Since we’ve been featuring barns and haylofts recently, in today’s podcast, we tune into North Carolina High Country natives who were radio superstars in the 1930s and 40s, popularly known as the Hayloft Sweethearts!
Born in Boone, North Carolina, young Myrtle…was a prodigy of sorts, at least her father thought so. He barged into the nationally-known WLS radio studio in Chicago demanding an audition for his teenage daughter because she, in his words, “had…IT.”
After belting out an old tune on a 3-dollar guitar, the staff said, “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Undeterred by not receiving that call, her father brought her back two weeks later, and remarkably…they let her play a new song.
The result? She was hired on the spot. Moral of the story: determination pays. This would be a constant theme in the life of Myrtle, “Lulu Belle” Cooper.
In a sink or swim move, WLS put her on the most popular radio show in the country: The National Barn Dance.
How’s THIS for a unique description of the new radio performer: she had an elegant amateur voice, vivaciousness, and natural charm; she was a cut-up girl in a calico dress and high-topped shoes.
Lulu Belle parlayed those attributes and that image into becoming the most popular radio entertainer in the United States…the Radio Queen!
A short year later, she was teamed with a quiet young folksinger from Avery County, North Carolina named Scotty Wiseman. This pairing set the stage for the most successful, longest-lasting and best loved husband-wife duet in the history of country radio (apologies to Tim and Faith, Garth and Trisha, Johnny and June Carter, etc.).
Their show was co-sponsored by national retailers Sears and Roebuck and Prairie Farmer Magazine and soon they were selling everything from mail order house supplies to Alka Seltzer.
As the Hayloft Sweethearts, they were champions of the rural life in America and helped cushion the transition in the 1930s and 40s of many tens of thousands from Appalachia who had to migrate north for jobs but who wanted to stay in touch with Appalachia!
Lulu Belle and Scotty always spoke lovingly on the air of their little pine log cabin in the mountains… to which they returned to every summer.
While Lulu Belle was the star of the show, Scotty proved to be a talented songwriter and musician. His song, “Have I told you lately that I love you,” was later recorded by Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ringo Starr and Willie Nelson, among others.
The couple retired from show business in 1958…and where did they go? They wandered back to that cabin in Avery County.
Lulu Belle got involved in politics and served two terms in the North Carolina State House and Scotty finished a master’s degree in Education and began teaching and farming.
Tracking down the rights to their music today is difficult to impossible, so it’s rare to find a rerelease of their songs, so we’ll close with some lyrics from Scotty’s popular song “Remember Me”:
Remember me when the candle lights are gleaming,
Remember me at the close of a long, long day.
It would be so sweet when all alone I’m dreaming
Just to know you still remember me.
Well Scotty, we remember you and Lulu Belle at Appalachian Memory Keepers! It’s what we do! Thanks for liking, commenting and sharing this post!