oklahoma, then back to Tioga, living high, wide, and handsome. Frequently Gene worked baling and stacking hay for one of several uncles in the close-knit Autry family. Young Gene had talent as a musician and as a baseball player, but his eyes were firmly fixed on escaping this cycle of instability. He said in his biography, "It always surprises me when people seem surprised by my success in business. Actually working with numbers was what I did best. What I did less well was sing, act, and play the guitar." He performed around his homes in Texas and Oklahoma while in high school, but with the tireless ambition and clear sense that marked all aspects of his career, he also took correspondence courses in accounting and learned Morse code on his own to better his chances of a job with the railroad, which indeed came his way.

These contrapuntal strains in the melody of his life converged one fateful summer day in 1927. The legendary humorist Will Rogers stopped by a small railway station in Chelsea, Oklahoma, where he was visiting his sister, to telegraph his newspaper column, as he had done several times before while visiting the family homestead. This story has been burnished to legend, but bears repeating again, for the relief telegrapher that night was young Gene Autry, who whiled away the empty hours singing and playing his guitar. Gene reports Rogers' words were, "You know, with some hard work, young man, you might have something. You ought to think about going to New York and get yourself a job on radio." Whether he was genuinely impressed by the sandy-haired teenager or was simply being polite, Rogers' compliments stoked a fire burning deep within the young man. Now that radio had swept the nation, Autry knew that there was a wide world out there to be conquered. After nearly a year of thinking it over, practicing, and dreaming, Autry used his small savings, a free round-trip railroad pass, and some vacation time to take his guitar and dreams to New York.

He had been to cities before, of course, with his father, but imagine the mingled fear, shock, and excitement this 20-year-old must have felt upon entering the most sophisticated city on earth at the very height of the Jazz Age. Surely he was daunted, but he had confidence and that marvelous optimism that allows the young to sometimes do the impossible simply because they haven't learned yet that it can't be done.

Gene knew no one in New York but had met the mother of Frank and Johnny Marvin at her cafe in Butler, Oklahoma. Armed only with her suggestion that he look up her sons when he got to New York, Gene knocked on their door, introduced himself, and developed a lifelong relationship with both men. Johnny Marvin (1897-1944) was already quite successful in New York as a singer and songwriter; Frank, who was around Gene's age, was trying to break into the business. The two young men became immediate buddies, making the rounds of record companies and, in Autry's words, sharing one overcoat between them. When his star faded on Broadway, Johnny would end up working for Gene Autry until his untimely death from a disease contracted on a USO tour of the South Pacific. Frank went on to provide the haunting and instantly recognizable steel guitar sound in dozens of Autry movies, hundreds of records, and innumerable radio shows and live appearances.

But those palmy days were yet to come. In the summer and fall of 1928 young Autry got few auditions and less encouragement, save the kind words of RCA Records executive and songwriter Nat Shillkret, who suggested the young man needed more practice, more seasoning, more experience with a microphone, and sent him home to Oklahoma with a kind letter of reference. With this and his unshakable confidence, Autry wrangled his first radio job, as "Oklahoma's Yodelin' Cowboy" on KVOO in Tulsa. Though he began to tour on a local basis, he displayed the kind of level-headed maturity that would serve him so well in years to come. He didn't give up his day job, but instead returned to work as a telegrapher, and he met the man who would influence his life in quite profound ways. This man was Jimmy Long, 18 years his senior and chief night dispatcher on the railroad. Long played the guitar, sang, and wrote songs, and, like young Autry, was passionate about the music of that sensational new "blue yodeling" singing star, Jimmie Rodgers. Autry and Long wrote many songs together. (And in 1932 Long introduced Gene to his niece, Ina Mae Spivey, who became Mrs. Autry after a whirlwind courtship.) Long, well settled in his career, recorded with Autry and even appeared with him on the National Barn Dance during a Depression-era layoff, but he apparently did not care for the vagabond life of a professional entertainer, and returned to his job in Springfield, Missouri, where he retired in 1950 and died in 1953.

