Smith Ballew, largely forgotten today, was one of the earliest “singing cowboys.” He was a versatile artist who recorded hundreds of dance and jazz vocals, led his own jazz band and hosted the Shell Chateau radio program from 1935 to 1937. Ballew starred in such features as Western Gold, Hawaiian Buckaroo, Gaucho Serenade, and Roll Along Cowboy. But by the mid-1940s he was relegated to supporting roles, and then bit parts. Ballew retired from films, moved to Fort Worth, and worked the rest of his life in the defense industry.
While Ballew did not appear in any Soundies, he can be seen in a Featurettes short, one of forty-one jukebox films produced by Featurettes, a Soundies competitor, in 1940 and 1941. Unlike Soundies, Featurettes had no projection system on the market. They planned to distribute films through Associated Producers Distributing Corporation, to be used by anyone who had a Panoram (or another device) in place and wanted to save a bit on the film rental fee.
It is surprising to see that there is not one familiar tune in the entire Featurettes output. As a cost-cutting measure, all songs were “originals,” usually written by tunesmiths Harold Raymond (as Roy Newell), Nat Simon and Louis Herscher. Until recently Home on the Kitchen Range was one of two Featurettes shorts that I was missing in the collection, and I relied upon an eBay description from many years ago when I developed the entry for the Soundies book. The eBay advert claimed that the featured artist was Chick Bullock, and it was only when a copy of the short arrived two days ago that I discovered I was in error. A correction needs to be made in the Soundies book, so let’s substitute Smith Ballew for Chick Bullock.
The filming of Home on the Kitchen Range was helmed by former Warner Bros. staff director Roy Mack, with the soundtrack recorded by an unidentified studio orchestra. The personnel is unknown, although the hot trumpet solo is quite serviceable. It might well be Mannie Klein. Director Roy Mack makes good use of his two cameras and tells a lively story, complete with a surprise ending, in two and a half minutes. Ballew’s “little gal Sue” is played by Terry Shane. The faux square dance was likely developed just before the cameras rolled and, while the short is entertaining enough, I can see why it has been relatively unknown for years … until revived here in the World of Soundies.