One of country music’s standout figures in the years after World War II, singing cowboy Tex Ritter earned widespread recognition through a multifaceted path that carried him from the Broadway stage into political circles. Maurice Woodward Ritter entered the world on January 12, 1907, in Marvaul, Texas, and spent his formative years on a ranch outside Beaumont. He finished high school at the head of his class before enrolling in law studies at the University of Texas. While still a student, however, he developed a passion for acting and relocated to New York in 1928 to work with a theatrical ensemble. After several difficult years he returned briefly to academic life, only to depart again in search of stardom.
Back in New York by 1931, Ritter performed cowboy songs on radio and secured a role in the Broadway production Green Grow the Lilacs, where he also played guitar during scene transitions. His stage success led to radio hosting duties on programs such as Tex Ritter’s Campfire and Cowboy Tom’s Roundup. In 1933 he entered the recording studio under producer Art Satherley, bringing his deep, lived-in voice to tracks including “Rye Whiskey.” Hollywood producer Edward Finney, seeking a cowboy singer in the style of the highly successful Gene Autry, noticed Ritter and cast him in the 1936 Western Song of the Gringo. Over the following two years Ritter appeared in a dozen films, among them 1937’s Trouble in Texas featuring a young Rita Hayworth, before Finney’s studio Grand National Pictures closed. He then moved to Monogram Studios and completed roughly twenty Westerns, such as 1940’s Take Me Back to Oklahoma alongside co-star Bob Wills. Subsequent work at Columbia and Universal brought his total screen appearances to 85 by the time of his final film, 1945’s The Texas Rangers.
As Ritter’s film career waned, his recording career gained momentum. In 1942 he became the first country artist signed to Capitol Records, where he cut traditional folk material, patriotic numbers, and sentimental ballads. Tex Ritter & His Texans reached the top of the charts in 1944 with the single “I’m Wastin’ My Tears on You.” Its B-side, “There’s a New Moon Over My Shoulder,” rose to number two, as did the follow-up “Jealous Heart.” The 1945 release “You Two-Timed Me One Time Too Often” became his biggest hit, holding the number-one position for eleven straight weeks. Additional 1940s successes included the chart-topping “You Will Have to Pay” in 1945, “Rock and Rye” in 1948, and 1950’s “Daddy’s Last Letter (Private First Class John H. McCormick),” drawn from a soldier’s actual letter home during the Korean War.
Ritter supplied the theme for the Fred Zinneman classic High Noon in 1953; the single’s strong pop reception helped him land the role of host on the television series Town Hall Party, a position he held from 1953 through 1960. He issued his debut long-player, Songs From the Western Screen, in 1958, followed the next year by Psalms. After leaving the program he released Blood on the Saddle, a somber set of cowboy narrative songs, and returned to the country charts in 1961 following an eleven-year absence with the Top Five single “I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven.” Ritter served as president of the Country Music Association from 1963 to 1965, then relocated to Nashville and joined the Grand Ole Opry. An unsuccessful 1970 campaign for the U.S. Senate preceded his death from a heart attack on January 2, 1974. His son John Ritter later sustained the family legacy through popular television roles in sitcoms such as Three’s Company and Hooperman.
