Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana in 1891. He learned to play the piano at age six, and by ten composed his own songs. After graduating from high school as class valedictorian, Porter enrolled at Yale University, where he became well known for his spirited fight songs, some of which are still sung at Yale football games today. By the time he left college, Porter had written several full scale musicals and hundreds of songs. He became well known internationally for his musical achievements on and off Broadway, namely in Hollywood, where movies with sound and original musical scores grew in popularity throughout the 1920s and beyond.

In 1934 Porter was hired to write the music for a 20th Century Fox film titled Adios, Argentina. Poet Bob Fletcher, an engineer with Montana Power Company in Missoula, had been hired by the film’s producer to help write authentic cowboy dialogue for the script. Fletcher sold Porter one of his poems, titled “Don’t Fence Me In,” and Porter adapted the poem to music. Adios, Argentina was never released, and “Don’t Fence Me In,” one of Western America’s best known and most beloved songs, was mostly forgotten for a decade. In 1944 the song was re-released in Hollywood Canteen, a movie about two World War II soldiers on sick leave in Los Angeles. In the film, cowboy legend Roy Rogers sang the song. By the next year, 1945, Rogers starred in a film titled Don’t Fence Me In, in which, of course, he sang Porter’s song again.

The song became a number one hit, and eventually Bob Fletcher received credit for his role in writing the original version that inspired Porter.

1. One of the lines in“Don’t Fence Me In” reads “I want to ride to the ridge where the West commences.” In a small group, look at a map of the United States and try to determine where the West begins and ends. What are the boundaries that define this region? Look over a newspaper and decide which stories occur “in the West.” How can you tell which story qualifies as “Western.” As a group, draw a map of your West.

2. Musician and music scholar Brenda Romero has noted that, just as latter-day cowboys can claim “Don’t Fence Me In” as a theme song, many people in the West might have better reason to sing “Don’t Fence Me Out.” How might a song titled “Don’t Fence Me Out” sound? Write lyrics for the song. What groups of people in this country might see such a song as an appropriate theme for their experiences? Look in the newspaper for articles about the processes of inclusion and exclusion in our society today. Who are the characters in these stories? What kind of “fences” limit people’s movements and opportunities?

3. The legal wrangling between Cole Porter and Bob Fletcher over the ownership of “Don’t Fence Me In” was settled only after the song became a hit and after the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers helped negotiate an agreement for Fletcher, who had felt that he had not been duly compensated by Porter. Look in the newspaper for articles about music or film. What issues—legal or otherwise—are noteworthy in these entertainment industries today?

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