You're certainly proud that all of you have come out to to, welcome Gene.

And, Gene Autry still draws a crowd in a certain small Oklahoma town, just like he did 65 years ago when Berwyn, population 227, changed its name to Gene Autry, Oklahoma.

35,000 fans crowded into the tiny burg for the event.

In November of 41, they decided the town had all signed a petition voting on changing the name of Berwyn to Gene Autry, Oklahoma.

And at that point in time, I think it was the first town ever to name itself after a movie star.

So there was a big ceremony here, and, and it was broadcast.

Gene had a weekly radio show, so they broadcast on location here.

They did newsreels.

It was in life magazine.

It was like a really, really big deal.

Today, fans still flocked to Gene Autry.

Gene Autry, 100th, celebration.

Most are members of the World War Two generation come from near and far to pay homage to the late, great hero of their time in the sleepy town that made him its namesake and the preservation of his memory, its mission.

Mr.

Alvin Sweeten and his wife, Flo have collected memorabilia related to the singing cowboy movies and especially Gene Autry, because the town is named Gene Autry because he used to live here or actually had a ranch here, and just expanded this collection to fit this, this old schoolhouse building it back in 1991, I think it was.

And, turned it into a museum.

And now it's it's nationally known as a, one of the strongest collections of memorabilia related to the singing cowboys.

I had to see the museum.

I did some research on the web, and I wanted to see what was going on here.

I knew he bought a lot of property out here, about 1200 acres, back when it was the town of Berwyn.

It is wonderful.

I would encourage anybody that's never been here to come again.

Folks can see the wonderful museum year round for a donation, but once a year every September.

They can really get back in the saddle again when the museum hosts the Gene Autry Film Festival.

Oh, it's great.

It's one of the best is the only one like it.

I think, they have all music, music all day.

And, you have some stars here to sign autographs, pictures.

And it's just, It's great, a professional map.

There you go.

Billy Vaughn is one of several old Western star lookalikes who travels the country, dropping in on events like this one.

You young whippersnapper.

Oh, dressed up like Smiley Burnett.

Frog Milhouse was Gene Autry sidekick in the movies and Charles straight sidekick.

Don't worry, you get there with me to guide you.

You may be the guide, but you can't go no place.

I don't want to go.

Who to send your way and your mate in the paper.

The other buddy.

Howdy.

I don't know, it's just something to do.

I have to get old and retire and ugly like me.

Yes, but the only thing you can do, say the other guys, most of them can do something they sang or, rope tricks for me.

All I can do is to stand around, look dumb.

And the wife I said I'm the best at it in the world.

So girls are all right.

But look at that.

Give me a beautiful steak.

Any time.

We try to find the movie stars who are still living, of course, and who are still with us, who starred in or acted in those older style westerns, the Westerns that are kind of usually pre 1960, the ones that aren't the violent and bloody ones that happen sometimes nowadays.

The ones where they really had the good values.

Now, Jim Drury, James Drury, who was here, was in The Virginian as well as many other movies.

That was the TV series to Virginia when I was a child.

When I was a teenager, I was in love with Jim Drury, along with a lot of the other gals who were here.

The Westerns were not are not really over, no matter what you think.

They're making one in Burney Texas right now.

And I got a call on the way out here today about a part in that picture.

So there.

So there.

That's just a fun, a fun, nostalgic pop culture, pop history type thing.

That is something that we're trying to preserve here and, and kind of perpetuate because, won't be too many more years.

And that generation of folks who experience those movies will be gone.

In 1997, I got to meet Gene Autry and interview him for The New York Times.

And that was the really total pivotal moment for me that led to this book.

Although when that happened, I had no idea that one day I would be writing this biography.

But Holly George Warren just finished writing the only biography of Gene Autry.

She was commissioned to write the book after America's Public Cowboy Number One passed away in 1998.

His was a story of the gumption, hard work, and unbridled success of a man who came from humble beginnings.

Gene Autry really, I think, kind of considered himself 5050, Oklahoman and Texan.

He was literally born in Texas, outside of Tioga, which is not too far south of the Oklahoma border.

But his dad was really kind of a ramblin kind of guy.

Didn't want to stay in one place too long, wasn't much of a provider for the family.

