There are two stories about how Whitman got the nickname "Slim." One has it that the 6'2" Whitman received it in the Navy. Whitman received $500 per show while Elvis Presley received $50. At the beginning of Presley's career, he toured as the opening act for Slim Whitman. Colonel Tom Parker, who would later become famous as Elvis Presley's manager, heard Whitman on WFLA and, in 1948, helped him get signed to RCA. The pay for these radio shows was minimal-$18 per week-and Slim had to take a second job as a postal worker to make ends meet. It became the definitive "shooting arrow" sound heard on all of Slim's subsequent recordings. The sound was so unique it was incorporated by the band. Hoot Rains, guitarist in Slim's band, overshot a note. The programs were then picked up by a Shreveport Louisiana station, KWKH, and incorporated as part of the "Louisiana Hayride." Up to this point, Whitman had a stutter and was very shy it was Hank Williams who helped him overcome this obstacle.Ī happy accident during one of these radio broadcasts would change electric steel guitar playing forever.
UNA PALOMA BLANCA SONG SLIM WHITMAN SERIES
He started out on Florida radio station WDAE, then moved on to WHBO and WFLA until September 1949, when he teamed up with The Lightcrust Doughboys to do a series of programs through the Mutual Network. Friends, however, urged him to pursue his singing career, so in 1948, he gave up baseball and began to sing professionally. 360, Whitman helped his team take the pennant in 1947. With his skillful left-handed pitch and a batting average of. He also played baseball with the Plant City Berries, a class C team in the Orange Belt League. Honorably discharged in 1946, Whitman returned home to Tampa and his job at the shipyard. Fifty years after his service, Navy buddies still approached him with recollections of their time onboard the Chilton. Each week, during happy hour, he entertained the sailors by either boxing or singing. The left-handed Whitman restrung the guitar upside-down. It was onboard the Chilton that Whitman found a guitar and began to play. He was stationed on the USS Chilton in the South Pacific. He later found work as a shipfitter and boilermaker at a Tampa shipyard. After graduating from high school, Whitman took a job in a meat packing plant. They fell in love and Whitman married her two years later. At age fifteen Whitman met Geraldine "Jerry" Christ, the preacher's daughter. Whitman had a close-knit family, with two brothers and two sisters. was born January 20, 1929, in Tampa, Florida, where he grew up playing baseball, fishing, and listening to Montana Slim and Jimmie Rodgers, the father of country music. Whitman has sold more than 70 million records worldwide and he continues to play to packed houses and audiences which span nearly three generations. Whitman has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in Holland both a rose and tulip have been named after him. It is therefore surprising that Whitman has not yet been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is not to say he has gone unrecognized. In the U.S., World War II hero Audie Murphy was a fan, as was Elvis Presley who toured with Whitman at the beginning of his own career. Among his famous fans are Michael Jackson, and George Harrison and Paul McCartney of the Beatles.
With more than 103 albums to his credit, a majority now available on CD, Whitman enjoys international popularity in countries such as England, Australia, and Holland. In Burton's film, it is Whitman's version of "Indian Love Call" which repels the invading Martians and saves the world from imminent defeat. Once dubbed "America's Favorite Folk singer," Slim Whitman was brought to the attention of a new generation of listeners with the 1997 release of Mars Attacks!, director Tim Burton's spoof of the 1950's alien invasion films. Addresses: Home-Currently lives on 40 acre farm near Jacksonville, FL Record company-Collector's Record Club, GHB Jazz Foundation Building, 1206 Decatur St., New Orleans, LA 70116. Born Ottis Dewey Whitman, Jr., Januin Tampa, Florida married Geraldine "Jerry" Christ, 1941 children: Byron, Sharon Carlene.