Natchee The Indian

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jun 15 - 08:42 PM

I have his autograph....

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: GUEST,Sue (Storer)Rapp
Date: 28 Aug 13 - 04:40 PM

I am the niece of Lester Vernon Storer "Natchee the Indian" My father was John Earl Storer, brother of Natchee.
Natchee's Great grandmother was a full blooded Shawanee from W. Va.
Her name was Christineah. She was an orphan girl taken in by a white family who came to Ohio. Natchee got his Indian looks from her.
My father and Lester had formed thier own band and was playing around Springfield, Oh. where they lived with their mother Anna Storer.Back in those days, you needed a gimmick or something to draw a crowd. One day at his mother's house, he(Lester) was combing his black hair which he normally kept combed straight back and wore a cowboy hat. That day, he needed a hair cut really bad but had no money to get one. He was just fooling around with his hair when he dediced to part it in the middle and comb it down toward his shoulders. He looked in the mirrow and said to his mother "Look, with a head band, I look like a real Indian! His mother agreed and they got the ball rolling. The first had to pick a name. After a while, they chose "Natchee" for the name.
My grandmother made him an Indian costume. From that time on, he was called Natchee the Indian.

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: Padre
Date: 20 Aug 13 - 12:59 AM

In the 1930s, Larry Sunbrock used to stage fiddling contests in Charleston WV at the WCHS radio auditorium between Natchee and Clark Kessinger, the great WV fiddler.

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: GUEST,Geo Swann
Date: 19 Aug 13 - 02:40 PM

Is this the grave of Natchee??

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=storer&GSfn=lester&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=67979294&df=all&

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: GUEST,M J Booker
Date: 31 Mar 12 - 09:30 AM

My grandfather would meet Natchee once a month at the Holly Hotel in Chareston, W. Va. where they would play music. My grandfather, William Frazier Booker, also called Ol' Fraze, was a banjo player. I was told he and Natchee would play together on the Old Farm Hour hosted by a local radio station.

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: GUEST,John Ennis
Date: 23 Jun 11 - 05:08 PM

I worked for Sunbrock as a rough stock rider in the 1950's taking a months leave from the U.S. Navy in Puerto Rico. At that time he owned a show biz rodeo that paid five bucks for every head you came out of the chute on.Larry had a reputation of cheating his riders when it came to payday but for some unknown reason he played it straight with me.His foreman was "Iron Man Bud Decker" who was known to counter any desention with his fists.. He may have been forman but totaly screwed up when the show went to the Dominican Republic and found out to late that you can bring livestock in but you can,t take them out for 6 months. Larry , having worked most of the promotional scams ended up owning a stock car track near Orlando and is buried in Orange County, Florida.

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: GUEST,James C Storer "Chris"
Date: 05 Dec 09 - 04:19 PM

Hi My grandpa and Natchee were cousins,I talked to a lot of old people from Belfast and Mayhill Ohio that remembered Natchee I was told as a boy he could be seen walking up the dirt road with his fiddle in a gunny sack,And that he would put on shows in the back yard for the family anf kids around,He was a showman even as a boy.I would like to talk to Thomas if you read this Thomas ok

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: Alice
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 09:31 PM

Thomas! Please come back and post more info!!!


Alice in Montana

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 09:26 PM

Welcome to the Mudcat, Thomas, and thank you for posting. Is the recording archived and/or available for purchase? Seems sad that you didn't have much time with him before he passed; the recording must be really special to you.

All the best,

kat

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: GUEST,FROM THOMAS DYE STORER
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 06:31 PM

I AM NATCHEES SON.....I HAVE INFO AND I MADE THE ONLY KNOW RECORDING OF HIM JUST BEFORE HE PASSED. I HAD NO IDEA HE WAS ALIVE, BEING TOLD HE WAS DEAD. I MET HIM WHEN I WAS 27 AND HE PASSED SHORTLY AFTER. [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:19 PM

I hope you do find more info, this is really great to read about!

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: Richie
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 06:09 PM

Thanks,

What's interesting about his is it was Larry Sunbrock who claimed he discovered Natchee and Cowboy Copas. Because Storer had a dark complexion Sunbrock dubbed him- Natchee the Indian. I know Sunbrock booked most of the fiddle contests and claimed that one contest drew over 20,000 people.

Sunbrock also booked the radio time that Cowboy used to promote the contests- after all Natchee was an indian and couldn't speak.

when I traced Natchee's family tree neither his father or mother appeared to be of Indian decent- Storer. Sunbrock claimed he was 3/4 Apache indian whcih wasn't true.

Cowboy Copas invited Sleepy Marlin to be his pilot. Sleepy taught flight training during WII. Sleepy has always wondered if he took the job if Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas would be alive today (or at least not died in that crash).

