Stan Paregien, Editor
Marty Robbins
(Deceased)
Marty Robbins, singer and songwriter, was born on Sept. 26, 1925 near Glendale, AZ. His family was dirt poor, financially. But his maternal grandfather, Texas Bob Heckle, was a former Texas Ranger and filled young Marty's head with tales of oldtime cowboys and gunfighters. And that Western heritage greatly influenced the ballads he later to wrote and recorded.As a young boy, Marty would walk eight miles to the nearest movie theater to watch his favorite cowboy actors on the silver screen. And his dream was to be like Gene Autry. When the theater closed at 10 p.m., Marty would walk the 8 miles back home in the dark alone. But because of his idol, he wasn't afraid. Marty would say, "I had just seen Gene Autry, and I was Gene Autry that night."
From age 17 to 20, Marty Robbins was in the U.S. Navy. This was during World War II, and he spent most of his time in the South Pacific driving anphibious landing craft. It was while in the Navy that he became serious about being a singer/songwriter.
Upon his discharge from the Navy, Marty found several jobs. Then he began playing guitar on the side for a local band. His own professional career began in 1947, when he was hired to play and sing at radio station KTYL in Mesa, AZ. And then he got a job at a bigger station, KPHO in Phoenix, where he was given an early morning half hour long show called, "Chuck Wagon Time".
When KPHO-TV was created, they asked Marty to do some live performances for them. Marty, who was extremely shy, agreed to host their show only after he was told he would lose his radio show if he refused. His fifteen minute show, "Country Caravan," was shown four days a week and was a big hit.
Marty Robbins' big break came in 1951. That's when Grand Ole Opry star "Little" Jimmy Dickens, on tour, made an appearance on "Country Caravan" to promote his own show in Phoenix. He was so impressed with Marty's talent and vocal ability, that he contacted CBS Records on his behalf, and they signed Marty to a contract on May 25, 1951.
Marty married Marizona Baldwin in 1948. Their marriage was "until death do us part", standing the test of time and spanning 33 years until Marty's passing in 1982. They had two children: Ronny (born in 1949), and Janet (born in 1959)
In 1953, he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and he and his family moved to Nashville. His first number one song was "Singing the Blues", released in August 1956. His second chart topper was a song he wrote titled, "A White Sport Coat."
It wasn't until 1958 that Marty Robbins began recording his much loved cowboy songs. Marty's prayers to be a singing cowboy like his idol, Gene Autry, were soon to come true. His first western hit was "The Hanging Tree," recorded as a theme song for a movie of the same name.
Then he began to write his own cowboy tunes. His next album was to be "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs," and Marty wrote four of the twelve songs appearing on it. One of these, a ballad called "El Paso" became his signature song.
El Paso was actually written much earlier in 1957 while Marty and his family were traveling through the "west Texas town" on their way home to Phoenix for Christmas. He had come up with 14 verses by the time they reached their destination. But El Paso proved to be a difficult song to market. No one wanted to produce it because it was considered too long for radio airplay, a whopping 4:37.
But with Marty's new Gunfighter album, he finally got the chance. Marty's intuition proved to be correct again. Even though Columbia Records marketed a single with a shortened, 3 minute version for the radio stations on one side, and the song in its entirety on the flip, DJs across the country chose to air the extended version. For one thing (speaking from experience), it gave them time to run to the bathroom.
He won his first Grammy for the long-playing "El Paso". My wife and I were living in Las Cruces, New Mexico one year when Marty appeared in concert on the New Mexico State University campus. The crowd went absolutely wild when he got to the line in "El Paso" which mentioned the "bad lands of New Mexico". It was quite a show.
El Paso earned a number one spot on both the country and pop charts, became a GOLD single, and was the first country song ever to win a Grammy Award. The album also went GOLD, and earned Cashbox and Billboard awards. The song, El Paso was also to inspire the creation of two additional songs, also written by Marty -- "Feleena"(1965) and "El Paso City"(1976).
Marty Robbins loved watching auto races, but he loved driving in them even more. In 1966 he began competing on the NASCAR circuit. In fact, it was because of his love for this hobby that Marty was scheduled to be the last performer on the Saturday night Grand Ole Opry show. This allowed him to compete in the race at the Nashville Speedway, and then proceed to the Opryhouse where he would perform.
His next musical project would be the ballad, "Don't Worry". In July, 1961, Marty and a group of musicians were in the process of recording the song. Noted guitarist Grady Martin played the mid-song guitar solo, not realizing that a tube had blown in the taping mechanism. Playback revealed an odd fuzzy distortion of every note played on Grady's bass guitar. Instead of correcting the problem and rerecording, producer Don Law liked the sound and left it in. Don't Worry was a hit, in the #1 spot for ten weeks. The sound was later harnessed and has been used in recordings by many artists. To this day, it is known as "fuzztone".
