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Spade Cooley

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Spade Cooley
File:Spade Cooley.jpg
Background information
Birth nameDonnell Clyde Cooley
Also known asKing of Western Swing
Born(1910-12-17)December 17, 1910
OriginPack Saddle Creek, Oklahoma
DiedNovember 23, 1969(1969-11-23) (aged 58)
GenresWestern swing
Occupation(s)Big band leader
Actor
Television personality
InstrumentFiddle

Donnell Clyde Cooley (December 17, 1910 – November 23, 1969), better known as Spade Cooley, was an American Western swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality. His career ended in 1961 when he was arrested and convicted for the murder of his second wife, Ella Mae Evans.[1]

Biography

"Spade" Cooley was born Donnell Clyde Cooley on February 22, 1910, in Grand, Oklahoma. Being part Cherokee, he was sent to the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon to be educated. Around 1930 his family fled the Dust Bowl for California.[2]

Music career

One of the groups which played at the Venice Pier Ballroom in Venice, California, was led by Jimmy Wakely with Spade Cooley on fiddle. Several thousand dancers would turn out on Saturday night to swing and hop. "The hoards (sic) of people and jitterbuggers loved him." When Wakely got a movie contract at Universal, Cooley replaced him as bandleader.[3]

To capitalize on the pioneering success of the Bob Wills–Tommy Duncan pairing, Cooley hired vocalist Tex Williams who was capable of the mellow deep baritone sound made popular by Duncan. Cooley's 18-month engagement at Santa Monica's Venice Pier Ballroom was record-breaking for the early half of the 1940s. His "Shame on You", released on Columbia's Okeh label, was recorded in December 1944, and was No. 1 on the country charts for two months.[1] A Red Foley / Lawrence Welk collaboration issued by Decca (18698) was No. 4 to Cooley's No. 5 on Billboard's "Most Played Juke Box Folk Records" listing in September 1945.[4] Soundies Distributing Corp. of America issued one of their "music video like" film shorts of Cooley's band titled "Shame on You" in the fall of 1945.[5][6] "Shame on You" was the first in an unbroken string of six Top Ten singles including "Detour" and "You Can't Break My Heart".

Cooley appeared in 38 Western films, both in bit parts and as a stand-in for cowboy actor Roy Rogers. Billed as Spade Cooley and His Western Dance Gang, he was featured in the soundie Take Me Back to Tulsa released July 31, 1944, along with Tex Williams and Carolina Cotton.[7] Corrine, Corrina was released August 28, 1944 minus Cotton.[8]

The film short Spade Cooley: King of Western Swing was filmed in May 1945 and released September 1, 1945.[9] It was followed by Melody Stampede released on November 8, 1945.[10] Spade Cooley & His Orchestra came out in 1949.[11] In 1950, Cooley had significant roles in several films.

Beginning in June 1948, Cooley began hosting a variety show on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, California broadcast from the Santa Monica Pier Ballroom. The show became a mainstay of television in the area, and won local Emmy awards in 1952 and 1953. Guests included Frankie Laine, Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore.[12][13] The Hoffman Hayride was so popular that an estimated 75 percent of all televisions in the L.A. area were tuned into the show each Saturday night. Making use of video transcriptions, The Spade Cooley Show was viewed coast-to-coast via the Paramount Television Network.[14]

Although by 1956 Lawrence Welk was achieving increasing success at the nearby Aragon Ballroom, Cooley's ratings continued to drop.[15]

After a reputed "battle of the bands," the date of which has not been documented, with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys at the Venice Pier Ballroom, which Cooley claimed he won, he began to promote himself as the King of Western Swing.[16] Evidently Western swing, not used prior to 1942 for this style of music, was a term thought up by Cooley's then promoter, Forman Phillips.[17] It is worthy to mention that most historians of Western swing agree that Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys is regarded the true 'King of Western Swing', and Fort Worth's Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies is considered the pioneering 'Father of Western Swing'.

Cooley's music was like that of the then-current big band orchestras, and its sound was drawn from those dance-oriented hot bands like Bob Wills and Milton Brown. In contrast to Bob Wills' work, the performances and arrangements of Cooley's orchestra were more big-band Swing than improvised Western.

Murder of Ella Mae Evans

Cooley suspected his second wife, Ella Mae Cooley (née Evans), 38, who was a singer in his band before they married 15 years earlier, of repeatedly being unfaithful. In March 1961, she told a friend she had an affair with Roy Rogers in 1952 or 1953.[1][18] She soon asked Cooley, who had his own affairs, for a divorce. On March 23, Cooley filed for divorce, citing "incompatibility" and seeking custody of their three children, Melody, Donnell Jr. and John.[19]

On April 26, 1961, Cooley was indicted by a Kern County grand jury for the murder of his wife on April 3 at the couple's Willow Springs ranch home. Cooley's 14-year-old daughter, Melody, reportedly told the jury she watched in terror as her father beat her mother's head against the floor, stomped on her stomach, then crushed a lighted cigarette against her skin to see whether she was dead.[20] Cooley claimed his wife had been injured by falling in the shower.

He was unsuccessfully defended by prominent attorney P. Basil Lambros[21] in what was the longest case in county history at the time; and was convicted of first-degree murder by a Kern County jury on August 21, 1961 after unexpectedly withdrawing an insanity plea. He was spared death in the gas chamber and sentenced to life in prison.[22]

Death

After he had served eight years, the state of California agreed to parole him on February 22, 1969. In November 1969, he received 72-hour furlough to play a benefit concert for the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Alameda County at the Oakland Auditorium, now known as the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, in Oakland. After the performance, on November 23, Cooley suffered a fatal heart attack in the backstage area. He is interred at Chapel of the Chimes cemetery in Hayward.[23]

John Gilmore has written an in-depth portrait of Cooley's life and tragic end in Shame on You, a segment of Gilmore's non-fiction work, L.A. Despair. Cooley is a recurring character in James Ellroy's fiction, including in the story "Dick Contino's Blues", which appeared in issue No. 46 of Granta magazine (Winter 1994) and was anthologized in Hollywood Nocturnes.

He is referenced in one of the Honeymooners episodes (from Art 'Ed Norton' Carney to Jackie 'Ralph Kramden' Gleason): "They wouldn't-a won that except some guy slipped in a Spade Cooley record."

Ry Cooder's 2008 album I, Flathead features a reference to Cooley on the track "Steel Guitar Heaven" ("There ain't no bosses up in heaven / I heard Spade Cooley didn't make the grade"), as well as a track named "Spayed Kooley", the name of the singer's dog.

Discography

Selected Discography
Date Title Label
1941 "Tell Me Why" Westernair 801
05/03/46 "Oklahoma Stomp" Columbia 20573
05/03/46 "Steel Guitar Rag" Columbia 39054
06/06/46 "Spadella" Columbia 37585
06/06/46 "Swingin' the Devil's Dream" Columbia 28253
04/25/47 "All Aboard for Oklahoma" RCA 20-2552
01/31/47 "Minuet in Swing" RCA 20-22181
05/09/47 "You Can't Take Texas out of Me" RCA 20-3547
05/29/52 "One Sweet Letter from You" Decca 28344
Top 40 Hits[24]
Year Position Title Label
1945 1 "Shame On You" OKeh 6731
8 "A Pair of Broken Hearts" "
4 "I've Taken All I'm Gonna Take from You" OKeh 6746
1946 2 "Detour" Columbia 36935
3 "You Can't Break My Heart" "
1947 4 "Crazy 'Cause I Love You" Columbia 37058

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Crimelibrary.com
  2. ^ http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/C/CO049.html Encylclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture retrieved 1.1.2013
  3. ^ L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times. John Gilmore. 2005. Amok Books. Page 313. ISBN 978-1-878923-16-5 ISBN 1878923161
  4. ^ Billboard September 15. page 29.
  5. ^ Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [C] Group 3. Dramatic Composition and ... By Library of Congress. Copyright Office. 1945. page 5334.
  6. ^ Billboard Oct 13, 1945. page 81.
  7. ^ The Soundies Distributing Corporation of America: a history and filmography of their "jukebox" musical films of the 1940s. Terenzio, MacGillivary, Okuda. 1954. page 129. ISBN 0-89950-578-3
  8. ^ The Soundies Distributing Corporation of America: a history and filmography of their "jukebox" musical films of the 1940s. Terenzio, MacGillivary, Okuda. 1954. p. 131. ISBN 0-89950-578-3
  9. ^ WB Live Action Shorts at fan.tcm.com 5.3.2011
  10. ^ Universal and Universal-International Short Subjects 1945-1947 at fan.tcm.com 5.3.2011
  11. ^ 5.3.2011
  12. ^ Southwest Shuffle pages 17, 21
  13. ^ Swingin' the Devil's Dream. Liner Notes. Adam Komorowski. 2003. page 9
  14. ^ Billboard. May 27, 1950. cover page.
  15. ^ Swingin' the Devil's Dream. Liner Notes. Adam Komorowski. 2003. page 910
  16. ^ Komorowski, Spade Cooley, p. 4: "It was around this time [1942]Template:Wills did not move to California until Sept 1943. from the book San Antonio Rose. that Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys come out West, and when Cooley fell out with Phillips, the promoter sacked him and hired Bob Wills in his place. A cocksure Cooley demanded a 'Battle of The Bands' before he vacated the Venice Pier, and in a contest held over two weekends, he proclaimed himself the winner and promptly name himself the 'King of Western Swing', the first time the term was used to describe this style of music, and it was one that stuck."
  17. ^ Logsdon, "The Cowboy's Bawdy Music," p.137: "The term 'western swing' was not used until Foreman Phillips, a promoter-disc jockey, used it to describe Spade Cooley in 1942."
  18. ^ Roy Rogers: a biography, radio history, television career chronicle. Robert W. Phillips. page 47.
  19. ^ "Spade Cooley Seeks Divorce" (March 24, 1961), Los Angeles Times, p. 2
  20. ^ "Spade Cooley Indicted in Murder of His Wife" (April 26, 1961), Los Angeles Times, p. 2
  21. ^ Obituary of P. Basil Lambros, Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2010, page AA6.
  22. ^ "Spade Cooley Given Life Term in Slaying of Wife" (August 23, 1961), Los Angeles Times, p. 2
  23. ^ "Spade Cooley (1910 - 1969) - Find A Grave Memorial". Findagrave.com. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
  24. ^ Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits, p. 89.

Bibliography

  • Logsdon, Guy. "The Cowboy's Bawdy Music." The Cowboy: Six-Shooters, Songs, and Sex (pp. 139–138) edited by Charles W. Harris and Buck Rainey. University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8061-1341-3
  • Komorowski, Adam. Spade Cooley: Swingin' The Devil's Dream. (Proper PVCD 127, 2003) booklet.
  • Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits. Billboard Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8230-8291-1

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