Robert Kinerk
Robert Kinerk, author and playwright, won The Storyteller Award in 1999 from the Western Writers of America for his children's book, Slim and Miss Prim. The illustrator was Jim Harris. The book won in the catetory of "Best Children's Picture Book". It is a rhyming tale of a cowboy named Slim and his incessantly chatty boss, Miss Marigold Prim.
Charles King
Charles King was a cowboy movie actor. He was born Charles Lafayette King Jr. on Feb. 21, 1895 at Hillsboro, Texas.
He was one of those great character actors that you instantly recognized but never could quite call his name. And that despite the fact that during his long career he appeared in more than 300 movies. Yes, more than 300. And most of them were Westerns. His career ran from his first film in 1915 to his last in 1953.
Charles King was endowed with a physique and voice that made him a natural "heavy" or "bad guy" in the early Western movies. He probably got beat up more times and killed off more times than anyone else in the history of film.
Lash LaRue said of him, "Charley King was a wonderful person; everybody loved working with him. He usually played a heavy, but in CARAVAN TRAIL with Eddie Dean and me, he was a comic sidekick and great! I cried when I heard about his death. He died in the Actors' Home; he had a broken back. If the actors hadn't gotten together and gotten him in, he wouldn't have had any place at all" (quoted in Lash LaRue: The King of the Bullwhip, p. 45). Charles King died of cirrhosis of the liver on May 7, 1957 at Hollywood, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Charles King.
Pee Wee King
(Deceased)
Pee Wee King is a good example of how it is often beneficial for an entertainer to adopt a stage name. King was actually born as Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski. That was on Feb. 18, 1914, in Milwaukee, WI.King's father was the leader of a local band that specialized in polka music, as per their Polish background. And young Frank Kuczynski picked up the music habit at a young age, favoring the fiddle and the accordian.
By his late teens, Frank Kuczynski was the leader of his own band. And he adopted a stage name: “Frank King” that was much easier for promoters and fans to pronounce. And by 1933 he and his band, “Frankie King and the King Jesters,” were regulars on “The Badger State Barn Dance” radio show out of Milwaukee.
About that time another up-coming entertainer from Oklahoma, a fellow named Gene Autry, appeared on the radio show as a guest. He liked the music this Frank King was playing, so he hired King and his band to be his own backup band. And it was Gene Autry who nicknamed Frank “Pee Wee,” due to his diminutive 5' 7” stature. And so he became known far and wide as “Pee Wee King”.
In 1934, Gene Autry and his band became regulars on the radio scene in Louisville, Kentucky. But Hollywood soon came calling and Gene took off for sunny California.
Pee Wee King, however, chose to remain in Louisville. And in 1935 he revamped his band and called them “The Golden West Cowboys.” He married Lydia More in 1936. And in 1937 King was fortunate to hire a great fiddle player and songwriter by the name of Redd Stewart.
That was also the beginning of a ten-year run (1937-1947) as members of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. It was Pee Wee King who dragged the Grand Ole Opry, kicking and screaming, into the modern music era. King was responsible for introducing horns, drums (1947) and – heaven forbid – electronic instruments (1940) to the show. And it was King who emphasized songs with a waltz or polka beat.
Simultaneous to their work with the Opry, King also had his own radio show over in Knoxville, Tenn.
King was also a showman from the word go. He did not like the common “hillbilly” look of many people on the Grand Ole Opry. So he and his band members sported custom tailored, Western-style clothing from Nudie of Hollywood. Slowly the band became a first-class Western swing band. He was also able to attract some top vocal talent to sing lead, such as Eddy Arnold and Cowboy Copas and Becky Barfield.
Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys toured with Minnie Pearl and with Ernest Tubb. And along the way, King also became an actor . . . of sorts. His first movie role was in the 1938 movie, “Gold Mine in the Sky,” starring his old boss Gene Autry. In that movie he played himself as a bandleader, not a real big acting stretch. He also appeared in similar roles in “Flame of the West” with Johnny Mack Brown (1945), and with Charles Starrett in “Ridin’ the Outlaw Trail” (1951) and “The Rough, Tough West” (1952).
This photo is a keeper, isn't it? Shows Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys on tour with Minnie Pearl and Doug (Dudley) Autry, brother of Gene Autry, in the town of Gene Autry, Oklahoma. Les Gilliam, noted Oklahoma cowboy crooner, is the young boy at Pee Wee's right.
In 1947, King left the Grand Ole Opry and began a ten-year run of having his own TV show in Louisville, KY. That show was broadcast on a national basis in 1945-47.Then there was this little waltz tune that King and Redd Stewart had been doing as an instrumental for quite some time. They decided to put some words to it, since Bill Monroe had a big hit with “Kentucky Waltz.” They recorded the song for RCA in December of 1947. And “Tennesee Waltz” rocketed to the “#3” place on the charts.
