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Gene Autry Cap Guns For Sale On
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Below are Gene Autry cap guns and
related items for sale on eBay. Gene Autry, a highly popular recording,
movie, and television cowboy superstar, lent his name to a range of items for
children, probably the most popular of which was the Gene Autry cap gun.
There are several versions of the cap gun made by several different
manufacturers. Perhaps the most interesting story behind the making of a Gene
Autry cap gun is the story of Gene Autry and the Kenton Hardware Company. For
more information on this story, please scroll down.
The Gene Autry Cap Gun and the Kenton Hardware Company
Gene Autry (Orvon Gene Autry, September 29, 1907 - October 2, 1998) rose to
American superstardom in the the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s with phenomenally
successful careers in singing, song writing, and acting. Known as one of the
entertainment industry's most popular singing cowboys and cowboy actors,
Mr. Autry recorded more than 600 songs, wrote or co-wrote more than 250 songs,
starred in his own successful weekly radio show for 16 years (Gene Autry's
Melody Ranch), starred in more than 90 films, and produced and starred in 91
half-hour episodes of The Gene Autry Show for television.
To the people of Kenton, Ohio, however, Gene Autry was more than just a
popular singer and actor: He was the town's personal hero and rescuer from
economic disaster. In 1937 the town was suffering extreme financial hardship due
to the effects of the Great Depression on its leading industry, the Kenton
Hardware Company. Founded in 1894 (it had been in existence for the four prior
years as Kenton Lock Manufacturing Company) the company, well known and
successful for its line of cast iron toys and toy banks, was reeling under
serious financial strain. Formerly one of the biggest makers of iron toys in the
world, poor sales were badly damaging the company's finances and causing the
former giant to limit its employees to only working a couple of days a week.
The vice president of Kenton Hardware Company, Willard Bixler, dreamed that
one highly popular toy could help turn the company around. He attached that
dream to a children's iron cap pistol. Cap pistols in various models had long
been one of the company's strongest sellers, and the new one envisioned by Mr. Bixler would be modeled after the one worn by cinematic cowboy superstar Gene
Autry. When Mr. Bixler contacted Mitchell Hamilburg, Gene Autry's agent, Mr.
Autry soon sent the Kenton Hardware Company one of his own pistols for a model.
In 1938 when the
Gene Autry cap gun was put on the market it was an instant hit, and by 1939 more than 2 million
Gene Autry cap guns had been sold worldwide. The employees at the Kenton
Hardware Company not only went back to work full time, the work was force
doubled and the company still struggled to keep up with demand. The popularity of the
first model of the cap gun gave birth to other models, and the Gene Autry cap
gun became known as the toy that saved a town.
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