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The Light Crust Doughboys
are on the air!
by Archie P. McDonald |
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Truett
Kinsey’s voice came out of Philcos and Zeniths and other radios all over East
Texas, and eventually much of the South, each day at noon to announce the
beginning of a performance of the most popular fiddle band ever assembled.
Listeners awaited Kinsey’s daily alert that “The Light Crust Doughboys are
on the air!”
The broadcasts were sponsored by Burris Mills as advertisement
for its Light Crust Flour, and the little band was organized by Bob
Wills, a west Texan who had moved to Fort
Worth. Wills played fiddle, and he founded the “band” with just himself and
Herman Arnspiger, who played guitar. Soon they added Milton Brown as vocalist
for what was known as the Wills Fiddle Band.
Wills
persuaded W. Lee O’Daniel, president
of Burris Mills, to sponsor the band on a fifteen-minute daily radio show in Fort
Worth in 1931, and the group changed its name to The Light Crust Doughboys.
The relationship between Wills and O’Daniel was rocky from the first. For one
thing, O’Daniel did not like the “hillbilly” music the Doughboys played, and he
disapproved of Wills’
habit of alcohol use. He fired Wills
after the second week of the show, but had to permit his return because of audience
demand.
When Wills
and other band members returned to the air, part of the bargain include their
agreement to work in the flourmill as well as perform. The band’s growing popularity
led in O’Daniel developing the first radio network in Texas and in sales of Light
Crust Flour, which continued to increase even as the composition of the band changed. |
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Wills
was among the first to go, after O’Daniel fired him a second time. Wills
organized the Texas Playboys and went on to a career that spanned several decades.
He pioneered the musical genre known as “Western swing,” appeared in several motion
pictures, and toured the nation’s night clubs, dance halls, and concert stages
with the Playboys.
Since Burris Mills owned rights to the Light Crust
Doughboys, they continued to sponsor the group on the radio until 1942, when most
of the band members joined the military service or accepted jobs in defense plants.
Such noted musicians as Dick Reinhart, Martin (Smoky) Montgomery, Ramon DeArman,
John Parker, Muryel Campbell, and Cecil Brower played in the band.
O’Daniel
left Burris Mills to form the Hillbilly Flour Company, and continued to sponsor
another group, the Hillbilly Boys. They helped him win election as governor of
Texas in 1938, but they never achieved the same prominence
as when the Light Crust Doughboys were on the air.
©
Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
October 24, 2005 column |
(This
column is provided as a public service by the East Texas Historical Association.
Archie P. McDonald is director of the Association and author of more than 20 books
on Texas)
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