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105-520: Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy , was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a crooning style on radio , in films , and on television for more than three decades, beginning in the early 1930s. During that time, he personified the straight-shooting hero — honest, brave, and true. Autry

210-684: A Mutual radio series, The Adventures of Champion and a CBS-TV series of the same name . In response to his many young radio listeners aspiring to emulate him, Autry created the Cowboy Code, or Ten Cowboy Commandments. These tenets promoting an ethical, moral, and patriotic lifestyle that appealed to youth organizations such as the Boy Scouts , which developed similar doctrines. The Cowboy Code consisted of rules that were "a natural progression of Gene's philosophies going back to his first Melody Ranch programs—and early pictures." According to

315-452: A "Stevens bar" which has a deep groove in it to allow the steel to be grasped more firmly so it can be lifted and angled vertically downward slightly for playing single notes. The technique also allows for hammer-on or pull-off notes when there is an adjacent open string. Dobro players often slant the bar horizontally when playing to change an interval between two or more notes played simultaneously on different strings. The console steel

420-399: A 1931 record by Dick Robertson, " Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee ", called upon men to fight "these public enemies" brought into homes via radio. The term crooner has been applied to some female singers around the world, especially those who have low alto voices. Among the first was white American singer Lee Morse who performed in three Vitaphone short films in 1930. A cartoon published in

525-477: A 33rd degree Scottish Rite Mason , as recorded on his headstone. On November 16, 1941, the town of Berwyn, Oklahoma, north of Ardmore , was renamed Gene Autry in his honor. Though Autry was born in Tioga, Texas , his family moved to Oklahoma while he was an infant. He was raised in the southern Oklahoma towns of Achille and Ravia . Autry had also worked as a telegraph operator near Berwyn. In 1939, he bought

630-483: A Hawaiian guitar used in country music is believed to be in the early 1920s when cowboy movie star Hoot Gibson brought Sol Hoʻopiʻi to Los Angeles to perform in his band. In 1927, the acoustic duo of Darby and Tarleton expanded the audience for acoustic steel guitar with their Columbia recording of "Birmingham Jail" and "Columbus Stockade Blues". Jimmie Rodgers featured an acoustic steel guitar on his song "Tuck Away My Lonesome Blues" released on January 3, 1930. In

735-567: A Hawaiian immigrant who settled in Calcutta in the 1940s named Tau Moe (pronounced mo-ay). Moe taught Hawaiian guitar style and made steel guitars, and helped popularize the instrument in India. By the 1960s, the steel had become a common instrument in Indian popular music—later included in film soundtracks. Indian musicians typically play the lap steel while sitting on the floor and have modified

840-405: A Western swing tune in 1935. Dunn recorded with Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies. In the early 1930s, the newly-electrified lap steel guitar was adopted by musicians type of dance music known as " Western swing ", a sub-genre of country music combined with jazz swing . The design of this instrument and the way it was played underwent continual change as the music of the genre evolved. In

945-485: A chord and modified by raising the strings away from the frets. After the electric pickup was invented, lap steels no longer needed any resonant chamber, thus newer designs began to resemble the traditional guitar shape less and less. These instruments were played resting across musicians' knees. George Beauchamp's invention, which he nicknamed the " Frying Pan ", was officially called the " Rickenbacker Electro A–22", an electric lap steel guitar produced from 1931 to 1939. It

1050-462: A conventional guitar in a horizontal position across the knees instead of flat against the body, using the bar instead of fingers. Joseph Kekuku developed this manner of playing a guitar, known as "Hawaiian style", about 1890 and the technique spread internationally. The sound of Hawaiian music featuring steel guitar became an enduring musical fad in the United States in the first half of

1155-475: A decade before this recording, the instrument emerged as a crucial element in country music after the success of this song. When the lap steel was thus superseded by the pedal steel, the inherent Hawaiian influence was brought into the new sound of country music emerging in Nashville in the 1950s. This sound became associated with American country music for the ensuing several decades. In the United States in

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1260-451: A finger. The first known recording of the bottleneck style was in 1923 by Sylvester Weaver , who recorded two instrumentals, "Guitar Blues" and "Guitar Rag". Western swing pioneers Bob Wills and Leon McAuliffe adapted his song, "Guitar Rag", in 1935 for the influential instrumental " Steel Guitar Rag ". Blues musicians played a conventional Spanish guitar as a hybrid between the two types of guitars, using one finger inserted into

1365-499: A generic term for this type of guitar, popularized by Pete Kirby (" Bashful Brother Oswald ") on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry for 30 years with Roy Acuff's band. He played the instrument while standing with the guitar facing upward held horizontally by a shoulder strap. Oswald's Dobro attracted interest and fascination; he said, "People couldn't understand how I played it and what it was, and they'd always want to come around and look at it." Josh Graves (Uncle Josh) further popularized

