- Smith Ballew
Infobox musical artist
Name = Smith Ballew
Img_capt =
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Sykes Ballew
Born = birth date |1902|01|21
city-state|Palestine|Texas
Died = death date and age |1984|05|02|1902|01|21|
city-state|Longview|Texas
Instrument =Vocals
Genre =Country music ,Western movies
Occupation =Vocalist ,musician ,orchestra leader,film actor
Years_active = 1930s–1950s
Associated_acts =
Label =
URL =Smith Ballew (real name Sykes Ballew) (
January 21 1902 –May 2 1984 ) was an Americanactor ,singer , andorchestra leader.He was born in
Palestine, Texas . He attended high school in Sherman and college atAustin College and theUniversity of Texas . He began his singing career on theradio , and in the 1930s became one of the earliest of thesinging cowboy s on the movie screen. He did a series of musical Westerns forParamount Pictures and one for20th Century Fox , continuing in supporting roles until the 1950s.Starting in the late 1920s he became one of the most recognizable vocalists on hundreds of dance band and jazz records (during this time, Ballew along with
Scrappy Lambert , Dick Robertson, andChick Bullock were the most prolific vocalists), and in the early 1930s had his own band. Between 1929 and 1935, he made scores of records were issued under his own name for OKeh, the dime store labels (Banner, Domino, Jewel, Regal, Perfect, Oriole as Buddy Blue & His Texans or Jack Blue's Texans), Columbia, and Crown. Few of these popular records gave any indication of his future Cowboy style.He died at the age of 82 in
Longview, Texas .External references
*imdb name|id=0050827|name=Smith Ballew
*amg name|2:3609
*findagrave|9815
* [http://www.parabrisas.com/d_ballews.php Smith Ballew bio on the "Solid!" big band music site]
* [http://www.redhotjazz.com/ballew.html Smith Ballew bio on the "Red Hot Jazz" site]Persondata
NAME = Ballew, Smith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Ballew, Sykes
SHORT DESCRIPTION = American actor, singer andorchestra leader
DATE OF BIRTH =January 21 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH = Palestine, Texas, USA
DATE OF DEATH =May 2 1984
PLACE OF DEATH = Longview, Texas, USA
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