Family’s box set ‘Johnny Horton - The Early Years’ (BCD 16258) reveal much
about the early days of Fabor Robison and Abbott Records, illuminating the con-
text in which Robison and Reeves came together. Horton was two years younger
than Reeves and their similarities went far beyond the tragic end to both their lives
and their distinct lack of hair.
In 1950, Horton was married and temporarily back in East Texas. He had re-
cently, and surprisingly, determined on a career in music and, encouraged by his
sister Marie, entered a talent contest at the Reo Palm Isle, a nightclub in Longview.
The contest, sponsored by Henderson’s KGRI and hosted by one of their dee-jays,
Jim Reeves, was no doubt the first time the two future stars met. Horton took home
first prize, an ashtray on a pedestal. By early 1951, he was back in California and
soon came to the attention of Fabor Robison.
Robison was born in Beebe, Arkansas on November 3,
,
1911. In the late forties,
after army service as a cook during WWII, he was in Los Angeles trying to talk his
way into the movie business. Somehow, he became a talent agent, his first clients
being the western swing steel guitarist turned crooner Les ‘Carrot Top’ Anderson
and Horton. Horton had already recorded two sides for Cormac Records in 1950,
not long after Les Anderson had cut a session for the same label, the success of
which had resulted in Anderson landing a contract with major label Decca. In the
early months of 1951, Robison met Horton and signed him as a client. Having
managed Anderson and co-written several of the songs he’d recorded for Cormac,
Robison was well-acquainted with the label’s owners, songwriters Wes McWain
and Corydon Blodgett (the latter provided the ‘Cor’ and McWain the ‘Mac’ in the
label’s name). And though Horton’s lone 1950 release on the label had been forget-
table, Robison brought him back to the label and oversaw the two sessions that
Horton cut for Cormac in July and August of 1951, which resulted in eight sides,
four of which were issued on two singles (Cormac 1193 and 1197) before the
struggling label collapsed that autumn.
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