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This poem copyrighted 1991. It may not be published in print or electronically without the express written permission of the author. Write to him at : cowboystan@live.com

Bud O'Shannon was a hard working young rancher. He got up each morning at the crack of dawn, ate a quick breakfast and headed out to do whatever had to be done on his shirt-tail cattle ranch. He often worked until the last ray of sunshine died in the west. And then he headed back to his ranch house and family.

Though he was a no-nonsense, tough-minded guy he was also aware of the fact that he needed to spend some quality time with his young family. And this night he would concentrated on his daughter, Jasmine, just under two years of age. She wanted him to play house with him. So he sat crosslegged on the floor of her bedroom while she went about the motions of serving him a play cup of hot tea.

"Ohhhh, that is so hot, Jasmine," he said. "And that is just the way I like it."

He drank the cold water down and smiled. "Thank you, so much. May I have another cup of hot tea?"

"Sure daddy," she laughed with glee. She left the room and soon returned with another cup of "hot tea".

About that time Bud's wife entered the room and saw what was going on. And she began to laugh until she almost cried.

His wife finally gained enough control to say, "Dear, did you ever stop to think that the only place she can reach to get water for your 'hot tea' is the toilet?"

[Sent to me by Peggy Coleman, guitar picker and singer extraordinaire, in Pawnee, Oklahoma]

Public Cowboy No. 1 is a facinating book about the life and times of Western mega-star Gene Autry. It was written by Ms. Holly George-Warren, an award-winning writer, editor and frequent commmentator on Western films, music, and fashion.This 406 page book was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press.

Autry's very first film for the newly formed Repulic Pictures was a Western titled "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" with Joe Kane as the director. The studio brought on famous rodeo star and stuntman Yakima Canutt to teach young Gene how to do the fight scenes. There were nine, count 'em, nine songs in the movie. It included Gene's first major hit song, "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine". And Gene had already recorded Bob Nolan's song, "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," on January 11, 1935. So the film in the summer of 1935 sought to ride the wave of the song's popularity. And, to Gene's financial benefit, the movie sold more records and got him more and larger concert dates. Promote the songs with the movies and the movies with the songs. It was a formula that both he and, later, Roy Rogers used to great advantage. And they were about the first to use their own names in each movie rather than a different character's name each time.

Public Cowboy

The author does an excellent job of shedding light on the various battles that ol' Gene had with his studio bosses. Gene had some training as an accountant and he was determined to make as much money as he could for as long as he could. One chapter in particular, Chapter 21, is titled "Battles -- On Screen and Off". He was dealing with men who were used to dictating terms to even the biggest stars, but Gene roped and tied 'em time after time.

In addition, Gene had various ways of testing the loyalty and honesty of those who worked for him. George-Warren tells about his hiring a fiddler to back him on the screen. That was Art Davis, whom Gene nicknamed "Goon". On his first payday Davis went to Gene to collect his $65 dollars. Gene paid him in $1 bills, counting aloud all the way to . . . $66 dollars. Gene asked him to count it to make sure it was right. Davis stepped outside, counted the stack five times, then went back and told Gene he had paid him $1 too much. Gene just said "Thanks" and that was it. He had passed the test that Smiley Burnett, Frankie Marvin and others had undergone as well.

Gene's early films, over which he had little creative control, sometimes featured comedians in blackface (once, even Smiley Burnett). And they sometimes included Gene actually kissing the female lead. And, no, he didn't kiss a mare. He passionately kissed the leading lady. But that, too, soon changed as he perceived that many in his audience preferred the image of a woman-shy hero.

Contrary to that shift in public image, the married Gene continued to kiss a lot of ladies. Only these were the legions of "camp followers" who clamored to be near this man who was much like today's rock stars. And he was known to romance some of his leading ladies off screen, but not even necessarily off the set. He was always willing to pluck a pretty grape off the vine. And he did so with something of a bravado stimulated by that fact that he was sterile and could not produce children, due to his childhood bout with mumps. I suppose if today's media had covered that story back then they would have run the headline, "Autry's Pistol Fires Blanks".

More later.

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