Marty Robbins was given the 11:30 - 12:00 midnight slot at the Opry to enable him to participate in auto races at the Nashville Speedway. His show was supposed to be over by midnight, but Marty, refusing to disappoint his fans, would look at his watch, and then sing another song. When his show ran over his time limit, he would walk over the the onstage Opry clock, set the hands back, and then continue to perform. When his show finally wound down, he would remain behind, talking to fans, passing out autographs and hugs until everyone was gone. He loved his fans as much as they loved him.
During the late 1950s and 1960s Robbins appeared in a string of movies including Raiders of Old California, Badge of Marshall Brennan, Country Music Caravan and Country Music Jamboree.
In late 1969 Robbins suffered a severe heart attack and underwent the then-new procedure of bypass surgery in early 1970. Although doctors advised Robbins to take it easy, he was soon back on the road and the track. Just weeks before this operation Robbins' recorded "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife" which earned him a second Grammy award.
After twenty years with Columbia Records, Marty switched over to MCA Records in 1972. Although he managed to crack the Top Ten with a pair of singles, the hits were beginning to lessen. In 1975 he returned to Columbia and his first two singles to chart - "El Paso City" and "Among My Souvenirs" - both shot to No. 1. By decade's end, his record sales began to wane, again.
In 1981 Robbins suffered a mild heart attack. A year later, just two months after his Hall of Fame induction, Robbins was stricken again. He survived a second bypass surgery but died shortly thereafter on Dec. 8, 1982 of lung and kidney failure in a Nashville area hospital.
CLICK HERE to see the official Marty Robbins home web page.
Dan Roberts
Dan Roberts is a songwriter, singer and musician. He grew up with horses and rode saddle broncs and bulls as a youngster. Then he became a horseshoer to support his songwriting interests. He lived in Nashville, Tenn., for several years. But in 2000 he moved back to Texas.
He has written "Number One" hits for several country music stars, including Garth Brooks.
I personally heard Dan speak on songwriting at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in the spring of 2000. And he related how much Garth Brooks appreciates cowboy music. In fact, Garth invited Dan Roberts and a couple of Dan's friends to open for him on a world-wide tour. Dan agreed and used a campfire scene and authentic cowboy songs to open the show in 60 cities around the world before more than three million people.
Dan Roberts now has his first album on the market and it is Western: "There's A Little Cowboy in All of Us". And he has performed at the Elko (Nev.) Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Oklahoma Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and the California Cowboy Gathering.
Dr. Gary L. Roberts
Gary L. Roberts holds the Ph.D. in history from the University of Oklahoma. He is an associate professor of history at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. Roberts' articles have appeared in such magazines as True West, American West, Frontier Times, American Heritage, Empire and Desert.
Mark K. Roberts
Mark K. Roberts was born in Tampa, Kansas on Aug. 12, 1936. He still owns and operates the old family hotel in the Tampa (Kansas, that is), population 150.
Roberts moved to San Diego, Calif. in 1952 and graduated from Hoover High School in 1954. In 1960 he received a degree from San Diego State University with a major in film production. He served in the Army as an intelligence officer in the Special Forces. After his tour of duty, he went to work for Paramount Studios--writing scripts, doing stuntwork and some acting. Then he began producing commercials for Ford Motor Company.
Roberts has written many books in "The Penetrator" series for Pinnacle Books under the name of Lionel Derrick. He wrote The Confederate (1983) for Zebra Books under the name of Forrest A. Randolph. He also writes under the name of Patrick Lee. He is also the author of Apache Gold, with Patrick Andrews(Zebra), and Gallows Riders (Zebra). He and Patrick Andrews and Bill Fieldhouse collaborated on a 9-book series called Six-Gun Samori, using the pen name of Patrick Lee.
In addition, he wrote three books in the "Solder for Hire" series for Zebra: Commando Squad (1982), Pathet Vengence (1983) and Jakarta Coup (1983). Roberts joined the WWA in 1981. And in 1988 he was the official host and chairman of the WWA Convention in San Diego. Stan Paregien did a profile of Roberts in the January, 1988 issue of The Roundup.
Monty Roberts
Monty Roberts is a real-life horse whisperer--an American original whose gentle training methods reveal the depth of communication possible between man and animal. He was part of the inspiration for the novel and the 1998 movie, "The Horse Whisperer," starring and directed by Robert Redford. Monty Roberts was first introduced to the American public on NBC's "Dateline" TV program.
