The Hoosier Hot Shots were an American quartet of musicians who entertained on stage, screen, radio, and records from the mid-1930s into the 1970s. The group formed in
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
where they performed on local radio before moving to Chicago and a nationwide broadcasting and recording career. The group later moved to Hollywood to star in western movies.
Members
The Hot Shots' core personnel were multi-instrumentalists, playing brass band instruments as well as their standard instrumentation of guitar (Ken), clarinet (Gabe), string bass (various), and a strange, homemade instrument known both as the "Wabash Washboard" and "the Zither," played by Hezzie. It consisted of a corrugated sheet metal
washboard on a metal stand with various noisemakers attached, including bells and a multi-octave range of squeeze-type bicycle horns; Hezzie Trietsch constructed this instrument himself. Hezzie also played
slide whistle
A slide whistle (variously known as a swanee or swannee whistle, lotos flute piston flute, or jazz flute) is a wind instrument consisting of a fipple like a recorder's and a tube with a piston in it. Thus it has an air reed like some woodwinds ...
on which he was able to play melodies and variations in addition to effects. The washboard, along with other artifacts from the band, is now in the collection of the
Indiana State Museum
The Indiana State Museum is a museum located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The museum houses exhibits on the science, art, culture, and history of Indiana from prehistoric times to the present day.
History
The original collec ...
.
The Hot Shots' repertoire focused on
swing and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
standards and originals, especially those with a comedic element. Powered by a frantic and seemingly freewheeling instrumental virtuosity, grounded in the musical comedy of
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
, the Hot Shots were nevertheless able to cover both comic and more serious material, although some of their more serious recordings retain whimsical ornamental elements, capable of evoking a subtle musical irony.
The lineup consisted of the following members:
*Ken Trietsch (September 13, 1903 - September 17, 1987)
*Hezzie Trietsch (born Paul Trietsch) (April 11, 1905 - April 20, 1980)
*Gabe Ward (born Charles Otto Ward) (November 26, 1904 - January 14, 1992)
*Frank Kettering (January 1, 1909 - June 9, 1973)
*Gil Taylor (born Gilbert Ossian Taylor)
*Nate Harrison (born Nathan Harrison) (August 19, 1907 - August 10, 1995)
*Billy Keith Milheim
Success in vaudeville and radio
The story of the Hoosier Hot Shots begins in the first years of the 20th century on the Trietsch family farm near Arcadia, Indiana, about 20 miles north of Indianapolis. The Trietsch family grew to be one of four girls and five boys, two of which—Kenneth and Paul—were to become the nucleus of the Hot Shots.
Growing up in rural Indiana and aided by the example of a banjo-playing father, Kenneth, Paul and the other Trietsch children developed a keen interest in music and developed their various talents. An ensemble featuring father and sons toured the American and Canadian vaudeville circuit for several years. After the family act broke up, Ken and Paul went to work with another vaudeville group called Ezra Buzzington's Rube Band. It was while touring with the Rube Band that they met another Hoosier, Charles Otto Ward, known to his audiences as Gabriel Hawkins. "Gabe" became the third Hot Shot.
When the crash of '29 effectively ended vaudeville they, like other vaudevillians, looked to radio and landed a job at WOWO in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. One day they arrived late for a performance and the announcer greeted them with "Hey, you Hoosier hot shots, get in here!", and the name stuck.
Developing their style in Chicago
In 1933 they moved to Chicago's WLS, the Prairie Farmer Station. Now Paul ("Hezzie", on his washboard), "Gabe" (on clarinet) and Ken (tenor guitar). With the addition in 1934 of Frank Delaney Kettering on bass fiddle, the Hoosier Hot Shots became the quartet that they would remain until the 60s.
In the late 1930s, the group had a five-minute radio show on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
sponsored by
Alka-Seltzer
Alka-Seltzer is an effervescent antacid and pain reliever first marketed by the Dr. Miles Medicine Company of Elkhart, Indiana, United States. Alka-Seltzer contains three active ingredients: aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) (ASA), sodium bicarbonate ...
and appeared on ''
National Barn Dance
''National Barn Dance'', broadcast by WLS-AM in Chicago, Illinois starting in 1924, was one of the first American country music radio programs and a direct precursor of the ''Grand Ole Opry''.
''National Barn Dance'' also set the stage for other ...
'' on
WLS-AM
WLS (890 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Chicago, Illinois. Owned by Cumulus Media, through licensee Radio License Holdings LLC, the station airs a talk radio format. WLS has its radio studios in the NBC Tower on North Columbus Drive i ...
in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
; they also had a radio program for one season (1949-1950) on the
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...
.
Their music was characterized by novelty songs and arrangements – such as "I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones)" and "From the Indies to the Andes in His Undies" – hot jazz rhythms and the occasional sweet harmonies. They also played the pop songs of the day, like "Nobody's Sweetheart." Ken kicked off the band with "Are you ready, Hezzie?"—directed at his brother Paul—and it became one of the band's big taglines, even entering the common vernacular.
