Back in the Saddle Again

Gene Autry

Spanning careers as a ranch hand in Oklahoma, Tin Pan Alley singer, Hollywood star, and owner of a major-league baseball team, the life of Gene Autry is the embodiment of the Great American Dream. Through a combination of luck, timing, talent, and business savvy, Autry raised himself from dirt-poor beginnings to become a legend in the entertainment industry. Here for the first time, the original "Singing Cowboy" looks back on the glory years of radio, film, and television and on a life that touched the hearts of millions.

It was Will Rogers who encouraged the young Gene Autry (then a railroad worker and guitar player in Oklahoma) to head for New York. Within a year, he recorded the first of his many hit records and was well on his way to stardom. Recording success led to a film contract and the beginning of the "Singing Cowboy" craze, a vogue which resulted in ninety-five Gene Autry movies, a long-lived radio program, and the "Gene Autry Show" on television. During World War II, the Texan farm boy distinguished himself as a military-cargo pilot and went on to build a financial empire consisting of broadcast stations, film production companies, expensive real-estate holdings, and the California Angels baseball team. Autry is now the Chairman of the Board of the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

Back in the Saddle Again is a classic piece of Americana, an insider's look at the worlds of music, movies, baseball and of big business, and a Who's Who in Hollywood in its heyday. But above all, it is a chronicle of a gentler era in which the hero (according to what Autry called "The Cowboy Code") always wore a white hat and never kissed the leading lady unless she happened to be his horse.