...done by special request
Story Behind the Story podcast is an audio version of Saturday’s column on country western entertainers Jack Patton and Dusty Miller. Audio Story "13 Minutes"
This Friday, January 28, 2022-Episode 407-New York State historian Devin Lander discusses plans to observe the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution
Tomorrow back into the print archives
Tuesday, January 25, 2022-From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-An Army plane crashed in Amsterdam during World War II
Fireman Frank Mazur, standing outside the Central Fire Station at West Main and Pearl Streets, heard an airplane engine sputtering and saw the tail light descending rapidly toward the South Side. Firefighters, cops and ambulances scrambled to the scene.
Wednesday, January 26-From the Archives- March 29, 2019-Episode 259-Patricia Walsh Chadwick, author of “Little Sister,” a memoir about her childhood in which she was raised in a strict Roman Catholic community.
Imagine an 18-year-old American girl who has never read a newspaper, watched television, or made a phone call. An 18-year-old-girl who has never danced - and this in the 1960s.
Thursday, January 27, 2022-From the Archives of the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam barber a black political leader
Friday, January 28, 2022-Episode 407-New York State historian Devin Lander discusses plans to observe the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution
The Colorado Wranglers had a long run at Amsterdam’s Bob’s Tavern.
Country western entertainers Jack Patton and Dusty Miller By Bob Cudmore
A reader asked if I knew anything about Jack Patton, the Polish cowboy. I interviewed Patton once or twice on my WGY radio show in the 1980s.
Patton was a musician, songwriter, health food advocate, actor and Amsterdam native.
The Web site HillbillyMusic.com reported that Patton’s given name was Frank Aloysius Piecuch. His father worked at Mohawk Carpet Mills and supposedly changed the family name to Patton because there were too many other factory employees named Piecuch.
Jack Patton played traditional Polish music at local weddings and dance halls on violin and accordion.
HillbillyMusic stated Patton was a childhood friend of actor and producer Kirk Douglas, who grew up in Amsterdam as Isadore Demsky.
Patton had a cowboy band in the late 1930s called Pals of the Saddle, although his band was referred to as Pals of the Range in some advertisements.
He moved to Hollywood in 1939 because Columbia Pictures was going to use one of his songs. Patton was drafted during World War II. HillbillyMusic reported he had impaired vision and saw limited duty, repairing damaged planes in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Columbia Pictures apparently used Cowboy Polka, one of his songs, in the movie “Swing in the Saddle” which featured music by Nat King Cole’s trio.
Patton met a songwriter named Eden Ahbez and helped convince Nat King Cole to record Ahbez’s song “Nature Boy” which became a hit.
Patton also may have helped songwriter Stan Jones present Jones’s song “Ghost Riders in the Sky” to Vaughn Monroe who had a hit with the tune in 1949. However, Jones’s biography failed to mention Patton.
Patton returned to the Capital District, opened a health food store, did radio shows and performed with his band. At one point, HillbillyMusic.com reported Patton had six health food stores.
From 1949 to 1965, he operated a dude ranch called Sunset Ranch in Broadalbin.
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A 1952 Recorder ad reported Patton was doing a show from Lansing Beach Ranch in Broadalbin over Albany radio station WROW. A 1955 ad from the Schenectady Gazette stated Patton then operated Lansing Beach Ranch, renamed Sunset Ranch, which was having a giant horse pull and a broadcast by Gloversville station WENT.
Roamin’ Around, a 1976 column in the Leader Herald, stated Patton was appearing in a movie filmed mainly in Brazil called Inspiration: The Polish Cowboy Rides Again.
The column expressed the hope the movie would be popular in Brazil, the United States and Europe, especially Poland.
Patton was living in Nashville when he died in the 1990s or later. He had purchased a recording studio there.
My conversations with Patton were arranged by Amsterdam country music performer and radio host Dusty Miller. Miller, whose real name was Elmer Rossi, had a band called the Colorado Wranglers.
Miller’s brother in law Barry Frank frequently performed with Miller’s band. Frank was a radio engineer well known in the Capital District.
Miller had a day job stocking cigarette and other vending machines in the area. In later years he delivered medicines from a Guy Park Avenue pharmacy to local customers.
Dusty Miller was promoted as the entertainment at Patton’s Sunset Ranch on July 4 in 1957.
The Colorado Wranglers had a long run at Amsterdam’s Bob’s Tavern. Miller managed to fit an Amsterdam radio show into his schedule well into his eighties.
Miller’s last radio show on WCSS featured interviews with Amsterdam’s myriad characters, ranging from bartenders to former talk show hosts to country singers
“I like country music because it shows life as it is,” Miller said.
When he died in 1998 Dusty Miller was buried wearing his beautiful cowboy clothes.
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Professor Scott Manning Stevens, a citizen of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, is currently working on a book-length project dealing with these issues between Native American nations and museums. While his focus is largely on Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) communities, he hopes this work will serve as a template for broader application amongst other Indigenous cultures and the museums in which they are represented by collections and exhibits. Stevens considers the many challenges for museums in overcoming the legacy of misappropriation and misrepresentation of Indigenous cultures.
Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX) will host a conversation with Professor Scott Manning Stevens looking at the complicated issues around Native American nations, their histories, and their relationships with museums, set for this evening, Monday, January 24, 2022. He will discuss the terms of the debate and some possible solutions for moving forward.
Mohawk Valley Weather for a new week, Monday, January 24, 2022
Today
Partly sunny, with a high near 21. Wind chill values as low as -1. Light and variable wind becoming west around 5 mph.
Tonight
Light snow likely, mainly between 10pm and 4am. Cloudy, with a low around 16. Light southeast wind. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Tuesday
Scattered snow showers, mainly before 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 31. Light and variable wind becoming west 10 to 15 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Mohawk Valley News, Monday, January 24, 2022
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