Spade Cooley

Donnell Clyde "Spade" Cooley (December 17, 1910 – November 23, 1969) was an American Western swing musician, big-band leader, actor, television personality, and convicted murderer. In 1961, he was tried and convicted for the murder of his second wife, Ella Mae Evans.<ref name="Crimelibrary">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early life

Donnell Clyde Cooley was born in Grand, Oklahoma.<ref name="LarkinCountry">Template:Cite book</ref> Being part Cherokee, he was sent to the Chemawa Indian School in Salem, Oregon, in his youth. In 1930, during the Dust Bowl, Cooley's family moved to California. There, he took the nickname "Spade" after he played a poker game and won three straight flush hands, all in spades.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

Music career

Template:More citations needed Cooley joined a big band led by Jimmy Wakely, who played at the Venice Pier Ballroom in Venice, California, playing fiddle.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> Several thousand dancers would turn out on Saturday nights to swing and hop: "The hoards (sic) of people and jitterbuggers loved [Cooley]." When Wakely got a movie contract at Universal Pictures, Cooley replaced him as bandleader.<ref>L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes & Bad Times. John Gilmore. 2005. Amok Books. Page 313. Template:ISBN Template:ISBN</ref> To capitalize on the pioneering success of the Bob Wills–Tommy Duncan pairing, Cooley hired vocalist Tex Williams, who was capable of the mellow, deep, baritone sound made popular by Duncan. Cooley's 18-month engagement at the Venice Pier Ballroom was record-breaking for the early half of the 1940s.

Cooley was in a so-called "battle of the bands" in July 1942,<ref name="CocaineAndRhinestones">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys at the Venice Pier Ballroom. Afterward, Cooley claimed he won and began to promote himself as the King of Western Swing.<ref>Komorowski, Spade Cooley, p.4.</ref> Despite Bob Wills playing the style of music before Cooley, the first documented use of "Western swing" for this style of music was in 1942 by Cooley's promoter at the time, Forman Phillips.<ref>Logsdon, "The Cowboy's Bawdy Music," p.137.</ref><ref name="CocaineAndRhinestones"></ref>

Cooley wrote and recorded "Shame on You", released by Okeh Records; recorded in December 1944, it was number one on the country charts for two months,<ref name="Crimelibrary"/> while covers of the song by Red Foley with Lawrence Welk, and by Bill Boyd, opened at numbers three and four, respectively, on Billboard's Most Played Juke Box Folk Records chart (the chart which evolved into today's Hot Country chart)<ref name="campbell">Template:Cite book</ref> for 30 August 1945.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Soundies Distributing Corp. of America issued one of their "music video-like" film shorts of Cooley's band performing "Shame on You" in the fall of 1945.<ref>Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [C] Group 3. Dramatic Composition and ... By Library of Congress. Copyright Office. 1945. page 5334.</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> "Shame on You" was the first in an unbroken string of six top-10 singles, including "Detour" and "You Can't Break My Heart".

Spade Cooley hung around Republic Pictures, ultimately sneaking onto a Gene Autry set. He was caught, but Autry noticed his resemblance to cowboy actor Roy Rogers and his talent for playing the fiddle, and introduced him to Rogers.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Cooley appeared in 38 Western films, both in bit parts and as a stand-in and stuntman for Rogers.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> In 1936, Rogers made Cooley the featured fiddle player and a vocalist in his group Riders of the Purple Sage. Billed as Spade Cooley and His Western Dance Gang, he was featured in the soundie Take Me Back To Tulsa released July 31, 1944, along with Williams and Carolina Cotton.<ref>The Soundies Distributing Corporation of America: a history and filmography of their "jukebox" musical films of the 1940s. Terenzio, MacGillivary, Okuda. 1954. page 129. Template:ISBN</ref> Corrine, Corrina was released August 28, 1944, minus Cotton.<ref>The Soundies Distributing Corporation of America: a history and filmography of their "jukebox" musical films of the 1940s. Terenzio, MacGillivary, Okuda. 1954. p. 131. Template:ISBN</ref> The film short Spade Cooley: King of Western Swing was filmed in May 1945 and released September 1, 1945.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was followed by Melody Stampede released on November 8, 1945.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Spade Cooley & His Orchestra came out in 1949.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1950, Cooley had significant roles in several films.