1470-637: A labor song, "The Death of Mother Jones ", in 1931. Autry also recorded many " hillbilly "-style records in 1930 and 1931 in New York City, which were certainly different in style and content from his later recordings. These were much closer in style to the Prairie Ramblers or Dick Justice , and included the "Do Right, Daddy Blues" and "Black Bottom Blues", both similar to " Deep Elem Blues ". These late Prohibition -era songs deal with bootlegging , corrupt police , and women whose occupation

1575-410: A lap steel guitar in their musical arrangements included Hank Williams , Lefty Frizzell and Webb Pierce . Most recordings of that era were made on a C6 neck (guitar tuned in a C6 chord ), sometimes called a "Texas tuning". Using tunings with sixths and ninths became common and identifiable with the steel guitar sound. The original idea for adding pedals to a console guitar was simply to push

1680-416: A major chord when all six strings were strummed, now known as an " open tuning ". The term for this is " slack-key " because certain strings were "slackened" to achieve it. Steel guitar strings, then a novelty, offered new possibilities to the islanders. To change chords, they used some smooth object, usually a piece of pipe or metal, sliding it over the strings to the fourth or fifth position, easily playing

1785-569: A million seller with his 1940 rendition of the song " San Antonio Rose ", originally recorded by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys . In 1942, Perry Como had a smash hit with " Deep in the Heart of Texas "; Crosby, who had an enormous influence on Como, covered this song and took it to the number 3 position in the US chart that same year. Eddy Arnold , Jim Reeves and Ray Price are especially well known for their country crooner standards. Dean Martin

1890-549: A number 1 US country hit and a number 11 Hot 100 hit with the song " For the Good Times ", written by Kris Kristofferson ; subsequently, Como's rendition reached number 7 in 1973 on the UK Singles Chart . Notes Further reading Steel guitar A steel guitar ( Hawaiian : kīkākila ) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself

1995-618: A number 1 hit in 1953 with his version of " Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes ", a chart-topping country hit for its author Slim Willet and a number 4 country hit for Ray Price; Guy Mitchell scored a number 1 in 1959 with " Heartaches by the Number ", a country hit for Ray Price ; and Britain's Engelbert Humperdinck achieved a 1967 UK number 1 hit with " Release Me ", another song already made famous by Price in 1954. In 1970, Price had

2100-472: A part of its line of iron toys. The toy was commissioned by Kenton vice-president Willard Bixler, who had conceptualized an iron cap revolver modeled after the pearl-handled gun used by Gene Autry. Selling at 50 cents per gun, the cap pistols were extremely popular and by 1939, two million units of the toy had been sold in the United States and abroad. Autry received a portion of all sales revenues. In

2205-428: A pedal and change the tuning of all the strings into a different tuning and thus obviate the need for an additional neck, but these early efforts were unsuccessful. Around 1948, Paul Bigsby , a motorcycle shop foreman, designed a pedal system. He put pedals on a rack between the two front legs of a console steel guitar to create the pedal steel guitar . The pedals operated a mechanical linkage to apply tension to raise

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2310-581: A published story by Autry, the fire caused him to turn his attention to Griffith Park , where he would build his Museum of Western Heritage (now known as the Autry Museum of the American West ). In 1990, after his favorite horse Champion Three, which lived in retirement there, died, Autry put the remaining 12-acre ranch up for sale. It was purchased by the Veluzat family in 1991 and rebuilt. It

2415-756: A quarter share of the team to the Walt Disney Company and a controlling interest the following year, with the remaining share to be transferred after his death. Earlier, in 1982, he sold Los Angeles television station KTLA for $ 245 million. He also sold several radio stations he owned, including KSFO in San Francisco, KMPC in Los Angeles, KOGO in San Diego, and other stations in the Golden West radio network . The number 26

2520-621: A singing cowboy quartet; he was then given the starring role by Levine in 1935 in the 12-part serial The Phantom Empire . Shortly thereafter, Mascot was absorbed by the newly formed Republic Pictures Corp. and Autry went along to make a further 44 films up to 1940. Most were low-budget Westerns in which he played under his own name, rode his horse Champion , had Smiley Burnette as his regular sidekick , and had many opportunities to sing in each film. His films were tremendously successful, so much so that almost every other studio tried to compete by showcasing their own singing cowboys. By 1940 Autry

2625-503: A steel guitarist named George Beauchamp invented the electric guitar pickup . Electrification allowed these instruments to be heard, and it also meant their resonant chambers were no longer essential. This meant steel guitars could be manufactured in any design, even a rectangular block bearing little or no resemblance to the traditional guitar shape. This led to table-like instruments in a metal frame on legs called " console steels ", which were technologically improved about 1950 to become

2730-423: A steel guitarist named George Beauchamp invented the electric guitar pickup . He found that a vibrating metal string in a magnetic field generates a small current that can be amplified and sent to a loudspeaker; his steel guitar was the world's first electric guitar. According to music writer Michael Ross, the first electrified stringed instrument on a commercial recording was a steel guitar played by Bob Dunn on

