ROOTS of Country Music

Hollywood Barn Dance (KNX, 1943 – 1948)

Radio programs with a barn dance format offered patrons some comedy and square dance music. They also helped to prepare the nation for country music’s coming of age during the 1940s. During the popularity of early hillbilly stars and Hollywood’s production of singing cowboy movies, radio station KNX in Los Angeles premiered its own kind of weekly barn dance music show, the Hollywood Barn Dance.

What eventually became KNX started as a 5-watt amateur radio station, with the call sign of 6ADZ. The station was built and operated in a back bedroom of his Hollywood home by Fred Christian. On Sep. 20, 1920 Christian began broadcasting records he had borrowed from music stores, in return for plugs on the air.

Pictured left Foy Willing

It is not known how often Christian provided such broadcasts at 200 meters/1500 kilohertz and he had to leave the air quite often so other amateur radio operators could take their turns at their common hobby.

Christian soon grew tired of broadcasting only recorded music. He moved KGC to the top of the California Theatre Building in downtown Los Angeles. His plans were to broadcast live music from the theater. KGC took up the new call sign of KNX when it moved on 1 May 1922. Christian built a new 50-watt transmitter to send its signal to more listeners. The station was briefly off the air a year later while a new 100 watt transmitter was installed. The station was also known as the California Theatre Radiophone between 1922 and 1924.

KNX was sold to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) for $1.25 million in 1936. New KNX/CBS studios were constructed and opened on Apr. 30, 1938 at 6121 Sunset Boulevard. The Hollywood landmark station remains there today.

Pictured right Jimmy Wakely 

Known as Columbia Square, the studios were home to several top-rated radio shows through the 1940s, including Silver Theater, Melody Ranch with Gene Autry, Lucky Strike Hit Parade, Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Red Skelton.

The long-running Lux Radio Theatre originated from the Vine Street Playhouse nearby. During World War II, GE Radio News with Frazier Hunt was heard. Local shows such as The Housewives Protective League, Hollywood Melody Shop, and Hollywood Barn Dance were favorites with southern California listeners.

An early success, premiering in 1943, was The Hollywood Barn Dance, hosted by Cottonseed Clark. Clark was born in Paris, Texas and began his announcing career at local radio stations. In the early 1940s, he relocated to Los Angeles and spent time writing for and occasionally appearing on Autry's radio show. When Autry left Melody Ranch in 1942 to join the armed forces, CBS was left with a hole in their broadcast schedule, a hole that Clark was more than happy to fill.

Written and hosted by Clark, The Hollywood Barn Dance introduced listeners to a wide range of western-based musical entertainment. Much of it was performed by the same singers and musicians whose talents were featured in the B-westerns of the time. Blessed with the same likability as Autry, Clark's comfortable "welcome, friends and neighbors" greetings to the listening audience made him a popular personality; but even more popular were the musical groups that appeared on his show.

Pictured left Maureen O'Connor

Thanks to the influence of such nationally known groups as Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, audiences had recently been introduced to something new in hillbilly music: country swing or honky-tonk. A highly danceable mix of traditional fiddle music combined with the infectious rhythms of the big bands, this new type of country music quickly swept the nation and even influenced such mainstream performers as Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. Country swing came to both radio and the movies in hit recordings by Wills and Al Dexter and his Troopers, whose Pistol Packin' Mama was smash hit in 1943; but also through smaller musical groups like Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage.

Clark realized that, like Melody Ranch, his Hollywood Barn Dance show would need to feature a top musical group as regulars and accompanists and that the Riders would fit the bill very nicely. Note: It has been written that Peter Potter was announcer for Hollywood Barn Dance in 1936, but that has not been confirmed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hollywood Barn Dance, Artist Roster, Partial Listing: 

• Andy Parker and the Plainsmen
• Art Wenzel & His Ragtime Cowboys
• Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
• Chet Lauck
• Cliffie Stone
• Colleen Summers
• Cottonseed Clark
• Dale Evans
• Dusty King
• Foy Willing &his Riders of the Purple Sage
• Gabby Hayes
• Hoosier Hot Shots
• Joaquin Murphey
• Joe Maphis
• Jimmy Wakely
• Jimmy Walker
• Johnny Bond
• Ken Card
• Maureen O’Connor
• Merle Travis
• Ozie Waters
• Peter Potter
• Roy Rogers
• Sally Foster
• Smiley Burnette
• Sons of the Pioneers