Town Hall Party was an American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 show broadcast over KXLA-AM

KXLA

KXLA digital channel 51 is an independent television station licensed to Rancho Palos Verdes, California and serving the Los Angeles area. It telecasts Asian programming in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese , Korean and Vietnamese as well as infomercials. Channel 44 signed on the air in December 2000 as...

, Pasadena, California

Pasadena, California

Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...

, KFI-AM

KFI

KFI is an AM radio station in Los Angeles, California. It received its license to operate on March 31, 1922 and began operating on April 16, 1922 as one of the United States' first high-powered, "clear-channel" stations...

, Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, and KTTV-TV

KTTV

KTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...

. The first radio broadcast was in the autumn of 1951.

Promoter William B. Wagnon, Jr., had been booking such acts as Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys in ballrooms between Bakersfield and Sacramento for several years when he decided to extend his operations to Los Angeles. Bert "Foreman" Phillips had been promoting country and Western barn dance programs at the old Town Hall building, situated at 400 South Long Beach Boulevard in Compton, near Long Beach. Wagnon acquired Phillips' lease and commenced promoting a combined dance-and-show, featuring any and all country & western recording artists working in the area and available on Saturday nights. An estimated 3,000 patrons could be accommodated in the Town Hall Ballroom.
Wagnon instructed the performers to play only music which could be danced to, and to keep individual songs short and plentiful, in order to satisfy everyone's tastes.

NBC radio broadcasts

A Friday night radio version of Town Hall Party was heard on KXLA, and Wagnon approached KFI with a proposal for a Saturday night broadcast. The latter was carried by portions of the NBC Radio network. Country singer Wesley Tuttle was hired as director/musical director of the series, and Johnny Bond

Johnny Bond

Cyrus Whitfield Bond , known professionally as Johnny Bond, was a popular American country music entertainer of the 1940s through the 1960s.-Biography:...

 was contracted to write the scripts for the KFI/NBC series. The cast featured Tex Ritter

Tex Ritter

Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...

, Johnny Bond

Johnny Bond

Cyrus Whitfield Bond , known professionally as Johnny Bond, was a popular American country music entertainer of the 1940s through the 1960s.-Biography:...

, Wesley and Marilyn Tuttle, Tex Williams

Tex Williams

Sollie Paul Williams , known professionally as Tex Williams, was an American Western swing musician from Ramsey, Illinois....

, Joe Maphis & Rose Lee, Jenks "Tex" Carman, Eddie Kirk, Merle Travis

Merle Travis

Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon"...

, Fiddlin' Kate (aka Margie Warren), Freddie Hart

Freddie Hart (musician)

Frederick Segrest , known professionally as Freddie Hart, is an American country musician and songwriter best-known for his No. 1 hit "Easy Loving," which won the Country Music Association Song of the Year award in 1971 and 1972....

, Mary Jane Johnson, Les "Carrot-Top" Anderson, comedian Texas Tiny and other prominent country entertainers. Radio announcer Jay Stewart

Jay Stewart

Jay Fix , known professionally as Jay Stewart, was an American television and radio announcer known primarily for his work on game shows. One of his longest-lasting roles was as the announcer on the game show Let's Make a Deal, which he announced throughout the 1960s and 1970s...

, who had worked with Bond on an earlier West Coast country & western show, Hollywood Barn Dance, was hired as master of ceremonies.

KTTV telecasts

From 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. PT on Saturday nights, Los Angeles television station KTTV carried the live Town Hall Party series. The Armed Forces Television Service made 16mm kinescopes of the shows and broadcast them on stations throughout the world, from Greenland to Saudi Arabia to the Canal Zone. As the show expanded, new talent joined the cast - with Lefty Frizzell

Lefty Frizzell

Lefty Frizzell , born William Orville Frizzell, was an American country music singer and songwriter of the 1950s, and a proponent of honky tonk music. His relaxed style of singing was an influence on later stars Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, George Jones and John Fogerty...

