Mary Lee may refer to:

• Lady Mary Chudleigh, nee Lee, writer
• Mary Lee (actor)
• Mary Lee (suffragette)
• Mary Anna Custis Lee (1807-1873), American general's wife
• Mary Esther Lee, who married a German prince and later German soldier Alfred von Waldersee, finally becoming Mary von Waldersee

See also[link]

• Mary Lee Cagle (1864 – 1955), one of the first influential women and pastors in the Church of the Nazarene
• Mary Lee Chan (1915-?), civic activist in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Mary Lee Clark (1835 – 1923), philanthropist and wife of banker Frederick Ferris Thompson
• Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis (1788 – 1853), Episcopal lay leader in Virginia
• Mary Lee Jensvold, Associate Director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute
• Mary Lee Kortes, New York-based band led by Michigan-born singer-songwriter Mary Lee Kortes
• Mary Leigh Blek, California gun control activist

This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Orvon Grover Autry^[1] (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as a singing cowboy on the radio, in movies, and on television for more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s. Autry was also owner of a television station, several radio stations in Southern California, and the Los Angeles/California Angels Major League Baseball team from 1961 to 1997.

From 1934 to 1959, Autry appeared in 94 films and 91 episodes of The Gene Autry Show television series. During the 1930s and 1940s, he personified the straight-shooting hero—honest, brave, and true—and profoundly touched the lives of millions of Americans.^[2] Autry was also one of the most important figures in the history of country music, considered the second major influential artist of the genre's development after Jimmy Rogers.^[2] His singing cowboy movies were the first vehicle to carry country music to a national audience.^[2] In addition to his signature song, "Back in the Saddle Again", Autry is still remembered for his Christmas holiday songs, "Here Comes Santa Claus", which he wrote, "Frosty the Snowman", and his biggest hit, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Autry is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and 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.^[3] The town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma was named in his honor.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Orvon Grover Autry was born September 29, 1907 near Tioga, Texas, the grandson of a Methodist preacher. His parents, Delbert Autry and Elnora Ozment, moved to Ravia, Oklahoma in the 1920s. He worked on his father's ranch while at school. After leaving high school in 1925, Autry worked as a telegrapher for the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway. His talent at singing and playing guitar led to performing at local dances.

Singing career[link]

While working as a telegrapher, Autry would sing and accompany himself on the guitar to pass the lonely hours, especially when he had the midnight shift. One night he got encouragement to sing professionally from a customer, the famous humorist and wit, Will Rogers, who had heard Autry singing.^[4][5][6]

As soon as he could collect money to travel, he went to New York. He auditioned for Victor Records, at just about the time (end of 1928) it became RCA Victor. According to Nathaniel Shilkret,^[7] director of Light Music for Victor at the time, Autry asked to speak to Shilkret when Autry found 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’s radio station KVOO as "Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy," and the Victor archives^[8] shows an October 9, 1929, entry stating that 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” (Matrix 56762).

Autry signed a recording deal with Columbia Records in 1929. He worked in Chicago, Illinois, 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 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 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, and which Autry and Long co-wrote, which was parodied by Sesame Street as "That Furry Blue Mommy Of Mine."

Autry also sang the classic Ray Whitley hit "Back In The Saddle Again," as well as many Christmas holiday songs, including "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," his own composition "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Frosty the Snowman," and his biggest hit, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Autry was 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 and later green label has the "GA" in a shield above the label name.

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.

Film career[link]

Gene Autry in Oh, Susanna!, 1936

Discovered by film producer Nat Levine in 1934, Autry and Burnette made their film debut for Mascot Pictures Corp. in In Old Santa Fe as part of 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, all B Westerns in which he played under his own name, rode his horse, Champion, had Burnette as his regular sidekick, and had many opportunities to sing in each film. Pat Buttram was picked by Gene Autry, recently returned from his World War II service in the Army Air Force, to work with him. Buttram would co-star with Gene Autry in more than 40 films and in over 100 episodes of Autry's television show