2835-466: A three-chord song. It is physically difficult to hold a steel bar against the strings while holding the guitar against the body (hand supinated ) so the Hawaiians placed the guitar across the lap and played it with the hand pronated . Playing this way became popular throughout Hawai'i and spread internationally. Oahu -born Joseph Kekuku became proficient in this style of playing around the end of

2940-481: A tubular slide or a bottleneck with one finger while using frets with the remaining fingers (usually for rhythm accompaniment). This technique allows the player to finger the frets on some strings and use the slide on others. Slide players may use open tunings or traditional tunings as a matter of personal preference. Lap slide guitar is not a specific instrument but a style of playing a lap steel guitar usually referring to blues or rock music. The earliest record of

3045-637: A world's fair called the Panama–Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and over a nine-month period introduced the Hawaiian style of guitar playing to millions of visitors. In 1916, recordings of indigenous Hawaiian instruments outsold every other genre of music in the U.S. Radio broadcasts played a role in fueling the popularity of Hawaiian music. Hawaii Calls

3150-773: Is a street in Palm Springs, California named Gene Autry Trail . Autry was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2004, Starz joined forces with the Autry estate to restore all of his films, which have been shown on Starz's Encore Westerns channel on premium television on a regular basis to date since. Crooner Crooning is epitomized by jazz vocalists of the era such as Bing Crosby , Rudy Vallee and Frank Sinatra , although Sinatra did not consider himself or Crosby to be "crooners". Other performers, such as Russ Columbo , also rejected

3255-473: Is any type electric steel guitar that rests on legs in a frame and is designed to be played in a seated position. The console steel usually has multiple necks—up to a maximum of four—each tuned differently. In the evolution of the steel guitar, the console steel is intermediate between the lap steel and the pedal steel. The pedal steel guitar is an electric console instrument with one or two necks, each typically with ten strings. The neck tuned to C6 (Texas tuning)

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3360-440: Is associated with the country music he recorded in the period when he was working for Reprise Records , whilst his fellow Italian-American crooner Como recorded several albums with country producer Chet Atkins in Nashville . Regular, non-country crooners also scored hits with pop versions of country songs: Tony Bennett had a Billboard number 1 hit in 1951 with his rendition of Hank Williams ' " Cold, Cold Heart "; Como had

3465-407: Is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar in that it is played without using frets; conceptually, it is somewhat akin to playing a guitar with one finger (the bar). Known for its portamento capabilities, gliding smoothly over every pitch between notes, the instrument can produce a sinuous crying sound and deep vibrato emulating

3570-467: Is closer to the player and the E9 (Nashville tuning) neck is further from the player. It may have up to ten pedals and a separate volume pedal, and up to eight knee levers are used to alter the tuning of various strings, allowing more varied and complex music than any other steel guitar. As an example, use of the pedals and knee levers in various combinations allows the player to play a major scale without moving

3675-665: Is now known as the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio and Melody Ranch Studios on 22 acres. The ranch has the Melody Ranch Museum open year-round; and one weekend a year, the entire ranch is open to the public during the Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival , another legacy of Autry's multiple talents. From 1940 to 1956, Autry had a huge hit with a weekly show on CBS Radio , Gene Autry's Melody Ranch . His horse, Champion, also had

3780-827: Is still remembered for his association with Christmas music , having debuted the seasonal standards " Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer ", " Frosty the Snowman ", and " Here Comes Santa Claus ". Autry is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame . He is the only person to be awarded stars in all five categories on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , for film, television, music, radio, and live performance. The town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma

3885-496: The Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1930 listed four male and seven female singers as the "All-American Crooning Eleven". Blues singer Ruth Etting was in the group, along with Helen Morgan , Libby Holman , Bernadene Hayes , Annette Hanshaw , and others. Several more American women singers were called crooners in 1950 with chart hits by Teresa Brewer and Patti Page . Anita O'Day 's version of " Tennessee Waltz "

3990-662: The Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1991. When the Anaheim Angels won their first World Series in 2002, much of the championship was dedicated to him. The interchange of Interstate 5 and State Route 134 , near the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, is signed as the "Gene Autry Memorial Interchange". There is also a street named after Autry in Anaheim, California , called Gene Autry Way , and there

4095-667: The attack on Pearl Harbor . Autry joined the military in 1942 and sold the ranch after the war. In 1972, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma . Autry was a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks , Burbank Lodge No. 1497. His 1976 autobiography, co-written by Mickey Herskowitz ,

4200-561: The "Vallee Peril": this "punk from Maine" with the "dripping voice" required mounted police to "beat back crowds of screaming and swooning females" at his vaudeville shows. By the early 1930s, the term "crooner" had taken on a pejorative connotation. Cardinal William O'Connell of Boston and the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA) both publicly denounced the vocal form, O'Connell calling it "base", "degenerate", "defiling" and un-American, with

