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His first hit record was "That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine" in 1932.
Autry was the first owner of the Los Angeles Angels American League baseball club, subsequently renamed the California Angels when the team was relocated to Anaheim in 1966. (The team has been renamed twice: the Anaheim Angels, and now the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.) A radio station owner, Autry was interested in acquiring the broadcasting rights to the Angels games when he found out the team, part of the American League's first expansion, was for sale. He bought it. Autry owned the team in its entirety from its first year of play, 1961, until 1997, when he sold part of the franchise to Disney, who renamed the team the Anaheim Angels. Autry's widow sold the rest of the team to Disney after his death the next year at the age of 91.
He has five stars in the Hollywood Walk Of Fame; for Recording, Movies, TV, Radio, and live theater.
According to a Hollywood legend, published in The Orange County Register after his death, Autry was discovered singing in a telegraph office in Oklahoma by Will Rogers. Rogers told him that he had a pretty good voice, and suggested that he go to Hollywood where he could make some money singing in the movies. Gene followed Rogers' advice and became "The Singing Cowboy." Autry himself related this story in an interview with Cecil B. DeMille on the Lux Radio Drama Hour. In the interview, Gene added that the next time he saw Rogers was in Hollywood. According to Gene, Will just nodded and said, "I see you made it, kid."
Interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA, in the Sheltering Hills section, Grave #1048.
Elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1969.
Grandson of an itinerant preacher, he became a multi-millionaire through his investments and real estate holdings.
Inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1980.
Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1972.
He was the most popular of the "singing cowboys." In his heyday he was making six to eight feature westerns a year.
More than 50 years after the last Gene Autry western, he is better known to later generations as a singer. His remastered vintage recordings of "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" remain very popular holiday standards into the 21st century.
The California/Anaheim Angels franchise retired #26 in his honor.
Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 19-22. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Owned Golden West Broadcasters, which owned and operated San Francisco AM radio station KSFO, Los Angeles television station KTLA channel 5, and Los Angeles AM radio station KMPC.
During the war, he was awarded the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.
During World War II, when he left Republic Pictures to join the U.S. Army, he was the only officer allowed to wear cowboy boots with his uniform.
In response to his millions of young fans who wanted to be like Gene Autry, he developed a code of conduct, "The Cowboy Code", which is as follows: 1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage. 2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him. 3. He must always tell the truth. 4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals. 5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas. 6. He must help people in distress. 7. He must be a good worker. 8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits. 9. He must respect women, parents, and his nation's laws. 10. The Cowboy is a patriot.
In 1940 the National Association of Theater Owners voted him the fourth biggest box office attraction, behind Mickey Rooney, 'Clark Gable' and Spencer Tracy.
In 1992 he was said to be worth $320 million.
He was awarded 5 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard; Radio at 6520 Hollywood Boulevard; Recording at 6384 Hollywood Boulevard; Television at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard; and Life Theatre at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Gene did a lot work with preserving artifacts of the "Old West", including many Indian relics, and had a museum containing many of these articles.
Once tried to open a restaurant in Chicago. Local Mafia chieftains demanded a cut for their "permission" to start business. Autry refused to pay up. On the opening night gangsters appeared and told the staff to leave, and then destroyed the entire restaurant. Autry closed down and returned to the west coast.
In my day, most people thought dance hall girls actually danced.
Gene Autry
On January 1st, 1942, the small town of Berwyn (Carter County, Oklahoma) changed its name and became 'Gene Autry'.
Gene Autry
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Orvon Gene Autry
(September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998)
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Gene Autry Quotes
[in a conversation with director Frank McDonald about his career] I'm not a good actor, a good rider or a particularly good singer, but they seem to like what I do, so I'll keep on doing it as long as they want.
[on the music industry] It occurs to me that music, with the possible exception of riding a bull, is the most uncertain way to make a living I know. In either case you can get bucked off, thrown, stepped on, trampled--if you get on at all. At best, it is a short and bumpy ride.
[on Errol Flynn] He spent more time on a bar stool, or in court, or in the headlines, or in bed, than anyone I knew.
[on the difference between modern westerns and the westerns made during his day] I could never have played scenes like where The Sundance Kid kicks the guy in the nuts [in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)] or anything like Clint Eastwood does.
[about his "image" as a cowboy star] I couldn't shoot a man in the back. I couldn't take a drink at a bar. They would have run me out of town.
I think the He-men in the movies belong in the Army, Marine, Navy or Air Corps. All of these He-men in the movies realize that right now is the time to get into the service. Every movie cowboy ought to devote time to the Army winning, or to helping win, until the war is over - the same as any other American citizen. The Army needs all the young men it can get, and if I can set a good example for the young men I'll be mighty proud. (1942)
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