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Roy Queen’s career as a hillbilly singer and broadcaster began in 1929 when he was 16. He hitched a ride on a freight train from Pilot Knob, MO., to St. Louis and auditioned at the KMOX studios in the Mayfair Hotel. He got the job and was soon yodeling and playing his guitar on a daily basis on KMOX. He was an entertainer on KMOX and WIL and later worked as a disc jockey on KXLW and on KWRE in nearby Warrenton, MO.
Early on at KMOX, he had a namesake program, “Roy Queen and His Ozark Mountaineers,” that was fed to some network affiliates. KMOX later moved him to the wildly popular “Uncle Dick Slack’s Barn Dance.” Like many of the young performers in those days, Queen did many personal appearances in addition to his musical performances at the station. It was during the return trip from one of those appearances that he was gravely injured in an auto accident.
The recovery period for his two broken legs was lengthy, but that didn’t keep him from working. The station set up a remote microphone in Queen’s hospital room while engineers ran the records at the station.
In the late 1940s, St. Louis radio was a sort of hillbilly heaven, and it seemed that every station had to have a group. In previous articles we documented the rise of Uncle Dick Slack’s Barn Dance on KMOX and the Carson’s Melody Makers, who managed to be live on three different stations every Saturday. St. Louis stations that had network affiliation, like KMOX and KWK, fed several of their live hillbilly programs nationwide. We’re not talking music like today’s so-called "country" stuff. This was hillbilly, and more often than not, it was performed live in the radio studio .KMOX also boasted the Range Riders. Roy Queen, who had done two stints on KMOX, had moved to KXLW, where he was often accompanied by his wife Helen and young son, whose air name was Sonny. Queen had built himself an empire that included his disc jockey show, his traveling show, a concert booking agency and the city’s largest hillbilly record shop.
He is, apparently, the only man alive who can remember being on the radio in St. Louis prior to 1930. As Roy Queen tells it, he hitched a ride on a freight train to get to St. Louis for an audition for a job as a musician on KMOX.
Queen lived in Iron County, Missouri near Possum Hollow. The general store owner there had heard an announcement on the radio that KMOX was looking for talented people and told Queen about it. It was March 29, 1929. The young guitar player was 16 years old.
"I went into KMOX that morning scared to death. It was on the mezzanine floor of the Mayfair Hotel. There were about 20 people there, and when it came my turn, France Laux, the program's announcer,said 'Now here's a little chubby boy from Pilot Knob gonna sing his little song entitled "I Can't Give Up My Good Old Rough and Rowdy Ways."'
"And brother, my hands were sweating. I finally got started and I just kind of shut my eyes and forgot that I had that microphone in front of me. After the show was over the manager, who was a woman then, asked France who that kid was who made the funny noises in his throat when he sang. France said it was 'that little chubby boy over there with the overalls on.'
"Her name was Frances McIntire, and she asked me to come into her office. She asked me if I had something in my throat to make those yodeling noises. I told her the good Lord had given me that."
The KMOX general manager hired Queen on the spot, offering him $40 - $50 a week. "Well," Queen says, "I had to pick myself up off the floor because I'd just quit a sawmill job at Potosi that paid me a dollar a day and board."
Later, KMOX brought in a female musician from Chicago who played the banjo. Cousin Emmy was teamed up with Queen in the 5:30 in the morning slot five days a week. Queen says it didn't work out, so he offered to get a band together. McIntire gave him the go-ahead. "We got so good that we fed the network through WBBM's facilities in Chicago. The International Heating Oil Company was the sponsor, and the show was called 'Roy Queen and the Ozark Mountaineers.'"
KMOX moved its studios to the Mart Building in 1932, and the facilities were a radio performer's dream. There was a huge performance auditorium that gave them the ability to originate different shows. "We started what they called the 'County Fair' on KMOX. When we moved to the Mart Building they wanted to start a barn dance. It fizzled out because we couldn't find any talent." It was in the midst of bad times for everyone. The country was suffering through the Great Depression.
