Biography
Born Marvin Earl Doss on 4 February 1925 in Jefferson, Texas, USA, the man known throughout the entertainment industry as Colonel Buster Doss accumulated experience across an unusually wide spectrum of music-related fields. Music ran in the Doss family, and by age six—when his older brother Benny gave him the nickname Buster—he was already performing on their family shows. At thirteen he left home to travel with an Old Time Medicine Show, absorbing the workings of the music and entertainment trades from mentors who had also shaped the careers of Gene Autry, Bob Wills and Roy Acuff. Observing fellow performers, he soon launched his own Medicine Show. Proficiency in every style of entertainment featured on such shows followed, encompassing comedy that ranged from blackface routines to rural hayseed characterizations; he simultaneously mastered conjuring and ventriloquism while cultivating a direct rapport with audiences.
Enlisting in the US Navy in 1942, he produced entertainment for troops throughout World War II. After his discharge in 1945 he relocated to Hollywood, appearing in B-Western films under the names Bronco Buck Cody and the Cactus Kid. Between 1946 and 1948 he recorded for Royalty and Star Talent. Joining The Louisiana Hayride in 1948 placed him alongside major figures including Hank Williams and Johnny Horton, and he also performed on the Grand Ole Opry.
Throughout his career Doss promoted shows and at various points owned seven major Frontier Jamboree venues in Marceline, Missouri; Harlingen, Mount Pleasant and Athens, Texas; Ashdown, Arkansas; and Winchester, Tennessee. His first radio station, acquired in 1950 in Hugo, Oklahoma, was followed by ownership of seven additional stations. From the mid-1950s into the early 1960s he ran country music’s largest telephone promotion operation, employing more than two hundred people to publicize the Grand Ole Opry, The Louisiana Hayride, Cody’s Helldrivers and Marvin The Marvellous Magician. Touring internationally with his Brazos Valley Ranch Hands under the billing Country Magician, he presented comedy, magic, ventriloquism and straight country music while also appearing as Bronco Buck Cody in the television series The Cactus Kid. In 1962 the Knights Of The Golden Wand named him Number One Magician In The World for his magic act; he performed at the Seattle World Fair and, during 1962–63, operated Colonel Buck Cody’s Pioneer Circus And Wild West Show, then the world’s second-largest tent circus. Basing operations in Nashville from 1963 to 1968, he later recalled, “it was then a small community where everybody helped each other and a common love of music drew us together. Kris Kristofferson was a janitor, Roger Miller was a bellhop and you could always find Willie Nelson and Tom T. Hall plus a lot of others eating chilli down at Tootsie’s. I never moved back until 1980 and boy had it changed.”
The Wizard label, established in 1959, became the first major independent label on Nashville’s Music Row; he later situated his Stardust label there as well. During those years he managed several leading Grand Ole Opry artists, among them Billy Grammer and Billy Walker. Relocating to Missouri in 1969, he constructed a radio station, the first of seven Frontier Jamboree Theatres and Codyland Village. A second theatre opened in Harlingen, Texas, in 1975, accompanied by the Six Shooter Junction theme park. Settling in Austin in 1976, he became active in the Outlaw movement, forming the contemporary group Cooder Browne, which recorded for Lone Star and Mercury Records and served as an opening act for Willie Nelson. In 1979 he organized press operations for Willie Nelson’s Fourth Of July Picnic. Lecture tours drawing on his broad entertainment-industry knowledge followed, along with journalism instruction at the University of Texas. Throughout the 1980s he continued opening theatres; in 1983 he additionally played the lead in the Vitonka Medicine Show at the American Place theatre on Broadway, New York. Since 1948 he has produced several thousand recordings for numerous artists. Despite that schedule he also wrote songs, losing count of the total yet noting that more than five hundred have been recorded.
Returning to Tennessee in 1988, he established his home and offices at Billy Goat Hill in Winchester on a bluff overlooking the Elk River, observing, “I am only 88 miles from Nashville but in another world.” In later years the Colonel, as he is widely known, applied his experience to recording and promoting emerging artists including Rooster Quantrell and Troy Cook Jnr. He has voiced skepticism toward the contemporary country scene, remarking, “There are too many Country Music Awards shows now they have diluted its value. I’m expecting them to walk out on television and give an award for the good fried taters served that night.”
