Log Cabin Stories: Slim Willet - The Fat Cat of Abilene

The Fat Cat of Abilene

Slim Willet's Ranchero Sounds from Abilene

Among the many small labels that emerged during the 1950s out of West Texas, Slim Willet's Winston label was one of the more prolific ones. In contrast to such label owners as Hank Harral or Jesse Smith, Slim Willet knew how it felt to have a hit. His "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" became a #1 C&W hit for him and was covered by various artists of different genres.

Willet was based in West Texas - Abilene to be exact - and was a recording artist but first and foremost a radio disc jockey and later turned his attention to record production and other businesses. His Winston label produced more than 50 releases (of which more than 10 discs were by Willet himself), a cross section of Texan rural music, including rockabilly and rock'n'roll, oilfield folklore country, western swing, and gospel.

Willet's recording career spanned about 16 years, at first for Star Talent Records, then for 4 Star and affiliated labels, and last but not least for his own Edmoral and Winston imprints. His career in radio lasted about the same time and he exclusively could be heard on Abilene based stations, disc jockeying full-time during the week and emceeing big stage shows on weekends.

Early years
Slim Willet was born Winston Lee Moore on December 1, 1919, in Erath County, Texas, to Luther Orem and Frances Valentine Moore. Erath County, located southwest of Fort Worth, was an agricultural embossed area that had experienced some growth prior to 1910 due to the crop growing of cotton and an industrial boost due to connecting the city of Dublin with the Texas Central Railroad. Young Winston Lee Moore and his siblings were raised in this rural environment.

At some point, the family moved to Clyde, Texas, near Abilene, where Moore attended Clyde High School. At the age of 16, he attended a CCC Camp in Arizona for some time, where he met a group of Mexican boys that used to sit together in the evening to sing and play music. Their up-tempo Mexican style of music influenced Moore a lot, which is audible in many of songs. After leaving high school, he worked in different low paid jobs. His occupations included being a cotton picker, truck driver, carpenter, among other jobs. He married Jimmie Crenshaw in 1938, a girl in his neighborhood whom he had met just two months prior to their marriage while hiding from a tornado in the cellar. The couple had two sons.

But in the early 1940s, Uncle Sam called and Moore served his country during World War II. After his dischargement in 1946, he moved to Abilene, where he enrolled at Hardin-Simmons University to study journalism. During his last year at the university, he took a job as the campus radio station's manager, which impressed him enough to pursue a career in radio later on. It was here that he adopted the stage name of "Slim Willet" - "Willet" taken from the comic strip "Ouf of This Way" and "Slim" as an ironic reference to his appearance.

First steps in radio
In 1949, after graduating, Moore began working at KRBC in Abilene. Around the same time, he started writing songs and soon, one of his compositions appeared on record (although his involvement is disputed). Willet claimed to have written the song "Pinball Millionaire" and it was recorded in 1950 by Hank Locklin for 4 Star. However, the record label credited Willet, Locklin, and a guy named Leisy as the writers. Gene O'Quinn's release on Capitol solely credited Locklin.

First recordings: Tool Pusher from Snyder
Nevertheless, Willet soon proved he was a talented writer. That same year, he signed a contract with Dallas based Star Talent Records, back then the city's uprising label that recorded also such artists as Hoyle Nix, Riley Crabtree, Hank Harral, and a plethora of other Texas country singers. Willet held his first session for the label in the spring of 1950 at KRBC, using Shorty Underwood's Brush Cutters as his backing band. The line-up included Willet on vocals and guitar, Shorty Underwood on fiddle, Earl Montgomery on rhythm guitar, and Underwood's wife Georgia on bass. The session produced "I'm Going Strong" and "Tool Pusher from Snyder", released on Star Talent #770 that same year. The latter became a moderate hit for Willet in Texas. This was not only due to the musical performance but also because the lyrics of the song did strike the right note with the listeners. The song was released while the oil boom was still in full bloom in Snyder, Texas, as well as other areas of the state and fitted perfectly to the everyday life of many people. The song was later renamed "Tool Pusher on a Rotary Rig" on re-pressings of the release.

Billboard December 8, 1951, C&W review

Three more singles appeared on Star Talent until late 1951, all of them recorded with the Brush Cutters in Abilene. In the meantime, Willet had set up a live stage show called the "Big State Jamboree" that originated every Saturday night from the Fair Park Auditorium in Abilene. The show, which featured Willet as emcee, included local talent and country music stars as well that passed through or were booked by Willet. The show drew large crowds in the early and mid-1950s and was sold-out almost every Saturday night. By 1955, rockabilly artists like Elvis Presley made appearances on the show, reflecting the current trends in country music.