Recording and film career
Over their career the Hoosier Hot Shots recorded hundreds of 78s for such labels as
Banner
A banner can be a flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms (but usually in a square or rectangular shape) is called a banner of arms. Also, ...
,
Conqueror,
Decca Decca may refer to:
Music
* Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label
* Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group
* Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label
* Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...
,
Melotone,
Oriole,
Perfect,
Romeo
Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Lord Montague and his wife, Lady Montague, he secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet, through a priest ...
, and
Vocalion
Vocalion Records is an American record company and label.
History
The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...
. Some of these releases have made it to LPs, cassettes, and compact discs.
Recordings of songs made by the Hoosier Hot Shots often include the signature spoken (by Ken Trietsch) intro, "Are you ready, Hezzie?" followed by the sound of the bustle of the musicians preparing to play their instruments. However, the tightly-rehearsed skill of the performers lets the listener in on the joke as soon as the song actually begins. Their producer avoided recording too many takes of their performances, preferring a spontaneous sound: according to one member, the producer would record at most two takes of a particular song, and use the one that sounded worse.
Between 1937 and 1950, the Hot Shots appeared in more than 20 movies, sharing billing with the likes of
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 ...
,
Dale Evans
Dale Evans Rogers (born Frances Octavia Smith; October 31, 1912 – February 7, 2001) was an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.
Early life
Evans was born Frances Octavia Smith on Oc ...
,
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although S ...
,
the Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy team active from 1922 until 1970, best remembered for their 190 short subject films by Columbia Pictures. Their hallmark styles were physical farce and slapstick. Six Stooges appeared ...
and
Merle Travis
Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in Rosewood, Kentucky, United States. His songs' lyrics often discussed both the lives and the economic expl ...
. During the mid- to late 1940s they starred in their own series of musical westerns for
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
.
They were an ongoing presence in the early Billboard magazine country (hillbilly) charts with songs like "Beer Barrel Polka", "When There Are Tears In The Eyes Of The Potato", "Everybody Loves My Baby" and "O-Hi-O".
The World War II era their popularity was at its peak and, in addition to their normal pursuits they toured with the USO in North Africa and Italy.
Frank Kettering left in 1943, and replaced by singer-bassist Gil Taylor. They moved to the West Coast where they continued to make movies, records, stage, and radio appearances. They made the transition to television easily and were seen on such TV shows as the
Tex Ritter
Woodward Maurice Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a popular singer and actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John, grandsons Jason and ...
"Ranch Party."
Legacy
The Hoosier Hot Shots' career was winding down by the late 1950s but they continued recording (adding Keith Milheim on drums) and playing live venues until the death of Hezzie Trietsch (of cancer) on April 20, 1980. Gabe Ward continued to perform solo after the others had died or retired, until shortly before his own death on January 14, 1992.
The Hoosier Hot Shots were not just a comical music act, they were the inspiration for a musical genre that thrived during the '30s, '40s and, thanks to latter-day proponents like
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...
and
John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgow ( ; born , 1945) is an American actor. Lithgow studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his work on the stage and screen. He has been the recipient of numerous ...
(who recorded a cover of "From the Indies to the Andes in His Undies" as well as "I Like Bananas Because They Have No Bones"), can still be heard today.
English rock band
Half Man Half Biscuit
Half Man Half Biscuit are an English rock band, formed in 1984 in Birkenhead, Merseyside. Known for their satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs, the band comprises lead singer and guitarist Nigel Blackwell, bassist and singer Neil Cr ...
alluded to the Hoosier Hot Shots in their song "Eno Collaboration" with the lyric "I went from the Andes to the Indies in my undies".
[https://halfmanhalfbiscuit.uk/voyage-to-the-bottom-of-the-road/eno-collaboration/]
Among the acts that were inspired by the Hot Shots were the
Freddie Fisher's
Schnickelfritz Band
''Gold Diggers in Paris'' is a 1938 Warner Bros. movie musical directed by Ray Enright with musical numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley, starring Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane, Hugh Herbert, and Allen Jenkins.
Plot
Maurice Giraud (Her ...
, the Korn Kobblers, and
Spike Jones
Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader specializing in spoof arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gun ...
and His City Slickers. Spike Jones's early recordings were heavily influenced by the Hoosier Hot Shots. Both Jones and Fisher copied the "Wabash Washboard" developed by Paul (Hezzie) Trietsch.
Further reading
*
*Young, Jordan R. (2005). ''Spike Jones Off the Record: The Man Who Murdered Music'' (3rd edition) Albany: BearManor Media .
References
External links
Hoosier Hot Shots siteWLS Radio History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoosier Hot Shots
American novelty song performers
Male actors from Indiana
Vocalion Records artists
American comedy musical groups