During the 40’s and 50’s, Spade Cooley was the King of Western Swing on the West Coast. He fronted the largest band ever assembled in Country music. His sobriquet came about because of his luck in playing poker. That luck didn’t extend to his personal life and most of the last eight years of his life were spent in prison.

When he was 4, Spade’s family relocated to Oregon. Although his family was very poor, he was classically trained, playing both violin and cello in the school orchestra. This was not unexpected, as both his father and grandfather were talented fiddle players. By the time he was 8, Spade had made his professional debut, playing fiddle with his father.

In an attempt in 1930 to get out of the poverty trap, the family moved to Modesto, California. Spade went to Los Angeles to try his luck there musically without success. He returned to Modesto, getting a gig in a club for $15 a night and sitting in with various bands.

Down on his luck again, he returned to L.A. in 1934 and got parts as an extra in several westerns for RKO, Universal, Warner, Lippert and Columbia and also acted as Roy Rogers’ stand-in at Republic. Cooley toured for a while as Roy Rogers’ fiddle player and sang with the Riders of the Purple Sage.

In 1941, he started his recording career while playing with Cal Shrum’s band. Then in 1942, he took over leadership of the band formed by Jimmy Wakely at the Venice Pier Ballroom in Santa Monica, California. Cooley featured three fiddle players and three vocalists (Tex Williams, Deuce Spriggins and Smokey Rogers), as well as steel guitarist, Joaquin Murphey.

The band moved from the Venice Pier to the Riverside Rancho in 1943 and then to the Santa Monica Ballroom. In 1945, Spade and His Orchestra signed to OKeh Records and their initial release, “Shame On You,” went to No.1 for 9 weeks and stayed on the chart for 32 weeks with the flip-side, “A Pair Of Broken Hearts,” going Top 10 in 1945. Spade and the band completed the year with “I’ve Taken All I’m Gonna Take From You,” which peaked in the Top 5. That year, Spade married his second wife, Ella Mae, who also played fiddle in the band.

In 1946, he switched to Columbia but continued his chart popularity. “Detour” and the flipside, “You Can’t Break My Heart,” both reached the Top 3 and in 1947, “Crazy ‘Cause I Love You” reached the Top 5. On all these hits, Tex Williams was the featured vocalist. However, Williams was soon to be fired because as his popularity grew, he had demanded more money. In June 1946, Cooley told him to go and Williams did, taking a lot of the band with him.

In 1947-48, Cooley signed with RCA and made the move to TV. He appeared on KTLA Hollywood, the first commercially licensed TV station in Los Angeles on a show called The Hoffman Hayride. At this point, Spade started to call himself “The King of Western Swing.”

The band appeared in several movies including, “Chatterbox,” “The Singing Bandit,” “The Singing Sheriff,” “Outlaws of the Rockies” and “Texas Panhandle.” He also appeared in musical shorts “King of Western Swing” and “Spade Cooley And His Orchestra” in 1949. All of these appearances enhanced the band’s popularity.

Spade’s life was not helped by a severe drinking problem. When he was sober, he was affability itself, but once drunk, he was a demon. He and Ella Mae also had problems with their marriage. She had now left him, but Cooley wouldn’t accept this and had to see her.

He started a business project to build a recreational park in the Mojave Desert called Water Wonderland, which was running into financial problems. On April 3, 1961, following an argument, he beat and kicked his wife to death in front of their 14-year-old daughter who was forced to witness the event.

The media had a field day and on August 22, Spade was sentenced to life imprisonment. In the middle of the trial proceedings, he suffered another heart attack and was sent to the medical detention center at Vacaville. He was a model prisoner, teaching his fellow inmates how to play musical instruments.

Without the alcohol to ruin him, he was fine. He applied for parole, and in view of his behavior the parole board met in early 1970 and granted it.

 In November 1969, he was given permission to entertain a 3,000-strong audience at a sheriff’s benefit in Oakland, California. He received a warm reception from the crowd. After the show, he went backstage and had another heart attack and died.

Courtesy of
Century of Country