4305-514: The 1,200-acre (4.9 km) Flying A Ranch on the west edge of Berwyn, and the town decided to honor him by changing its name. Approximately 35,000 people attended the ceremonies broadcast live from the site on Autry's Melody Ranch radio show. Expectations that Autry would make his permanent home on the ranch were heightened when Autry's house in California burned down just 8 days before the name change ceremony, but dashed three weeks later with

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4410-621: The 110-acre Monogram Ranch in 1953, in Placerita Canyon near Newhall, California , in the northern San Gabriel Mountains foothills. He renamed it the Melody Ranch after his movie Melody Ranch . Autry then sold 98 acres of the property, most of the original ranch. The Western town, adobes , and ranch cabin sets and open land for location shooting were retained as a movie ranch on 12 acres. Numerous "B" Westerns and TV shows were shot there during Autry's ownership, including

4515-419: The 1920s readily adopted the instrument following their fascination with musicians like Ernest Kaʻai and David Luela Kaili travelling across New Zealand, fascinated of their informed similar ancestry while also receiving very positively of their performances. Eruera Hita (or stagename "Mati Hita") was the pioneer of the instrument among New Zealanders. Early lap steel guitars were traditional guitars tuned to

4620-415: The 1930s, Leon McAuliffe advanced steel guitar technique while playing in the western swing band Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys . In October, 1936, McAuliffe recorded "Steel Guitar Rag" with Wills' band on a Rickenbacker B–6 lap steel with phenomenal record sales. Steel guitarists felt a need to change tunings for different voicings , so leading players added additional necks with different tunings on

4725-485: The 1930s, the steel guitar was introduced into religious music, a tradition called " Sacred Steel ". The congregation of the House of God, a branch of an African-American Pentecostal denomination, based primarily in Nashville and Indianapolis , embraced the lap steel guitar. The steel guitar often took the place of an organ and its sound bore no resemblance to typical American country music. Darick Campbell (1966–2020)

4830-419: The 1950s, Autry had been a minority owner of the minor-league Hollywood Stars . In 1960, when Major League Baseball announced plans to add an expansion team in Los Angeles, Autry—who had once declined an opportunity to play in the minor leagues —expressed an interest in acquiring the radio broadcast rights to the team's games. Baseball executives were so impressed by his approach that he was persuaded to become

4935-478: The 19th century and popularized it—some sources say he invented the steel guitar. He moved to the U.S. and became a vaudeville performer and also toured Europe performing Hawaiian music. The Hawaiian style of playing spread to America and became popular during the first half of the 20th century; noted players of the era were Frank Ferera , Sam Ku West , "King" Bennie Nawahi and Sol Hoʻopiʻi . Hoʻopiʻi ( / ˌ h oʊ oʊ ˈ p iː i / hoh-oh- PEE -ee )

5040-621: The Cowboys" in Gene's absence, which it did. Republic reissued old Autry westerns during the war years, to keep his name before the public. Autry's contract had been suspended for the duration of his military service, and he had tried to have it declared void after his discharge. The courts found in Republic's favor, and Autry returned to Republic after the war. He finished out his contract with four more features, with Autry now publicized as "King of

5145-457: The NYSTA adding "corrupt". Even The New York Times predicted that crooning would be just a passing fad. The newspaper wrote, "They sing like that because they can't help it. Their style is begging to go out of fashion…. Crooners will soon go the way of tandem bicycles, mah jongg and midget golf ." Voice range shifted from tenor (Vallée) to baritone ( Russ Columbo , Bing Crosby ). Still,

5250-549: The Saddle Again ". Autry made 640 recordings, including more than 300 songs written or co-written by himself. His records sold more than 100 million copies and he has more than a dozen gold and platinum records, including the first record ever certified gold. Today's listeners associate Gene Autry with Christmas songs, which are played perennially during each holiday season. These include " Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town ", his own composition " Here Comes Santa Claus ", " Frosty

5355-570: The Singing Cowboys". In 1947 Autry left Republic for Columbia Pictures , which offered him his own production unit. He chose a new sidekick, Pat Buttram , recently returned from his World War II service. Buttram would co-star with Gene Autry in more than 40 films and in more than 100 episodes of Autry's television show . In 1951, Autry formed his own company (Flying A Productions) to make westerns under his own control, and Columbia continued to distribute them through 1953. Autry purchased

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5460-568: The Snowman ", and his biggest hit, " Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer ". He wrote "Here Comes Santa Claus" after being the Grand Marshal of the 1946 Santa Claus Lane Parade (now the Hollywood Christmas Parade ). He heard all of the spectators watching the parade saying, "Here comes Santa Claus!" virtually handing him the title for his song. He recorded his version of the song in 1947 and it became an instant classic. In

5565-420: The U. S. Army Air Corps during World War II. Part of his military service included his broadcast of a radio show for one year; it involved music and true stories. Several decades ago on an early afternoon show featuring Republic westerns, one of Gene's sidekicks said that when Gene told Republic Pictures of his intentions to join the military during World War II, Republic threatened to promote Roy Rogers as "King of

5670-412: The U.S. and Europe, eventually spawning the 1932 film Bird of Paradise . Joseph Kekuku was a member of the show's original cast and toured with the show for eight years. In 1918, The Washington Herald stated, "So great is the popularity of Hawaiian music in this country that 'The Bird of Paradise' will go on record as having created the greatest musical fad this country has ever known". In 1915,

5775-545: The actress who played Annie Oakley in the television series of the same name that Autry produced. After Spivey died in 1980, he married Jacqueline Ellam , who had been his banker, in 1981. While Autry was quiet about his political views during his life, his voting records listed him as a registered Republican, and he supported the Civil Rights Movement. Autry was raised into Freemasonry in 1927 at Catoosa Lodge No. 185, Catoosa Oklahoma. He later became

5880-464: The bar. The invention of the instrument was set in motion by the need to play more interesting and varied music that was not possible on previous steel guitars and to obviate the need for additional necks on console steels. A "steel" is a hard, smooth object pressed against guitar strings and is the reason for the name "steel guitar". It may go by many names, including " steel ", "tone bar", "slide", "bottleneck" and others. A cylindrical-shaped steel with

5985-414: The beginning of the twentieth century. One of the first southern blues musicians to adapt the Hawaiian sound to the blues was Tampa Red , whose playing, says historian Gérard Herzhaft, "created a style that has unquestionably influenced all modern blues". The Mississippi Delta was the home of Robert Johnson , Son House , Charlie Patton and other blues pioneers, who used a prominent tubular slide on

6090-550: The code: Beginning in 1950, he produced and starred in his own television show on [CBS through his Flying A Productions studio. In the late 1950s, Autry also made several appearances on ABC-TV 's Jubilee USA . During World War II, Autry enlisted in the United States Army in 1942, and became a tech sergeant in the United States Army Air Corps. Holding a private pilot certificate , he

6195-477: The crooning style, but Rudy Vallée brought the style widespread popularity. In his popular radio program, which began with his floating greeting, "Heigh ho, everybody," beamed in from a New York City night club, he stood like a statue, surrounded by clean-cut collegiate band musicians and cradling a saxophone in his arms. His first film, The Vagabond Lover , was promoted with the line, "Men Hate Him! Women Love Him!" while his success brought press warnings of

6300-461: The early 1930s, acoustic lap steel guitars were not loud enough to compete with other instruments, a problem that many inventors were trying to remedy. In 1927, the Dopyera brothers patented the resonator guitar , a non-electric device resembling a large inverted loudspeaker cone attached under the bridge of a guitar to make it louder. The name "Dobro", a portmanteau of DOpyera and BROthers, became

6405-496: The estate of Leo J. Cremer Sr., and put Canadian saddle bronc riding champion Harry Knight in charge of the operation. A merger with the World Championship Rodeo Company in 1956 made Autry the sole owner. He moved the entire company to a 24,000-acre (97 km) ranch near Fowler, Colorado , with Knight as the working partner in the operation. For the next 12 years, they provided livestock for most of

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6510-466: The existing chord to harmonize with the other strings, creating a stunning effect which had not been possible with on a lap steel. It was the birth of a new sound that was particularly embraced by fans of country and western music , and it caused a virtual revolution among steel players who wanted to duplicate it. Almost simultaneously, an entire musical subculture took a radical stylistic tack. Even though pedal steel guitars had been available for over

6615-531: The family ranch. With only his high school education, Autry became a telegrapher for the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway . His talent at singing and playing guitar led to performing at local dances. While working as a telegraph operator in Chelsea, Oklahoma , Autry would sing and accompany himself on the guitar to pass the lonely hours, especially when he had the midnight shift. This later got him fired. One night, he

6720-433: The heyday of Western-themed comics , the 1940s and 1950s. The Register and Tribune Syndicate comic strip Gene Autry Rides by Till Goodan was the first entry, lasting from 1940 to 1941. From 1941 to 1943, Autry was the subject of a comic book initially published by Fawcett Comics and then picked up by Dell Comics that ran 12 issues. Dell then published 101 issues of Gene Autry Comics from 1946 to 1955. That title

6825-492: The human singing voice. Typically, the strings are plucked (not strummed) by the fingers of the dominant hand, while the steel tone bar is pressed lightly against the strings and moved by the opposite hand. The idea of creating music with a slide of some type has been traced back to early African instruments, but the modern steel guitar was conceived and popularized in the Hawaiian Islands . The Hawaiians began playing

6930-465: The initial years of Gunsmoke with James Arness . A decade after he purchased Melody Ranch, a brushfire swept through in August 1962, destroying most of the original standing sets and dashing Autry's plans to turn it into a museum. However, the devastated landscape did prove useful for productions such as Combat! . A complete adobe ranch survived at the northeast section of the ranch. According to

