FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
‘Shame on You’: Spade Cooley and his criminal career
08.08.2016
11:17 am
Topics:
Tags:

Shame on You
 
Spade Cooley, a seemingly genial man, was a prominent country western musician, an actor, and a convicted murderer. When you know the story behind the smile, Spade Cooley seems like one twisted soul. He was born in Oklahoma and raised in Oregon in an impoverished family. From an early age, he was a skilled violinist. In the 1930’s and 40’s as his music career was taking off he also had an acting career in Hollywood westerns such as Chatterbox, The Singing Sheriff, Outlaws of the Rockies and Texas Panhandle. His popular music career began in the early 1940s featuring Tex Williams’s vocals. The band’s biggest hit was “Shame on You.” Pretty ironic for the future murderer.
 
Spade and Ella Mae
 
Spade Cooley married Ella Mae Evans, one of his backup singers, in 1945. In 1947 as TV became a thing he hosted his own entertainment variety show called The Hoffman Hayride with his western swing band. Cooley proclaimed himself the “King of Western Swing.”
 

 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Izzi Krombholz
|
08.08.2016
11:17 am
|