Echoes of War and Unity: The Stirring Impact of Country Music on World War II Soldiers Episode 46
Mar 24, 2024
Randy
As the needle drops on a classic vinyl, the memories of my father sharing his World War II stories come flooding back, setting the stage for a heartfelt exploration into how country music provided a soundtrack to an era of tremendous upheaval and unity. In our latest episode, we don't just recount tales; we bring you face-to-face with the songs that echoed through the barracks and battlefields, where the strains of "There's a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" mixed with the hopes and fears of a generation at war. With every anecdote and melody, we uncover the poignant way music shaped and was shaped by the soldiers' experiences, including how icons like Roy Acuff became an unexpected battle cry for Japanese soldiers.
Strap in for a colorful ride down memory lane where country legends like Tex Ritter and Red Foley become the voices narrating history itself. We're sharing the dugout with Ritter, as he spins yarns that intertwine baseball with his rich storytelling, revealing the origins of words that have seeped into our language. And, as we pay homage to Glenn Miller, whose mysterious disappearance over the English Channel left a void in the music world, we acknowledge how his spirited "In the Mood" endures as a timeless tribute to an era and its heroes. Join us on Hot Mic with Houston and Hogan, where the past is not just recounted but relived, through the enduring legacy of wartime tunes and the stories behind them.
As the needle drops on a classic vinyl, the memories of my father sharing his World War II stories come flooding back, setting the stage for a heartfelt exploration into how country music provided a soundtrack to an era of tremendous upheaval and unity. In our latest episode, we don't just recount tales; we bring you face-to-face with the songs that echoed through the barracks and battlefields, where the strains of "There's a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" mixed with the hopes and fears of a generation at war. With every anecdote and melody, we uncover the poignant way music shaped and was shaped by the soldiers' experiences, including how icons like Roy Acuff became an unexpected battle cry for Japanese soldiers.
Strap in for a colorful ride down memory lane where country legends like Tex Ritter and Red Foley become the voices narrating history itself. We're sharing the dugout with Ritter, as he spins yarns that intertwine baseball with his rich storytelling, revealing the origins of words that have seeped into our language. And, as we pay homage to Glenn Miller, whose mysterious disappearance over the English Channel left a void in the music world, we acknowledge how his spirited "In the Mood" endures as a timeless tribute to an era and its heroes. Join us on Hot Mic with Houston and Hogan, where the past is not just recounted but relived, through the enduring legacy of wartime tunes and the stories behind them.
Speaker 1:
Welcome everyone to Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan. Hey, dave Hogan, to hell with Roosevelt. What did you say To hell?
Speaker 2:
with Babe Ruth? What To hell with Roy A Cough? Hello Randy, what, what come over you. I will explain why I said that here in a few minutes. You need to.
Speaker 2:
Make account of yourself, sir Randy, as we record this episode of our podcast, I'm making plans to go down to New Orleans to the World War II National Museum. I'm really looking forward to it and I've mentioned that I'm going to the museum to several people and they ask why is the World War II museum in New Orleans? And the reason is the Higgins boats. Perhaps some of our listeners know what I'm talking about. If you don't. The Higgins boat, vital to amphibious operations during World War II, were designed, built and tested in New Orleans. And if you see the D-Day, the Normandy invasion, and you see the soldiers, they built this boat so that there's a ramp that comes down at the front of the boat for the soldiers to disembark. So that's one of the reasons. And the other reason is that one of the people who spearheaded the effort to build a World War II museum, one of the, was historian and author Stephen Ambrose. Stephen Ambrose is a native and lived in New Orleans, and so that's two reasons why the World War II museum is located in New Orleans. And if you're listening and you want to learn more about it, just Google the World War II National Museum. I think they have actually five pavilions, five different buildings spotlighting different aspects of World War II, and so I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaker 2:
Now, what does that have to do with country music? What we talk about on this program? Oh yeah, I read an article it's been a good long while ago a very interesting article talking about how World War II contributed to the spread of country music. Up until World War II, up until the early 40s, country music was basically limited to the rural south. But when World War II came along, you had all these soldiers from all these different parts of the country together A melting pot. It was a melting pot of people from every state in the Union. Yeah, so a lot of soldiers from outside the south were exposed to country music for the first time and they took it back with them to their hometown. A lot of them fell in love with country music and took it back, so it helped to spread country music across the United States.