7035-410: The instrument by using, for example, three melody strings (played with steel bar and finger picks), four plucked drone strings, and 12 sympathetic strings to buzz like a sitar . Performing in this manner, the Indian musician Brij Bhushan Kabra adapted the steel guitar to play ragas , traditional Indian compositions and is called the father of the genre of Hindustani Slide Guitar. The Māori in

7140-613: The late 1950s he began recording other artists, as the original owner of Challenge Records . The label's biggest hit was " Tequila " by The Champs in 1958, which started the rock and roll instrumental craze of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He sold the label soon after, but the maroon (later green) label has the "GA" in a shield above the label name. Autry and Burnette were discovered by film producer Nat Levine in 1934. Together, Autry and Burnette made their film debut for Mascot Pictures Corp. in In Old Santa Fe as part of

7245-503: The late 1960s Republic was barely operational, managing only its film library. Gene Autry, correctly assessing the company's cash-poor situation, made a cash offer for the rights and negatives to his Republic films. The company accepted Autry's terms, and Autry now controlled the film materials for home-movie reprints and home-video tapes and discs. Autry died of lymphoma on October 2, 1998, at his home in Studio City, California . He

7350-554: The major rodeos in Texas, Colorado, Montana, and Nebraska. When the company was sold in 1968, both men continued to be active in rodeo. For his work as a livestock contractor, Autry was inducted into the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association 's ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979. Autry received several honors for his contributions to rodeo. Gene Autry was often portrayed in the comics, primarily during

7455-531: The more versatile pedal steel guitar . In the United States, the steel guitar influenced popular music in the early twentieth century, combining with jazz, swing and country music to be prominently heard in Western swing , honky-tonk , gospel and bluegrass . The instrument influenced Blues artists in the Mississippi Delta who embraced the steel guitar sound but continued holding their guitar in

7560-487: The musician standing and the guitar facing upward held horizontally by a shoulder strap. In the late 19th century, European sailors and Portuguese vaqueros , hired by Hawaii's king to work cattle ranches, introduced Spanish guitars in the Hawaiian Islands. For whatever reason, Hawaiians did not embrace standard guitar tuning that had been in use for centuries. They re-tuned their guitars to make them sound

7665-732: The on-field celebration, and the public address system played his hit song, " Back in the Saddle Again ". He invested in property, owning by 1964 the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco; the Hotel Continental in Hollywood; the Sahara Inn, a $ 12-million motel near Chicago; plus property in Palm Springs . Autry retired from show business in 1964, having made almost 100 films up to 1955 and over 600 records. He

7770-746: The owner of the franchise rather than simply its broadcast partner. The team, initially called the Los Angeles Angels upon its 1961 debut, moved to suburban Anaheim in 1966, and was renamed the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels from 1997 until 2005, when it became the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Autry served as vice president of the American League from 1983 until his death. In 1995, he sold

7875-436: The performer's lap; and bottleneck-style, performed on a traditional Spanish guitar held flat against the body. The bottleneck-style became associated with blues and rock music, and the horizontal style became associated with several musical genres, including Hawaiian music, country music, Western swing, honky-tonk, bluegrass and gospel. Solo African-American blues artists popularized the bottleneck-style ( slide guitar ) near

7980-401: The pitch of certain strings. In 1953, musician Bud Isaacs used Bigsby's invention to change the pitch of only two of the strings, and was the first to push the pedal while notes were still sounding. When Isaacs first used the setup on the 1954 recording of Webb Pierce's song called " Slowly ", he pushed the pedal while playing a chord, so certain notes could be heard bending up from below into

8085-516: The poll ceased. He appeared in the similar Boxoffice poll from 1936 to 1955, holding first place from 1936 to 1942 and second place (after Rogers) from 1943 to 1952. While these two polls are really an indication only of the popularity of series stars, Autry also appeared in the Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll of all films from 1940 to 1942, His Gene Autry Flying "A" Ranch Rodeo show debuted in 1940. Autry served in

8190-402: The resonator steel guitar into Bluegrass music with Flatt and Scruggs to the extent that this type of lap steel became an established and familiar fixture in this genre. The dobro fell out of favor in mainstream country music until a bluegrass revival in the 1970s brought it back with younger virtuoso players like Jerry Douglas whose Dobro skills became widely known and emulated. In 1934,

8295-485: The same instrument. The added bulk meant that the instrument could no longer be managed on the player's lap and required placement in a frame with legs and marketed as a "console" steel guitar. Prominent layers of that era, including Herb Remington and Noel Boggs , added more necks and eventually played instruments with up to four different necks. By the late 1940s, the steel guitar featured prominently in " honky-tonk " style of country music. Honky-tonk singers who used

8400-693: The steel guitar's foremost virtuosos, Buddy Emmons , studied at the Hawaiian Conservatory of Music in South Bend, Indiana , at age 11 in 1948. The acceptance of the sound of the steel guitar, then referred to as " Hawaiian guitars " or " lap steels ", spurred instrument makers to produce them in quantity and create innovations in the design to accommodate this style of playing. In the early twentieth century, steel guitar playing branched off into two streams: lap-style, performed on an instrument specifically designed or modified to be played on