Richie

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: pdq
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 04:26 PM

Cowboy Copas Died On This Date In 1963

March 5, 2009

One of the hitmakers of hillbilly music had a long distinguished career. In fact, he had an interesting record of some sorts at the time that we've not heard of anyone else topping it. By 1948, they said that in the 15 years previous to that, he had appeared on a total of 204 radio stations in the United States, Canada and Mexico. This was on top of his being a member of WSM's Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. It wasn't until January 1946 that his career began to take off. He appeared on WSM's Grand Ole Opry at that time and in just the first week after that appearance, he got more than 3,000 fan letters! Around October 1948, he signed a recording contract with the King Records label.

How folks get their start is always something worth learning about. For Cowboy Copas, he made his first appearance on stage on a dare. When he first started out, he actually did not sing that much. He depended solely on his tricky guitar playing to entertain folks and friends.

Along the way, he met a little Indian boy by the name of Natchee. Cowboy it turns out was also one-quarter Indian. Cowboy Copas and Natchee became good friends and it was Natchee who dared him to enter an amateur contest with him in Cincinnati. Cowboy Copas didn't have much confidence in either of them, but agreed to go along. He played the guitar and Natchee played the fiddle. And wouldn't you know it, they won first prize in that competition.

From that point, they began to play other entertainment gigs at fairs, night clubs or any other venue that came along, a trail of one night stands. While on the road, they began conducting fiddlin' contests of their own. To help increase the attendance at their personal appearances, Copas would make a point to stop by the local radio stations and plug their engagements. It was how he got exposed to the radio business.

Along about 1940, he and Natchee went their separate ways. Cowboy Copas moved to Knoxville and started entertaining the folks on the radio there. Later on, he returned to Cincinnati and appeared on several shows there.

It wasn't until January 1946 that his career began to take off. He appeared on WSM's Grand Ole Opry at that time and in just the first week after that appearance, he got more than 3,000 fan letters! Around October 1948, he signed a recording contract with the King Records label.

Think Hillbilly music didn't draw crowds? Consider this. Cowboy Copas and his group drew over 22,800 folks on August 22, 1948 with their appearance at Buck Lake Ranch in Angola, Indiana.

Cowboy Copas died in a plane crash on March 5, 1963, along with Hawkshaw Hawkins, Patsy Cline, and the pilot and son-in-law, Randy Hughes.

Dave Sichak
Hillbilly-Music.com

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: Richie
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 07:59 AM

Thanks Kat,

That is my blog. According to Sleepy Marlin, who also did the loosening of the bow hair trick, it came from Joe Venuti, jazz fiddler from the 1920s and Natchee copied it.

Juanita McMichen Lynch also knew Natchee. I heard Natchee was in Chicago and from John Harrod that he had a son who lived in California.

I couldn't find much of anything about Storer's later life. Someone should write a book about Larry Sunbrock, some of the events and concerts he promoted are unbelieveable. The article on my Blog written about Larry's concert featuring Red Foley and Hank Jr. is too funny.

Richie

Subject: RE: Natchee The Indian
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Nov 09 - 12:04 AM

Well, there is a bit on google which might ring a bell if folks see it:

At the BLOG..maybe that is you? I would copy and paste the musical bits, but not without permission of whoever owns the blog. It's okay to post long bits of musicla info, in fact it is encouraged. This page of that BLOG has a neat photo of the fiddlers.

This is from Miami University:

STORER, LESTER VERNON "NATCHEE THE INDIAN" (c.1913-1970)      
Natchee was a fiddler born in Peebles, Ohio, who became well known in southern Ohio in the 1930s. He and Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas traveled with promoter Larry Sunbrock, who staged fiddle contests pitting Natchee against other famous fiddlers of the day, including Clayton McMichen, Curly Fox, and Clark Kessinger. Natchee was a showman and trick fiddler and would win a lot of the contests. The general consensus is that the contests were probably fixed (most of the fiddlers were paid by Sunbrock). There is some doubt that Natchee was even an Indian; he was rumored to be either Italian or Greek. To add to the confusion, he worked on radio with "Indian Bill and Little Montana" (Bill and Evalina Stallard). He apparently also worked around Dayton and Cincinnati with Emory Martin and with Jimmie Skinner. Aside from all rumors, people who saw Natchee remembered him for his showmanship.

There is a nice photo of him on this page.

Just for fun, click on THIS and type in find "Natchee" then look at the photo of "Buddy" demonstrating an old-time West Virginia fiddle technique!

Hope this isn't all just duplicates of what you already have. It was fun to look up, any way!

Subject: Natchee The Indian
From: Richie
Date: 07 Nov 09 - 10:43 PM

Hi,

I've been doing some research on old-time country fiddlers and stumbled upon the colorful Natchee the Indian, a trick fiddler who was discovered in the Cincy area in the early 1930s.

He played against some of the top country fiddlers including Clayton McMichen, Clark Kessinger, and Curly Fox. He also supposedly fiddled against Ed Haley and Arthur Smith but I have no info.

I have almost no info on him except the scant info online. From around 1950 until his death in 1970 there's little info.

Also if anyone has any info on promoter Larry Sunbrock (birthdate etc) who booked Natchee until the around 1950 I'd appreciate it.

Richie