Audrey "Art" Davis (May 31, 1913 – January 16, 1987) was an American musician, singer and actor.

Biography

Davis was born in

Paradise, Texas Paradise is a city in Wise County, Texas, United States. The population was 475 in 2020. According to tradition, the area was a cowboy's "paradise", hence the name. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau The United State ...

, United States. His family moved to

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

when he was two and then back to Texas to the town of Lewisville. His father was a musician, and by the age of seven, Davis was an accomplished

fiddler A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially syno ...

. His parents divorced and his mother moved the family to

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

where Davis enrolled in high school. He played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and was in the school band playing

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

. He served in the

112th Cavalry Regiment The 112th Cavalry Regiment is a Texas National Guard regiment that served in several Pacific campaigns during World War II. Early history The 112th Cavalry Regiment was constituted in the National Guard in 1921, assigned to the 23rd Cavalry D ...

of the

Texas National Guard The Texas Military Forces (TXMF) are the principal instrument through which the Texas Military Department (TMD) executes security policy for Texas, which has the second-largest population and border in the United States. The Texas Military Forc ...

where he gained riding experience His first band was called The Rhythm Aces and they worked with many

Western Swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...

bands such as Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies, the

Light Crust Doughboys The Light Crust Doughboys is an American Western swing band from Texas, United States, organized in 1931 by the Burrus Mill and Elevator Company in Saginaw, Texas. The band achieved its peak popularity in the few years leading up to World War II. ...

, and Bill Boyd's Cowboy Ramblers. In 1934, Davis was recording with the Cowboy Ramblers for

Bluebird Records Bluebird Records is an American record label best known for its low-cost releases, primarily of children's music, blues, jazz and swing in the 1930s and 1940s. Bluebird was founded in 1932 as a lower-priced subsidiary label of RCA Victor. Bluebi ...

. He added the

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

to his repertoire of instruments that he played. He became a staff musician at WRR Radio in Dallas and met

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...

who was looking for a backup fiddler for a recording session. He recorded with Autry on September 22, 1935 for

American Record Corporation American Record Corporation (ARC), also referred to as American Record Company, American Recording Corporation, or ARC Records, was an American record company in operation from 1929 to 1938, and again from 1978 to 1982. Overview ARC was crea ...

. Autry offered Davis work in Autry's movies and on road tours. He worked with Autry for three years and then moved to Equity Pictures to work on ''Adventures of the Masked Phantom'' (1939) under the name Larry Mason. His next movie was '' The Texas Marshal'' (1941) with

Tim McCoy Tim McCoy (April 10, 1891 – January 29, 1978) was an American actor, military officer, and expert on Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American Indian life. McCoy is most noted for his roles in B-grade Western films. As a popular cowboy ...

. He then appeared in six

serial film A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

s in 1941 and 1942 with Lee Powell and his singing buddy Bill Boyd. Davis served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. His last time on film was a short musical ''A Cowboy's Holiday'' (1949). Davis continued to make a living with music into the 1980s. He died in January 1987, at the age of 73 in

Bloomburg, Texas Bloomburg is a town in Cass County, Texas, United States. Bloomburg is east of Atlanta, and is home to the Cullen Baker Country Fair, held every year on the first Saturday in November. Despite it being named after an outlaw named Cullen Baker, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Art 1913 births 1987 deaths American male film actors People from Wise County, Texas 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American male singers