Sold Date: March 21, 2023
Start Date: March 15, 2023
Final Price: $125.00 (USD)
Bid Count: 1
Seller Feedback: 84
Buyer Feedback: 0

Vintage “ BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS

May 11, 1941 TULSA CIVIC CENTER TULSA OKLAHOMA

9 P. M. TILL 1 A. M. , $1.25 Per Person Admission.

This RARE Poster is an original and not a copy. There are 51 Autographs. Some which have slight fading but are still legible. These would include his band members, his wife Betty Wills, Brother along with others.

The poster is in very good condition with a few marks which I have photographed for you to see. This is framed and by BEN FRANKLIN CRAFTS AT

3440 Bell Suite 202 Amarillo Texas 79109

The phone number to contact is (806)353-9893

Measures approximately 11 1/2” X 19” (just the poster)

Measures approximately 19 1/2” X 12 1/4”(with frame)

THE AUTOGRAPHS INCLUDE: Jimmie Widener ~

Bob Boatright ~ Judy Kaye ~ Billy Briggs ~ Les Anderson ~ Joe Ferguson ~ Eldon Shamblin ~ Lee Ron ~ Gruth Cunningham ~ Dasey Dickens ~ Laura Lee Mc Bride ~ Noel Boggs ~ Billy McBay ~ Betty Wills ~ Diane Wills-Malone ~Darell Jones ~ Smoky Dacus ~ Leon Rausch ~ Gene Gasaway (FIDDLE) ~ “Brother” Al Strickland(PIANO) Jimmy Belken ~ Leon Mc Auliffe.

There are signatures on here that I can’t quite make out due to their handwriting. I will update my listing as I am able to Learn who they are. This is surely a one of a kind piece of Country History!

Appraised at 1,500.00

Bob Wills was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

During the 49th Grammy Awards, Carrie Underwood performed his song "San Antonio Rose."

Before his own death, Waylon Jennings performed a song called "Bob Wills is Still the King".

Today, George Strait performs Bob Wills music live on concert tours and also records songs greatly reflecting the magic of Bob Wills and his Texas style swing.

Hollywood films

In addition to the 1940 film Take Me Back to Oklahoma, Wills appeared in The Lone Prairie (1942), Riders of the Northwest Mounted (1943), Saddles and Sagebrush (1943), The Vigilantes Ride (1943), The Last Horseman (1944), Rhythm Round-Up (1945), Blazing the Western Trail (1945), and Lawless Empire (1945). According to one source, he appeared in a total of 19 films.

MEMBERS OF THE TEXAS PLAYBOYS:

(THE CHECK MARK IS FOR THOSE WHOS SIGNATURES ARE CONFIRMED ON THIS PIECE)

Al Stricklin✔️

Cameron Hill

Curly Lewis

Danny Alguire

Eldon Shamblin✔️

Herman Arnspiger

Jesse Ashlock

Jimmy Belken

Joe Ferguson✔️

Laura Lee Mc Bride ✔️( The first female to join Bob Wills Band and also the first female to sing Country Swing) AKA THE QUEEN OF SWING)

Lee Ross✔️

Leon McAuliffe✔️

Louis Tierney

Millard Kelso

Noel Boggs

Sleepy Johnson

Smokey Dacus✔️

Tiny Moore

Tommy Duncan (1934 – 1948)

Tubby Lewis

Zeb McNally

Bob Wills (James Robert Wills, March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and big band leader. Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing, he was universally known as the King of Western Swing.

Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin, who played steel guitar and bass. The band played regularly on a Tulsa, Oklahoma radio station, and added Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section that expanded the band's sound. Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as "Steel Guitar Rag", "New San Antonio Rose", "Smoke on the Water", "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima", and "New Spanish Two Step".

Wills and the Texas Playboys recorded with several publishers and companies, including Vocalion, Okeh, Columbia, and MGM, frequently moving. In 1950, he had two top ten hits, "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love".

Wills had a heart attack in 1962 and a second one the next year, which forced him to disband the Playboys although Wills continued to perform solo.

The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Wills in 1968 and the Texas State Legislature honored him for his contribution to American music. In 1972, Wills accepted a citation from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in Nashville. He was recording an album with fan Merle Haggard in 1973 when a stroke left him comatose until his death in 1975. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Wills and the Texas Playboys in 1999.

See pictures for more detail as they are part of the description. Please ask any questions prior to bidding. No international bidders or shipping. Payment is due within 48 hours of close of auction.

Thank you for your interest!