Smith Ballew

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Smith Ballew
Birth name Sykes Ballew
Born January 21, 1902(1902-01-21)
Palestine, Texas
Died May 2, 1984 (aged 82)
Longview, Texas
Genre(s) Country music, Western movies
Occupation(s) Vocalist, musician, orchestra leader, Film actor
Instrument(s) Vocals
Years active 1930s - 1950s

Smith Ballew (real name Sykes Ballew) (January 21, 1902 – May 2, 1984) was an American actor, singer, and orchestra leader.

He was born in Palestine, Texas. He attended high school in Sherman and college at Austin College and the University of Texas. He began his singing career on the radio, and in the 1930s became one of the earliest of the singing cowboys on the movie screen. He did a series of musical Westerns for Paramount Pictures and one for 20th Century Fox, continuing in supporting roles until the 1950s.

Starting in the late 1920s he became one of the most recognizable vocalists on hundreds of dance band and jazz records (during this time, Ballew along with Scrappy Lambert, Dick Robertson, and Chick Bullock were the most prolific vocalists), and in the early 1930s had his own band. Between 1929 and 1935, he made scores of records were issued under his own name for OKeh, the dime store labels (Banner, Domino, Jewel, Regal, Perfect, Oriole as Buddy Blue & His Texans or Jack Blue's Texans), Columbia, and Crown. Few of these popular records gave any indication of his future Cowboy style.

He died at the age of 82 in Longview, Texas.

[edit] External references

Persondata
NAME Ballew, Smith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ballew, Sykes
SHORT DESCRIPTION American actor, singer andorchestra leader
DATE OF BIRTH January 21 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Palestine, Texas, USA
DATE OF DEATH May 2 1984
PLACE OF DEATH Longview, Texas, USA
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