w lee o’daniel
After my last post it occurred to me that some people might never have heard of W. Lee O’Daniel.
He was a flour mill manager in Fort Worth who hit on the idea of advertising his flour with a radio show that featured a band called the Light Crust Doughboys. O’Daniel himself was the announcer, lacing his program with Bible quotes and political commentary. The show became very popular in rural areas and O’Daniel played off that popularity to get himself elected governor and later senator, defeating a young LBJ. W. Lee campaigned as “just folks,” promising tax cuts and old-age pensions, but once elected he allied himself with northern Republicans against labor and New Deal Democrats.
As for the Light Crust Doughboys they were the seminal Western Swing band. Several members went on to lead their own bands, including Bob Wills who founded the Texas Playboys.
March 30th, 2005 @ 12:35 pm
Sounds like the preface to Prairie Home Companion!
March 30th, 2005 @ 3:18 pm
…or Pappy O’Daniel from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
March 31st, 2005 @ 2:32 am
Daniel’s grasp on his audience and how he turned that into political clout was very well documented in the first book of the LBJ bio trilogy “The Path To Power”.
I keep that book around for the times when I feel overburdened by household chores (or would feel that way if I ever did any) to reread the details of the oppresive tasks of laundry day in rural America before electrictiy arrived on the farms. No written passage has ever stirred me more than that one.