In his own book, co-authored with Lucy Grealy, The Man Who Listens to Horses,Roberts teaches listeners not only about communication between man and animal but, because he now applies his amazing skills in corporations, also about communication in the workplace.
He grew up watching his father break horses in the traditionally rough and sometimes brutal way that was dangerous to both the horse and the trainer. At the age of seven he applied his nonviolent method to successfully and quickly train a green horse to ride, but his father ridiculed the method and he never mentioned the technique for another 50 years.
Monty Roberts attributes part of his ability to communicate with horses to his "disability" of being achromatic--he cannot see colors, only shades of gray. That enabled him, he says, to concentrate more fully on the subtle movements (nonverbal communication) horses make between themselves. And he uses those same movements to train the horses. He and his wife, the former Pat Burden, live on their "Flag Is Up Farm" near Solvang, Calif.
His own web page is: www.montyroberts.com
Pernell Roberts
Pernell Roberts was born on May 18, 1928 in Waycross, GA. Pernell attended Waycross High where he achieved average grades in school and teachers remember him as a “quiet serious boy”. While in High school he was in the Glee club, played basketball, and sang in local USO shows.
During these years, he formed some of the ideas that would influence him all his life. Pernell was deeply disturbed by the segregation practices he saw in South Georgia; leading him to become actively involved in civil rights and equality issues.
After graduation from high school, Pernell attended Georgia Technological Institute in Atlanta, majoring in engineering. He flunked out shortly after he started and enlisted in the Marines. After a two-year stint in the Marines, he again enrolled in the University of Maryland. Here, he began acting in college dramas. Of his college career, Pernell later said “I distinguished myself by flunking out of college 3 times”.
After leaving college again, Pernell supported himself through many jobs including butcher, forest ranger, and railroad riveter, while he pursued a career as an actor. His persistence eventually paid off and he landed acting roles in off-Broadway and on Broadway plays. Pernell won the Best Actor Off-Broadway award in1955. During this period, he appeared on Broadway in plays such as 'The Lovers' with Joanne Woodward, and 'A Clearing in the Woods'.
After his success on Broadway, he went to Hollywood in 1957 and appeared in movies such as 'Desire Under the Elms', 'The Sheepman' and 'Ride Lonesome'.
Pernell Roberts landed the role of Adam Cartwright, the oldest son of Ben Cartwright in the "Bonanza" Western TV show in 1959. This role was pivotal point in his career. Although it gave him vast exposure and popularity as an actor, he was often dissatisfied with the writing and story lines of the show. Pernell often complained that the plots were not complex enough and that women and minorities were not given more equal roles on the show. His restless searching for better, more meaningful roles led to his leaving Bonanza at the peak of popularity at the end of the 1964-65 season.
In addition to acting, Roberts loved singing folk songs. At 32 he bought a guitar and learned how to play. His singing and guitar playing can be heard in several episodes of Bonanza. During his Bonanza years, he recorded two albums with the rest of the cast. After the release of the albums ("Bonanza Party Time" and "Christmas on the Ponderosa"), Pernell was offered a contract for a solo album. His deep, rich voice can be heard on his only solo effort, an album called 'Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies'.
He has appeared in plays and has had various guest star roles in television shows. His longest running role after Bonanza was in 'Trapper John M.D.', in which he played Trapper John McIntyre, a spin-off of the character first seen in M*A*S*H.
Over the next few years he appeared in numerous other plays, and several big-screen movies, including Four Rode Out and The Kashmiri Run. He could also be seen on television as a guest-star on dozens of shows. Roberts' appearance varied over the years. He was seen with a mustache or beard much of the time, and both with and without the toupé that had been standard on Bonanza.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Pernell Roberts.
Ralph Roberts
Ralph Roberts is editor of Sagebrush Journal, a tabloid which promotes Western books(fiction and nonfiction) and films. He has had over 1,400 articles published in such magazines as Popular Computing, Isaac Asimov's SF, Creative Computing, Stamp World, Romantic Times, Far Frontiers and Amazing.
Virginia Culin Roberts
Virginia Culin Roberts has lived in Tucson since 1961. She is the author of two children's books, Outpost in the Desert: The Story of Tucson and Pioneers in the Desert: The Story of Tucson, Arizona Territory. Her book, Heroines on the Arizona Frontier: The First Anglo-American Women, was the Danielson Award from Westerners International for the Best Paper of 1981.
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
--- Bible: Galatians 1:3-5
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.