So, the family moved around a lot.

And of course, just literally weeks after Gene Autry's birth in 1907, Oklahoma became a state.

Prior to that, of course, it was Indian Territory.

So, you know, kind of the time was right for people to try to, you know, find a place to live in Oklahoma.

So he did live in a lot of little towns in this area of Carter County.

He was, you know, briefly in a town called Acholi.

He was later his family lived in Rabiah when he first started working for the railroad.

And then, of course, when he did go to work for the railroad at age 17, he was mostly stationed up and down the Frisco line, which pretty much paralleled route 66.

And he was a relief operator.

So his job was to live, you know, be sent out for two weeks at a time, a month at a time, at different depots.

So he lived all up and down, the Frisco line.

He spent a lot of time in Sapulpa, Chelsea, Catoosa, a lot of the little towns and really loved Oklahoma.

And I think he kind of found himself in Oklahoma.

There is a story told so often that it is regarded as fact that Will Rogers himself discovered Gene Autry as Autry said, strumming his guitar and singing in one of those telegraph offices.

Warren says the story is not true.

That is the great, probably one of the great Hollywood myths of all time.

And it was basically started about two years after Will Rogers death.

There's a tiny chance that perhaps one time, when Gene was working in the telegraph office at the depot, you know, in Oklahoma, Will Rogers could have possibly come in and he might have spotted him.

But Will Rogers never heard Gene play guitar and encourage him to go to, you know, Hollywood or New York or there's many, many variations of the story, no matter who encouraged him, it was Autry's gumption that inspired him to go to New York City in 1927 to audition for Victor Records.

The next year, he performed nightly on Tulsa's KVOO radio station as Oklahoma's Yodeling Cowboy, and in 1929 he cut his first record for Victor and signed a recording contract, then moved to the Windy City, Chicago.

He was 22 years old.

Right as he started performing on the radio in Chicago, radio was starting to saturate the country where everyone had a radio in their home.

The radio airwaves are starting to get reach everywhere, even in rural America.

So he suddenly became very popular as a radio star.

Western movies were popular from the beginning of even in the silent era, beginning with The Great Train Robbery in 1903.

But by the time Gene Autry went to Hollywood in 1934, they had starting to kind of lose out in popularity.

People were kind of getting tired of the formulaic, you know, shoot em up bad guy, you know, outlaw kind of plots.

Well, Gene came along and here's a brand new type of western, the musical Western.

You can talk about the line towns where the springs run rocking.

Right.

You can think about chuck wagon, where the grub is always, but in case I want my comfort.

And that's a funny case.

You always find me hanging around the old home place where Holly George Warren's new book focuses on Gene Autry, his life.

Boyd Meijer's new book, The Complete Filmworks of Gene Autry, chronicles his career in movies.

He wanted to be in films.

He kind of pestered Nat Levine at Mascot Studios.

I mean, he was already on the radio back in Chicago, and, you kind of pestered Matt Levine, the head of Mascot Studios, until, Matt said, okay, we'll come out and we'll give you a test.

In Ken Maynard movie, an old Santa Fe, Gene and Smiley Burnette sang a couple of songs in that movie.

It went over well.

Ken Maynard was at odds with mascot, so they put Gene Autry.

They said, we'll try him in this cereal.

They were making Phantom Empire, and it went over gangbusters.

And then they put him into the feature films, and they were a hit from the very beginning.

And off he went.

Gene Autry’s movies, mixed gangsters and nightclubs, along with horses and stagecoaches.

And it was a world that you'd never seen on the screen with Tom mix and Buck Jones.

They were straight Westerns, shoot em ups, and Gene was, a little different.

He was a touch the feminine side a little bit, too.

[music] and he just had so many things going for that depression era that that the people just fell into.

It was a lot of luck.

And being the right person at the right time was something totally different.

And then along came hit records.

And me, he's the only one who has five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in radio and and all these different venues.

You had the song that a cowboy sang about the gold and when, by 1940, Gene Autry, who graduated as Orvin Grover Autry from a high school in Ravia Oklahoma, was a mega star I would always go see Gene.

I would never say it's a best thing for a mother to do is put her kid in this thing for $0.10 and babysit all day long.

