Gene Fowler
Gene Fowler, in character as frontiersman Arizona Bill (Raymond Hatfield Gardner). Photo: Adrian Whipp of Lumiere Tintypes, Austin.
Courtesy of Gene Fowler
Gene Fowler is a writer-performer based in Texas. Born into a Dallas showbiz family in 1950, he began performing and writing for theater during the Lyndon Johnson administration. His professional appearances include the White Elephant Saloon (Fort Worth), Contemporary Arts Museum (Houston), the San Antonio Rodeo, Downtown Center for the Arts (Albuquerque), the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Nashville Network. He has written on such subjects as the excavation of a 17th-century French shipwreck on the Texas coast, Ernest Tubb, and rattlesnake folk medicine for Texas Highways, True West, Southwest Contemporary and numerous other publications. In addition to Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves (with Bill Craford; Texas Monthly Press, 1987), his books include Crazy Water: The Story of Mineral Wells and Other Texas Health Resorts (Texas Christian University Press, 1991); Mystic Healers & Medicine Shows: Blazing Trails to Wellness in the Old West and Beyond (Ancient City Press, 1997); Glen Rose, Texas (Somervell County Historical Commission, 2002); Mavericks: A Gallery of Texas Characters (University of Texas Press, 2008); and Metro Music – Celebrating a Century of the Trinity River Groove (TCU Press, 2021). See his illustrated talk, “Diamond King Medicine Show,” on YouTube.
