Gene Autry, Page 2
1907 to 1935
Gene Autry, multi-talented entertainer and businessman, was born as Orvon Grover* Autry in Tioga, Texas on September 29, 1907. His parents were Delbert and Elnora Autry.
1907 to 1935
Early on Gene tried to learn to play the saxophone, but decided he liked the guitar better. At the age of 12 he saved enough money to order a guitar through the Sears-Roebuck Catalog. He paid a whole $8 dollars for it. And his mother, Elnora, helped him learn how to play it. Gene also sang in the Baptist church choir where his grandfather was the minister.
And so the ingredients were being added that one day would emerge as the singing cowboy known and loved around the entire world.
When Gene was an infant, the family moved to Achille, Oklahoma, and later moved to Ravia, Oklahoma which is located about 20 miles east of the present town of Gene Autry.
While still a teen in high school, Gene Autry linked up with the Fields Brothers Marvelous Medicine Show. He sang and played his guitar and peddled the "tonic" medicine guaranteed to cure man or beast of mite near anything. And for all that he was paid $15 per week. That lasted three months.
At age 16, he went to work as a baggage hauler at the railroad depot. In return for his services, he received instruction in telegraphy from the station master, Mr.. Arthur Mayberry.
1925
Gene graduated from high school in 1925 and went to work full-time for the railroad. Then as a vacation relief telegrapher on the Frisco Railroad, Gene filled in for regular operators from his home in southern Oklahoma all the way up to St. Louis, MO.
Autry also loved to play baseball and was pretty darn good at it. Even small rural towns had semi-pro teams in those days. He even received an offer to play professional baseball, but it would have paid $50 a month less that what he was making with the railroad. So Gene, ever with his eye on the bottom line, turned it down.
How did Gene Autry go from a railroad telegrapher to a full-time entertainer? Here is the often-repeated version of what happen to change the story of his life:
"Late one night in Chelsea, Oklahoma, with few telegraph messages to handle, Gene was singing and strumming a guitar. A gentleman named Will Rogers, the cowboy philosopher, came in to wire his daily syndicated newspaper column to his editor. The humorist was impressed by Gene's singing and encouraged the young telegrapher to go into show business. Gene was already thinking in that direction and those words of encouragement from one of the world's best-known performers pushed him over the edge."
That is a truly inspiring story. It is a story that has given hope to lots of struggling writers, singers and musicians. It is a warm and wonderful story.
However, the fact is that it is just that -- a story. It never happened. Holly George-Warren did extensive research into this little tale and dismisses it as a creation of the publicity department at the movie studio. See her heavily documented book, Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry (NY City: Oxford University Press, 2007), where she points out that even Gene gave credit to several different people before he adopted the studio line. Still, like many supposedly true documents on the internet, it lives on without a shred of truth to back it up.
1930
With his railroad pass Autry went to New York with the idea of making phonograph records. It didn't work out as planned. There he was told to go back home and get some more experience. Try radio or something. He returned to Oklahoma and a short time later got a spot on KVOO-AM in Tulsa. He billed himself as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy". singing much in the style of his own musical hero Jimmie Rodgers. He did that show for free, just to get the experience and the exposure.
1931 Gene went back to New York City to make a record. His first record contained two songs, "My Dreaming of You" and "My Alabama Home". The latter was written by a fellow railroad worker of Gene's, a man named Jimmy Long. He was the uncle of Gene's future wife. And two of Gene's fellow Oklahomans, brothers Johnny and Frankie Marvin, played backup guitars in this first session. Frankie became a part of the Autry "crew" and did comic routines at Gene's personal appearances and had bit parts in many of his films.
Gene got work as a performer on the hugely popular "WLS Barn Dance" heard on WLS-Radio in Chicago, IL. He worked there until 1934.
He had his very first smash hit record in 1931 with the release of "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine," a song written by his railroader buddy Jimmy Long. And Long sings harmony with Gene on that record. That single sold over one million records. And his record company, the American Record Company, presented him with a "gold record" to mark the occasion. And thus was started the tradition of presenting a recording artist with a gold record for selling one-million copies. It was only one of many firsts accomplished by Gene Autry, "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy".
1932Ina Mae Spivey was attending college in Springfield, Missouri and boarding with her uncle and aunt, Mr. & Mrs. Jimmy Long. That is how she met Autry. Gene married Ina Mae Spivey, niece of songwriter/railroader Jimmy Long, on April 1, 1932. Their marriage lasted forty-eight years, until her death in 1980.
In 1933 he had a big song hit with, "The Yellow Rose of Texas."
1934
In 1934 Gene left the "WLS Barn Dance" in Chicago and headed for Hollywood, taking Smiley Burnette along with him. Gene Autry appeared in his first movies in 1934. He was paid $500 for his role in "In Old Santa Fe," starring Ken Maynard. Gene played the part of a singer at a dude ranch and sang, "The Wyoming Waltz". And he appeared in another Ken Maynard film, a serial named "Mystery Mountain" (1934).
And in 1934 he hit another home run with his record, "The Last Roundup".
It was in 1934 that he became acquainted with Armand "Mandy" Schaefer. Soon Schaefer went to work for Gene as his personal supervisor for film production. He held that job until Gene's last movie was filmed in 1953. Autry had a way of attracting talented people and keeping them on staff for long periods.
1935
In 1935 Gene starred in a 13-episode science fiction Western serial called "The Phantom Empire". It was about aliens who where hiding out in a remote cave (a cave often used in Western movies, by the way). His other films released that year by fledgling Republic Pictures were "Tumbling Tumbleweeds,""The Singing Vagabond, " "Sagebrush Troubador," and "Melody Trail." Gene was paid $150 per week.
Republic Pictures also released a film called "Westward Ho" in 1935. It starred another new "singing" cowboy, a handsome young fellah named Marion Morrison. You known him by his stage name: John Wayne. (Wayne's grandfather, also named Marion Morrison, was the chaplain in and wrote a history of the Civil War activies of the 9th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. My great-grandfather, James A. Paregien, served in that unit.)
In 1935 Gene asked Carl Cotner to be his musical director for his concerts and recordings. Cotner agreed and they shook hands on it. That was the only contract they had, and Cotner worked for Gene until Cotner died in 1987.
Gene had a big record hit with "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" this year of 1935.
*Note: Bobby Copeland, a prolific writer of books related to B-Western movie stars, kindly reminded me that
Gene's actual birthname was not Gene, but Grover.
NEXT
Be sure to check out Stan Paregien's other web site -- Paregien.Net
[This page last revised on Feb. 10, 2010]