Speaker 2:
That makes perfect sense, and I remember my dad talking about. He called him his foxhole buddies. He was an infantryman in World War II, a rifleman. He called his friends, his fellow soldiers, foxhole buddies and he'd talked about his foxhole buddy from Massachusetts or his foxhole buddy from Wisconsin, a number of different states. He met people and it widened his horizons to learn Right, and they had a chance to talk to each other about back home and what it was like back home.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, now I said at the beginning of our podcast a hell with Roosevelt, a hell with Babe Ruth and a hell with Roy A Cuff. Roy A Cuff was tremendously popular during World War II and Japanese soldiers used that chant as a battle cry as they went into battle against the American soldiers in the Pacific. The most popular Americans at that time, president Roosevelt, baseball hero Babe Ruth and country artist Roy A Kuff. And so their battle cry to hell with Roosevelt, to hell with Babe Ruth, to hell with Roy A Kuff. The three people most popular in Japan and probably around the world, the three Americans most popular during World War II.
Speaker 2:
And it's interesting, you know, roy A Kuff was not a big recording artist. If you look at the, he made a lot of records, but as far as what we call hit records, he had two that were really big hits and both of them came out just prior to World War II, played everywhere and Billboard Magazine and the other. I don't know if they had anybody except Billboard. In those days they did not have a country music chart, they just had a music chart.
Speaker 1:
All different kinds of music mixed in together.
Speaker 2:
And so Roy A Kuff's, I think his recording, his first recording was a great speckled bird Right and he was number five in the nation on the best selling chart or the, however they, whatever formula they used to determine country, to determine the popularity of music. And the other one was the Wabash.
Speaker 1:
Cannonball. Okay, I was trying to think of the other one. Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:
Those two recordings by Roy A Kuff he had others with those two in particular were so popular that even in Japan they were known.
Speaker 1:
Those, two songs. Roy A Kuff was known yeah.
Speaker 2:
And where is he from? Knoxville area. Okay, knoxville area. Another little side note about Roy A Kuff. You remember Opryland, which was an amusement park, right?
Speaker 1:
Been there.
Speaker 2:
Now out of business. They don't have Opryland as an amusement park like they did when they first built it and that's where they moved the Grand Ole Opry to from the Reiman Auditorium. And Roy A Kuff was associated with the Opry more than any other artist at that time and the people who ran the Opry built him a house. He had a home right there, just steps away from the Opry, where they did the shows. I didn't know that so all he had to do.
Speaker 2:
And during Opryland, when Opryland was in existence, he and his Smoky Mountain Boys would do daily shows there at Opryland. Okay, and Roy was, you know, getting along in age when they moved the Opry from the Reiman out there. So they built him a home, a nice cottage right there near Opryland. And I was with a lady and this is pre-Margo days, Pre-Margo You'd be careful now, like quite a while, you'd be careful and I had a friend that I was with. We were walking by Roy A Kuff's house and there's a fence around it, of course, to keep people you know from going up and knocking on Roy A Kuff's door, her parents. Roy A Kuff's father was a Baptist preacher in Knoxville and I believe he also at one time was a judge of some kind. And Roy's father married my lady friend's parents who were from Knoxville, and she said I'm going to meet Roy A Kuff.
Speaker 2:
She climbed that fence, jumped over into his yard and here I am, get out, you're going to get a spurious, we're going to be in jail went up and ba ba, ba, ba ba and knocked on Roy A Kuff's door. Ba ba, ba, ba, ba ba ba. He either was doing a show somewhere on Opryland or sound asleep, or didn't want to answer the door. She never did get him to answer the door and thank goodness she was able to get back over the fence.
Speaker 1:
Without getting arrested.
Speaker 2:
Without getting us in trouble, but Roy A Kuff was tremendously popular during World War II and World War II also spawned some many, many patriotic songs and the most popular, according to the information I have, was Elton Brits' recording, and I played this, I guess, when you and I were working together in the 90s, because During the Vietnam War, I guess during the Korean War, Vietnam War, the Iraqi War, Desert Storm you know that the song that I'm about to mention fit all wars. It was called there's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere. Oh yeah, it was a million seller.
