"There are countless horrible things happening all over the world and horrible people prospering, but we must never allow them to disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to sabotage and annoy them whenever possible." -Auberon Waugh
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Happy Feet Friday
Here's some western swing from the 1940s, featuring Spade Cooley and his band, with Tex Williams doing the vocal, performing "Miss Molly" (watch closely, and you'll see some familiar faces toward the end).
Mr. Cooley was not a nice man. He was convicted of murdering his young wife:
"In 1961, his wife expressed her wish to be divorced, and a drunken Cooley responded by beating her and stomping on her body until she died. During the trial Cooley suffered a heart attack while he was delivered his prison sentence. After serving eight years of his sentence, the state of California gave him a temporary furlough in order to play a benefit concert for the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Alameda County at the Paramount Theater in Oakland. After the performance, he suffered a fatal heart attack in the backstage area."
Who were those guys who used to be on NPR doing Gene Autry songs? I loved those guys.
ReplyDeleteParker
I'm not sure. Wouldn't have been the Sons of the Pioneers, would it?
ReplyDeleteMr. Cooley was not a nice man. He was convicted of murdering his young wife:
ReplyDelete"In 1961, his wife expressed her wish to be divorced, and a drunken Cooley responded by beating her and stomping on her body until she died. During the trial Cooley suffered a heart attack while he was delivered his prison sentence. After serving eight years of his sentence, the state of California gave him a temporary furlough in order to play a benefit concert for the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Alameda County at the Paramount Theater in Oakland. After the performance, he suffered a fatal heart attack in the backstage area."
(from Wikipedia)
Well, that's true, Anon. Still a good tune, though.
ReplyDeleteSpade Cooley used to appear live and in living,er, black and white on KTTV Channel 5 in Los Angeles every week before his legal problems.
ReplyDeleteWhoa!!! KTTV is Channel 11. He was on 5 not 11. Sorry about that.
ReplyDeleteForgive me Stan Chambers and Dick Lane.:)
Linked to at:
ReplyDeleteHOW ABOUT A LITTLE [CHRISTMAS] BREATHER...
FYI: Spade Cooley appears in a number of James Ellroy's novels.