Everybody agrees with the fact that Rex Allen was the last of the Singing Cowboys ; indeed, he entered the movies in 1949, when Republic Pictures in Hollywood signed him to a 7-year contract - with a little help from one of Rex's heroes, Roy Rogers himself (the man who used to ride Trigger). Rex starred in 19 westerns for them between 1949 ('The Arizona Cowboy') and 1954 ('The Phantom Stallion').

Rex was born on December 31, 1921, on a ranch in Mud Springs Canyon, some forty miles from Wilcox, in Southeastern Arizona. In the February '56 issue of 'Country'n'Western Jamboree', Bea Terry wrote : 'Rex Allen doesn't just happen to be an acting cowboy. He just happens to be a real cowboy who can act, and does'. She explains that Rex, his brother Wayne and their parents lived many miles from their nearest neighbor and that it was a quarter-mile to the spring from which they carried water. Rex lost his brother at a very early age after he had been bitten by a rattler and his mother died of blood poisoning when he was twelve. 'By that time' writes Bea Terry, 'Rex could rope calves, had calluses from balancing on fences near chutes at rodeos, could ride a bronc bareback, could strike a match at twenty paces with a .22 calibre bullet and, in general, was a cowboy'. His father, one of the original Arizona homesteaders, was a fiddle player and one of his cousins, a guy known as Cactus Mack, plunked a guitar ; Rex's interest in music came from there and grew even more after his Dad bought him a guitar and a book of instructions from a Sears Roebuck catalog when he was 11. Rex's first singing was done in church choirs. According to an article in the November 1953 issue of 'Hoedown', Rex was soon playing clubs and benefits throughout the surrounding territory, and after high school graduation, joined the rodeo circuit and won considerable national acclaim. On October 10th and 18th, 1953, Rex appeared in Chicago for the World's Champion Rodeo.

More biographical data appeared in the first issue of 'The Scrapbook Of Hillbilly & Western Stars' from 1950, compiled and edited by Thurston Moore in Cincinnati, Ohio, reproduced hereafter :
Rex got his first taste of radio work in 1941. At that time he was a rider with a traveling rodeo in the east, when, as he tells it...'The rodeo broke up and I got hungry. So I got a job singing cowboy songs on a small New Jersey radio station'. Two years later, Rex joined WLS in Chicago where he won fame as 'The Arizona Cowboy' on the National Barn Dance program. His fan mail ran about 15,000 letters a year and his radio fan club of 1,500 members is fifth among such clubs in the country. Rex Allen has written and published 250 songs, many of which have been recorded by himself and other leading artists. Some of his best known songs on the Mercury label have been 'Foggy River', 'Loaded Pistol', 'Hawaiian Cowboy', 'Teardrops In My Heart' and 'Who Shot The Hole In My Sombrero'. His recording of 'Arizona Waltz' has also been hitting the strides of popularity, and was featured in his first Republic picture, 'The Arizona Cowboy'. Rex left Chicago for Hollywood earlier this year, and right with him are his wife, Bonnie, and their two year old son, Chico. Rex signed a contract with Republic Pictures calling for four filmings this year and at least six during 1950. We know his many thousands of fans throughout the nation are real happy about seeing their idol on the screen. For recordings Rex uses an aggregation of top musicians known as 'the Arizona Wranglers'. His recent recordings were made with Jerry Byrd who is one of the most famous steel guitar stylists in the business'.

Indeed, Rex did some radio work in Phoenix, Arizona, and held many jobs before winding up in Trenton, New-Jersey, as a featured singer over WTTM. He then joined a group of country singers, The Sleepy Hollow Gang, who managed to get a job on Chicago's famous 'National Barn Dance' in 1944.
Like Gene Autry and Red Foley before him, Allen's job at WLS provided the big break he was dreaming of. He stayed there until 1949. By 1950, he had his own very successful radio show on CBS.
Meantime, Rex had accepted an offer from Republic Pictures in 1948. According to Bea Terry's article from 1956, he made twenty-three pictures for them before extending his activity to television.

In 1945, he signed a recording contract with Mercury Records ; he cut about forty discs for them - some being pretty dire pop (like his duets with Patti Page in 1950-1), most of the others showing his deep, melodious baritone voice to good advantage like the excellent 'You Started Honky Tonkin' (#6008, 1946), 'Blues In My Mind ' (#6221, 1949) and 'Dixie Boogie' (#6252, 1950). Of course, he could yodel too, as demonstrated with 'Yodelin' Crazy' (#6269). He found himself in good company at Mercury with Tiny Hill, Jenny Lou Carson, Cliff Bruner, Lonnie Glosson, Carl Story, Doye O'Dell, Eddie Dean, Flatt & Scruggs, Red Kirk or Buz Butler among so many others. At first, the '78s bore the mention 'Rex Allen & His Dawn-Busters', then 'Rex Allen & His Dawn-Breakers' and eventually, 'Rex Allen & His Arizona Wranglers'.
In 1949, Rex sang the vocal part on Jerry Byrd's classic, 'Steelin' The Blues' (Mercury 6175); he would also sing on both sides of another Jerry Byrd single in 1950 ('Bandera Waltz' c/w 'Steelin' Is His Business', Mercury 6232). In return, Byrd would often play steel guitar on Allen's recordings from then on.
1952 saw Rex moving to Decca Records - that's where he cut his best sides. He went back to straight Country music for a while, cutting nice versions of 'Jambalaya' and Stuart Hamblen's 'Rack Up The Balls Boys' ; other good songs included 'Till The Well Goes Dry', 'Lonesome Letter Blues', 'Money, Marbles & Chalk' and 'This Old House', a duet with Tex Williams. His biggest hit though, was his 1953 cover of Darrell Glenn's 'Crying In the Chapel' (Valley 105), later a huge success for Elvis Presley.
In the April 1954 issue of 'Hoedown', it was reported that Rex had a very active fan club run by Mrs Wilma Orr and that he cooperated completely with his club, giving away valuable personal gifts for contests the club sponsored and treating its members wonderfully - a real gentleman.

