The Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-12-05, Page 17•
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Crossroads, Wednesday, December 5, 1 984
Serving over 24,000 homes in Listowel, Wingham,
Mount Forest, Milverton, Ariss, Arthur, Drayton,
Harriston, Moorefield, Palmerston, Bloomingdale,
Breslau, Conestogo, Elmira, Heidelberg, Linwood,
Maryhill, St. Clements, St. Jacobs, Walienstein,
Wellesley and West Montrose.
"Canada's Singing Cowboy"
Earl Heywood remembers the
cowboys' golden age by Margaret Arbuckle
"Howdy neighbor and welcome .to
Serenade Ranch. Yes sir, once again
the bunkhouse doors swing wide to
include all the friends of the old West
for a 15 -minute jamboree. Earl
Heywood and all the Serenade Ranch
Gang are on hand to bring you the songs
You like best: just plain, good old
Western-style melodies. So welcome to
Serenade Ranch."
From 1947 to 1953 CKNX radio
listeners heard these words every
Thursday afternoon. It was the golden
age of the cowboy, an era cut short by
television and rock and roll.
Many local listeners remember
"Serenade Ranch" and its easy,
comfortable style of entertainment.
That is why Mr. Heywood has compiled
a recording of what he considers to be
- the best of "Serenade Ranch".
For those of us weaned on television,
it is hard to imagaine a time when
people gathered faithfully around the
radio to listen to their favorite
programs, but they did for many years.
It was an exciting time, says Mr.
Heywood, who still resides in Wingham,
They were working in what still was a
new medium and everything was done
live.
Even though the golden age of the
cowboy ais gone, Mr. Heywood
remembers those days fondly and
compiling this new tape of the
"Serenade Ranch" show really has
been a labor of love.
o MUSICAL ROOTS
Born and reared on a farm near
Exeter, Mr.. Heywood's early musical
roots were founded in a local brass
band and his church choir.
He, bought a guitar at the age of 10
with . his own savings and• soon was
. playing and writing his own songs.
In 1941 he won first prize for his
Composition"Living in the Army" at a
canteen amateur contest and started
working with "CKNX, The Farm
Station" at around the same time.
The ,most memorable event of those
early years was the Christmas Eve in
1942 when he was introduced as "Earl
Heywood, Canada's Number One
Cowboy Star" at a London theatre. It
was a title which stayed with him for
many years.
Even though he had been traveling
with the famous Saturday night "Barn
Dance" group and making guest ap-
pearances over the –Farm and Home
Hour" on CKNX, it was not until 1946
that he made Wingham his permanent
home. '
In January of 1947, W.T. "Doc"
Cruickshank, owner and manager of
CKNX, suggested that Mr. Heywood
produce his own weekly radio program.
The name they decided upon was
"Serenade Ranch", a derivation of
Gene Autry's famous "Melody Ranch"
program in the United States.
COWBOY FEVER
The cowboy craze started just after
the Second World War and manifested
itself on radio and even in films.
Country or "hillbilly" music had been
around since the 1920s, but its
popularity soared during the late '40s,
virtually edging out the big bands of the
day to become the most -listened -to type
of music around.
All of a sudden singing cowboys
started popping up all over the place.
They had names like Gene Autry, Roy
Rodgers and Tex Ritter. Nhe most
popular radio program of the day was
broadcast from the Grand Olde Opry in
Nashville, Tennessee.
Southwestern Ontario was very much
a part of this explosion, which is one of
the reasons Mr. Heywood's "Serenade
Ranch" became a favorite of the
listening public.
Wherrthe program started in January
of 1947, it consisted of . only Mr.
Heywood and his wife Martha, but
gradually he came to be backed up by a
group of station musicians known as the
"Golden Prairie Cowboys". The group
consisted of local favorites Red. Burns,
Slim Boucher, Maurice Bolyer and
Lucky' Ambeault, all of whom left
CKNX in the late 1940s to gain national
recognition.
By 1949 Mr. Heywood had rounded up
an entirely new group of musicians
called the "Serenade Ranch Gang".