We didn't get out till 530.

He was just, He was the cowboy and back as a kid, you just.

He was just your hero.

That's it, I don't know.

[music] but not so big that he forgot where he came from.

In the 1930s, when he became successful, he would come and perform in Tioga and give free concerts at the high school for the kids and the elementary school.

He would stop off all the time in Oklahoma.

When he was hugely successful, he would still come back and visit his old friends from the railroad, his relatives.

So he he was very loyal to those people that he knew from when he was like a nobody.

[music] It was this tie to Oklahoma.

That may Berwyn part of Gene Autry story.

What happened with Gene Autry was, he got very, very interested in the prospect of having his own rodeo.

He began starring in rodeos in the 1930s, and he, you know, came from the background of, you know, raising stock and rodeo stock.

And so he got the idea, why not do it myself?

So he literally started his own rodeo in the late 1930s.

He bought property here, in what was then called Berwyn, Oklahoma.

He bought, I think it was like a 100 and 128.

I can't remember to it's read my book, but, he bought a lot of acreage here and was, started the Gene Autry flying a ranch here.

And this was where they were testing out the rodeo stock for the Gene Autry flying a rodeo.

That is why in November of 1941, Berwyn residents voted to rename their town after this legend.

Little did they know that one month later, the flying a ranch and Gene Autry's connection to them would fall apart.

Sadly, what happened was, you know, in December 1941, you know, Pearl Harbor and everything kind of changed.

You know, rodeos had to be cut way back because rationing started.

You know, once America got in the war, and Gene himself ended up enlisting in World War two, but sadly, the ranch didn't really go too far.

He he had to shut down his rodeo after he enlisted.

I'm back in the saddle again.

Gene Autry finished his service in 1945 and returned to making movies and recording hit records.

In 64, Autry retired from show business.

He had made 93 films, recorded over 600 records, and left an indelible mark on America's landscape.

He really changed our culture.

And I guess the lesson is to not be afraid of the future, not to be afraid of change.

Proving that his legacy endures, Gene Autry's fans, his friends, and his family come from all over the country to fill the seats at the festival each year, but some folks just wander in.

This man's decision to do a little wandering turned out to be a fateful one.

Yeah, I was going down 35. to head back home.

I've been in Oklahoma City for a couple of days.

I was heading back to Texas and we saw the sign, said Gene Autry Museum.

And I went, I said, honey, I've been told his kinfolk somewhere down the line, so you want to take a look at.

He said, let's look at on the way back home.

So I went back home.

We said, okay, let's go look for it.

And Charles Autry didn't want to tell a soul at the festival that he wasn't Autry, because he wasn't sure his mother's stories were true.

Yeah, it was a stranger.

Jeff Carson of New Jersey, an unabashed Gene Autry fan who arranged for Charles to meet a potential new family member.

Hi, I'm Charles, I'm certainly not sure.

How are you?

This is great.

It's great to meet you.

Nobody ever claims to be, but I. I found family fun.

I can't believe this.

Yeah.

Who?

Art?

I mean, can we get together?

I can contact you.

Okay?

Okay.

Yes, absolutely.

I'm from Tulsa, right outside of Tulsa.

Broken arrow and my family moved here in 1920.

Well, I live in South Texas, but I'm coming to Oklahoma.

Are you?

Yeah.

You're in Oklahoma?

Yeah.

We're coming back to our roots.

Every Autry.

I mean, every time.

It just feels like we have that huge connection because of, because of the family ties in.

You know, that somewhere in the big mix of everything, no matter how you throw it all in, it just comes out.

You're still family, you know?

So I just embrace them and and love them.

And he's a great guy.

I look forward to getting to know him.

We we do have the same relative in Alamo.

McKay.

Autry.

We found out we both know he was in the family.

My kid.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yes.

No way.

Kaiser.

Makai.

McKayla in the guy archery location.

Yeah.

He's big pictures.

He's got a huge, big.

Yes, ma'am.

Yeah, that's our kinfolk.

Absolutely.

Yes.

I mean, you his brother did a background on it.

Yeah it did.

It is every kinfolk.

Yeah, yeah.

Somehow we're in the stream somewhere.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

We have tadpoles in there somewhere.

