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WWVA Jamboree
The ''Wheeling Jamboree'' is the second-oldest country music radio broadcast in the United States after the ''Grand Ole Opry''. The Jamboree originated in 1933 in Wheeling, West Virginia on WWVA, the first radio station in West Virginia and a 50,000-watt clear-channel station AM station until about 2007.Tribe, p. 43. Numerous acts and stars performed on the ''Jamboree'', some of whom would later go on to mainstream commercial success. In 1946, the show (then performing at the Virginia Theatre demolished in 1962) was syndicated on the CBS radio network as ''CBS Radio Saturday Night Country Style'', becoming the first national radio broadcast from West Virginia. In 1997, WWVA dropped its country music format, although Saturday night broadcasts continued, from various theaters and managed by various entities, the final commercial one being Live Nation, initially a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, which had come to own WWVA. By the end of 2008, Clear Channel had rest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Country Music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is primarily focused on singing Narrative, stories about Working class in the United States, working-class and blue-collar worker, blue-collar American life. Country music is known for its ballads and dance tunes (i.e., "Honky-tonk#Music, honky-tonk music") with simple form, folk lyrics, and harmonies generally accompanied by instruments such as banjos, fiddles, harmonicas, and many types of guitar (including acoustic guitar, acoustic, electric guitar, electric, steel guitar, steel, and resonator guitar, resonator guitars). Though it is primarily rooted in various forms of American folk music, such as old-time music and Appalachian music, many other traditions, including African-American, Music of Mexico, Mexican, Music of Ireland, Irish, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doc Williams (singer)
Doc Williams (June 26, 1914 – January 31, 2011) was an influential American country music bandleader and vocalist. Biography Born as Andrew John Smik Jr. in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and raised in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, he got his professional start playing with the Kansas Clodhoppers during the early 1930s. Doc eventually formed his own band, Doc Williams and the Border Riders. The group went on the air on WWVA Wheeling in 1937; soon, with the addition of comedian Froggie Cortez and cowboy crooner "Big Slim the Lone Cowboy", and became one of the station's most popular attractions. He was associated with the radio station for over 40 years. In 1939, Williams married Jessie Wanda Crupe, a singer who soon adopted the stage name Chickie Williams (February 13, 1919 – November 18, 2007). The Williams' were popular performers. Although the couple and their band the Border Riders recorded, performed live and appeared on the radio for over five decades, they nev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sun Records
Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee on February 1, 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. Prior to that, Sun had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because Phillips loved rhythm and blues and wanted to bring it to a white audience. On January 28, 2021, Sun Records was acquired by Primary Wave for $30 million. History Sam Phillips opened his Memphis Recording Service studio on January 3, 1950, at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis. It was founded with the financial aid of Jim Bulliet, one of many record executives for whom Phillips had scouted artists before 1952. In March 1951, Phillips produced " Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, who were actually Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm. Because of Turner's Delta blues connections, he was contracted by Phillips as a talent scout and he was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Morgan (singer)
George Thomas Morgan (June 28, 1924 – July 7, 1975) was a mid-20th-century American country music singer. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and a former member of the Grand Ole Opry. He is best known for his 1949 hit single " Candy Kisses". He was the father of singer Lorrie Morgan, who is also a country music star. Biography Morgan was born to Zachariah "Zach" Morgan and Ethel Turner in Waverly, Tennessee, United States, but was raised in Barberton, Ohio. He was, along with a few other contemporaries (most notably Eddy Arnold and Jim Reeves), referred to as a " country crooner;" his singing style being more similar to that of Bing Crosby or Perry Como than that of Ernest Tubb or Lefty Frizzell. Morgan was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1948, and is best remembered for the Columbia Records song " Candy Kisses", which was a No. 1 hit on the '' Billboard'' country music chart for three weeks in 1949. He also had several hits based on a "rose" th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Curtis
Ken Curtis (born Curtis Wain Gates; July 2, 1916 – April 28, 1991) was an American actor and singer best known for his role as Festus Haggen on the Western television series ''Gunsmoke''. Early years Born the youngest of three boys in Lamar in Prowers County in southeastern Colorado, Curtis lived his first 10 years on a ranch on Muddy Creek in eastern Bent County. In 1926, the family moved to Las Animas, the county seat of Bent County, so that his father, Dan Sullivan Gates, could run for sheriff. The campaign was successful, and Gates served from 1926 to 1931 as Bent County sheriff. Curtis was the quarterback of his Bent County High School football team and played clarinet in the school band. He graduated in 1935. During World War II, Curtis served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945. He attended Colorado College to study medicine, but left after a short time to pursue his musical career. Career Music Curtis was a singer before moving into acting, and combi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hank Snow
Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999) was a Canadian country music guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' country charts between 1950 and 1980. Snow had success on country music record charts with his songs including: "I'm Moving On (Hank Snow song), I'm Moving On", "The Golden Rocket (song), The Golden Rocket", "The Rhumba Boogie", "I Don't Hurt Anymore", "Let Me Go, Lover!", "I've Been Everywhere", and "Hello Love (song), Hello Love". Hank Snow wrote songs about a wide range of topics including joy, freedom, travel, anguish, and love. His work was often inspired by his personal experiences, such as his childhood in a small town in rural Nova Scotia. He experienced extreme poverty, Child abuse, abuse, and physically punishing labor during the Great Depression. His mother encouraged him to pursue his dream of becoming an entertainer like his idol, country star J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Walker
