By the later 1930s, Ray Whitley (1901-1979) was famous as a singer, and for his many “sidekick” roles in cowboy movies. He was also a successful songwriter, soon to make his name as the co-composer of “Back In the Saddle Again”.

Fellow film cowboy Gene Autry was to adopt the song as his own.

Gibson used Whitley to promote it’s latest acoustic guitar, a handsome jumbo, whose top was just less than 17 inches wide. It had a strikingly ornamented scratchplate, and a pearl-inlaid, mustache-shaped ebony bridge.

The guitar was the first and most distinguished of the company’s Super Jumbo range and went on the market in 1938. It sold for $200, and was therefore named the SJ-200.