A wild west Hollywood ride
Pop quiz: What 20th century personality christened Orvon worked
as a telegrapher, eventually became one of the nation’s richest
men, and is the only entertainer with five stars on Hollywood’s
Walk of Fame? A final hint: The centennial of his birth is Sept.
29.
A wild west Hollywood ride
Pop quiz: What 20th century personality christened Orvon worked as a telegrapher, eventually became one of the nation’s richest men, and is the only entertainer with five stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame? A final hint: The centennial of his birth is Sept. 29.
Orvon Gene Autry was born near Tioga, Texas and was a good-natured boy. His mother taught him how to sing and he earned enough money at chores to buy a Sears & Roebucks guitar for $8. He played at high school skits and for dances when the Autrys moved to Oklahoma.
After graduation he got a job as a railroad telegrapher. One night he was playing and singing when a man came in to send a telegram. He motioned Autry to keep playing and when he was done said, “You’ve got talent. Keep at it.” Autry was overwhelmed by Will Rogers’ encouragement and soon went to New York City on a railroad pass. He played for a radio station’s officials, and they advised him that he had something and to go back home and develop it.
Autry’s next singing job was on a Tulsa station that billed him as “Oklahoma’s Yodeling Cowboy.”
With some professional experience, he signed on with a Chicago station and also made records. In 1932 he scored his first big hit with “That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine.” It became the industry’s first gold record.
A movie talent scout signed him to sing in a Western. He was then cast as the lead in a 12-chapter serial, and a long career of B-Westerns followed with him using his own name for the main character and singer/comedian Smiley Burnette as his sidekick.
In the top 10 movie personalities list that began in the late 1930s, Autry was the only B-movie actor consistently on a list that included Clark Gable, James Cagney and other big stars. Autry bought a ranch near Berwyn, Oklahoma and named it the Melody Ranch and broadcast his weekly program from it. The town re-named itself Gene Autry.
After service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he formed a production company and kept turning out films. He had a highly popular television show and obtained the rights to his early films.
Then, with 95 movies and 635 records, he left show business. Wise investments in real estate, radio and television made him a millionaire many times over.
When the American League expanded its number of baseball teams, Autry acquired the Los Angeles franchise, the Angels. He became the AL’s vice president from 1983 until his death in 1997 at 90.
His legacy includes his autograph song, “Back in the Saddle Again” along with the first platinum record, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed- Reindeer,” his Museum of Western History in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park and five stars on the walk of Fame for radio, motion pictures, television, recording and live theater.
Once asked about his films, Autry typically replied, “They’re not the history of the real West but they entertained a lot of people – and that’s important.”