James John Walker (June 19, 1881November 18, 1946), known colloquially as Jimmy Walker and Beau James, was an American attorney, lyricist, and Democratic Party politician who served as the 97th mayor of New York City from 1926 until his resignation in 1932. A flamboyant politician, he was a liberal Democrat and part of the powerful Tammany Hall machine. He was forced to resign during a corruption scandal in which he accepted large sums of money in exchange for municipal contracts. Early life and political career Walker was the son of Irish-born William H. Walker (1842–1916), a carpenter and lumberyard owner who was very active in local politics as a Democratic assemblyman and alderman from Greenwich Village, belying certain accounts of Walker's childhood that stated he grew up in poverty. Walker was not the best student and dropped out of college, eventually graduating from New York Law School in 1904. Walker's father wanted him to become a lawyer and politician, but he deci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stoney Cooper
Dale Troy Cooper (October 16, 1918 – March 22, 1977), known professionally as Stoney Cooper, was an American country star and member of the Grand Ole Opry. He played the fiddle and the guitar. Biography Cooper was the son of Kenny and Stella (Raines) Cooper of Harman, West Virginia, United States. His family was among the first settlers of Randolph and Pendleton counties, and these roots in the Appalachian mountains had an impact upon his music. While in high school, Cooper was a member of the Leary Family Singers. In 1939, he married Wilma Lee Leary. They became Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, one of the biggest country music acts of the 1940s through the 1960s. They had one daughter, Carol Lee Cooper. In 1947, they were cast members of '' WWVA Jamboree'' in Wheeling, West Virginia until 1957. Their band was called The Clinch Mountain Clan. In 1948, Cooper signed a recording contract with Columbia with the help of Fred Rose that lasted to 1955. In 1954, Cooper joined th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilma Lee
Wilma Lee Leary (February 7, 1921 – September 13, 2011), known professionally as Wilma Lee Cooper, was an American country music entertainer. She was a guitarist, banjo player and vocalist, and was given the title of "First Lady of Bluegrass" by the Smithsonian Institution in 1974. In 1994 She was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award from the IBMA. She was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2023. Biography Leary, according to the 1930 U.S. Census, was born Willma Leigh Leary in Valley Head, West Virginia whose mother was a schoolteacher and father who was a coal miner. Wilma's mother played pump organ. She had two siblings, Jerry and Peggy. She began singing at the age of five. She sang in her youth with her family's gospel music group, The Leary Family, which included her parents and sisters. They recorded for the Library Of Congress in 1938. That year, they were also recognized at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ozark Jubilee
''Ozark Jubilee'' is a 1950s American television program that featured country music's top stars of the day. It was produced in Springfield, Missouri. The weekly live stage show premiered on ABC-TV on January 22, 1955, was renamed ''Country Music Jubilee'' on July 6, 1957, and was finally named ''Jubilee USA'' on August 2, 1958. Originating "from the heart of the Ozarks", the Saturday night variety series helped popularize country music in America's cities and suburbs,Shulman, Art "Dynamo–Country Style" (July 7, 1956), ''TV Guide'', p. 28 drawing more than nine million viewers. The ABC Radio version was heard by millions more starting in August 1954. A typical program included a mix of vocal and instrumental performances, comedy routines, square dancing and an occasional novelty act. The host was Red Foley, one of the nation's top country music personalities having been ranked by ''Billboard'' as the #5 Top Country Artist for the 1940s and #5 in the 1950s. Big names su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawkshaw Hawkins
Harold Franklin "Hawkshaw" Hawkins (December 22, 1921 – March 5, 1963) was an American country music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 1960s. He was known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn from blues, boogie and honky tonk. At tall, Hawkins had an imposing stage presence, and he dressed more conservatively than some other male country singers. Hawkins died in the 1963 plane crash that also killed country stars Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and was married to country star Jean Shepard. Biography Harold Hawkins was born on December 22, 1921, in Huntington, West Virginia, United States. He gained his nickname as a boy after helping a neighbor track down two missing fishing rods: the neighbor called him "Hawkshaw" after the title character in the comic strip, '' Hawkshaw the Detective''. He traded five trapped rabbits for his first guitar, and performed on WCMI-AM in Ashland, Kentucky. At 16, he won a talent compet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virginia Theatre (Wheeling, WV)
The August Wilson Theatre (formerly the Guild Theatre, ANTA Theatre, and Virginia Theatre) is a Broadway theater at 245 West 52nd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1925, the theater was designed by C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim and was built for the Theatre Guild. It is named for Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson (1945–2005). The August Wilson has approximately 1,225 seats across two levels and is operated by ATG Entertainment. The facade is a New York City designated landmark. The facade is designed as a variation of a 15th-century Tuscan villa, with a stage house to the west and an auditorium to the east. The facade has a stucco surface and openings with quoins, as well as a loggia. The placement of window openings reflected the theater's original interior arrangement. The front of the theater had facilities for the Theatre Guild, including classrooms, studios, a club room, a library, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