The German Binge label issued an album in 1990 comprising 1959 recordings by the Doss band that had originally appeared on Wizard; several tracks feature Doss vocals. Additional examples of his recordings have surfaced periodically on Stardust compilations. The title Colonel was first conferred in 1964 when Kentucky honored him as a Kentucky Colonel for his contributions; eleven other states, including Arkansas during Bill Clinton’s governorship, have since granted the same distinction. The breadth of Doss’s accomplishments remains singular. Entering the new millennium he sustained a demanding pace, once declaring, “If you can find anyone in the music business who can come close to my track record—I’ll show you a tree that a bird never lit in.”
Enlisting in the US Navy in 1942, he produced entertainment for troops throughout World War II. After his discharge in 1945 he relocated to Hollywood, appearing in B-Western films under the names Bronco Buck Cody and the Cactus Kid. Between 1946 and 1948 he recorded for Royalty and Star Talent. Joining The Louisiana Hayride in 1948 placed him alongside major figures including Hank Williams and Johnny Horton, and he also performed on the Grand Ole Opry.
Throughout his career Doss promoted shows and at various points owned seven major Frontier Jamboree venues in Marceline, Missouri; Harlingen, Mount Pleasant and Athens, Texas; Ashdown, Arkansas; and Winchester, Tennessee. His first radio station, acquired in 1950 in Hugo, Oklahoma, was followed by ownership of seven additional stations. From the mid-1950s into the early 1960s he ran country music’s largest telephone promotion operation, employing more than two hundred people to publicize the Grand Ole Opry, The Louisiana Hayride, Cody’s Helldrivers and Marvin The Marvellous Magician. Touring internationally with his Brazos Valley Ranch Hands under the billing Country Magician, he presented comedy, magic, ventriloquism and straight country music while also appearing as Bronco Buck Cody in the television series The Cactus Kid. In 1962 the Knights Of The Golden Wand named him Number One Magician In The World for his magic act; he performed at the Seattle World Fair and, during 1962–63, operated Colonel Buck Cody’s Pioneer Circus And Wild West Show, then the world’s second-largest tent circus. Basing operations in Nashville from 1963 to 1968, he later recalled, “it was then a small community where everybody helped each other and a common love of music drew us together. Kris Kristofferson was a janitor, Roger Miller was a bellhop and you could always find Willie Nelson and Tom T. Hall plus a lot of others eating chilli down at Tootsie’s. I never moved back until 1980 and boy had it changed.”
The Wizard label, established in 1959, became the first major independent label on Nashville’s Music Row; he later situated his Stardust label there as well. During those years he managed several leading Grand Ole Opry artists, among them Billy Grammer and Billy Walker. Relocating to Missouri in 1969, he constructed a radio station, the first of seven Frontier Jamboree Theatres and Codyland Village. A second theatre opened in Harlingen, Texas, in 1975, accompanied by the Six Shooter Junction theme park. Settling in Austin in 1976, he became active in the Outlaw movement, forming the contemporary group Cooder Browne, which recorded for Lone Star and Mercury Records and served as an opening act for Willie Nelson. In 1979 he organized press operations for Willie Nelson’s Fourth Of July Picnic. Lecture tours drawing on his broad entertainment-industry knowledge followed, along with journalism instruction at the University of Texas. Throughout the 1980s he continued opening theatres; in 1983 he additionally played the lead in the Vitonka Medicine Show at the American Place theatre on Broadway, New York. Since 1948 he has produced several thousand recordings for numerous artists. Despite that schedule he also wrote songs, losing count of the total yet noting that more than five hundred have been recorded.
Returning to Tennessee in 1988, he established his home and offices at Billy Goat Hill in Winchester on a bluff overlooking the Elk River, observing, “I am only 88 miles from Nashville but in another world.” In later years the Colonel, as he is widely known, applied his experience to recording and promoting emerging artists including Rooster Quantrell and Troy Cook Jnr. He has voiced skepticism toward the contemporary country scene, remarking, “There are too many Country Music Awards shows now they have diluted its value. I’m expecting them to walk out on television and give an award for the good fried taters served that night.”
The German Binge label issued an album in 1990 comprising 1959 recordings by the Doss band that had originally appeared on Wizard; several tracks feature Doss vocals. Additional examples of his recordings have surfaced periodically on Stardust compilations. The title Colonel was first conferred in 1964 when Kentucky honored him as a Kentucky Colonel for his contributions; eleven other states, including Arkansas during Bill Clinton’s governorship, have since granted the same distinction. The breadth of Doss’s accomplishments remains singular. Entering the new millennium he sustained a demanding pace, once declaring, “If you can find anyone in the music business who can come close to my track record—I’ll show you a tree that a bird never lit in.”