A year's experience and hard work convinced Gene it was time to try New York again, and this time it paid off, for he made his first recording ("My Dreaming Of You," by Johnny Marvin and "My Alabama Home," by Jimmy Long) just days before the infamous Wall Street crash of 1929. Although this record was for Victor, Jimmie Rodgers' label, Autry did not have an exclusive contract with them, and recorded that year for a wide variety of labels, including Columbia, Grey Gull, Cova, OKeh, and Gennett. He occasionally used a pseudonym, which was not an uncommon practice in those wide-open days. These early recordings are indicative of Autry's eclectic musical experience and taste, for they are a mixture of cowboy songs ("Cowboy Yodel"), sentimental tunes ("The Tie That Binds"), folk songs ("Methodist Pie"), topical songs (" A Gangster's Warning"), even a labor ballad ("The Death Of Mother Jones"), and of course a heavy dose of blue yodels in the style of his musical idol, Jimmie Rodgers. Indeed, so much did the young Autry sound like Rodgers that on several cuts their voices are virtually indistinguishable, even to the practiced ear.

Eventually Gene signed exclusively with Arthur E. Satherley of the American Record Corporation (ARC), which controlled a number of labels, including Perfect, Oriole, Banner, Melotone, Conqueror, and Romeo. Apparently Satherley -- who would later play a huge part in Autry's recording and film success -- signed young Gene as ARC's answer to the enormously popular Rodgers. A legendary producer who lived well into his nineties, Satherley discovered and produced many of the influential folk, country, cowboy, and blues artists of the '30s and '40s: Bessie Smith, Roy Acuff, Big Bill Broonzy, Bob Wills, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Al Dexter, Ma Rainey, Carl Smith, Little Jimmy Dickens, and dozens of others.

Though happy for a time to ride with this trend -- indeed happy to be recording at all as the Depression closed in -- Autry realized he had to develop his own sound, style, and identity. He struck gold at last with "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine," a duet with Jimmy Long recorded in October 1931 which became Autry's first million-seller. His career accelerated rapidly at this point. He auditioned for and was accepted as a cast member of the WLS National Barn Dance in Chicago, the oldest, and for years most popular, of the radio barn dances (it was supplanted by the Grand Ole Opry only by the late 1940s), and on his own Conqueror Record Time program on the same station. Billed again as Oklahoma's Yodelin' Cowboy, his image and material took a strong shift to the West, and he consolidated his cowboy image in his three years (1931-34) on the National Barn Dance, where he became the hottest star on the hottest rural-oriented radio show in America. In this first flush of success, Gene Autry began collecting guitars; perhaps a better way to say it is that he began buying top-of-the-line and custom Martin, Gibson, and Larson Brothers guitars, which today are among the most desired collectors' guitars. A very early publicity photo shows him --posing hatless in a snappy suit, not a cowboy outfit -- playing an expensive, custom Martin. As the years passed and his income increased, he bought or had made a number of instruments which now are historic themselves, including the first of Martin's D-45s (one of only 91 made before World War II, and one of only two featuring 12 frets to the body and a slotted peghead). He also acquired at least two prewar Gibson J-200s (nearly as rare, with only about 100 made), both customized and unique, a Martin 000-45, and more than a few others. These numbers will, of course, mean little to those who are not guitar fanatics, but they make collectors and players salivate. Several can be seen on display at the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City, the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, and of course the Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles. At the time, Autry was not really a collector -- although he had many instruments -- nor was he trying to create a collection of rarities; he simply loved beautiful things, had excellent taste, and was able to afford the very best Martin and Gibson could come up with.

His vocal style became very much his own in those years, and though he still was to mature greatly as a singer, even then his gentle, soothing voice created a feeling of immediacy between the singer and his listeners. His guileless honesty was to be profoundly effective on film as well: bashful, sincere, and unaffected, his character was believable, likable, a boy next door. It was a perfect voice for radio and record, intimate and unthreatening, so unlike the stage-trained belters, the slick pop crooners, or the rough-hewn hillbilly (only later to be called "country") music of the era.