In the summer of 1946, the Cooley band fragmented after the bandleader fired Williams, who had offers to record on his own. A number of key sidemen, including guitarist Johnny Weis, left with Williams, who formed the Western Caravan, which incorporated a sound similar to Cooley's. Williams had his hit recording of "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" in 1948. Cooley reconstituted his band with former Bob Wills sidemen, including steel guitarist Noel Boggs and the guitar ensemble of Jimmy Wyble and Cameron Hill. He also added full brass and reed sections to the band.

Beginning in June 1948, Cooley began hosting The Spade Cooley Show, a variety show on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, broadcast from the Santa Monica Ballroom, on the pier.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> The show won local Emmy Awards in 1952 and 1953. Guests included Frankie Laine, Frank Sinatra, and Dinah Shore.<ref>Southwest Shuffle pages 17, 21</ref><ref>Swingin' the Devil's Dream. Liner Notes. Adam Komorowski. 2003. page 9</ref> The Spade Cooley Show was viewed coast-to-coast via the Paramount Television Network.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> KTLA eventually cancelled Cooley's program by 1956, and replaced it with a competing show brought over from KCOP, Cliffie Stone's Hometown Jamboree.<ref>Swingin' the Devil's Dream. Liner Notes. Adam Komorowski. 2003. page 910</ref>

In 1960, Cooley announced his retirement from music, and moved to his ranch in Mojave, to spend more time with his family.<ref name="CocaineAndRhinestones"></ref> He was honored by the installation of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The foundation was laid on February 8, 1960.<ref name=LATWoF>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life

Murder of Ella Mae Evans

Cooley's second wife, Ella Mae Cooley (née Evans), had been a singer in his band before they married in 1945; he was 34, she was 21. During their marriage, Cooley suspected her of repeatedly being unfaithful. Conversely, Ella Mae suspected Cooley of infidelity. In 1946, Ella Mae was certain of Spade's infidelity, and began packing to leave. Cooley told his wife that if she ever did leave him, he would find her and kill her.<ref name="CocaineAndRhinestones"></ref>

After his retirement from music in 1960, Cooley's drinking became more of a problem and he was also mixing alcohol with thorazine. In February 1961, Ella Mae was hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. While there, she told nurses that the abuse from Cooley had escalated and that he had repeatedly threatened to murder her and their children.<ref name="CocaineAndRhinestones"></ref>

In March 1961, she told a friend she had had an affair with Roy Rogers in 1952 or 1953.<ref name="Crimelibrary"/><ref>Roy Rogers: a biography, radio history, television career chronicle. Robert W. Phillips. p. 47</ref> She soon asked CooleyTemplate:Nbsp– who had had many of his own affairsTemplate:Nbsp– for a divorce. On March 23, he filed for divorce, citing "incompatibility", and seeking custody of their three children, Melody, Donnell, Jr., and John.<ref>"Spade Cooley Seeks Divorce" (March 24, 1961), Los Angeles Times, p. 2</ref>

On April 3, Cooley murdered his wife at the couple's home near Willow Springs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Cooley's then-14-year-old daughter, Melody, recounted to the jury how she was forced by her father to watch in terror as he beat her mother's head against the floor, stomped on her stomach, then crushed a lit cigarette against her skin to see whether she was dead.<ref>"Spade Cooley Indicted in Murder of His Wife" (April 26, 1961), Los Angeles Times, p. 2</ref> Cooley claimed his wife had been injured by falling in the shower.<ref name="CocaineAndRhinestones"></ref>

On April 26, 1961, Cooley was indicted by a Kern County grand jury for the murder. Cooley was defended by attorney P. Basil Lambros,<ref name=LATobit>Template:Cite news</ref> in what was the longest case in county history at the time, and was convicted of first-degree murder by a Kern County jury on August 21, 1961, after unexpectedly withdrawing an insanity plea.<ref name=UPIDesertSun>Template:Cite news</ref> Facing a possible death sentence, Cooley was sentenced to life in prison, eligible for parole after serving seven years.<ref name=UPIDesertSun/>

Cooley had a parole hearing after serving eight years, in August 1969. His friends in Hollywood had been lobbying Governor Ronald Reagan, who threw his support behind Cooley being released on parole; the state review board voted to grant Cooley a release on parole, effective February 1970.<ref name=BakeCal>Template:Cite news</ref> Cooley died before his parole took effect.

