Song Of The Day #117

Ranch Radio is offering some early Gene Autry this morning, with his recording of The End Of The Trail

While Gene sings about a picture, the original The End Of The Trail was a sculpture by James Earle Fraser:

It was for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915 that Fraser produced his most recognized work, the doleful "End of the Trail." While intended to be cast in bronze, material shortages due to the war prevented this, and the original plaster statue slowly deteriorated until it was obtained by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1968 and restored. The restored statue is currently on display in the entryway of the Oklahoma City museum, and the original that sat in Visalia, CA, was replaced with a bronze replica. Fraser was later to remark that he should have copyrighted the image and that many people, painters, print and calendar makers and even other sculptors, made more profit from this work than he did.













Today's selection is available on Autry's 12 track Back in the Saddle Again by Sony Records.