Around August 1951, Willet - who cut his sessions independently without much restrictions from the labels - recorded a session that was later released on the west coast label 4 Star Records, which had made itself a name already in country music with names such as "T" Texas Tyler, Hank Locklin, Merl Lindsay, Terry Fell, Jenks "Tex" Carman, and many others. However, the material remained in the vaults until next year.

A New Star on the Horizon
Willet was spinning records six days a week on KRBC and around September 1951, he got a letter from a US soldier stationed in Korea, requesting a song for his girlfriend that lived near Abilene. One of the lines in the letter said that his "darling had stars in her eyes on moonlit nights" and "play her a tune, tell her to wait for me and to not let the stars get in her eyes". This was the inspiration to Willet's song "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes", which he wrote about a week after reading the letter. One day in February 1952, on a Saturday night after the Big State Jamboree had ended, Willet and his band set up their recording equipment backstage at the Fair Park Auditorium in order to record "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes".

Billboard September 13, 1952

Willet sent the tape off to 4 Star in Pasadena, California, but the response was devastating. The label replied: "Here's a song that is off beat, off meter, off everything" and that "..it wouldn't sell". Bill McCall, president of 4 Star, advised Willet to release the song in the label's custom OP series (OP stood for "Other People"). This meant that Willet had to pay 4 Star for pressing a certain amount of copies, with the financial risk taken by the artist himself and without any distribution and promotion support from the label. Willet did and paired the song with "Hadacol Corners", another of Willet's oil songs. According to a Billboard article from December 20, 1952, the custom pressed release of "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" appeared in late April.

However, the disc showed signs of success in Texas and McCall decided to take over the release in the label's main series. When 4 Star released the single in June, "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" began to take off, initially in Houston and then in other areas, too, and first entered Billboard's C&W charts in October. It eventually reached the #1 spot in Billboard's "Most Played by Jockeys" listing in December. It was covered by Ray Price for Columbia and Skeets McDonald for Capitol that same year. Red Foley and Johnnie & Jack recorded the song also. Pop singer Perry Como recorded a version in late 1952 that reached the pop charts' #1 in both the US and the UK. In the years to come, it was covered by numerous artists of different genres. Willet instantly co-wrote with Tommy Hill an answer song, "I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes", which was recorded by Hill's sister Goldie Hill and became another chart hit.

"Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" became Willet's most successful song, the one he became most associated with, earned him a lifelong income and boosted his popularity not only in Texas but nationwide. Willet and band, now known as the "Hired Hands", performed regularly at popular stage and radio shows such as the Big D Jamboree on KRLD and the Saturday Night Shindig on WFAA both from Dallas (until 1954), and the Louisiana Hayride on KWKH from Shreveport, Louisiana (from 1951 until 1955). By 1953, he also hosted his own TV variety show on KRBC-TV on Wednesdays which included his band as well as local talents as guests, such as Larry Gatlin and his brothers or the Starlight Sisters.

Trying to Find Another Hit
Willet's follow-up on 4 Star, "Let Me Know" (#1625), was released in late December 1952 when "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" was still riding high on the charts. Interestingly, this was again first an OP release and shortly afterwards it got his place in 4 Star's main series. This was possibly done in order to test the commercial potential of the songs. Billboard reported strong sales in the Southwest but Skeets McDonald was fast again and covered the tune for Capitol, stirring even better sales nationally. Finaly, "Let Me Know" failed to repeat the success of its precursor.

Willet continued to record for 4 Star until 1956. He often used Spanish and Mexican influences in his songs, a style that was once called "ranchero" sound by Billboard. Two songs from a 1953 session at KRBC were leased through 4 Star to Decca Records, which released "Starlight Waltz" b/w "Leave Me Alone Now" (#9-29066) around April 1954. However, none of his singles that followed "Don't Let the Starts Get in Your Eyes" could replicate that success, even if they might have sold well in West Texas. During 1954 and 1955, Willet cut further songs that were released on 4 Star's main series and the label's OP series.

Rakin' and Scrapin' the Rock'n'Roll Sound
Willet was not only talented on the creative and artistic side but he proofed also to be a clever businessman. He founded an advertising agency to promote shows and artists that he booked. One of the shows he organized was a big Grand Ole Opry unit coming to Abilene in February 1955, including Hank Snow, his son Jimmie Rodgers Snow and a young Elvis Presley.