Cooley had been awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, before the murder conviction, which has not been removed.<ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref>

Death

On August 5, 1968, the California State Adult Authority voted unanimously to parole Cooley on February 22, 1970.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> He had served less than nine years of a life sentence and was in poor health from heart trouble.<ref>The Bakersfield Californian (UPI), "Cooley to Get Parole next Feb. 22.", Metropolitan News Section page 11</ref>

On November 23, 1969, he received a 72-hour furlough from the prison hospital unit at Vacaville to play a benefit concert for the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Alameda County at the Oakland Auditorium (now known as the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center) in Oakland. During the intermission, after a standing ovation, Cooley suffered a fatal heart attack backstage.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> He is interred at Chapel of the Chimes cemetery in Hayward.<ref name=LATWoF/>

In popular culture

Template:More citations needed John Gilmore has written an in-depth portrait of Cooley's life and death in Shame on You, a segment of Gilmore's nonfiction work, L.A. Despair: A Landscape of Crimes and Bad Times.

Cooley is a recurring character in James Ellroy's fiction, including in the story "Dick Contino's Blues", which appeared in issue number 46 of Granta (Winter 1994), and was anthologized in Hollywood Nocturnes. Ellroy also features a fictionalized version of Cooley in his 1990 novel L.A. Confidential.

Country historian Rich Kienzle, who specializes in the history of West Coast country music and Western swing, profiled Cooley in his 2003 book Southwest Shuffle.

He is referenced in one of The Honeymooners episodes, "My Aching Back" (1956) (from Art "Ed Norton" Carney to Jackie "Ralph Kramden" Gleason): "They wouldn't-a won [the National Raccoon Mambo Championship] except some guy slipped in a Spade Cooley record".<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref>

In the 1956 episode "Rochester Falls Asleep, Misses Program" (The Jack Benny Program), Benny talks about how he is not afraid to play his violin in front of an audience, saying to Mary Livingstone, "I'm certainly no Heifetz, or Isaac Stern, or Mischa Elman." Guest-star Bob Crosby then jokes, "You can throw Spade Cooley in there too."<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref>

The Longmire novel Junkyard Dogs, by Craig Johnson, has Walt Longmire and Deputy Vic entering a truck stop that Vic refers to as "the Disneyland Redneck Ride". Music playing when they enter is "scratching the paint off the inside of the place". Vic: "What the hell is that?" Walt: "That'd be 'Three Way Boogie', Spade Cooley" He then gives the salacious bits of the above history.

Ry Cooder's 2008 album I, Flathead features a reference to Cooley on the track "Steel Guitar Heaven" ("There ain't no bosses up in heaven / I heard Spade Cooley didn't make the grade"), as well as a track named "Spayed Kooley", the name of the singer's dog.

In 2015, the Ella Mae Evans murder was profiled in the episode "Fame and Misfortune" of the Investigation Discovery series Tabloid.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref>

In 2017, Tyler Mahan Coe's podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones profiles Spade Cooley in the third episode of season one.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2018, Jake Brennan's podcast Disgraceland profiled Spade Cooley in the 12th episode of the season.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In September 2023, Winnipeg musician Boy Golden released a single titled "The King of Western Swing" covering Spade's story and crime.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Discography

