TEX RITTER

Performed on Radio & Broadway, in Movies and Recorded Records

Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was an American country music singer and actor popular from the mid 1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John, grandsons Jason and Tyler, and granddaughter Carly).

He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Radio and Broadway

An early pioneer of country music, Ritter soon became interested in show business. In 1928, he sang on KPRC-AM in Houston, Texas, a 30-minute program of mostly cowboy songs. That same year, he moved to New York City and landed a job in the men's chorus of the Broadway show The New Moon (1928). He appeared as cowboy Cord Elam in the Broadway production Green Grow the Lilacs (1931), the basis for the musical Oklahoma! He also played the part of Sagebrush Charlie in The Round Up (1932) and Mother Lode (1934).

In 1932, he starred in New York City's first broadcast Western, The Lone Star Rangers on WOR-AM, where he sang and told tales of the Old West. Ritter wrote and starred in Cowboy Tom's Roundup on WINS-AM in 1933, a daily children's cowboy program aired over two other East Coast stations for three years. He also performed on the radio show WHN Barndance and sang on NBC Radio shows; and appeared in several radio dramas, including CBS's Bobby Benson's Adventures.

Movies

In 1936, Ritter moved to Los Angeles.

His motion picture debut was in Song Of The Gringo (1936) for Grand National Pictures. He starred in twelve B-movie Westerns for Grand National, including Headin' For The Rio Grande (1936), and Trouble In Texas (1937) co-starring Rita Hayworth (then known as Rita Cansino).

After starring in Utah Trail (1938), Ritter left financially troubled Grand National. Between 1938 and 1945, he starred in around forty "singing cowboy" movies. He made four movies with actress Dorothy Fay at Monogram Pictures: Song of the Buckaroo (1938), Sundown on the Prairie (1939), Rollin' Westward (1939) and Rainbow Over the Range (1940).

Ritter then moved to Universal Pictures and teamed with Johnny Mack Brown for films such as The Lone Star Trail (1943), Raiders of San Joaquin (1943), Cheyenne Roundup (1943) and The Old Chisholm Trail (1942). He was also the star of the films Arizona Trail (1943), Marshal of Gunsmoke (1944) and Oklahoma Raiders (1944).

When Universal developed financial difficulties, Ritter moved to Producers Releasing Corporation as "Texas Ranger Tex Haines" for eight features between 1944 and 1945.

Many of his movies were later presented on TV.

He did not return to acting until 1950, playing mostly supporting roles or himself.

In 1952, Ritter recorded the movie title-track song "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin')", which became a hit.

At the first televised Academy Awards ceremony in 1953, he sang "High Noon", which received an Oscar for Best Song that year

Recording

Ritter's recording career was his most successful period. He was the first artist signed with the newly formed Capitol Records.

In 1944, he scored a hit with "I'm Wastin' My Tears on You", which hit number one on the country chart and number 11 on the pop chart. An article in the trade publication Billboard noted 14 years later that with that song, he "reached the style of rhythmic tune that would assure his musical stature".

In 1952 Ritter recorded The Ballad of High Noon for the film High Noon. He performed the track at the first televised Academy Awards ceremony in 1953, and it received an Oscar for Best Song that year.