While the Big State Jamboree was a success for Willet during the first years of the decade, the advent of TV snatched audiences away from live shows and the Jamboree ended its run in 1955. Apparently, there was a reincarnation of the show at some point in 1955 (with Clyde Chesser's Texas Village Boys) as reported by Billboard, maybe even televised, but this version of the Big State Jamboree only lasted for a very brief time.

Willet switched radio stations and worked for KNIT, also based in Abilene, in 1956. There, he recorded his last session for 4 Star in spring that year. His last recorded sides were "It Ain't Gonna Rain" b/w "The Politician" (4 Star #1698-45). By then, Willet's heyday as a singer had passed.

However, Willet sensed it might be profitable to add another piece of music business to his repertoire: to release records on his own label. In 1956, he created the Edmoral label, which had its first release around October that year. The debut was a single by Willet himself, recorded around October at KNIT with Dean Beard's band, a Texas based rock'n'roll combo that had gained some popularity by then. "I've Been a-Wonderin'" b/w "Don't Be Afraid of the Moonlight" (Edmoral #1010-45) were of different sound than his previous releases - but still very much country.

In February 1957, Willet released the next disc on Edmoral by Dean Beard, comprising "On My Mind Again" b/w "Rakin' and Scrapin'" (Edmoral #1011-45). The latter, which Beard and the band had previously laid down unsuccessfully at Sun Records in Memphis, became his signature tune. The disc sold well, especially around Fort Worth, Dallas, and San Angelo, which brought it to the attention of Jerry Wrexler, president of Atlantic Records. Wrexler flew to Abilene in order to sign a contract with Willet which leased the masters to Atlantic. The label re-released the disc in April that year and would issue two more discs by Beard in 1957 and 1958.

Two more releases appeared on Edmoral, one by Earl Montgomery (of the Brush Cutters) already in 1956 and next to Dean Beard's disc a release by Gene Morris in 1957. The latter's release became another good seller for Willet and he soon worked out a deal with RCA-Victor's Vik subsidiary that took the masters in August 1957. After these four singles, Willet decided to change the name from Edmoral to Winston (a reference to his birthname) for reasons of his own.

The Winston label continued Edmoral's numerical catalog, beginning with #1014 (omitting the #1013) by Fonda Wallace and a rock'n'roll outing called "Lou Lou Knows" b/w "Return My Love" in June 1957. Winston's recorded material was - similar to Hank Harral's Caprock label - a cross-section of Texas music. In 1957, Willet paired himself again with Dean Beard's band and recorded a top notch rock'n'roll record "Ain't Goin Home" under the pseudonym "Telli W. Mills - The Fat Cat" (his stage name spelled backwards plus another reference to his appearance). He would record further songs in similar style in the years to come.

Willet also recorded more rock'n'roll by artists like Dean Beard, Gene Morriso, the Zircons, and Darrell Rhodes (who immortalized himself with "Four O'Clock Baby", an original copy can fetch up more than $2.500 today). He also recorded straight country music, like members of the Brush Cutter, Jimmie Fletcher, or western swing by popular band leaders Jimmy Heap or Hoyle Nix. Even gospel material was cut by the Starlight Sisters, which had been performers on the Big State Jamboree before.

Death of an Oilfield Boy
Willet kept his Willet label running throughout the rest of the 1950s and until his death in the mid-1960s. A highlight on the label was his 1959 released album "Texas Oil Patch Songs", a collection of selfwritten Texas oilfield folklore that is considered to be one of country music's first concept albums and the first exclusively devoted to the oil industry. Coincidence or not - that same year, Audio Lab (a division of King Records, which had access to the 4 Star catalog by then) released an album consisting of some of Willet's older 4 Star material.

In 1964, Willet switched to all-time country music station KCAD in Abilene, where he became general manager and also partially owned the station. While still being in full swing with his radio and business activities, Slim Willet died of a heart attack on July 1, 1966, at the age of 46 years. He is buried at Victor Cemetery in his now extinct hometown. Willet's contributions to West Texas music were honored by the West Texas Music Hall of Fame. Being an influential disc jokey during the 1950s, he was also inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 1994.

Little-known were Willet's paintings. In 1955, Willet was too busy with recording, performing, radio work, and business affairs and his doctor advised him, in order to battle the stress, to take up painting. Willet often painted places and situations from his childhood. He created countless artworks until his death and some of them were displayed in 2017 during an exhibition entitled "Celebrating 65 Years of 'Stars' and the Art of Slim Willet" in the Clyde Public Library.