Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)

Subject: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 01:47 PM

Pat O'Daniel and his Hillbilly Boys were sponsored by the O'Daniel Flour Company of Ft. Worth, Texas, maker of Hillbilly Products. This 15 minute daily program was a popular one during the depression era. An often colorful and laid-back program, listeners are apt to here joking and shouts of "WHOOOO-EEEEEE!" between these rare vintage Western recordings.

CLICK HERE to hear a sample episode. (All 40 can be bought as MP3s loaded onto a CD, and free sample episodes of zillions of old radio shows are downloadable, free. Look around-- they have the WLS Barn Dance in there too!)

~Susan

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 02:42 PM

Fascinating history to this one.

Bob Wills, member of the Light Crust Doughboys was "later fired". That's putting it mildly. Lee O' Daniel (Pappy) fired Bob for drinking and missing broadcasts---fair enough.

But then he sued Bob for $10,000, hoping to bankrupt him ,and force him back to the Light Crust Doughboys, claiming that Bob's later use of the phrase "formerly Light Crust Doughboys", was damaging to the sale of Light Crust Flour, Burrus Mills, and illegal to boot.

Even though Pappy hired a bunch of the best hired guns (attorneys) in Texas, and Bob said that if he lost, all he could give was his old fiddle, fortunately Bob destroyed Pappy in court. Pappy not only pursued the case to the 10th Circuit (and lost there too) but then when Bob went to Oklahoma to try to get jobs on the radio there, Pappy then implied to WKY that he was plannng to put his program on that station, but would not if it hired Bob.
So it didn't. Pappy then did not put his program on either--how's that for hardball?

Fortunately for western swing, Bob got on another Oklahoma station, and bounced back.

Unfortunately Pappy, who was a true worm, went on to bigger things (governor of Texas and Senator). It appears that the reason he beat Lyndon Johnson in the Senate race was blatant vote manipulation, due to the fact that the alcohol interests in Texas desperately wanted (Governor) Pappy, who was a rabid prohibitionist, out of Texas and safely in Washington where he'd have no say over beer sales, specifically near military installations.

I believe that even later in his career, after his disastrous Senate "career", Pappy ran as a segregationist in Texas.

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 03:30 PM

Goodness gracious!

~S~

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 04:19 PM

Interestingly enough, it seems that Pappy did not in fact steal the 1941 election himself; he in fact had nothing to do with it. The alcohol interests stole it on his behalf; to "kick him upstairs", and out of their hair. LBJ tried to steal the election back, but his own people turned him down.

Fascinating books dealing with this story: Robert Caro--- The Path To Power,   and Charles R Townsend-- San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills. I know of no book-length biography of Pappy O'Daniel ( but would sure read one if I could find it).

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 05:04 PM

So that was from 1939--Pat doing the announcing, Pappy was governor by then. That was just fantastic--I love old radio shows, especially in in historic context. Mudcat is just mind-bogglingly great--there is just so much to learn and enjoy, and so many unique angles.

Just a few more bits on Pappy, if I haven't run the topic into the ground already.

When he ran in 1938, it was on the platform of the Ten Commandments (to which he added the Golden Rule) and on throwing the professional politicians out. (Plus ca change..) The last part was definitely plausible, since up to 1938, he himself had never voted (in fact he was a carpetbagger from Kansas). He also promised a pension plan. However when he got in, he refused to consider new taxes to pay for it, lest one be an oil tax. In 1940 he said he had to run to save his pension plan from "demogogues". He also ran against "labor union leader racketeers" and Communists.

Like FDR, O'Daniel figured out that "a microphone is an ear and not an auditorium--and you don't make public speeches to microphones, you don't shout into them any more than you would shout into your sweetheart's ear when you wanted to tell her you loved her. O'Daniel learned early that he had Texas by the ear and from that day on he cooed and caroled ...into it"

He obviously taught his son well also--that came through in that show.

Thanks again Susan

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Aug 04 - 07:20 PM

Thank YOU Ron! Enjoy the rest of the shows there.

~S~

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 30 Aug 04 - 01:34 PM

W. Lee O'Daniel -- another dubya. And an outland furriner, to boot. We got a rep here in Tx, for some reason, for sneaky politicians. Beats me. Tw.

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 04:53 AM

Tannywheeler--

You're absolutely right.

And the parallels are uncanny----Bible-thumping, aw-shucks kinda guys, and outland furriners both.

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: RangerSteve
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 06:16 AM

Thanks, Susan, for the info. OTRCAT looks fascinating. The WLS Barn Dance CD's should be worthwhile.