Musically speaking, two singles stand out in my humble opinion.

One is from 1952 (Decca #28446) and couples a languorous, organ-backed version of 'No One Will Ever Know' (featuring Jerry Byrd on steel once more) with a terrific hillbilly boogie number, 'Hootin' & Howlin', written by Vaughn Horton who also penned or co-penned such classics as 'Choo Choo Ch'Boogie', 'Mockin' Bird Hill', 'Sugarfoot Rag', 'Plantation Boogie' and 'Hillbilly Fever'. Allen had cut other boogies prior to that one (i. e. 'Dixie Boogie' and 'Honolulu Boogie', both on Mercury) but I think 'Hootin' & Howlin', propelled by some Jerry Adler-type harmonica, is one of his best. The harmonica solo is wonderful and there's also a very fine guitar break. Rex's voice - one of the best in its category, just a notch below Eddie Dean's - is perfectly suited to that uptempo material.
The other (Decca #30651) was the result of a February 23, 1958, session held at Bradley's Studio in Nashville. This time, Rex tried to rock - certainly with some reluctance - but he did score nicely thanks to two Clyde Mitchell compositions. 'Knock, Knock, Rattle' is a real good rocker, fast and ornamented with two strong Hank Garland guitar soli. Rex manages to mention 'Rin-Tin-Tin' in the words - probably a nod to his friend, James L. Brown. The song re-emerged on the third volume in the trailblazing 'Rare Rockabilly' series of UK LPs in 1978 - the definitive proof of its enduring quality. As for the flip side, 'Invitation To The Blues', it's more relaxed and the vocal chorus more prominent but Garland again is in fine form, playing licks which would soon grace Elvis's records such as 'I Need Your Love Tonight'. One mystery I'd like to solve concerns the composer credits to 'Invitation To The Blues' ; that same song was later cut by Roger Miller, Red Sovine, Pete Drake and Joe Maphis, yet the credits always go to Roger Miller. Did Clyde Mitchell sell his rights ?

Even if 'Knock, Knock, Rattle' didn't dent the charts, Allen's discs sold usually well and at the end of the '50s, Rex was living comfortably in California. One day, he got a call from Walt Disney who asked him to become the narrator on some of his nature movies and do some cartoon character voices as well ; according to Rex himself, he worked in 150 such movies in about 15 years. The association with Disney Productions led to Allen's appearance on Disney's Buena Vista label - home of Annette and Hayley Mills ! Happily, it didn't last ; Allen went on to record for Hacienda (he had 3 singles, one EP and one LP there, featuring a remake of 'Lonesome Letter Blues'), then returned to Mercury where he enjoyed a big hit with 'Don't Go Near The Indians' in 1962.
He wrote the last chapter of his recording career at Decca in the late '60s, while keeping on raising horses on his ranch and performing on the rodeo circuit : yes indeed, a true Cowboy !
He had married Bonnie Linder, a Nebraska native whom he met while making a Chicago radio appearance. They had three sons : Rex Jr. (born in 1948), Curtis (born in 1951) and Mark Wayne (born in 1954). Surely one of his biggest prides has been to watch his first son, Rex Allen Jr., become a successful Country singer in the '70s.

In 1999, the Chicago-based Bloodshot label put out a Rex Allen CD titled 'The Last Of The Great Singing Cowboys' (SCD 4101), comprised of previously unreleased radio transcription recordings dating from 1946-49 (the WLS Barn Dance period), which received a glowing review from Ron Bally in issue #137 of Discoveries. The 22 live, in-studio cuts, originally cut directly to acetates, present Allen backed by The Prairie Ramblers on songs like 'Little Puncher', 'Mexicali Rose', 'Rocky Mountain Home', 'Dude Ranch Polka' and 'I Won't Need My Six-Gun In Heaven'. There's even a song sung by Bonnie Linder called 'Gonna Mary Me A Cowboy' - which she obviously did by becoming Rex's wife.

[Further reading includes a very informative piece published in the April '83 issue of US mag, 'Goldmine', by author Bob Garbutt.]