Sons of The Pioneers
In September 1931, Bob Nolan answered a classified ad in The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner that read, "Yodeler for old-time act, to travel. Tenor preferred." The band was The Rocky Mountaineers, led by a young singer named Leonard Slye—who would later change his name to Roy Rogers. After listening to the tall, slender, tanned Nolan sing and yodel, Slye hired Nolan on the spot. Although he stayed with the group only a short time, he stayed in touch with Slye.
In 1934, Bob Nolan co-founded the Sons of the Pioneers with Roy Rogers and Tim Spencer. The singing group became very popular and produced numerous recordings for Columbia, Decca, and RCA Victor.
The Sons of the Pioneers began performing Nolan's originals songs on a nationally syndicated radio show. "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" became their signature tune and a Western standard, and was one of the first songs the group recorded when it signed with Decca in 1934. In the coming years, The Sons of the Pioneers recorded many other Nolan songs, including "Way Out There", "There's a Roundup in the Sky", "One More Ride", and "Cool Water", which became one of the group's most famous recordings.
In 1935, the Sons of the Pioneers appeared in their first full-length Western movie, The Old Homestead. In 1938, Leonard Slye starred in his own film, took the name Roy Rogers, and left the group to focus on his own career. Bob Nolan became the leader of the Sons of the Pioneers.
Read more about this topic: Bob Nolan
Famous quotes containing the words sons of, sons and/or pioneers:
“The sons of delight now shave their bodies.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Until you have a son of your own . . . you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)
“The emancipation of today displays itself mainly in cigarettes and shorts. There is even a reaction from the ideal of an intellectual and emancipated womanhood, for which the pioneers toiled and suffered, to be seen in painted lips and nails, and the return of trailing skirts and other absurdities of dress which betoken the slave-woman’s intelligent companionship.”
—Sylvia Pankhurst (1882–1960)