Then, in 1950, a lovely young lady from Oklahoma named Patti Page put a pop spin on the song and it hit “# 1” and sold millions and millions of songs (with significant royalties going to the writers, King and Stewart, of course). Fifteen years later, in 1965, the song was named the official state song of Tennessee.
Pee Wee King and the Golden West Cowboys came out with a novelty song, “Slow Poke,” in 1951. It was written by King and Chilton Price. That song became “# 1” on both the country and the pop charts. And it stayed there for an astounding three months. King didn't have to work another day in his life, if he didn't want to. But he loved entertaining.
In each of the years from 1950 to 1955, Pee Wee King was voted the best country and western band leader in the land by Cashbox, Billboard, and Orchestra World. Not bad for a little guy with a big accordian from Wisconsin.
King went on to have modest hits for “Silver and God,” Bonaparte's Retreat,” “Changing Partners,” “Bimbo,” and “You Belong to Me”.
Pee Wee King's career had peaked by 1954. His TV show was cancelled in 1957. And from 1957 to 1959 he went back to being the backup band for his old friend, Minnie Pearl. He disbanded the Golden West Cowboys in 1969 when he became a full-time employee of the Country Music Foundation.
King was elected to both the Country Music Hall of Fame and to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Pee Wee King had a heart attack and died on March 7, 2000, in Louisville, Kentucky.
You may read the complete story of his career in the book, Hell-Bent for Music: The Life of Pee Wee King, by Wade H. Hall (1996, University Press of Kentucky.
W.B. King
(Deceased)
Bill King's articles had appeared extensively in True West and Western Horseman. W.B. King was the author of Rodeo Trails.W.B. King died on Aug. 4, 1985 at LaJunta, Colo.
Edward M. Kirby
A geologist and professional educational consultant, Edward M. Kirby is a former president of The National Association for Outlaw and Lawman History. He is a two-time recipient of Friend of NOLA Awards.Edward M. Kirby is the author of The Saga of Butch Cassiday and the Wild Bunch (Filter Press) and The Rise and Fall of the Sundance Kid (Western Publishers). His articles have appeared in NOLA Quarterly, Real West and True West.
Elithe Hamilton Kirkland
Elithe Hamilton Kirkland is a member of the Texas Woman's Hall of Fame. She is the author of Divine Average (Little Brown & Co., 1952), and Love is a Wild Assault (Doubleday, 1959).
William Kittredge
William Kittredge writes for American West. He is the author of We Are Not In This Together (Graywolf, 1984) and with Steven Krauser, The Great American Detectives (New American Library, 1978). Kittredge and Krauser also write westerns as "Owen Roundtree".
Jim Kjelgaard
(Deceased)
Jim Kjelgaard was already writing in 1934, although not earning a great deal and often tempted to give it up and find a "real job". He didn't though, and he said: "Pretty soon I found myself earning $100 a week. By and by I discovered that I was grossing $1,000 plus a month and could do better if I wanted to."I didn't want to. Partly because I was born lazy, partly because I can't think of a thing I'd buy if I had more than $1,000 a month, and partly because I cannot see the sense in paying Uncle more than the generous slice he's already collecting. I chose to use my spare time to schedule future publication. It is comfortable scheduled" (The article and his photo appeared in the Aug., 1959 issue of The Roundup, shortly after his death.)
Jim Kjelgaard sometimes wrote novels under the name of "Louis Hall". Kjelgaard won a Spur Award in 1958 for his book, Wolf Brother. He was also the author of at least 25 other novels, including Big Red (won the Boys' Club of America Award and sold over 400,000 hard cover copies), Kalak, The Lost Wagon (chosen for distribution by the People's Book Club), Haunt Fox, Rebel Siege and Irish Red. Three books--Buckskin Brigade, Show Dog and Outlaw Red--were selected for promotion by the Junior Literary Guild.
He was the author of more than 800 short stories and articles, for both pulp and slick magazines.
After his death in 1959, his wife wrote, "For 20 years Jim Kjelgaard suffered agonizing pain and rose above it. He was the grandest, bravest person we ever knew. The endless procession of doctors, clinics, hospitals, the eternal medicines, they took their toll, but to the world he presented an always smiling face, a delightful humor, a never-ending kindness to humanity everywhere.
"And he grew more ill. This past year Jim seldom left the house, but he wrote eight books, charming, delightful, wonderful books--in one year. Almost as though he knew it would be his last. He never once admitted defeat. He never quit. God came and took him from pain" (The Roundup, Sept., 1959).
Dorothy R. Kliewer
Dorothy R. Kliewer has written articles for Old West, Roundup and Real West. She and her husband live on a small farm, the Rolling K, in a house which dates, in part, back 125 years. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America and the Willamette Writers.
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
--- Bible: Psalm 37:4
© 2007 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