Gene Autry in The Gene Autry Show episode "The Black Rider", 1950

In the Motion Picture Herald Top Ten Money-Making Western Stars poll Autry was listed every year from 1936 to 1942 and 1946 to 1954 (he was serving in the US Army Air Corps 1943–45), holding first place 1937 to 1942, and second place (after Roy Rogers) 1947 to 1954.^[9] He appeared in the similar Box Office poll from 1936 to 1955, holding first place from 1936 to 1942 and second place (after Rogers) from 1943 to 1952.^[10] While these two polls are really an indication only of the popularity of series stars, Autry also appeared in the Top Ten Money Makers Poll of all films from 1940 to 1942,^[11] His Gene Autry Flying "A" Ranch Rodeo show debuted in 1940.^[12]

Gene Autry was the first of the singing cowboys in films, succeeded as the top star by Roy Rogers when he served in World War II. Autry briefly returned to Republic after the war to finish out his contract, which had been suspended for the duration of his military service and which he had tried to have declared void after his discharge. He appeared in 1951 in the film Texans Never Cry, with a role for newcomer Mary Castle. After 1951 he formed his own production company to make Westerns under his own control, which continued the 1947 distribution agreement with Columbia Pictures.

Melody Ranch[link]

Autry purchased the 110 acre Monogram Movie Ranch in 1953, located in Placerita Canyon near Newhall, California in the northern San Gabriel Mountains foothills. He renamed it the Melody Ranch after his movie Melody Ranch.^[13] 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. A decade after he purchased Melody Ranch, a brushfire swept through in August 1962, destroying most of the original standing sets. However, the devastated landscape did prove useful for productions such as Combat!. A complete adobe ranch survived at the northeast section of the ranch.^[14][15]

In 1990, after his favorite horse Champion, who lived in retirement there, died, Autry put the remaining 12 acre ranch up for sale. It is now known as the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio and Melody Ranch Studios on 22 acres.^[16] The ranch has Melody Ranch Museum open year-round; and one weekend a year the entire ranch is open to the public during the Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival, another legacy of Autry's multi-talents.^[17][18]

Radio and television career[link]

Gene Autry with the Pinafores, who sang on his weekly radio show, 1948

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 a CBS-TV and Mutual radio series, The Adventures of Champion. He created the Cowboy Code, or Cowboy Commandments, in response to his young radio listeners aspiring to emulate him. Under his code, the Cowboy must:

1. Never shoot first, hit a smaller man or take unfair advantage;
2. Never go back on his word or a trust confided in him;
3. Always tell the truth;
4. Be gentle with children, the elderly and animals;
5. Not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas;
6. Help people in distress;
7. Be a good worker;
8. Keep himself clean in thought, speech, action and personal habits;
9. Respect women, parents and his nation's laws;
10. Be a patriot.

Beginning in 1950 he produced and starred in his own television show on CBS and made several appearances on ABC-TV's Jubilee USA in the late 1950s. In 1995 Autry costarred with Charlton Heston, Mickey Rooney, Deborah Winters and Peter Graves in the Warren Chaney docudrama, America: A Call to Greatness.^[19]

Military career[link]

Autry served as a C-47 Skytrain pilot in the United States Army Air Forces, with the rank of flight officer^[20] in the Air Transport Command during World War II flying dangerous missions over the Himalayas, nicknamed the Hump, between Burma and China.

Rodeo[link]

Gene Autry and Gail Davis, 1941

Few are aware of Autry's longtime involvement in professional rodeo. In 1942 Autry, at the height of his screen popularity, had a string of rodeo stock based in Ardmore, Oklahoma. 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 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 km²) ranch near Fowler, Colorado, with Knight as the working partner in the operation. For the next 12 years they provided livestock for most of 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.

Retirement[link]

Autry retired from show business in 1964, having made almost 100 films up to 1955 and over 600 records. He 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 and in real estate, radio, and television, including the purchase from dying Republic Pictures the rights for films he had made for the company.

In 1952 Autry bought the old Monogram Ranch in Placerita Canyon (Newhall-Santa Clarita, California,) and renamed it Melody Ranch. Numerous "B" Westerns and TV shows were shot there during Autry's ownership, including the initial years of Gunsmoke with James Arness. Melody Ranch burned down in 1962, dashing Autry's plans to turn it into a museum. According to 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 National Center). Melody Ranch came back to life after 1991, when it was purchased by the Veluzat family and rebuilt. It survives as a movie location today as well as the home of the City of Santa Clarita's annual Cowboy Festival, where Autry's legacy takes center stage.