At this time, Autry made friends with a couple of men who would play a huge part in his sound and career: Lester "Smiley" Burnette, his longtime sidekick, cowriter, comedian, and man of a thousand instruments, and violinist Carl Cotner, who would lead his band for decades. Both quickly joined him when Hollywood called and were followed not long after by Frank Marvin. All three are well represented in this collection, as are several others, like Johnny Bond, whom we will meet later. The specifics of how this call to Hollywood came about are lost in the mists of memory and the maze of conflicting recollections. But the why is clear, and it changed the course of film history, catapulting Gene Autry from a regionally popular cowboy singer to one of the most popular film stars in the world.

The broad outline is thus: the coming of talking films in 1927 turned the film industry upside down, propelling some new actors to stardom, stopping others dead in their tracks. In its infancy, sound recording on film was far too unpredictable to use outdoors, and consequently Westerns were a little late in getting sound; once they did, it was inevitable that singing -- which the public liked and cowboys are associated with -- would become a prominent part of the genre. The experiment was tried as early as 1928, when Warner Baxter sang "My Antonia" in In Old Arizona, and again in 1930 when Bob Steele sang a few songs in The Oklahoma Cyclone for Tiffany. In 1933 Ken Maynard and even John Wayne -- with a dubbed voice -- did some singing on film; some of Maynard's films came perilously close to becoming singing cowboy pictures. But in no sense were they a series: Maynard simply featured music, either instrumental (he was a bit of a fiddler as well as an adequate guitarist) or vocals, as incidental to the action in several of his standard Western films. A composer of at least two title songs for his films (The Trail Drive and Wheels Of Destiny), and one of the earliest cowboys to record, having cut eight sides for Columbia in 1930, Maynard was, fortunately for Gene Autry, not a gifted musician or singer. His rough-hewn voice may have projected authenticity, but it was not particularly pleasing; and though Maynard was a harbinger of things to come, it was up to Gene Autry to invent the genre. Music was central to young Gene Autry; it had been his whole career. Though doubtless he understood the profound impact a film appearance could have on a career, and although he was normally quite thorough in his preparation, he neither studied nor practiced acting. We must assume, then, that whatever his ambitions were, an acting career was not among them. Thus the remarkable events that ensued must have been as great a surprise to him as they were to the world.

Gene Autry's great legacy is at least twofold, although a case could probably be made for all five of the careers celebrated on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. First, in film -- although he may not have been the first singing cowboy, and the concept wasn't really his -- there is still no doubt that the entire singing cowboy film genre exists because of Autry. The time was right for a man gentle with children, romantic enough to serenade a lady, and courageous enough to defend what is right with his wit, his fists, or -- rarely -- his guns, the perfect hero for the Depression. He brought this film genre to sudden, stunning prominence, and with it gave a boost to the numerous singing cowboys who followed. Second, it has been argued that Gene Autry's international success did much to popularize country music, broadening the appeal of the songs of the hills, the square dances, and the roadhouses where it was beloved by a few and sniffed at by the mainstream. Now it is the mainstream, and its rise can at least partially be attributed to Gene Autry's pioneering efforts of 60 years ago, when he brought glamour and dignity to the music of the common people. It's no accident that Billboard replaced the almost universally detested term "hillbilly" with "country & western" in the 1940s, seeking to attach the success of Western film music -- personified by Gene Autry -- to the entire scope of rural music. It is "country" now, and cowboys are rarely heard from on the charts, but this is another enduring Gene Autry legacy that ought not to be forgotten. And what of Gene Autry himself? Like Garth Brooks today, Gene Autry, the man, nurtured and cultivated Gene Autry the public figure, carefully guarding and controlling that image. Beyond the handful of career highlights, told and retold, the real Gene Autry has seldom been seen by the public.Even his 1978 autobiography, Back In the Saddle Again, retells the known facts, sprinkling entertaining anecdotes about his encounters with celebrities in the fields of entertainment, politics, and baseball; it touches very little on the inner man. Reading between the lines, however, and taking in reminiscences from longtime friends and coworkers like Carl Cotner, Johnny Bond, and Armand Schaefer, a portrait emerges of a man with great confidence, strong will, surprising humility, and genial good humor. He's an appreciator of beauty, a tough and thorough businessman, yet a friend to those loyal to him. A man who loves a good joke, who enjoys a quiet drink with his male friends, and who likes to flirt with the ladies. A man of determination involved with every phase of his widely varied career. A man with thousands of acquaintances but only a few, deeply trusted friends. A man who takes his legendary status seriously, but not too seriously. The Gene Autry story is fascinating partly because of its diversity. It tells of enormous success and lasting influence in several distinct areas of the entertainment business, both in and outside of performing, and of more success yet in fields entirely unrelated to the entertainment industry. The best part is, it's a story still unfinished, for at the time of this writing, Gene Autry is 89 and still going strong. His life has long been called the very embodiment of the American Dream. It's been a brilliant, stirring, inspiring ride, and it sure isn't over yet.