8505-443: The term. This dominant popular vocal style coincided with the advent of radio broadcasting and electrical recording . Before the advent of the microphone , singers had to project to the rear seats of a theater, which made for a very loud vocal style. The microphone made a more personal style possible. Al Bowlly , Bing Crosby , Gene Austin , Art Gillham , and by some accounts Vaughn De Leath are often credited as inventors of

8610-541: The time, Autry asked to speak to Shilkret after finding that he had been turned down. Shilkret explained to Autry that he was turned down not because of his voice, but because Victor had just made contracts with two similar singers. Autry left with a letter of introduction from Shilkret and the advice to sing on radio to gain experience and to come back in a year or two. In 1928, Autry was singing on Tulsa radio station KVOO (now KOTV ) as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy". The Victor archives show an October 9, 1929, entry stating that

8715-435: The traditional way; they used a tubular object (the neck of a bottle) called a "slide" around a finger. This technique, historically called "bottleneck" guitar, is now known as " slide guitar " and is commonly associated with blues and rock music . Bluegrass artists adapted the Hawaiian style of playing in a resonator guitar known as a " Dobro ", a type of steel guitar with either a round or square neck, sometimes played with

8820-463: The twentieth century and in 1916, recordings of indigenous Hawaiian music outsold all other U.S. musical genres. This popularity spawned the manufacture of guitars designed specifically to be played horizontally. The archetypal instrument is the Hawaiian guitar , also called a lap steel . These early acoustic instruments were not loud enough relative to other instruments, but that changed in 1934 when

8925-587: The vocal duet of Jimmie Long and Gene Autry with two Hawaiian guitars , directed by L. L. Watson, recorded "My Dreaming of You" (Matrix 56761) and "My Alabama Home" (Matrix 56762). Autry signed a recording deal with Columbia Records in 1929. He worked in Chicago on the WLS-AM radio show National Barn Dance for four years, and with his own show, where he met singer-songwriter Smiley Burnette . In his early recording career, Autry covered various genres, including

9030-642: Was Republic's biggest star, and his films became more costly and more elaborate. They played first-run in large cities, unlike the usual "B" westerns that played in neighborhood theaters. In the Motion Picture Herald Top Ten Money-Making Western Stars poll, Autry was listed every year from the first poll in 1936 to 1942 and 1946 to 1954 (he was serving in the AAF 1943–45), holding first place 1937 to 1942, and second place (after Roy Rogers ) 1947 to 1954, when

9135-480: Was a crooner-style hit in 1951. The success of women crooners continued through 1956 but was diminished in 1957 after Billboard combined the segregated black and white pop charts, which led to a rise in male hit songs. Black American blues singer Nina Simone has been described as a crooner for her work in the 1960s and 1970s. Due to the country songs popularized by Bing Crosby, the crooning style of singing became an enduring part of country music . Crosby achieved

9240-542: Was a lap steel player for the gospel band, the Campbell Brothers , who took the musical tradition from the church to international fame. Campbell played an electric Hawaiian lap steel: a Fender Stringmaster 8-string (Fender Deluxe-8). Campbell was skilled at mimicking the human singing voice with his guitar. The idea of Campbell's recordings with the Allman Brothers and other Blues and Rock artists

9345-507: Was a program originating in Hawai'i and broadcast to the U.S. mainland west coast. It featured the steel guitar, ukulele , and Hawaiian songs sung in English. Subsequently, the program was heard worldwide on over 750 stations. Sol Hoʻopiʻi began broadcasting live from KHJ radio in Los Angeles in 1923. By the 1920s, Hawaiian music instruction for children was becoming common in the U.S. One of

9450-399: Was also one of the most important pioneering figures in the history of country music , considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmie Rodgers . His films were the first media vehicle to carry Western music to a nationwide audience. In addition to his signature song " Back in the Saddle Again ", as well as his recording hit " At Mail Call Today ", Autry

9555-663: Was awarded the American Patriots Medal by Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania . Johnny Cash recorded a song in 1978 about Autry called "Who is Gene Autry?" Cash also got Autry to sign his famous black Martin D-35 guitar, which he plays in the video of " Hurt ". In 1983, Autry received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement . Autry was inducted into

9660-486: Was buried at the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. His epitaph read, "America's Favorite Cowboy ... American Hero, Philanthropist, Patriot and Veteran, Movie Star, Singer, Composer, Baseball Fan and Owner, 33rd Degree Mason, Media Entrepreneur, Loving Husband, Gentleman". In 1932, Autry married Ina Mae Spivey, the niece of Jimmy Long. During this marriage he had a sustained affair with Gail Davis ,

9765-472: Was certainly vice. These recordings are generally not heard today, but are available on European import labels, such as JSP Records . His first hit was in 1932 with " That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine ", a duet with fellow railroad man Jimmy Long that Autry and Long co-wrote. As Autry's movie career flourished, so did his record sales. His unofficial theme song became the Ray Whitley composition " Back in

