| Description | Musician. His experiences as a member of the “Light Crust Doughboys” western swing band, 1935-1945. Early musical career as a banjo player in a traveling tent show; employment with the “Wanderers”; employment with the “Light Crust Doughboys”; comments about W. Lee (“Pappy”) O'Daniel; work with Gene Autry and Republic Pictures; acquiring the nicknames “Junior” and later “Smokey”; “Doughboy” recording sessions; comments about Bob Wills; comments about individual members of the “Doughboys” band; World War II and its effects on the “Doughboys”; employment making naval shells for Crown Machine and Tool in Fort Worth; road shows with the “Doughboys,” 1931-41; relations between Bob Wills and “Pappy” O'Daniel; moonlighting on the honky-tonk circuit with the “Southern Selectors”; the “Doughboys'“ record sales; “Doughboy” adventures; jamming with African-American musicians; performing with the “Duncan Coffee Grinders” during World War II; his return to the ”Doughboys” after World War II; performances with the ”Texo Hired Hands”; performing with the “Levee Singers” in the Levee Club in Dallas during the 1960s;comments about rockabilly performer Ronnie Dawson; comments about the record business; his career as a music arranger; operation of the Sumet-Bernet Recording Studios in Fort Worth; employment as music director for the “Big D Jamboree,” 1941-60; his song writing career; experiences with “Lefty” Frizzell, Roy Orbison, Ray Price, Webb Pierce, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ernest Tubb, Elvis Presley, and the “Rolling Stones”; comments about “Doughboys” emcees Truett Kimsey, ”Pappy” O'Daniel, Eddie Dunn, Larry Rowell, Parker Wilson, Mel Cox, Jimmy Jefferies, Ted Gouldey; comments about “Doughboy” members “Zeke” Campbell, ”Knocky” Parker, “Snub” Dearman, Kenneth Pitts, Clifford Gross, Dick Reinhart, Bert Dodson, Cecil Brower, Leon McAuliffe; his personal funeral arrangements; miscellaneous vignettes. |
