A Guide to the Troupe Earnest Gammage, III, Papers, 1981-1998

Biographical Note

Troupe Earnest Gammage, III, was born into a business family in Brownwood, Texas, in 1944. He earned a BBA in Finance and Insurance from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) in 1967 and subsequently attended one year of Law School at UT. He began singing in a choir at age eight, performing music throughout his career and eventually becoming lead singer for the band Ernie Sky and the K-Tels. Gammage served as President of the Austin Music Industry Council and of the Texas Music Association as well as Chairman of the Austin Music Advisory Committee and of the City of Austin Music District Committee. Furthermore, he participated in various other organizations, including Leadership Austin. Cognizant of the revenue loss incurred by the city of Austin as a result the departure of Austin music acts, who tended to leave the city once they became famous, Gammage worked, through the many organizations with which he was associated, to facilitate the establishment of music business infrastructure and support. Gammage believed that efforts to make Austin an attractive place for musicians to develop careers would result in not only direct financial benefit to Austin as a city, but would also provide the music community with increased opportunities to pursue successful careers.

His efforts were primarily devoted to promoting cooperation between the Austin music industry, the financial and business communities, the offices of the city of Austin, and the national music industry. Gammage’s efforts in this area began to show results as early as 1987. He was involved in creating and promoting various types of seminars to provide musicians and the music community with business skills. These seminars covered such topics as banking, taxes, legal issues, and marketing. Conversely, Gammage worked with the financial community to identify investment opportunities in the Austin music community.

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Scope and Contents

The Troupe Earnest Gammage, III, Papers, 1981-1998, consist of correspondence, financial documents, legal documents, minutes, agendas, publications, reports, printed material, and clippings, which document issues facing the music industry of Austin, Texas, in the late 1980s to early 1990s and the efforts of various organizations to address those issues. The papers are organized into two series. The first contains Gammage’s business papers, 1982-1992, and the second, entitled Music and Musicians, 1981-1998, is composed of printed material and clippings acquired by Gammage.

Within the first series of Business Papers, one third of the records is composed of material from the Austin Music Industry Council (AMIC) and documents that organization’s efforts to establish a relationship between Austin’s music and business communities. A quarter of the AMIC material covers meetings, while another quarter details events. The AMIC correspondence is mostly unremarkable; however, one interesting issue discussed is a rift between the Austin music community and the Austin Community College. Thirteen other organizations in which Gammage participated are documented in the Business Papers series, primarily consisting of Leadership Austin, the Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Music Commission, and the Texas Music Association.

The Music and Musicians series, comprised of printed material and clippings and encompassing more than a sixth of the collection, portrays a wide-ranging and thorough picture of the Austin music industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Archivist’s note: Where possible, original order was preserved by retaining the unit titles as created by Gammage. These titles have been placed in quotes in the arrangement.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

A portion of these papers are stored remotely. Advance notice required for retrieval. Contact repository for retrieval.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Troupe Earnest Gammage, II, Papers, 1981-1998, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Ashley Adair, Jane Gruning, George Royer, November 2009. Subsequent revisions were made by Christopher Orion Magee, June 2010, Laurel Rozema, October 2010, Ryder Kouba, September 2011, and Maria Soscia, October 2011.

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Detailed Description of the Papers

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