, Skeets McDonald

Skeets McDonald

Enos William McDonald , better known as Skeets McDonald, was an American country and rockabilly musician popular during the 1950s and 60s...

, Dortha Wright, and The Collins Kids

The Collins Kids

The Collins Kids are an American rockabilly duo featuring siblings Lawrencine "Lorrie" Collins and her younger brother Lawrence "Larry" Collins . Their hits in the 1950s as youngsters, such as "Hop, Skip and Jump", "Beetle Bug Bop" and "Hoy Hoy", were geared towards children, but their infectious...

 being among the most popular. Guest stars were plentiful. Eddie Dean

Eddie Dean (singer)

Eddie Dean was an American western singer and actor whom Roy Rogers and Gene Autry termed the best cowboy singer of all time. Dean was best known for "I Dreamed Of A Hill-Billy Heaven" , which became an even greater hit in 1961 for Tex Ritter....

, Smiley Burnette

Smiley Burnette

Lester Alvin Burnett , better known as Smiley Burnette, was a popular American country music performer and a comedic actor in Western films and on radio and TV, playing sidekick to Gene Autry and other B-movie cowboys. He was also a prolific singer-songwriter who could play as many as 100 musical...

, Jimmy Wakely

Jimmy Wakely

James Clarence Wakeley , better known as Jimmy Wakely, was an American country-Western singer and actor, one of the last crooning cowpokes following World War II...

, Sons of the Pioneers

Sons of the Pioneers

The Sons of the Pioneers are one of America's earliest Western singing groups whose classic recordings set a new standard for performers of Western music. Known for the high quality of their vocal performances, musicianship, and songwriting, they produced finely-crafted and innovative recordings...

, Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

, Jim Reeves

Jim Reeves

James Travis Reeves , better known as Jim Reeves, was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well-known for being a practitioner of the Nashville sound...

 and many other big names made guest appearances on the program, with Gene Autry

Gene Autry

Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...

 breaking all attendance records during a 1954 performance. The 10-piece Town Hall Party band featured Joe Maphis

Joe Maphis

Joe Maphis, born Otis W. Maphis , was an American country music guitarist. He married singer Rose Lee Maphis in 1948....

, Merle Travis, superb steel guitarist Marian Hall, Billy Hill and Fiddlin' Kate on violins, PeeWee Adams on drums, Jimmy Pruitt on piano, and other excellent musicians who created a Town Hall Party sound also heard on many country sessions produced by Columbia Records in Hollywood in the 1950s.

Ranch Party

Wagnon's series continued to expand in the 1950s. Billed as "Town Hall Ranch Party", Sunday afternoon and holiday performances were held outdoors at Sierra Creek Park in the Santa Monica Mountains beginning in the summer of 1955.
A daily version began airing on another Los Angeles television station. Then, in 1957, Wagnon arranged with Screen Gems to film a series of 39 half-hour television shows featuring the Town Hall Party cast. A close friend of Art Linkletter

Art Linkletter

Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years...

, Wagnon had named his series after Linkletter's popular radio/television program, House Party. He opted to capitalize on the TV Westerns craze of 1957 by calling the syndicated series, Ranch Party. While many traditional country and Western musicians had been mainstays of the radio and television cast for years, the series readily embraced rock ´n roll and enthusiastically presented singers from the new genre. Carl Perkins

Carl Perkins

Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...

 and his combo were brought in to film guest spots on the Screen Gems series, and The Collins Kids

The Collins Kids

The Collins Kids are an American rockabilly duo featuring siblings Lawrencine "Lorrie" Collins and her younger brother Lawrence "Larry" Collins . Their hits in the 1950s as youngsters, such as "Hop, Skip and Jump", "Beetle Bug Bop" and "Hoy Hoy", were geared towards children, but their infectious...

 were given co-star billing with host Tex Ritter

Tex Ritter

Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting...