9870-577: Was changed to Gene Autry and Champion , and ran an additional 20 issues from 1955 to 1959, making it the longest-running (by number of issues) cowboy actor comic book. Meanwhile, Autry was the subject of an "Air-Western-Adventure Strip" comic strip syndicated by General Features from 1952 to 1955. The strip was produced in association with Whitman Publishing . The Mexican publisher Editorial Novaro released 423 issues of Gene Autry comics from 1954 to 1984. In 1937, Kenton Hardware Company of Kenton, Ohio , began producing Gene Autry cast-iron cap guns as

9975-691: Was determined to become a military pilot and earned his Service Pilot rating in June 1944, serving as a C-109 transport pilot with the rank of flight officer . Assigned to a unit of the Air Transport Command , he flew as part of the dangerous airlift operation over the Himalayas between India and China, nicknamed the Hump . In 1941, at the height of his screen popularity, Autry had a string of rodeo stock based north of Ardmore, Oklahoma . It

10080-597: Was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1969 and to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. After retiring, he invested widely in real estate, radio, and television. He also invested in ownership of the KOOL-TV CBS-affiliate (now Fox affiliate KSAZ-TV ) in Phoenix, Arizona , which created local shows such as the weekly bilingual children's show Niños Contentos . Republic Pictures, its finances failing, had shut down production in 1957. By

10185-487: Was encouraged to sing professionally by a customer, humorist Will Rogers , who had heard him singing. As soon as he could save money to travel, he went to New York. In the autumn of 1928, he auditioned for the Victor Talking Machine Company , shortly before purchase by David Sarnoff 's Radio Corporation of America (RCA). According to Nathaniel Shilkret , director of Light Music for Victor at

10290-511: Was known as the Flying A Ranch and encompassed 1200 acres. It served as headquarters for his traveling rodeo. The nearby town of Berwyn, then honored Autry by naming the town after him. Thirty Five thousand people attended the ceremony on November 16, 1941. A year later, he became a partner in the World Championship Rodeo Company, which furnished livestock for many of the country's major rodeos. In 1954, he acquired Montana's top bucking string from

10395-645: Was named in his honor, as was the Gene Autry precinct in Mesa, Arizona . Autry was born September 29, 1907, near Tioga in Grayson County, Texas , the grandson of a Methodist preacher. His parents, Delbert Autry and Elnora Ozment, moved in the 1920s to Ravia in Johnston County in southern Oklahoma. Gene Autry worked on his father's ranch while growing up and going to school. In 1925, Autry left

10500-479: Was not well-received by church leaders. In the 1980s, a minister's son named Robert Randolph took up the pedal steel as a teenager, popularized it in this genre and received critical acclaim as a musician. Neil Strauss, writing in The New York Times , called Randolph "one of the most original and talented pedal steel guitarists of his generation". The steel guitar's popularity in India began with

10605-547: Was perhaps the most famous of the Hawaiians who spread the sound of instrumental lap steel worldwide. This music became popular to the degree that it was called the "Hawaiian craze" and was ignited by a number of events. The annexation of Hawai'i as a U.S. territory in 1900 stimulated Americans' interest in Hawaiian music and customs. In 1912, a Broadway musical show called Bird of Paradise premiered; it featured Hawaiian music and elaborate costumes. The show became quite successful and, to ride this wave of success, it toured

10710-464: Was retired by the Angels in Autry's honor. The chosen number reflected that baseball's rosters (at the time) had 25 men, so Autry's unflagging support for his team made him the "26th man" (see also the 12th man , a similar concept in football). When the Angels finally won their first (and to date, only) World Series championship in 2002 , star outfielder Tim Salmon held Autry's cowboy hat aloft during

10815-440: Was the first electric stringed instrument of any kind and was the first electric stringed instrument to be heard on a commercial recording. Steel players, including Noel Boggs and Alvino Rey , immediately embraced the new instrument. The Dobro is a type of acoustic lap steel with a resonator; the word is commonly used as a generic term to describe bluegrass resonator lap steels of any brand. Bluegrass dobro players often use

10920-551: Was the owner of a television station and several radio stations in Southern California. From 1961 to 1997, he was the founding owner of the California Angels franchise of Major League Baseball (MLB). From 1934 to 1953, Autry appeared in 93 motion pictures. Between 1950 and 1956, he hosted The Gene Autry Show television series. In many of them, he appeared with Champion , his Morgan horse . Autry

11025-447: Was titled Back in the Saddle Again after his 1939 hit and signature tune . He is also featured year after year, on radio and " shopping mall music" at the holiday season, by his recording of " Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer ". "Rudolph" became the first No. 1 hit of the 1950s. In 2003, he was ranked No. 38 in CMT 's list of the 40 Greatest Men of Country Music . In 1977, Autry

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