• Sagebrush Swing (Columbia H-9 [four-disc 78 rpm album set], HL-9007 [10" LP], 1949)
• Square Dances (RCA Victor P-249 [three-disc 78 rpm album set], 1949)
• Roy Rogers and Spade Cooley: Skip to My Lou and Other Square Dances (RCA Victor P-259 [three-disc 78 rpm album set], 1949)
• Spade Cooley Plays Billy Hill for Dancing (RCA Victor P-275 [three-disc 78 rpm album set], 1950)
• Spade Cooley and His Square Dance Six: Square Dance Jamboree (Decca 1-245/1-246/1-247/1-248 [four-disc 78 rpm album set], 1953)
• Spade Cooley and His Buckle-Busters: Country and Western Dance-O-Rama, No. 3 (Decca DL-5563 [10" LP], 1955)
• Fidoodlin' (Ray Note RN-5007, 1959; reissue: Roulette SR-25145, 1961; CD reissue: Collectors' Choice Music CCM-431, 2004)
• The Best of The Spade Cooley Transcribed Shows (The Club of Spade 00101, 1978)
• The King of Western Swing (The Club of Spade 00102, 1978)
• The King of Western Music (The Club of Spade 00103, 1978)
• Mr. Music Himself, Volume One (The Club of Spade 00104, 1978)
• Mr. Music Himself, Volume Two (The Club of Spade 00105, 1978)
• Mr. Music Himself, Volume Three (The Club of Spade 00106, 1978)
• Spade Cooley and Tex Williams: As They Were (The Club of Spade CS-208, 1981)
• Spade Cooley and Tex Williams: Oklahoma Stomp (The Club of Spade CS-209, 1981)
• Spade Cooley: Spade Cooley (Columbia Historic Edition FC37467, Mono, 1982)
• Swinging the Devil's Dream (Charly CR-30239, 1985)
• Spadella! The Essential Spade Cooley (Columbia/Legacy CK-57392, 1994)
• King of Western Swing (Collectors' Choice Music CCM-039, 1997)
• Swingin' the Devil's Dream (Proper PVCD-127 [2CD], 2003)
• Shame On You – Singles Collection 1945–1952 (Jasmine JASMCD-3704, 2019)
• The Spade Cooley Collection 1945–1952 (Acrobat ADDCD-3308 [2CD], 2019)

Selected Singles Discography
Date	Title	Label
1942	"Tell Me Why" [Cal Shrum]	Westernair 801
05/03/46	"Oklahoma Stomp"	Columbia 37237
05/03/46	"Steel Guitar Rag"	Columbia 38054
06/06/46	"Spadella"	Columbia 37585
06/06/46	"Swingin' the Devil's Dream"	Columbia 20571
01/31/47	"Minuet in Swing"	RCA 20-2181
04/25/47	"All Aboard for Oklahoma"	RCA 20-2552
05/09/47	"You Can't Take Texas out of Me"	RCA 20-3547
11/17/47	"Spanish Fandango"	RCA 20-2668
03/30/49	"Arizona Waltz"	RCA 20-3496
04/11/50	"Hillbilly Fever"	RCA 21-0330
03/09/51	"Chew Tobacco Rag"	Decca 46310
05/29/52	"Carmen's Boogie"	Decca 28344

Top 40 Hits<ref>Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits, p. 89.</ref>
Year	Position	Title	Label
1945	1	"Shame On You"	OKeh 6731
	8	"A Pair of Broken Hearts"	"
	4	"I've Taken All I'm Gonna Take from You"	OKeh 6746
1946	2	"Detour"	Columbia 36935
	3	"You Can't Break My Heart"	"
1947	4	"Crazy 'Cause I Love You"	Columbia 37058

See also

• Aragon Ballroom (Ocean Park)
• Spade Cooley's Western Swing Song Folio

Further reading

• Logsdon, Guy. "The Cowboy's Bawdy Music." The Cowboy: Six-Shooters, Songs, and Sex (pp. 139–138) edited by Charles W. Harris and Buck Rainey. University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. Template:ISBN
• Komorowski, Adam. Spade Cooley: Swingin' The Devil's Dream. (Proper PVCD 127, 2003) booklet.
• Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits. Billboard Books, 2006. Template:ISBN

External links

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• A Swing King Reemerges, Los Angeles Times, By Shana Ting Lipton (July 9, 2005)