Speaker 2:
During World War II, President Franklin D Roosevelt asked Elton Britt to perform the song at the White House and in the song a wounded soldier wishes he could get back to the battlefield to fight alongside his brothers. There's a star spangled banner waving somewhere. It's a tremendous song. And my dad, when he was in World War II, rifleman in the infantry, he was wounded twice. He got two purple hearts and the first time he was injured, the first time he sustained an injury, he was out of action for several weeks and he healed up and went back into action back into battle and received another gunshot wound later on.
Speaker 2:
But he related so much to that song and I'm sure a lot of soldiers who were injured did and a lot of them couldn't go back into battle like my dad did, but they longed to get back and resume the fight and help out their brother soldiers. Elton Britt and if you've never heard it, google it. Thank goodness for the internet. There's a lot of downside to the internet. I know there is, but there's also a lot of upside. We can go back and hear Roy A Cuffin, the great speckled bird in the.
Speaker 2:
Wabash Cannonball and Elton Britt, and there's a star spangled banner waving somewhere. So Google it if you've never heard it. Another big song in World War II was the Gene Autry the singing cowboy. In cowboy movies we're just coming into existence along about that time Cowboy stars like Gene Autry. He had one called at mail call today.
Speaker 2:
A letter from home, a letter from a wife, mom or dad or sweetheart, was what the soldiers waited for. Mail call was a very important time, but occasionally a soldier would receive a Dear John letter. Nothing worse than a Dear John letter from a sweetheart back home and later on. I know Jean Shepherd. She had a hit song with a Dear John letter and I think Ferlan Husky did. You know, dear John? Oh, how I hate to write, but I must let you know that I wed another tonight, so you can imagine what it was like to get a Dear John letter when you're in the military service away from home. Even in the country music song a Dear John letter the singer talks about marrying somebody else and at the end it's his brother that she's marrying.
Speaker 2:
So that would make quite an impact. Bob Willows and the Texas Playboys for popular during World War II, the big song. It was a song written by Red Foley, matter of fact, and it was called Smoke on the Water and it was particularly popular among the soldiers in the Pacific Theater in the South Pacific because it predicted the destruction of the Axis powers There'll be smoke on the water. Bob Willows and the Texas Playboys had a hit with it. But it was also a hit for Red Foley who wrote the song Text Ritter. Remember the name. You remember Text Ritter.
Speaker 2:
A lot of people who didn't know Text Ritter would know his son, john. The late John Ritter was the star of a TV program called Threes Company and when I was promoting country music shows at the city auditorium Text Ritter, I booked Text Ritter on one of the shows and I'd never met Text Ritter and I'm glad I did. One of the great gentlemen that I've ever met in country music, just a wonderful person. But it was showtime almost 730 or I guess about 730 is when we started the shows and there was no Text Ritter. Text hadn't shown up. So I was worried. He was not the first act on the program. Fortunately there was somebody else in front of him. I can't remember who it was, but about the time, the band that opened the show, the artists that opened the show, about the time he started. Here come Text Bus and Text Entourage his band, all out of breath. Did we make it on time? Did we make it on time? And you know why they were late. Text Ritter was a huge baseball fan.
Speaker 1:
I started to say I-26 construction, but no, it wasn't.
Speaker 2:
And he was listening on the bus to a baseball game out of St Louis KMOX, the St Louis Cardinals.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:
And the signal was fading and he had the bus driver pull off on the side of the road. The ball game was about to end. He wanted to hear the conclusion of the ball game, maybe a tie game going into X-Rannings. And that's why they were late, because they pulled off the side of the road. So Text Ritter could listen to the baseball game out of KMOX and St Louis.
Speaker 1:
Well, he's the boss, you know. And if he says pull this thing over and they did, huh, well, tell me about the show, about Text Ritter on stage.
Speaker 2:
Well, he was fabulous. He told a lot of stories and he told one that comes to my mind. You know the Mexicans I guess they still do refer to Americans as gringos and Tetch Whitter was an actor on Broadway at one time and he was in a Broadway show that had the song Green Grow the Lilacs. Yes, I remember that Green Grow the Lilacs was the name of the song and the Spanish-speaking population down in Mexico from that song, gringo, gringo the Lilacs. Gringo, Gringo. That's the story Tetch Whitter told. Okay.
Speaker 1:
I get it.
Speaker 2:
And that was a tremendously popular song. Yeah, and so that's where the word gringo comes from. Green Grow the Lilacs.
