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Sheb Wooley is best known for
his huge novelty hit "Purple
People Eater," which sold
over three million copies in
the late 1950's and early 60s.
However, among fans of country
and western music, Sheb is considered
the real article: a
genuine cowboy singer. He
started riding horses as a boy
in rodeos, and was making a
living on the rodeo circuit
as a teenager. His career in
entertainment started with music
and then acting, appearing in
such classic Westerns as High
Noon, before he was ever
well-known as a singer, and
later spent six seasons playing
cowboy Pete Nolan on the unforgettable
television series Rawhide. Throughought
his career in acting, he continued
to pursue country ane western
music. His repertory includes
traditional country music and
hillbilly tunes, along with
the ubiquitous "Purple
People Eater." Later on
in the 1960s, he also developed
a drunken comic persona named
Ben
Colder, whose success in
lampooning country music, its
audience, and its sensibilities
was a huge sensation in it's
own right.
 Sheb
was born in Erick, Oklahoma,
on April 10, 1921. From an early
age, he had a strong passion
for horseriding, and was competing
in local rodeos before he was
ten years old. By his teenage
years, Sheb was one of the top
young riders on the rodeo circuit.
Music was also one of his interests,
and Wooley got his first guitar
when his father traded a shotgun
for a steel string. His family
saw tough times during the depression
of the 1930s, as the dry dust
bowl winds threatened their
livelyhood.
While working the oil fields
of Oklahoma as a welder, Wooley
led his own country band in
high school. Like many Oklahomans
seeking opportunity, Wooley
headed to California and worked
at a packing plant, moving crates
of oranges. It was during this
period that Wooley married Melba
Miller, the older sister of
future country music star Roger
Miller. At the outset of the
second world war, Wooley found
himself labeled 4-F (ineligible
for military service) because
of injuries he'd sustained as
a rodeo rider. He assisted the
war effort by working in defense
plants.
 By
1945 he made it to Nashville,
Music City USA, where he made
his first records for the Bullet
label, and began appearing as
a singer/guitarist on WLAC.
The gig wasn't a paying one,
but allowed Sheb to promote
himself and his music. His Bullet
sides were cut at WSM, home
of the Grand Ole Opry, but sadly
they saw almost no play or exposure
of any kind.
Frustrated with the opportunities
in Nashville, a year later he
moved to Fort Worth, TX, and
got a regular spot on radio
there, sponsored by Calumet
Baking Powder. In 1949, at the
suggestion of a friend at WSM,
Wooley left Texas for California
in hope of breaking into the
film industry. Around this same
time, he was signed as a songwriter
to Hill & Range, the publishing
company and signed with MGM
Records in 1950, home of the
sensation Hank Williams.
 Sheb
made an investment in acting
lessons to help win some work
on the silver screen, and succeeded
brilliantly, appearing in small
parts in 40 feature films, beginning
with Rocky Mountain, Errol Flynn's
final Western, in 1949. His
most notable screen came two
years later in the classic High
Noon (1952), in which he played
Ben Miller, the leader of the
outlaw gang gunning for town
marshal Gary Cooper. He also
played an important supporting
role in the historical drama
Little Big Horn (1951), starring
Lloyd Bridges and John Ireland,
and was seen in The Man Without
a Star (1955), Giant (1956),
and Rio Bravo (1959), starring
John Wayne.
Wooley continued recording
and writing songs during his
busy acting schedule. It wasn't
until 1958, however, that he
had a hit, and it was a most
unexpected song. Wooley had
written several songs that were
hits for other singers, most
notably "Are You Satisfied,"
which got to number 11 on the
country charts as recorded by
Rusty Draper in 1955. Wooley
had always displayed a gift
for parody, and the song he
finally scaled the pop charts
with was "Purple People
Eater," a parody of various
pop culture crazes including
monster movies (some people
at the time suggested -- incorrectly
-- that the sci-fi/horror classic
The Blob, starring Steve McQueen,
which was released at around
the same time as Wooley's song,
was virtually a film of the
song). Wooley had to fight to
get the song released, and it
ultimately became one of the
biggest hit singles in the history
of MGM Records.
He was unable to follow up
the success of "Purple
People Eater," however,
and it wasn't until 1962 that
he had another hit, this time
a country chart-topper called
"That's My Dad."
 In
1958, Wooley was cast in the
role of Pete Nolan in the television
Western Rawhide, starring Eric
Fleming and Clint Eastwood,
which premiered in January of
1959. He later wrote some scripts
for the series as well, and
in 1959, in order to fulfill
public demand for a recording
of the series' title song, he
recorded his own version of
the Rawhide theme song and an
entire album of Western songs,
which failed to chart. He later
recorded an album of folk-style
material that was released in
the wake of the MGM wide-screen
epic blockbuster movie How the
West Was Won, but this also
failed to catch on with the
public.
His film work continued during
this time, and it was because
of movie and television commitments
that he was unable to record
the song "Don't Go Near
the Indians." Instead,
former movie cowboy/singer Rex
Allen recorded it and had a
hit with it. In response to
his bad luck, Wooley cut a joke
parody follow-up to the song,
entitled "Don't Go Near
the Eskimos," and his alter-ego,
Ben
Colder was born.
Read
all about Ben Colder here!
 Following
his success with "The Purple
People Eater," Wooley enjoyed
a string of country hits, his
most successful being "That's
My Pa," which reached No.
1 of Billboard magazine's Hot
C&W Sides chart in March
1962.
He is considered by many to
be the most likely voice actor
for the Wilhelm scream, having
appeared on a memo as a voice
extra for Distant Drums. This
particular recording of a scream
has been used by sound effects
teams in over 149 films.
Wooley continued occasional
television and film appearances
through the 1990s, including
a notable appearance as Cletus
Summers, the principal of Hickory
High School in the 1986 film
Hoosiers.
In 1998, Wooley was diagnosed
with leukemia and spent the
next few years in and out of
hospitals battling the condition.
On September 16, 2003 Sheb Wooley
passed away at the age of 82.
The previous year Wooley had
been honored by Tennessee Senator
Fred Thompson, who referred
to the singer/songwriter/actor
as an "American treasure."
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