Baseball[link]

Gene Autry's number 26 was retired by the California Angels in 1992.

In 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 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 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 (as in 26th man) was retired by the Angels in Autry's honor. The chosen number reflected that baseball's rosters are 25-man strong, so Autry's unflagging support for his team made him the 26th member.

Death[link]

Included for many years on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans, he slipped to their "near miss" category in 1995 with an estimated net worth of $320 million. Gene Autry died of lymphoma 3 days after his 91st birthday at his home in Studio City, California and is interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. His death on October 2, 1998 came fewer than three months after the death of another celebrated cowboy of the silver screen, radio, and TV, Roy Rogers.

Personal life[link]

In 1932 he married Ina May Spivey (who died in 1980), who was the niece of Jimmy Long. In 1981 he married Jacqueline Ellam, who had been his banker. He had no children by either marriage.

Legacy[link]

Gene Autry statue in Palm Springs, California

On November 16, 1941, the town of Berwyn, Oklahoma, north of Ardmore, was renamed in honor of Gene Autry.

In 1972 he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 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, 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 #1 hit of the 1950s. CMT in 2003 ranked him #38 in CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music.

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, located near the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, is signed as the "Gene Autry Memorial Interchange." In 2007, he became a charter member of the Gennett Records Walk of Fame in Richmond, Indiana.

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."^{[citation needed]}

Autry was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2004, the Starz Entertainment Corporation joined forces with the Autry estate to restore all of his films, which have been shown on Starz's Encore Western Channel on cable television on a regular basis to date since.

Hollywood Walk of Fame[link]

Autry is the only celebrity to have five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one in each of the five categories maintained by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.^[21] They are:

The Museum of the American West[link]

The Museum of the American West in Los Angeles' Griffith Park was founded in 1988 as the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, featuring much of his collection of Western art and memorabilia. Its mission is to preserve everything related to the "mythic aspects" of the American "Old West" from true historical lifestyles to the 70-year saga of the Hollywood Western movie genre.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

1930s[link]

1940s[link]

1950s[link]

1990s[link]

Filmography[link]

From 1934 to 1959, Gene Autry appeared in 94 films. From 1950 to 1955, he also appeared in 91 episodes of The Gene Autry Show television series. In 1985, he made his last appearance on screen in a television movie, All American Cowboy.^[12][24]

See also[link]

• Autry National Center of the American West
• Melody Movie Ranch
• Hollywood Christmas Parade
• Gene Autry, Oklahoma
• List of best-selling music artists

References[link]

Citations

Bibliography

External links[link]

• Official Gene Autry website
• Gene Autry at the Internet Movie Database
• Gene Autry at AllRovi
• Gene Autry at the National Radio Hall of Fame
• Autry National Center
• Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
• Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio Museum
• Melody Ranch: Movie Magic in Placerita Canyon
• Memories of the Place I Called 'Melody Ranch'
• Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival at Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio
• Old Time Radio Downloads
• Discography of Gene Autry albums
• Gene Autry, "Back in the Saddle Again," Jubilee USA, September 10, 1960
• The Phantom Empire (1935)

v t e Sports in Orange County, California Baseball MLB: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim • Independent: Orange County Flyers1 Ice hockey NHL: Anaheim Ducks Basketball WCPBL: Newport Beach Surf • Orange County Gladiators Football IWFL: Southern California Breakers Roller derby RDCL: Orange County Roller Girls Soccer PASL: Anaheim Bolts • PDL: Orange County Blue Star Tennis WTT: Orange County Breakers College athletics NCAA Div. I: Cal State Fullerton • UC Irvine Defunct/Relocated NFL: Los Angeles Rams • ABA: Anaheim Amigos • NBA: Los Angeles Clippers2 • NBA D-League: Anaheim Arsenal • NASL: California Surf • APSL: Los Angeles Salsa • AFL: Anaheim Piranhas • NLL: Anaheim Storm • RHI: Anaheim Bullfrogs • WFL: Southern California Sun • CISL: Anaheim Splash Venues Anaheim Convention Center • Angel Stadium • Bren Events Center • Cicerone Field • Goodwin Field • Honda Center • Titan Gym • Titan Stadium 1Currently on hiatus. 2Only played occasional games in Orange County

William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American actor.