--Douglas B.
Green
September
1996




GENE AUTRY THEATRICAL RELEASES BY YEAR
1934
MYSTERY MOUNTAIN * +
IN OLD SANTA FE *


1935
THE PHANTOM EMPIRE (Serial) *
TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS
MELODY TRAIL
THE SAGEBRUSH TROUBADOUR
THE SINGING VAGABOND


1936
RED RIVER VALLEY (Man Of The Frontier) *
COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN
THE SINGING COWBOY
GUNS AND GUITARS
OH, SUSANNA! *
RIDE, RANGER, RIDE *
THE BIG SHOW *
THE OLD CORRAL *


1937
ROUND-UP TIME IN TEXAS *
GIT ALONG, LITTLE DOGIES *
ROOTIN' TOOTIN' RHYTHM *
YODELIN' KID FROM PINE RIDGE *
PUBLIC COWBOY NO. 1 *
BOOTS AND SADDLES *
MANHATTAN MERRY-GO-ROUND ^
SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES *


1938
THE OLD BARN DANCE *
GOLD MINE IN THE SKY
MAN FROM MUSIC MOUNTAIN *
PRAIRIE MOON
RHYTHM OF THE SADDLE
WESTERN JAMBOREE


1939
HOME ON THE PRAIRIE
MEXICALI ROSE
BLUE MONTANA SKIES
MOUNTAIN RHYTHM
COLORADO SUNSET
IN OLD MONTEREY
ROVIN' TUMBLEWEEDS
SOUTH OF THE BORDER (South Of Texas)


1940
RANCHO GRANDE
SHOOTING HIGH
GAUCHO SERENADE
CAROLINA MOON
RIDE, TENDERFOOT, RIDE
MELODY RANCH


1941
RIDIN' ON A RAINBOW
BACK IN THE SADDLE
THE SINGING HILL
SUNSET IN WYOMING
UNDER FIESTA STARS
DOWN MEXICO WAY
SIERRA SUE


1942
COWBOY SERENADE
HEART OF THE RIO GRANDE
HOME IN WYOMIN'
STARDUST ON THE SAGE
CALL OF THE CANYON
BELLS OF CAPISTRANO


1943 - 1945
Movie Star Gene Autry Became Sgt. Gene Autry During World War II


1946
SIOUX CITY SUE


1947
TRAIL TO SAN ANTONE
TWILIGHT ON THE RIO GRANDE
SADDLE PALS
ROBIN HOOD OF TEXAS
THE LAST ROUND-UP


1948
THE STRAWBERRY ROAN


1949
LOADED PISTOLS *
THE BIG SOMBRERO
RIDERS OF THE WHISTLING PINES *
RIM OF THE CANYON *
THE COWBOY AND THE INDIANS *
RIDERS IN THE SKY


