Gene Autry

Born in Tioga, Texas on September 29th 1907, Orvon Gene Autry once said "I learned to ride a horse at the same time as I learned to walk". He moved to Okalahoma with his family and after finishing high school at 15 he worked as a labourer for the Railroad Company. He remained with the company but became a telegrapher soon after. Outside of work Autry teamed up with another worker to sing and play the guitar at local dances, they also began writing their own material.

By 1929 Gene Autry was known as Okalahoma's Yodeling Cowboy, he was appearing regularly on Tulsa's KVOO radio station. The following year he went to New York and signed with Columbia Recording Company, they sent him to Chicago where he worked on a number of national radio shows, including the National Barndance.

Autry's film debut in 1935 was in a Ken Maynard film "In Old Santa Fe" quickly followed by the 13 part serial "Phantom Empire" and "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds". "The Singin' Cowboy" was the number 1 actor in westerns by 1937 along with his trusty horse Champion. They retained this position until 1942 when Roy Rogers took his place while Autry served as a flight officer during WW11. On his return to acting he could not regain his number one spot, but he continued to make his special style of western, lots of action, little romance and plenty of time for singing.

Gene appeared in fifty-eight movies for Republic Pictures before forming Gene Autry Productions in 1947, which produced thirty-two movies. From 1950 to 1956 CBS ran The Gene Autry Show on television. During his recording career he had nine hits that sold over a million copies, he also wrote over two hundred hit songs including "Here Comes Santa Claus".