Except for a two-year break when he was in the US Army Air Corps during World War II, Gene Autry opened his Melody Ranch to radio guests every week from 1940 to 1956. He’d taken his Army oath on the air in July 1942, and, during the war, ferried fuel, arms and ammunition over “The Hump,” in the Himalayas, in the war’s China-Burma-Indiia theater.
His sponsor was “healthful, refreshing Doublemint Gum.”
He’d been born Orvon Grover Autry in Tioga, Texas, in 1907, which made him four years older than a contemporary radio cowboy, Roy Rogers, who, you might recall from last time, was born in 1911, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Autry held a variety of jobs when young and lost many because employers didn’t appreciate his singing on the job. His self-taught guitar accompaniments probably, at that time, didn’t help. He later worked on ranches in Texas and Oklahoma.
Autry told the story of working in a telegraph office and being heard by entertainer Will Rogers. Rogers told him to pursue singing and, in 1930, billed as “America’s Yodeling Cowboy,” he debuted on KVOO, Tulsa.
His screen career began in 1934 working for Republic Pictures as a star of B-grade westerns. He was already a star of Saturday afternoon movie matinees when he began making guest radio appearances on Rudy Vallee’s Fleischmann Hour and The Eddie Cantor Show.
Rudy Vallee, you’ll recall, gave a much needed break to many radio stars early in their careers. Among them were Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Hilliard and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.
He was on the set of Shooting High, his 39th film, when the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency called. They’d arranged an audition at the CBS radio network for Wrigley’s gum. The audition, as you might suspect, was successful.
The network show premiered Jan. 7, 1940. It supposedly took place—as did all the series’ shows—at Autry’s home, The Melody Ranch, in the San Fernando Hills near Los Angeles.
Announcer Lou Crosby opened each show with the phrase, “Where the pavement ends and the West begins … .”
The shows were constructed around two-fisted hero Autry, who, within a 30-minute time slot, defeated owlhoots, rustlers and other varmints who performed such dastardly deeds as cutting off the water supply to the ranch left to the pretty young thing (well, she sounded pretty) by her recently departed father. Many of the regular cast members, such as sidekick Pat Buttram, had been with Autry since the early 1930’s, through stage show and movie days.
A long time baseball fan, Autry acquired the California Angels in 1961. He also owned a radio station, KMPC, in Los Angeles.
Gene Autry died at his home in Studio City, California, on October2, 1998. He was 91.
Brian Rogers is a Dearborn resident and frequent contributor to the “Great Lakes Monitor,” a publication of Michigan Area Radio Enthusiasts, and to Digital First Media.
