Montgomery, Marvin, 1913-2001

Founded in 1931, the Light Crust Doughboys is a western swing band from the Dallas, Texas area. Original members included fiddler James Robert (Bob) Willis, guitarist Herman Arnspiger, and singer Milton Brown. The group started as the Willis Fiddle band, but changed names for a local radio show promoting Burrus Mill and Elevator Company’s Light Crust Flour. The show was cancelled after two weeks because Burrus Mill President W. Lee O’Daniel disliked the band’s music. However, public outcry brought the Doughboys back to the radio, and O’Daniel expanded the show to many other Texas and Oklahoma stations. In 1932, all original musicians left the band, and O’Daniel took a new group of Doughboys to Chicago to record with Vocalion Records. The group achieved its greatest commercial success between 1935 and World War II with lineups including fiddlers Kenneth Pitts, Clifford Gross and Cecil Brower; guitarists Muryel Campbell and Dick Reinhart; banjoist Marvin (Smokey) Montgomery; bass player Ramon DeArman; and pianist John (Knocky) Parker. The Doughboys’ radio show went off the air in 1950, but the group continued to perform and record. Through the 1970s and 1980s, the group was kept going in various forms by bandleader Montgomery, who saw the group inducted into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame in 1989. With Montgomery’s death in 2001, Art Greenhaw took over leadership, guiding the Light Crust Doughboys to their first Grammy Award in 2003.

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