Jimmy Long

Jimmy Long was a railroad man using a knack for singing and using your guitar who emerged on radio and on information in the 1920s and early ’30s. If that history sounds similar to the first biography of Gene Autry, it’s no incident — Long proved helpful the railroads at exactly the same time that Autry do, and both ended up getting performing and documenting companions; Long also co-wrote the melody that became Autry’s personal tune, “That Sterling silver Haired Daddy of Mine”; and Autry wedded Long’s niece Ina in 1930. Long was a worker from the St. Louis & Frisco Railroad at that time Autry joined the business in the middle-’20s, being a comfort telegrapher, and both eventually fulfilled. Long, who was simply older and in those days the greater ambitious of both, had been playing music and performing in his free time, and enjoyable the idea of someday showing up on the air and maybe producing some information. He soon fulfilled Autry, youthful and less self-confident or specific of what he wished to do initially, and both began working collectively like a performing duo sometimes. Long’s ambitions to be on the radio as well as perhaps actually record eventually had been used by Autry — specifically after the second option had a opportunity encounter with Will Rogers while face to face — and both began showing up together in Tx and Oklahoma. In 1929, when the record business finally beckoned, it had been each of them that visited NY to cut a set of edges, both compiled by Long. Autry surfaced like a single recording act immediately after, but he still sometimes caused Long — not merely like a vocalist but within the railroad, because he didn’t quit his day work until a little down the road. The relationship to Long’s niece adopted, and lasted until her loss of life in 1980, and in 1931 Long and Autry collaborated what became probably one of the most well-known songs from the 10 years, “That Metallic Haired Daddy of Mine,” that was also found in Autry’s debut film, the serial The Phantom Empire. Long remaining the music business following the 1930s.