For those of you who purchased my Soundies book, you will find an extraordinary amount of detail in terms of the personnels for country/hillbilly music and western swing bands. This was largely due to the contributions of musicologist Kevin Coffey, so when Kevin recently had a request, I was thrilled to be able to follow through.
One of the most prolific Soundies performers was Dave McEnery, who was known professionally as Red River Dave. He appeared in three series of Soundies, and we featured one a while ago where he was backed by Jack Shaindlin’s studio orchestra. This time he appears with his regular working band, performing a number called Loads of Pretty Women. The entire recording band is not seen on screen in this Soundie, but we probably see Jake Watts on guitar to the far left, largely off-screen. Bill Benner is on fiddle, and that is probably Nick Horan on trumpet. Accordion soloist Bobby Gregory is heard from, although he is nowhere to be seen. Someone to look for, however, is future film noir femme fatale Gloria Grahame, who stands to the right of Dave.
This particular print is not the original release, although I have one such print in the collection. At the time of production, William Forest Crouch was thinking ahead to further exploitation of his Soundies. This time he filmed a wraparound that allowed him to share two of the Red River Dave Soundies, along with one featuring vocalist Ann Parker, in a one-reel short titled Pretty Women. While his short was probably released in the mid-1940s, it was also picked up by Sack Amusement and distributed as a theatrical short in 1948. After that, 16mm prints were sold to home movie collectors.
While William Forest Crouch was, as always, on a budget, he made the most of it. There are certainly “loads of pretty women” on screen in a stage setting that is also filled with knick-knack and Esquire-ish drawings on the wall. I am not sure whether Dave’s recording or Soundie came first, but here is an image of the commercial recording of this tune:
For those of you who purchased my Soundies book, you will find an extraordinary amount of detail in terms of the personnels for country/hillbilly music and western swing bands. This was largely due to the contributions of musicologist Kevin Coffey, so when Kevin recently had a request, I was thrilled to be able to follow through.
One of the most prolific Soundies performers was Dave McEnery, who was known professionally as Red River Dave. He appeared in three series of Soundies, and we featured one a while ago where he was backed by Jack Shaindlin’s studio orchestra. This time he appears with his regular working band, performing a number called Loads of Pretty Women. The entire recording band is not seen on screen in this Soundie, but we probably see Jake Watts on guitar to the far left, largely off-screen. Bill Benner is on fiddle, and that is probably Nick Horan on trumpet. Accordion soloist Bobby Gregory is heard from, although he is nowhere to be seen. Someone to look for, however, is future film noir femme fatale Gloria Grahame, who stands to the right of Dave.
This particular print is not the original release, although I have one such print in the collection. At the time of production, William Forest Crouch was thinking ahead to further exploitation of his Soundies. This time he filmed a wraparound that allowed him to share two of the Red River Dave Soundies, along with one featuring vocalist Ann Parker, in a one-reel short titled Pretty Women. While his short was probably released in the mid-1940s, it was also picked up by Sack Amusement and distributed as a theatrical short in 1948. After that, 16mm prints were sold to home movie collectors.
While William Forest Crouch was, as always, on a budget, he made the most of it. There are certainly “loads of pretty women” on screen in a stage setting that is also filled with knick-knack and Esquire-ish drawings on the wall. I am not sure whether Dave’s recording or Soundie came first, but here is an image of the commercial recording of this tune:
