Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys – Warner Brothers Movie Short 1944
Description
This short film provides a brief introduction to Bob Wills and the rise in popularity of his western swing music. Wills and His Texas Playboys perform a handful of songs in various set pieces, including their big hit “San Antonio Rose.” 1944 the war was on, and a lot of entertainers were in the military. Tommy Duncan and Leon McAuliffe both joined. Warner brothers added some new material to some Bob Wills movie clips to make this Short Subject. I enhanced the video and sound. Songs include: Ride On, My Adobe Hacienda, Mama Don’t Allow, San Antonio Rose.
The Texas Playboy
After forming a new band, The Playboys, and relocating to Waco, Texas, Wills found enough popularity there to decide on a bigger market. They left Waco in January 1934 for Oklahoma City. Wills soon settled the renamed Texas Playboys in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and began broadcasting noon shows over the 50,000-watt KVOO radio station, from the stage of Cain’s Ballroom. They also played dances in the evenings. Wills largely sang blues and sentimental ballads. “One Star Rag”, “Rat Cheese Under the Hill”, “Take Me Back to Tulsa“, “Basin Street Blues“, “Steel Guitar Rag“, and “Trouble in Mind” were some of the songs in the extensive repertory played by Wills and the Playboys.
Wills added a trumpet to the band inadvertently when he hired Everet Stover as an announcer, not knowing that he had played with the New Orleans symphony and had directed the governor’s band in Austin. Stover, thinking he had been hired as a trumpeter, began playing with the band, and Wills never stopped him. Although Wills initially disapproved of it, young saxophonist Zeb McNally was eventually hired. Wills hired the young, “modern-style musician” Smoky Dacus as a drummer to balance out the horns.
He continued to expand the lineup through the mid to late 1930s. The addition of steel guitar whiz Leon McAuliffe in March 1935 added not only a formidable instrumentalist, but also a second engaging vocalist. Wills and the Texas Playboys did their first recordings on September 23–25, 1935, in Dallas. Session rosters from 1938 show both lead guitar and electric guitar in addition to guitar and steel guitar in the Texas Playboys recordings. About this time, Wills purchased and performed with an antique Guadagnini violin. The instrument, worth an estimated $7,600 at the time, was purchased for only $1,600. In 1940, “New San Antonio Rose” sold a million records and became the signature song of The Texas Playboys. The “front line” of Wills’ orchestra consisted of either fiddles or guitars after 1944.
