Gene Autry(1907-1998)
- Music Artist
- Actor
- Producer
After high school Gene Autry worked as a laborer for the St. Louis and
San Francisco Railroad in Oklahoma. Next he was a telegrapher. In 1928
he began singing on a local radio station, and three years later he had
his own show and was making his first recordings. Three years after
that he made his film debut in Ken Maynard's In Old Santa Fe (1934) and starred in a
13-part serial the following year for Mascot Pictures, The Phantom Empire (1935). The
next year he signed a contract with Republic Pictures and began making
westerns. Autry--for better or worse--pretty much ushered in the era of
the "singing cowboy" westerns of the 1930s and 1940s (in spite of the
presence in his oaters of automobiles, radios and airplanes). These
films often grossed ten times their average $50,000 production costs.
During World War II he enlisted in the US Army and was assigned as a
flight officer from 1942-46 with the Air Transport Command. After his
military service he returned to making movies, this time with Columbia
Pictures, and finally with his own company, Flying A Productions,
which, during the 1950s, produced his TV series The Gene Autry Show (1950), Champion the Wonder Horse (1955), and
Annie Oakley (1954). He wrote over 200 songs. A savvy businessman, he retired from
acting in the early 1960s and became a multi-millionaire from his
investments in hotels, real estate, radio stations and the California
Angels professional baseball team.