Speaker 1:
You know I've talked about this on the air, Dave, about how you and I are broadcasters. We're radio announcers and we are blessed with a nice voice. But when it comes, let me tell you and show you the difference between a radio announcer and a voice actor, A voice actor. Tetch Whitter was a voice actor. His dialogue recitation of the deck of cards, Deck of cards.
Speaker 2:
Another big Tetch Whitter hit.
Speaker 1:
That guy was a voice actor. I wish we could play it. But the gist of the story and some of the lyrics was during the North African campaign, a group of soldier boys had been on a long hike and they came to a town called Casino. The next day being Sunday, some of the boys went to church and after the chaplain had read the prayer, the text was taken up and those of the boys who had a prayer book took them out. But this one boy only had a deck of cards, so he spread them out, and so the story goes that he had a representation for every deck or every card in the deck. It was a great story, but a voice actor. Tetch Whitter and his son John was one of the greatest comedians and comedic actors ever. He was hilarious.
Speaker 2:
He was a wonderful actor and he died. They thought it was a heart attack, but later on they found out I don't have it written down here it was a problem, a genetic problem that had not been diagnosed.
Speaker 1:
I think it was an aortic embolism. Yeah, that's the order, yeah it exploded and it took his life early 54, age 54, I think.
Speaker 2:
I think that's right. Tetch had another son. His name was Thomas and when he was in Asheville, thomas was along with Tetch and Thomas had cerebral palsy. And of course, with cerebral palsy, while it's not a fatal disease, it does limit your ability. I worked with a young man named James Allen Hello, james, I'll bet he's listening to this podcast down in Oak Ridge, tennessee, where he now lives. I was impressed with the way that Tex Ritter, I was impressed with the way Tex Ritter was so attentive to his son and made sure that he met all the other country artists who were on the program that night and I believe it could have been Porter and Dolly as I think about it, it could have been on that same show, but I was impressed with Tex Ritter. You know, tex ran for the US Senate from Tennessee.
Speaker 1:
Okay, I knew he dabbled in politics. I couldn't remember what.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, he was. I don't remember how he was convinced or why he put his name in the hat to run for the US Senate. He was not elected but made a great showing. At that time Tennessee was a pretty strong democratic state, as most of the states in the South were back in the 40s. So he didn't win but he made a good showing. And also Roy Acuff, you know, ran for governor of Tennessee. Okay, I think it was 1948 when Roy Acuff ran for governor of Tennessee.
Speaker 1:
And was defeated.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, he lost, but also, like Tex, he made a strong showing, probably stronger than any Republican at that time who had ever run for governor of Tennessee Gotcha. So those are some interesting stories about two interesting people Tex Ritter and Bob Wills, roy Acuff and Elton Britt and Roy Acuff.
Speaker 1:
You know and I'm really intrigued that you would find an article that brought this up about how World War II was responsible in part for spreading the word about country music at a time when I equate, when I think of World War II and music, I think of the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the mood and you know all of those WWII songs.
Speaker 2:
Many country music artists also fought in World War II. They were drafted Charlie Luven of the Luven Brothers. I did an interview with Charlie one time when he did a show for me at the Asheville City Auditorium. And Charlie fought in both World War II and the Korean War.
Speaker 1:
Really yeah, charlie. Luven of the Luven Brothers.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, he sure did. He sure did. And you mentioned Glenn Miller. He was not a country music artist, he was a tremendous band leader at that time and he was doing USO shows. You know USO shows. We'll talk about that sometime, about how important they were. And we'll talk about a country music artist who just currently, who currently had I'm talking about in the last 15, 20 years had a lot of hit records and he died just a few days ago and he received one of the top awards given, or probably the top award given by the USO, for his service overseas. You know who I'm talking about?
Speaker 1:
Is this a cliffhanger for folks to come back next week and Well, perhaps, but the artist I'm talking about is Toby Keith.
Speaker 2:
Toby Keith, yeah, Toby Keith. So songs related to wars, related to the battlefield and through history. I'm sure they didn't make records back during the Civil War, but there were songs, that's right. Sheet music was the way music was distributed in those days, mainly. But anyway, we're about to have a time on this program. Oh, I mentioned Glenn Miller. I want to mention this too. Yeah, he lost his life during World War II. You know, his plane disappeared in the flying over the English Channel, flying from England to France, disappeared and was never found.
Speaker 1:
Glenn Miller in the mood was his Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, and then we got to go. On that note, we'll be back and we'll talk a little bit more about that era of country music. Thank you for joining us on Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan.