The Girls of the Golden West was an American female
country music female
duo
Duo may refer to:
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*Duo, West Virginia, an unincorporated community and coal town in Greenbrier County, West Virginia
*Duo, Tampere, a shopping centre in Hervanta, Tampere, Finland
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Arts, enterta ...
, that was popular during the "Western Era" of the 1930s and 1940s. The band comprised two sisters, Mildred Fern Good (April 11, 1913 – May 2, 1993) and Dorothy Laverne Good (December 11, 1915 – November 12, 1967).
They were born in
Mount Carmel, Illinois, United States.
Rise to fame
The Girls of the Golden West first entertained family and friends before they worked on a
radio station in
St. Louis,
Missouri.
In 1933, they moved to the WLS
National Barn Dance, then the home of country music pioneers
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...
and
Patsy Montana.
Bradley Kincaid
William Bradley Kincaid (July 13, 1895 – September 23, 1989) was an American folk singer and radio entertainer.[recordings
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, r ...]
. They first started recording for
Bluebird Records in July 1933.
They named themselves the Girls of the Golden West, taken from the
opera by
Puccini, ''
The Girl of the Golden West''. They started singing songs such as "Put My Little Shoes Away" and "
Ragtime Cowboy Joe".
The Girls of the Golden West were one of the most popular acts of the 1930s and 1940s, and were one of the few women then found performing country music.
The Girls also had kept up a fictitious story of their life. They would claim they were from
Muleshoe, Texas
Muleshoe is a city in Bailey County, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1913, when the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway built an line from Farwell, Texas, to Lubbock through northern Bailey County. In 1926, Muleshoe was incorporated. Its p ...
, though in reality they were farming girls from Illinois.
However, this was all part of the image of the "Western Music" craze. They would normally wear
cowgirl western-style outfits for their appearances on
television programs.
Career peak and decline
Girls of the Golden West were pioneers in country music at the time. There were few women then in the genre, excluding
Patsy Montana, The girls would inspire a whole new breed of country music singers such as
Kitty Wells,
Jean Shepard and
Patsy Cline. They would also inspire a short-lived girl group,
The Davis Sisters. The Girls of the Golden West still remained a popular group, with other songs like "Lonesome Cowgirl" and "Silvery Moon on the Golden Gate", which became their
signature tune.
Later in their careers, they performed on more television shows such as ''
Renfro Valley Barn Dance'' and ''Boone County Jamboree''.
Toward the end of the 1940s, their careers faded.
They also later moved from WLS to WLW in
Cincinnati, Ohio. After this, they occasionally performed and recorded again in 1963.
In 1967 Dolly Good died, and Millie Good followed at the age of 80 in 1993.
See also
*
Western music (North America)
References
Bibliography
*''Country Music:The Rough Guide''; Wolff, Kurt, Rough Guides; 1st edition (29 June 2000),
External links
AllMusic biography
{{Authority control
American country music groups
Vocalion Records artists