Roy Queen gave in to the impulse to wander, leaving KMOX for a chance to play with Bob Wills in Texas, and KMOX hired a young man named Charley Stookey. Queen worked the circuit in Texas, later splitting with Wills and returning to the KMOX studios. Wanderlust was rampant. Charley Stookey had hit the road with the band he'd developed (Shucks Austin and Skeets and Frankie) and the station was glad to see Queen. He was teamed up with Pappy Cheshire, a Vaudeville veteran out of Kansas.
The result was a show known as "Uncle Dick Slack's Barn Dance." Dick Slack owned a furniture store in East St. Louis, and he had a knack for choosing the popular radio shows to sponsor. "I asked Uncle Dick (the Jolly Irishman) if I could use the show to announce my engagements where I'd be playing, and he said it was okay as long as I promoted his store at the engagements. He got so big that he built the building at Natural Bridge and Union."
Queen says he ended up working with about 40 performers on the show, but it wasn't as costly as one might think. "You know what union scale was? Seven dollars a night, and that's for four hours. Most of the folks were being paid $35 a week. A lot of them came in for the publicity, just to be on the radio. I actually made more money with my personal appearances."
Roy Queen left KMOX in 1948, but he stayed on the radio in the St. Louis area as a disc jockey on WIL, KXLW, KMOX (again) and KWRE over the next several decades. He is now retired and living near Bixby, Missouri.
(Reprinted with permission of the St.Louis Journalism Review. Originally published 5/00.)
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(reprint from the steel guitar forum from Dewitt Scott):
Roy was a legend both as a singer and as a country disc jockey. Roy came to St. Louis to audition for KMOX Radio and was given his own show in 1929 on the 50,000 watt powerhouse station. This meant that Roy and and his band would be heard all over the United States. Roy told the manager of KMOX that he had a great band...that wasn't quite true. Roy had no band all! But it took only a few days for him to put a great band together and they became an instant hit with the station. Later, KMOX made it possible for Roy to become the very first Country Music Disc Jockey in the country!Roy opened a very successful record shop in St. Louis and also had one of the best Country Music Night clubs in the country. He was especially good at spotting good young talent and he hired a comic/singer that appeared on stage wearing overalls and sporting a bright red wig. He hired a guitar player who had "real" red hair. He worked with and encouraged these young men and convinced them they could be stars. The comic/singer became known as "The Tennessee Plowboy", Eddy Arnold and the guitar was Les Paul.
One of the biggest name bands in the St. Louis area was
always "Roy Queen and The Brush Apes". Many local players were members
of that band at one time or another. I remember playing for the opening of
"Queen's Arena" in Warrenton, MO where he was a DJ on KWRE radio. It
must have been in the 1960's. I was the steel player and a young kid about 12 or
13 years old was the drummer. JIMMY QUEEN. Roy had the respect of all the
musicians and band leaders in the St. Louis area and across the US as well. He
was inducted into the "St. Louis Hall Of Fame for Radio Broadcasters and a
nominee in 1999 for the Country Music disc Jockey Hall Of Fame! A long time Icon
in the St. Louis area is gone but certainly not forgotten.
Source - The Gateway Country Music Association's, Who's Who in St. Louis Country
Music history book.
| Country Star Roy Queen Dead At 91 | ||
| July 31, 2004 | ||
| Started at KMOX in 1929 | ||
 One
of the pioneers of early radio in St. Louis -- country music star Roy
Queen -- is dead at the age of 91. His wife says he died peacefully in his
sleep this weekend. Roy Queen started on KMOX Radio in 1929 and stayed
with the station off-and-on well into the 1950's. He then took his success
to several other stations in the area, always supporting the cause of
country music. Roy Queen was possibly best known on KMOX for his role with
the "Uncle Dick Slack's Barn Dance Show". Roy Queen was in his
teens when he heard on a radio in Arcadia, Missouri that KMOX was looking
for talent. He hopped a freight train to St. Louis and the rest is
history. Funeral services for Roy Queen are pending and are being handled
by Nieburg Funeral Home in Warrenton, Missouri.
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