. Traditional country entertainers, singing cowboys, and rock singers never shared the spotlight in a more harmonious manner than on the Town Hall Party and syndicated Ranch Party shows.

1958 to 1961

Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

 released a Town Hall Party LP album in 1958, featuring many of the regular cast members of the series. That same year, however, brought changes to the program. NBC radio had discontinued carrying the Saturday night shows, and rising union scale rates made it impossible for Wagnon to keep the huge cast of recording artists on the Compton stage week after week. The band was made smaller and many regular cast members departed in 1958. Billy Mize

Billy Mize

Billy Mize is a steel guitarist, band leader, vocalist, songwriter, and TV show host.-Biography:...

 and Cliff Crofford, talented vocalists/instrumentalists/composers, joined the much smaller cast as band members and soloists.

The Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team began playing in Los Angeles in April 1958, drawing many Town Hall patrons to the nearby Coliseum. In 1959 the new Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series.

In late December 1958 the newly opened Showboat Hotel in Las Vegas began to put on Town Hall Party shows featuring Tex Ritter, The Collins Kids, and Town Hall regulars, thus drawing them away from the KTTV Saturday night telecasts.

Competition for television viewers was more intense as the new decade began, and KTTV gave notice that Town Hall Party was to be dropped in December, 1960. The final performance at the Compton Town Hall was given on January 14, 1961. Other live country and Western music shows were seen on California television at various points in the 1960s, but none featured the large cast of recording artists which Wagnon assembled in the 1950s, glimpses of which may be seen today on films of the syndicated Ranch Party series and on DVD releases of the surviving kinescopes of Town Hall Party.

Performers

Marty Robbins Marty Robbins Martin David Robinson , known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist... PeeWee Adams Dick D'Agostin Dick D'Agostin Dick D'Agostin, born Richard Earl D'Agostin, was an American rock and roll musician best known for touring with Eddie Cochran. Dick sang and played piano and guitar as the front man for The Swingers, composed of drummer Gene Riggio, saxophonist Paul Kaufman, and Dick's brother Larry D'Agostin on... Les "Carrot-Top" Anderson Johnny Bond Johnny Bond Cyrus Whitfield Bond , known professionally as Johnny Bond, was a popular American country music entertainer of the 1940s through the 1960s.-Biography:... Martha Carson Martha Carson Martha Carson , born Irene Amburgey, was an American gospel-country music singer most popular during the 1950s.-Early life and rise to fame:Ambergay was born in Neon, Kentucky... Tex Jenks Carman Johnny Cash Johnny Cash John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century... Jim Reeves Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves , better known as Jim Reeves, was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well-known for being a practitioner of the Nashville sound... Bobby Charles Bobby Charles Bobby Charles was an American singer-songwriter.An ethnic Cajun, Charles was born as Robert Charles Guidry in Abbeville, Louisiana and grew up listening to Cajun music and the country and western music of Hank Williams... Patsy Cline Patsy Cline Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s... Eddie Cochran Eddie Cochran Eddie Cochran , was an American rock and roll pioneer who in his brief career had a small but lasting influence on rock music through his guitar playing. Cochran's rockabilly songs, such as "C'mon Everybody", "Somethin' Else", and "Summertime Blues", captured teenage frustration and desire in the... Alvis Coker Shirley Collie The Collins Kids The Collins Kids The Collins Kids are an American rockabilly duo featuring siblings Lawrencine "Lorrie" Collins and her younger brother Lawrence "Larry" Collins . Their hits in the 1950s as youngsters, such as "Hop, Skip and Jump", "Beetle Bug Bop" and "Hoy Hoy", were geared towards children, but their infectious... Cliff Crofford Ted Daffan Ted Daffan Theron Eugene "Ted" Daffan was an American country musician noted for composing the seminal Truck Driver's Blues and the much covered Country anthem Born to Lose.-Early years:... Eddie Dean Eddie Dean (singer) Eddie Dean was an American western singer and actor whom Roy Rogers and Gene Autry termed the best cowboy singer of all time. Dean was best known for "I Dreamed Of A Hill-Billy Heaven" , which became an even greater hit in 1961 for Tex Ritter.... Tommy Duncan Tommy Duncan Thomas Elmer Duncan , better known as Tommy Duncan, was a pioneering American Western swing vocalist and songwriter who gained fame in the 1930s as a founding member of The Texas Playboys... Fiddlin' Kate Lefty Frizzell Lefty Frizzell Lefty Frizzell , born William Orville Frizzell, was an American country music singer and songwriter of the 1950s, and a proponent of honky tonk music. His relaxed style of singing was an influence on later stars Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, George Jones and John Fogerty... Marian Hall Freddie Hart Freddie Hart (musician) Frederick Segrest , known professionally as Freddie Hart, is an American country musician and songwriter best-known for his No. 1 hit "Easy Loving," which won the Country Music Association Song of the Year award in 1971 and 1972.... Bobby Helms Bobby Helms Robert Lee Helms , better known as Bobby Helms, was an American country music singer who enjoyed his peak success in 1957 with his hit, "Jingle Bell Rock". He was mostly known for the Christmas song... Cousin Herb Henson

