Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry
by Holly George-Warren
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Book Summary Information
Author: Holly George-WarrenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-07
ISBN: 0195177460
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry
Book Review: "Everyone knew I could sing, but they didn't know I was better at arithmetic"
Summary: 5 Stars
I recall the quote in the title from a tribute to Gene Autry in the Orange County Register shortly after his death ten years ago.
For me, Gene Autry was mostly about the music. His old movies were on television during my childhood in the 1950's, along with those of Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers. I also enjoyed those shows, but I loved the songs that Gene Autry sang, "San Antonio Rose," "Rancho Grande," "The Old Lamplighter," "South of the Border," and I could go on and on. Not to mention "Back in the Saddle Again."
For an earlier generation, he was to hillbilly music what Motown artists were to race records. He opened up a narrowly marketed niche music to a much larger audience on the radio and in movies. Before Gene Autry, these market niches were so narrow that anything with fiddles and guitars on the record were automatically assumed to be hillbilly records, such that the recordings of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of Paris were stocked in the Hillbilly section of some record stores.
Holly George-Warren has written a superb biography. Gene Autry was a man of notable weaknesses that were outweighed by his strengths. He was dealt many poor hands and bad deals but he was able to overcome it through hard work, tenacity, and personal charm. His is a great story well documented and well told.
Also, what comes to mind is how much he represented broad historical forces at work in his generation. The south was barely recovering from the Civil War when a devastating drought set in in the late 1920's. Gene Autry was part of the out migration of the sons of the south to the west. His life also reflected how the power center in the United States shifted southward and westward after World War II.
The hardest thing in this world is to know when to say enough is enough. In that way, he was very human, but at least he wasn't destroyed by his excesses in the way of most men. He was wealthy, yet beloved. He and his first wife loved each other to the end, despite their troubles. He married well both times. He was a great judge of talent. He lived to be 91 and was active almost to the end. Beyond hero worship, I have a subtler admiration for him.
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