Court Hears the Autry Story--From the Top

From the first “Ah doo,” to the last “Yessir,” Gene Autry’s Wednesday sojourn in Orange County Superior Court was part “This Is Your Life,” part old-time entertainment history and part sports trivia.

The former singing cowboy, now owner of the California Angels, was ostensibly in court to testify in the baseball team’s lawsuit against Anaheim. The suit involves a development planned for the Anaheim Stadium parking lot, a project that the Angels say violates the city’s 1964 lease with the club’s parent company, Golden West Baseball Co.

When the 78-year-old millionaire took the stand in Department 36 in Santa Ana, Angels’ attorney William Campbell asked simply, “Mr. Autry, would you sketch your career. . . ?”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Autry--christened Orvon Gene and born “in 1907, five miles west of Tioga, Tex.”--smiled slightly and began: “That’s a long story, and I’ve told it so many times, I’ve probably never told it the same way twice.”

Late one night in 1925, when Autry was an 18-year-old telegraph operator in a Chelsea, Okla., railroad depot, a man came in to send a telegram. “I was singing and playing my guitar,” Autry said, “and he said to me, ‘You do a pretty good job with that guitar. You ought to get a job on the radio.’

“I didn’t say much at the time,” Autry told Judge Frank Domenichini, “but then he gave me the telegram. It was sent to King Features and was signed, ‘Will Rogers.’ ”

The High Points

Campbell then led Autry through the high points of his 60-year career:

- His first impression of New York City: “I looked at those skyscrapers and thought, ‘My God, if I go into that city, how will I ever get out?’ ”

- His “1,000, or was it 2,000” records, of which an estimated 10 became gold records (having sold half a million copies) and five became platinum (a million records sold), including “That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Mexicali Rose.”

- His 93 movies.

- The 1940s Air Force stint that caused his salary to drop from an estimated $600,000 to $700,000 a year as an entertainer to $150 a month as a technical sergeant. In the middle of his Air Force duty, he said, he bought his first radio station because “suppose something happens to me where I can’t sing or I can’t work?”

Stations Led to Team

His radio stations--one of which was the Los Angeles sports station KMPC--led him to buy the California Angels, he said. And team ownership led to his suit against Anaheim.

After 45 minutes of personal history--marked by an occasional yarn by attorneys in the courtroom, indulgent smiles from Autry’s wife, Jackie, and only one objection from opposing attorneys--Autry’s testimony began to address the problem at hand.

In 1983, Golden West Baseball Co. filed a $100-million lawsuit against Anaheim to halt development of the Stadium Center, a multimillion-dollar office complex planned for 20 acres in the stadium parking lot.

During the trial, which began in December, Angels’ attorneys have charged that the city had to promise the Los Angeles Rams the development rights to the parking lot to get the football club to move to Orange County in 1978.

Tour of Site Described

Angels administrators contend that their 1964 lease with the city guarantees that any development of the lot is subject to their approval. The Angels say Anaheim consciously violated that contract when they wooed the Rams from Los Angeles.

Autry told the court that, during a tour of the stadium site in the early 1960s, an Anaheim official said, “this 146 acres is where we would like to bring you people to build the ballpark.”

When Campbell asked if Autry was involved in the negotiating sessions for the lease, Autry said: “No, sir. I was briefed as often as I could be, but in those days I was pretty busy myself with radio stations in four states, and we bought KTLA from Paramount (Studios) in 1964.”

Neither the late Carroll Rosenbloom, owner of the Rams, nor Anaheim officials ever told him that parking lot development was planned, Autry said. He is scheduled to continue his testimony this morning.