Smoky Dawson - Music Career

Music Career

In 1932 Smoky Dawson worked at a tannery and on weekends he played a lap steel guitar in a duo, The Coral Island Boys, with his younger brother, Ted, on Spanish guitar. Both sang lead vocals, with Ted's singing described by Dawson as "a much richer voice than mine. He had more depth in his voice". They performed then-popular songs, such as "Gee But I'm Lonesome for You Caroline" and "Southern Moon Keep on Shining". In 1934 Dawson formed a Western group with an accordionist, a bass guitarist, and Malcolm on violin; which cut a test acetate at Fidelity Records with Jack Murray recording. It was the first professional use of Dawson's nickname, "Smoky" – he had tried pipe smoking when living at Stewarton but it had sickened him. The recording led to sponsorship by Pepsodent – a toothpaste company – and so the group were named, Smoky and the Pepsodent Rangers. In 1935 they were the first Western group to be broadcast live on an Australian radio station, 3KZ, and by 1937 Dawson had his own radio show. His show was re-broadcast into New South Wales on 2CH as "Hill-billy Artists" by "Smoky" Dawson and His Boys. In 1941 he signed with Columbia Records, where he recorded his first commercial releases, including "I'm a Happy Go Lucky Cowhand" and "The Range in the Western Sky". He also toured around Australia.

Dawson had used music as a way of comforting himself and during World War II he took this talent to boost the morale of others. In 1939 upon the outbreak of the war he had attempted to enlist, but was rejected on medical grounds for a "bumpy heart". In 1940, with Smoky Dawson's Five-Star Rangers, he would perform at soldier's socials. In 1941 when the Japanese forces approached Australia, he enlisted as a non-combatant nursing orderly and was commandeered by the First Australian Army Entertainment Unit. On 13 March 1944, while still in the army, he married Florence "Dot" Cheers (12 October 1906 – 27 October 2010), an elocution teacher – they had met nine years earlier when both worked in radio. Western Mail's Louis Clark, described Dawson as an "Australian outback songster" and the unit as "an array of genius". Aside from music, Dawson would also perform at rodeos, circuses and country shows demonstrating his skill at knife-throwing using machetes, commando knives, tomahawks, or two-edged axes. By October 1949, Dawson had recorded about 60 tracks from his songbook of 280 tunes – all of them "have a cowboy setting—with a dash of romance". Dawson travelled around Australia for eight months a year while Dot remained behind as Auntie June on her own radio show for 3KZ.

In March 1951 Dawson, as a cowboy entertainer, narrated a documentary film, directed by Rudall Hayward, on Australian rough riders at a Kyabram rodeo, which was to be broadcast on United States TV. Dawson sang a self-written song praising their skills and noted "there's nothing half-baked about Australian rodeos or the boys who ride in them. They're entitled to all the credit we can give them ... Rodeos and rough riders are just as much a part of our national heritage as symphonies and seascapes". In June that year Dawson and Dot travelled to the US where he recorded and played at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. While in New Jersey, he took the role of Petruchio in a stage version of the musical, Kiss Me, Kate. When Dawson returned to Australia in September 1952 he was hailed as an "Australian singing 'cowboy' who has made good in the US at the expense of the world's best". For trick riding his palomino horse, Flash (1951–1982), was bedecked in American-style tack rather than Australian. Flash lived to be 31 years old and Dawson supplemented his feed by giving him porridge with a spoon. Echoing US singing cowboy, Roy Rogers, on 8 December 1952 Dawson starred in his own radio show, The Adventures of Smoky Dawson, which stayed on the air for ten years until 1962.

At its peak, Dawson's show was broadcast on 69 stations across the country. Dot also had her own radio shows for children. A related comic book of the same name was published from 1953 to 1962 and both featured "Dawson's persona became 'Australia's favourite cowboy', with his faithful sidekick Jingles, his horse Flash and their young friend Billy fighting the evil outlaw Grogan, adhering to Smoky's 'code of the west', pausing for a song, a moral and sometimes a bowl of cornflakes, courtesy of the program's sponsor". For the radio show Dawson provided "rendition of a magpie, kookaburra, rooster, turkey, pig, cow, an impatient horse, a posse with bloodhounds (with the bandit being shot), a pack of dogs fighting and next door's dog howling in the middle of the night". In 1957 he founded the Smoky Dawson Ranch on 26 acres (11 ha) farm at Ingleside as a venue to host country music shows, a horse riding school and a holiday camp for children.

In 1974 a TV series, Luke's Kingdom, was shot at Dawson's ranch. The following year he featured on This Is Your Life hosted by Mike Willesee. In 1988 he appeared in two episodes of TV soap opera, A Country Practice, as a drifter, "Charlie McKeahnie", who passes through the fictional location of Wandin Valley and proposes to town gossip, "Esme Watson" (portrayed by Joyce Jacobs). His performance was so popular with viewers that he made another appearance the following year. Dawson was a Freemason.