But Allen was determined to be a Western singer. He moved to Phoenix immediately after graduating from high school to work with his father as a plasterer.

Then he got his first job in entertainment at radio station KOY in Phoenix. Also working there was a fledgling comedian/actor named Steve Allen.

"He wouldn't speak to me," Allen says wryly, "'cause I did cowboy music. He's a jazz pianist."

Again, Rex Allen was undeterred. He worked his way to Chicago, where he became a regular on the popular WLS radio show "National Barn Dance."

"In the early days of radio," he says, "Western music - not particularly country music but Western music - was the big thing. The Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry... "

And Rex Allen.

"In those days, radio stations did not play records," he continues. "They didn't even have the facilities to play records. They all hired live entertainment, live musicians.

"I feel sorry for young guys today startin' out in this business. They don't have any way of gettin' known. Radio was our way of gettin' to the public."

Anywhere in the Midwest, Allen could draw people "four feet deep for three blocks," thanks to his "Barn Dance" stints.

And Allen would invite pals such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers to come on the show when the Hollywood Cowboys were in Chicago. Autry tried to lure Allen into the movie biz.

"But it was too much Autry and not enough me," he says, laughing. "He wanted to own me! Literally!"

But it was not too much longer before Allen was again approached about making movies by Republic Pictures. He'd go on to make about two dozen feature films for the studio.

"Every guy from Jimmy Stewart and all the others who were not known as Western actors all loved to do Westerns," Allen says. "'Cause people could relate to 'em. And the foreign market was enormous for Westerns.

"John Wayne said - it's truthful as I ever heard - the best action a man can do is get on a horse and chase a bad guy. More action for a man than anything he could do. It's better than gettin' in a tank and stickin' your head out and shootin' a gun. It's good, raw action."

Virginia Allen notes that there was a time when debutantes on the East Coast came out West to marry cowboys because they were "real men."

"After I left here and moved back East and met some of the people they'd been runnin' around with," she says, "I knew what they were talking about!"

Western music historian Fred Goodwin calls Allen "The Ambassador to the American West."

"He'll go out of his way for you, for anybody," Goodwin says. "He just wants to make people happy. He doesn't want to insult anyone. He's a true gentlemen. He and Roy Rogers are true, Western gentlemen."

Asked to comment, Allen replies, "You'd have to ask my wife about that. I don't know how you'd qualify for that."

Virginia Allen says gentlemanly manners run deep in Western men such as Rex.

"That's part of their culture, which a lot of people don't know that it is. Men of the West always respect the women."

Rex Allen's kind and generous nature undoubtedly was shaped during his early years in Depression-era Willcox.

"It was tough on everybody," he says "Didn't rain a drop around Willcox for 20 months. Not a drop. Cattle all were dyin'. Ranchers goin' broke. People were sick. Had a little brother die of a rattlesnake bite. Another one died of scarlet fever.

"It was a rough time. No matter what you did or who you were."

The local Rotary Club raised money so that Allen, who suffered a detached retina, could get medical help.

His hardscrabble childhood makes him appreciate the success he has achieved.

"I have lived the American dream," he states. "I really have. Wanna see the American dream? You're looking at it."

Related Links

Internet Movie Database listing for Rex Allen Sr.

The Old Corral

Home of the Silver Screen Cowboys

Official Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Home Page

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