Billy Hill Wanda Jackson Wanda Jackson Wanda Lavonne Jackson is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist who had success in the mid-1950s and 60s as one of the first popular female rockabilly singers and a pioneering rock and roll artist... Myrna Jay Mary Jane Johnson Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The... Skeets McDonald Skeets McDonald Enos William McDonald , better known as Skeets McDonald, was an American country and rockabilly musician popular during the 1950s and 60s... Joe Maphis Joe Maphis Joe Maphis, born Otis W. Maphis , was an American country music guitarist. He married singer Rose Lee Maphis in 1948.... Billy Mize Billy Mize Billy Mize is a steel guitarist, band leader, vocalist, songwriter, and TV show host.-Biography:... Mary Lou Nell Wayne Raney Wayne Raney Wayne Raney was an American country singer and harmonica player.-Biography:Raney was born on a farm with a foot deformity and could not do heavy labor. After learning to play harmonica at an early age, he moved to Piedras Negras, Mexico at age 13, where he played on radio station XEPN... Tex Ritter Tex Ritter Woodward Maurice Ritter , better known as Tex Ritter, was an American country music singer and movie actor popular from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter family in acting... Rose Lee Maphis Tommy Sands Tommy Sands Tommy Adrian Sands is an American pop music singer and actor.-Early life:Born into a musical family in Chicago, Illinois, Sands' father was a pianist and his mother a big-band singer. While still young, he moved with his family to Shreveport, Louisiana... Bonnie Sloan Tom Tall Tom Tall Tommie Lee Guthrie , known professionally as Tom Tall, is a rockabilly singer popular in the 1950s.He was born in Amarillo, Texas and discovered at a talent show by record label owner Fabor Robison... Gordon Terry Gordon Terry Gordon Terry was an adept American bluegrass and country music fiddler and guitarist. He was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and the Fiddlers Hall of Fame.-Biography:... Merle Travis Merle Travis Merle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon"... Marilyn Tuttle Wesley Tuttle Wesley Tuttle Wesley Tuttle was an American country music singer. He was raised in California and took up music at age four, relearning to play the guitar and ukulele after losing all but the thumb and one finger on his left hand... Slim Willet Slim Willet Slim Willet was an American disc jockey, musician, and songwriter.... Mac Wiseman Mac Wiseman Malcolm B. Wiseman , better known as Mac Wiseman, is an American bluegrass singer, nicknamed The Voice with a Heart. The bearded singer is one of the cult figures of bluegrass.... Dortha Wright Rangers Quartet Gene Vincent Gene Vincent Vincent Eugene Craddock , known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rock and roll and rockabilly. His 1956 top ten hit with his Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-A-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly... (Oct. 58, July 59, Nov. 59)