1950
SONS OF NEW MEXICO
MULE TRAIN
COW TOWN
BEYOND THE PURPLE HILLS
INDIAN TERRITORY
THE BLAZING SUN


1951
GENE AUTRY AND THE MOUNTIES
TEXANS NEVER CRY
WHIRLWIND
SILVER CANYON
HILLS OF UTAH
VALLEY OF FIRE


1952
THE OLD WEST
NIGHT STAGE TO GALVESTON
APACHE COUNTRY
BARBED WIRE
WAGON TEAM
BLUE CANADIAN ROCKIES
RAINBOW 'ROUND MY SHOULDER #


1953
WINNING OF THE WEST
ON TOP OF OLD SMOKY
GOLDTOWN GHOST RIDERS
PACK TRAIN
SAGINAW TRAIL
LAST OF THE PONY RIDERS


TELEVISION INFORMATION

THE GENE AUTRY SHOW

Episode Titles In Numerical Order Original Airdates 1950 to 1955
1."Gold Dust Charlie"
2."Head For Texas"
3."The Doodle Bug"
4."The Silver Arrow"
5."The Double Switch"
6."The Star Toter"
7."The Posse"
8."Blackwater Valley Feud"
9."Double Cross Valley"
10."The Devil's Brand"
11."The Lost Chance"
12."Six Shooter Sweepstakes"
13."The Black Rider"
14."The Poisoned Water Hole"
15."Gun Powder Range"
16."Twisted Trails"
17."Fight At Peaceful Mesa"
18."The Break-Up"
19."Hot Lead"
20."The Killer Horse"
21."The Sheriff Of Santa Rosa"
22."The Grey Dude"
23."The Peacemaker"
24."TNT"
25."The Raiders" (Color)
26."Double Barreled Vengeance" (Color)
27."Horse Sense"
28."Outlaw Escape"
29."Frontier Guard"
30."Return Of Maverick Dan"
31."Ghost Town Raiders"
32."Revenge Trail"
33."The Lawless Press"
34."Silver Dollars"
35."Killer's Trail"
36."Bullets And Bows"
37."Bandits Of Boulder Bluff"
38."Trouble At Melody Mesa"
39."Warning! Danger"
40."Framed For Trouble"
41."Blaze Away"
42."Rock River Feud"
43."Heir To The Lazy L"
44."The Kid Comes West"
45."Ruthless Renegade"
46."Hot Lead And Old Lace"
47."Galloping Hoofs"
48."Trouble At Silver Creek"
49."Six-Gun Romeo"
50."The Sheriff Is A Lady"
51."The Western Way"
52."Trail Of The Witch"
53."Thunder Out West"
54."Outlaw Stage"
55."The Bandidos"
56."Cold Decked"
57."Santa Fe Raiders"
58."Narrow Escape"
59."The Old Prospector"
60."Ghost Mountain"
61."Border Justice"
62."Hold Up"
63."Johnny Jackaroo"
64."Gypsy Wagon"
65."Outlaw Of Blue Mesa"
66."Dry Gulch At Devil's Elbow"
67."Hoodoo Canyon"
68."Prize Winner"
69."Sharp Shooter"
70."Rio Renegade"
71."The Carnival Comes West"
72."Talking Guns"
73."Ransom Cross"
74."Battle Axe"
75."Civil War At Deadwood"
76."Outlaw Warning"
77."Boots And Ballots"
78."The Steel Ribbon"
79."Saddle Up" (Color)
80."Ride Ranchero" (Color)
81."The Rangerette" (Color)x
82."Stage To San Dimas" (Color)
83."Guns Below The Border" (Color)
84."Portrait Of White Cloud" (Color)
85."Go West Young Lady" (Color)
86."Law Comes To Scorpion" (Color)
87."Million Dollar Fiddle" (Color)
88."Dynamite" (Color)
89."Feuding Friends" (Color)
90."Golden Chariot" (Color)
91."Ghost Ranch" (Color)