This new group consisted of Lloyd
Bank- on the steel guitar, Bill Mankiss
on the accordion, singer and bass
player Jack Kingston and fiddlers Mel
Lavigne and Ward Allen.
Together they performed some of the
popular songs of the day, plus a few of
Mr. Heywood's own compositions.
Occasionally they would be joined in
the studio by Mrs. Heywood and their
little. daughter Patsy Anne..
They worked hard, but had fun too, •
bringing their., cowboy music to
listeners all over the, area. Their
popularity grew so quickly that a fan
club even started publishing quarterly
issues of Earl Heywood's . Serenade
Ranch Review.
Mr. Heywood had a record contract
with RCA Victor, the cornpany
produced several of his own. most
popular songs like "The Alberta Waltz"
and "There's A New Love True Love In
My • Heart". In later years Mr.
Heywood's tales of the Donnelly
masacre gained prominence.
There even was a time when Mr.
Heywood considered trying his luck as
a singing cowboy movie star.
He said he wrote a letter to the head
of Republican Films, the studio
producing the cowboy movies of the
late 1940s and early 1950s, asking,
"Hey, why not try a Canadian cowboy
star?".
The studio head wrote back and said
he was interested in the idea, but at the
time the movie box office was suffering
because of the birth of television.
One year lfater Mr. Heywood said he
received a letter telling him the studio
was abandoning its cowboy movies
altogether.
Even "Serenade Ranch" succumbed
to the trend toward television and went
off the air in 1953.
MAKING THE TAPE
Since all those old "Serenade Ranch"
programs were broadcast live, it would
seem that all those old shows were lost,
but such is not so.
Mr. Cruickshank had purchased a
recording machine late in the 1940s and
about once a year station technician
Elmer Purdon would record a broad-
cast of "Serenade Ranch','.
Tape machines were not used to a
great extent in they early 1950s, Mr.
Heywood said, so a recording was very
precious. Eight 16 -inch acetate
recordings were made and it is from
'those discs that Mr. Heywood has
compiled the "Serenade Ranch Radio
Show" tape.
The recordings were transferred onto
reel-to-reel tape around 1960, said Mr.
Heywood. From those tapes he and
CKNX technician Jerry Chomyn have
derived a tape of what Mr. Heywolad
considers the best of "Serenade Ran-
ch".
Mr.. Chomyn waq.. able to splice out
most of the background noise and add
voice over segments for introductions.
At the end of 20 hours of editing he had
put together a piece of yesteryear,
something which might have been lost
forever.
Mr. Heywood says he is very proud of
the recording because it is a reminder
of the golden years of radio and the
cowboy. era.
Even once "Serenade Ranch" was no
longer on the air, Mr. Heywood con-
• tinued working at the station. He,ap-
pea•red on local television programs
like "Circle 8 Ranch" and made many
personal appearances, something he
does to this day.
EARL HEYWOOD—is still
known as "Canada's Sing-
ing Cowboy" after more
than 40 years in the Music
business. He and pis wife
Martha reside in Wingham
and they still are involved
in entertaining. Mr. Hey-
wood recently released a,
tape of the best of "Ser-
enade Ranch" his CKNX
radio program from 1947-
1953
EARL AND MARTHA ---Heywood have been popular
CKNX radio and television entertainers for more than 40
years. Sometimes little daughter Patsy Anne got into
the act too with her parents on "Serenade Ranch". her
father's weekly radio program. Mr. Heywood just has
released a cassette tape including segments from the
radio show which ran from 1947 to 1953.,
R.�1*
7x.. -1•2-
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THE SERENADE RANCH GANG—were popular local entertainers during the late
1940s and early 1950s and had a weekly radio program over CKNX. "Wee" Bobby
Clark. Jack Kingston. Earl Heywood. Ward Allen. Mel Lavigne and Bill Mankiss are
pictured here entertaining in the late 1940s. Mr. Heywood recently released a
cassette recording of the best of the "Serenade Ranch" radio show.
,' t`Y •