Early life[link]

Tracy was born in Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from Western Military Academy in 1918 he studied electrical engineering at Union College, and then served as a 2nd lieutenant in World War I. In the early 1920s he decided to work as an actor. He became a Broadway star by way of his starring role in the original 1924 production of George Kelly's play The Show-Off.

Career[link]

He arrived in Hollywood in 1929, where he played the role of newspapermen in quite a number of pictures. He played reporter Hildy Johnson in the original stage production of The Front Page (1928) and a Walter Winchell-type gossip columnist in Blessed Event (1932). Tracy starred as the columnist in Advice to the Lovelorn (1933), very loosely based on the novel Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West, and played a conscience-stricken editor in the 1943 drama The Power of the Press, based on a story by former newspaperman Samuel Fuller.

He played The Buzzard, the criminal who leads Liliom (Charles Farrell) into a fatal robbery, in the film version of Liliom (1930). He also played Lupe Vélez's frenetic manager in Gregory LaCava's The Half-Naked Truth (1932), and portrayed John Barrymore's agent in Dinner at Eight (1933), directed by George Cukor.

His flourishing film career was temporarily disrupted on 19 November 1933, while on location in Mexico filming the Wallace Beery vehicle Viva Villa!. According to Desi Arnaz, Tracy stood on his balcony and urinated on a military parade ^[1] that was passing below in Mexico City. In his autobiography,^[2] Arnaz, who worked on the picture, referenced that from then on, if you watched the crowds, they would visibly disperse anytime an American got out onto a balcony.

However, other crew members there at the time refute this, giving a different account of events. In his autobiography, Charles G. Clarke, the cinematographer on the picture, said that he was standing outside the hotel during the parade and the incident never happened.^[3] Tracy, he said, was standing on the balcony, observing the parade when a Mexican in the street below made an obscene gesture at him. Tracy replied in kind, and the next day a local newspaper printed a story that said, in effect, Tracy had insulted Mexico, Mexicans in general and the Mexican flag in particular. The story caused an uproar in Mexico, and MGM decided to sacrifice Tracy in order to be allowed to continue filming there. Original director Howard Hawks was also fired for refusing to testify against Tracy, and subsequently replaced by Jack Conway. Tracy was replaced by Stuart Erwin.

During World War II he returned to uniform. Tracy did continue on in films and also had two television series in the 1950s, New York Confidential, and was one of the actors who portrayed the television detective Martin Kane. After World War II, his screen career was largely relegated to television but he also portrayed the former President of the United States, a character loosely based on Harry Truman, in both the stage and film versions of The Best Man (1964), written by Gore Vidal. The movie version featured Henry Fonda and remains practically the only film of the period in which both the protagonists are atheists. Tracy received his only Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as 'President Art Hockstader' in The Best Man.^[4]

References[link]

Death[link]

Lee Tracy died in Santa Monica, California of cancer on October 18, 1968, aged 70.

Partial filmography[link]

• Big Time (1929)
• Born Reckless (1930) as Bill O'Brien
• Love Is a Racket (1932)
• Doctor X (1932) as Lee Taylor
• Blessed Event (1932)
• The Half-Naked Truth (1932)
• The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)
• Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)
• Night Mayor (1932)
• Turn Back the Clock (1933)
• Dinner at Eight (1933)
• Bombshell (1933)
• Advice to the Lovelorn (1933)
• The Nuisance (1933)
• The Lemon Drop Kid (1934)
• Carnival (1935)
• The Power of the Press (1943)
• Betrayal from the East (1945)
• The Best Man (1964) as President Art Hockstader

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Lee Tracy at the Internet Movie Database
• Lee Tracy at the Internet Broadway Database
• Moviefone: Lee Tracy
• Lee Tracy at Find a Grave
• Lee Tracy: A Motormouth, Ambulance Chasing, Four Flusher (TCM Movie Morlocks)