As for W. Lee O'Daniel, there's a chapter devoted to him in "Border Radio", by Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford. You can get it through County Sales. Great book.

Bob Wills version of the story is that he was fired for asking for a pay raise. O'Daniel didn't pay the band enough to live on.

Subject: OTR Old Time Radio Partially-Online MP3 Archive
From: wysiwyg
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 10:14 AM

RE: OTR, I have found that all the downloaded free sample MP3s just about fit on a CD, and I've cut our TV time in half already by keeping the MP3 player next to my chair. (Great help in reducing Mudcat addiction when it gets out of hand.)

Next I plan to take advantage of their FREE sampler CDs. There are three, and each one is free with an order. To get them I'll be ordering the most cost-effective CDs first-- the ones with the most playtime on them. I dunno how they can afford to do what they do-- must be CDrs burned as orders come in, I guess. It's fascinating to find out how many of my childhood TV favorites began as radio series! And it's wonderful to hear great classic film actors working those amazing voices some of them had!

One fun surpise was Jester Hairston doing a recurring musician's role on a Bogie/Bacall series, "Bold Venture." What a combo! In the one I heard, Hairston plays and sings a calypso song to comment on the action in the plot!

~Susan

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: wilco
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 11:29 AM

Anyone got the printed lyrics?

Thanks!!!!

Subject: Lyr Add: CONEY ISLAND WASHBOARD and EMPTY SADDLES
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 09:42 AM

I enjoyed the sample MP3 immensely. Here are three of the items included in the 15 minute broadcast:

Coney Island Washboard
Music by Hampton Durand and Jerry Adams, Words by Ned Nestor and Aude Shugart
- 1926

Verse: (Not sung on the Hillbilly Boys version)

Down by the beach lived the sweet -est lit -tle peach,
And I must say she just had the cu -test way,
Play -ing a chord up -on a wash -board.
The folks would gath -er rown', from ev' -ry -where in town, just to hear
her play.

Chorus:

Con -ey Is -land wash -board she would play
You could hear her on the board -walk ev' -ry day
Soap suds all a -round, little bub -bles on the ground
Rub -a -dub -a -dub in her lit -tle tub All her tunes she found
The thim -bles on her fing -ers made the noise
She played "Charles -ton" with the laun -dry for the boys
She could rag a tune right thru' the knees of your brand new silk B. V. D.'s
With her Con -ey Is -land wash -board round -e -lay.

X: 15
T:Chicken Reel
M:2/4
L:1/8
Q:1/8=220
C:Traditional
K:D
(=f|"D"f/)d/A/F/ D/F/B/F/|A/F/B/F/ A(=f|f/)d/A/F/ D/F/B/F/|
"A7"A/dc/ d(=f|!
"D"f/)d/A/F/ D/F/B/F/|A/F/B/F/ A(=f|f/)d/A/F/ D/F/B/F/|"A"A/dc/ "D"d2|!
"D"fa/f/ df/d/|A/d/e/d/ f/d/e/d/| fa/f/ df/d/|"A"A/dc/ "D"d2|!
"D"fa/f/ df/d/|A/d/e/d/ f/d/e/d/| fa/f/ df/d/| "A"A/dc/ "D"d2|


Empty Saddles
Lyrics by:  J. Keirn Brennan
Written by:  Billy Hill
From the Film:  Rhythm On The Range  (1936)

Empty saddles in the old corral, where do ya ride tonight?
Are you rounding up the doggies, the strays of long ago?
Are ya on the trail to(of) Buffalo?
Empty saddles in the old corral, where do ya ride tonight?
Are there rustlers on the border or a band of Navajo?
Are you heading for the Alamo?

Empty guns covered with rust, where do ya talk tonight?
Empty boots covered with dust, where do ya walk tonight?
Empty saddles in the old corral, my tears would be dried tonight.
If you'll only say I'm lonely as ya carry my old pal,
Empty saddles in the old corral.


Regards, John

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Sep 04 - 10:29 AM

WOW!!!!!!!!!

~S~

Subject: RE: Pass the biscuits, Pappy! (MP3 Archive)
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 04 Sep 04 - 03:47 AM

Apart from the theme tune there was only one song I couldn't locate. I 've heard it in the past but can't find the lyrics or dots to 'I Was Doing Alright' but I now know that it's a Gershwin song from the 1938 'Goldwyn Follies' and will be in print somewhere. It's not folk (yet) so I'll leave it be.

Regards, John