Certified Tex Ritter Hand-Signed 1948 "Capitol Record Hits" Vintage Song Folio — Country Music Hall of Fame Icon & Western Cinema Pioneer Archive

This listing is for an exceptional, museum-grade piece of traditional country music, Western cinema, and twentieth-century Americana history: an original 16-page Tex Ritter Capitol Record Hits Song Folio songbook published in 1948. This extraordinary piece of mid-century sheet music ephemera is personally hand-signed by one of the absolute pillars of American cowboy music and a founding member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Tex Ritter.

Produced during the absolute zenith of his post-war commercial recording power with Capitol Records, this book was a special edition piece sold exclusively on his traveling tours for 50 cents. Authentic active-era, hand-signed songbooks from classic singing cowboys are incredibly rare, making this a premier crown-jewel centerpiece for serious country music museums, Western film historians, and elite autograph manuscript collections.

Key Archive Features & Historical Breakdown

• AUTHENTIC TEX RITTER VINTAGE INK AUTOGRAPH: The central portrait cover vignette features a spectacular, beautifully sweeping bold fountain ink signature "Tex Ritter" hand-penned by the music pioneer directly across his cowboy hat crown. Underneath his name, Ritter has hand-inscribed a clear vintage date marker reading 1948. Hand-signed tour artifacts carrying a verified active-era date notation stand at the absolute pinnacle of historical pedigree and investment value.

• OFFICIAL CAPITOL RECORD HITS ARCHIVE PROVENANCE: The songbook indexes and provides complete sheet music arrangements for Ritter's defining career-making recordings, as mapped out in the master contents ledger:

  • Rye Whiskey (The Tex Ritter Version)

  • Froggy Went A-Courtin' (Arranged by Tex Ritter)

  • Boll Weevil

  • Green Grow The Lilacs

  • You Will Have To Pay For Your Yesterday

  • Billy The Kid

• PUBLISHING MATRIX & GEOGRAPHIC ROOTS: The volume was produced directly under his private publishing imprint, tracking to an iconic mid-century entertainment address: Copyright 1948 — Tex Ritter Music Publications, Inc., RKO Bldg., Radio City, New York, N.Y.

• EXCLUSIVELY ILLUSTRATED PHOTO-BIOGRAPHICAL LAYOUT: Beyond the musical scores, the folio unfolds into a magnificent historical gallery charting his multimedia cultural footprint across records, radio, and motion pictures:

  • The Singing Cowboy & White Flash Photo: Features a spectacular full-page inner sheet showing a magnificent photograph of Ritter in full decorated Western gear alongside his legendary horse companion, White Flash, paired with an editorial tribute titled "The Publisher" celebrating his coast-to-coast tours.

  • The "Tex Ritter Gets Around" Photo Matrix: A stunning two-page center spread chronicling his historic personal appearances across the nation. This layout includes candid photographs of a massive crowd packing a local theater for his New Western Revue (on stage alongside Roy Rogers' film The Gay Ranchero), a portrait with his wife, an autograph signing session with young buckaroos in Amarillo, Texas, an on-camera stunt with White Flash at a record shop, a studio tracking session with Capitol Records executive Lee Gillette and artist Wesley Tuttle, and a guest broadcasting appearance at Radio Station KONO in San Antonio, Texas.

Collector's Archival Condition

Dating back nearly eighty years to the golden post-war pioneer era of American Western folk music, this complete song folio is in wonderful, authentic vintage condition. The original multi-page heavy paper stock cover and interior sheets remain remarkably clean, structurally complete, and well-preserved, showing only the natural, honest edge wear, minor spine creasing, and light tanning characteristic of genuine mid-century theatrical ephemera.

Tex Ritter’s bold, dark ink autograph is perfectly preserved on the front cover graphic, offering superb visual contrast over the violet and dark blue design blocks, making it an absolute showpiece for museum framing and gallery exhibition. The sheet music pages remain completely crisp and perfectly legible. This incredibly rare piece of American musical folklore comes safely housed inside a clear, archival-grade protective sleeve to guarantee museum-quality preservation.

Disclaimer

Please be advised that the text strings, musical key notations, historical tour photography blocks, Radio City publishing coordinates, and structural descriptions provided map directly to the exact physical 1948 Tex Ritter Song Folio and verified ink handwriting preserved within these archive sheets. As an authentic, hand-signed biographical artifact from an entertainment colossus whose peerless career as a recording artist, cinematic cowboy hero, and Broadway actor helped forge the very foundations of modern country music entertainment, the precise character of the pen strokes, the aging of the paper stock, and the natural properties of the vintage lithograph inks are entirely unique to this individual piece of show business lore.

Own an Unrivaled Piece of Country Music History Today!

While common modern reproduction prints, standard glossy publicity photos, or modern digital audio tracks can be found anywhere, an original, tour-signed 1948 song folio from Tex Ritter’s historic commercial peak represents the absolute zenith of classic country music heritage collecting. Because active-era promotional songbooks required direct personal execution from the star on the tour trail to acknowledge dedicated followers, they offer a completely un-staged, official confirmation of a Hollywood icon's private daily footprint and real-world cultural footprint during the golden age of the American West. Directly tracking to his individual identity alongside Capitol Records, Radio City publishing history, and a flawlessly preserved ink signature dated to 1948, this certified folio archive is a premier crown-jewel centerpiece for any world-class collection of country music history, Western cinema artifacts, or rare twentieth-century Americana manuscripts.