PAT O'DANIEL & HIS HILLBILLY BOYS 1939 RADIO SHOW # 1

W. Lee O'Daniel's musical career began in January 1931, when a West Texas fiddler named James Robert (Bob) Wills entered his Fort Worth office at Burrus Mill and Elevator Company. As general manager of the firm, O'Daniel had just canceled a radio program on which Wills and his fiddle band had been advertising Burrus Mill's Light Crust Flour. O'Daniel canceled it, as he said, "because I didn't like their hillbilly music." So many cards and letters came into station KFJZ that O'Daniel had to put the show back on the air, and the band became known as the Light Crust Doughboys. When O'Daniel realized how much flour the show was selling, he became the announcer for the show and manager of the band. According to Wills, O'Daniel was an asset to the show. He had a flair for dramatization and publicity; he wrote poems and read them on the air and often had the band work out music for them. Though his songs never became national hits, they became known throughout Texas and the Southwest. He wrote "Beautiful Texas," "Put Me in Your Pocket," and a song for Franklin D. Roosevelt's war on the Great Depression, "On to Victory Mr. Roosevelt" (all in 1933). The Doughboy broadcast became one of the most popular and long-lived shows in the history of the Southwest. The original Light Crust Doughboy show consisted of O'Daniel as announcer, Bob Wills on fiddle, Herman Arnspiger on guitar, and Milton Brown as vocalist. By the mid-1930s all had left the Doughboys, and each eventually had an important place in Texas music. In 1935 Burrus Mill fired O'Daniel, and he organized his own band, the Hillbilly Boys, and his own flour company, W. Lee O'Daniel Flour Company, manufacturers of Hillbilly Flour. Between September 1935 and December 1938 O'Daniel and the Hillbilly Boys did six recording sessions for Vocalion (later part of Columbia Records). Some of their recordings were far from hillbilly music; in general, they represent some of the best western swing that any band in the Fort Worth-Dallas area ever recorded. As a vocalist, Leon Huff was at his best on these recordings, consistently better than when he later recorded for Bob and Johnnie Lee Wills. Kitty Williamson, whom O'Daniel called Texas Rose, vocalized on several recordings. She was probably the first female singer in western swing; her recording of "Baby Won't You Please Come Home" was in the Bessie Smith tradition and was vocalized western swing at its best. Although some of his recordings were hillbilly, it was on his radio shows that O'Daniel promoted a hillbilly façade. His famous "Pass the Biscuits Pappy" smacked of the hillbilly and made the show, Hillbilly Flour, and O'Daniel popular. He read poems and gave brief lectures on morality, most of which he never practiced, according to his musicians. O'Daniel had bigger and more important things in mind than his hillbilly music, THIS WILL BE CONTINUED ON VIDEO # 2

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• PAT
• O'DANIEL
• HIS
• HILLBILLY
• BOYS
• 1939
• RADIO
• SHOW

[myboonedogboy]

Leon Huff is my grandfather!

[oldtexasmusic]

@myboonedogboy Wow!!!  He's quite a singer.

[bigdogmaniac72]

This is good. Thanks Marcus

[oldtexasmusic]

@bigdogmaniac72 Happy listening, Annie.

[pastore0506]

That was great Marcus, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this upload, thanks!

George

[oldtexasmusic]

@pastore0506 George, I have about 23 other radio shows I will be posting ever so often.

[oldtexasmusic]

@FAUSTORICCARDO Thank you, Riccardo, I guess!!!!  LOL!!!

[pastore0506]

@oldtexasmusic

I'll look forward to that Marcus!

George

[oldtexasmusic]

@jtls8 You're welcome, James. Man, you are ancient. LOL!!! JOKE.