We are, we are.

It's awesome to meet you.

Oh, this is cool.

Yeah, I see, said it and I said it.

No words at the same time.

What?

Oh, that was that was scary right there I went.

Oh, well, we're closer than I think.

[music] Charlotte.

Audrey never got to meet her famous cousin Gene.

He was already retired by the time she was born.

And Gene Autry could not keep up with all the branches of his large family tree.

But that doesn't keep Charlotte from being affected by the relation.

It is a huge honor to be here as an Autry, and I can just tell you the people, just almost leave me in tears every day because they love Gene so much.

And, that just somehow passes down to me and it's so undeserving.

I feel I'm so humbled by it that it just really touches me deep in my heart to know that the love they had for this man, and they still they want more.

Autry Charlotte does her part to give them more.

Autry by joining other country western stars covering Gene Autry, his hits and a new CD called Boots Too Big to Fill, the project puts a new twist on some of Autry's old songs.

I honor him for a lot of reasons because of being in Autry and being related to him, but also me being an artist and a writer and, playing the guitar and stuff.

It just really I feel like I have a huge connection with him through my music.

Gene Autry as as the others, other stars, they're all gone.

I spent many, many, many hours with him, throughout the years.

Just not enough years.

You know, I, I miss him, I hope, all right, I hope some of the younger ones would just find out who he was.

He's a great guy.

He.

He liked the kids.

He liked movies that, were clean and, Well, you're mighty hills in your Roy Rogers and in the the new mall.

Yeah.

They roll over their grave today.

If they’d, see some of the movies, westerns coming up.

Well, boys here's where everything I like it.

You're going to stand at home with us?

Nope.

We're riding the Ford.

Dobie.

They're made a lieutenant in the United States Cavalry.

Why are they going to make out of.

You?

Made me love it.

He really stood for something.

He wasn't just kind of a celebrity passing fancy kind of thing.

He really stood for this kind of, you know, the American spirit, the courage, having good values and being, you know, kind of a strong person that tried to do good, basically.

You know, he was a role model for a lot of people.

Oh, how about a drink?

Don't think.

Oh, come on, just one.

I'm sorry.

I don't think Say that My guess.

Oh.

What up?

Roy and Gene and everybody else taught me some moral values along with my parents.

Those pictures are not here any longer, so it's.

Inherent that we as adults and parents passed that thing, that heritage along to our kids, grandkids and so forth, ourselves, those values, a lot of values are lacking today.

I would love to see this preserved.

I don't want to see it disappear.

I'm I'm ready for, you know, the next generation has got to step up and and because even the people who are running it and sitting in here today, they're not they're not going to live for now, you know, forever.

And somebody has got to take up and fill their shoes.

We're trying to preserve what we have here and what we're what we're doing, but we also want to spread it on to the young people.

It's not just me that has a passion.

There are a whole lot of people who have a passion for what it is, and I can't exactly say why, except, you know, something to do with the nostalgia with, maybe with the passion that Alvin and his wife have for the collections that they have put together.

It goes beyond just a belief in what we're doing.

And I say we because, yes, I have it.

I have it, too.

And my husband and I have it too.

It's that they what it is, is they want it to live on.

They want it to live on to future generations.

They don't want to die with our generation.

It's just something that if we don't share it with our progeny, then it's going.

Then it could die.

It could die away.

And we don't want that because it's a traditional music, the traditional values that came through the the, Gene Autry movies.

And think of the Gene Autry songs, you see, you hear them all the time.

And we just want to make sure that they live on God.

Imagine we're in a death band for why we can't put it on the air.

Wait a minute.

Boy, that looks like a lot of fun.

We'd like to try.

I want to powwow, but I think it's the more fun.

I'd like to think they'll be laughing.

Or may that are the reason of the time I had.

There's only three of them that when you see Engine Peak here and when you don't see engine anymore here, because the Colonel just asked me for my resignation.

You mean they're kicking you out just for fighting in the canteen?

That's right.

Well, I just joined on a couple of you.

I'm quit.

Oh my God.

Oh, wait a minute.

Oh, it can't look like that.

That's waiting for you left not expect.

Well, I think it's going to be.

Like that or whatever.

I don't.