MIKE MOUTOUX

LULU BELLE
AND SCOTTY
ON WLS
By Don Cusic
During the 1930s, Lulu Belle and Scotty were one of
the most popular entertainers on radio, known as “The
Sweethearts of Country Music” and “Hayloft Sweethearts.”
They appeared regularly on “The National Barn Dance” on
WLS as part of “The Hayloft Gang.”
However, they did not record as much as many other
popular performers and, outside of Scotty writing “Mountain
Dew,” “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” and
“Remember Me,” have not had the long-term impact as
performers as those with hit recordings.
Radio was the medium of the day, but when the day is
done, those radio broadcasts were gone. If you missed Lulu
Belle and Scotty on the radio then you’ve missed the real Lulu
Belle and Scotty.
The Cooper family lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains
in Boone, North Carolina until 1929 when John Cooper
decided to move the family to Evanston, a suburb of
Chicago. WLS had gone on the air in 1924, named
after its owner, Sears, Roebuck, which was known
as the “World’s Largest Store,” hence WLS. The
Coopers listened regularly to WLS and one
day John Cooper decided that his 16-year old
daughter, christened Myrtle Eleanor Cooper
when she was born on December 24, 1913,
was as good as any of the talent on that
station. In 1932, he took her in to WLS
to audition. Myrtle learned to yodel by
listening on Gene Autry during his early
morning programs at the station but
she had never sung into a microphone
before so Myrtle blasted the ears of those
listening. The station executives turned
her down but invited her to come back
later. Two weeks later she auditioned
again and was hired.
John Lair, program director at WLS,
changed her name to “Lulu Belle” because
“she sounded like a hound dog I once
owned.” He then paired her with Red Foley to
form a comic duet, “Lulu Belle and Burrhead.”
In their routine, she was cast as Foley’s long
lost girlfriend from Berea, Kentucky but Foley’s
wife, Eva, was jealous and insisted that the duo
routine end.
This led to her joining Skyland Scotty as a duet
partner. Scotty Wiseman was born November 8, 1909 in
Ingalls, North Carolina, about 40 miles from where Lulu
was born. Scotty learned folk songs from his mother but,
determined to attend college, went to Duke for a year, then
to Fairmont Teachers College in Fairmont, West Virginia,
where he was an announcer and performer at WMMN.
Bradley Kincaid, the first big star on WLS whose fame came
from singing old British folk songs like “Barbara Allen,” met
Scotty Wiseman through their mutual love of old folk songs
8 | Spring 2016 The WESTERN WAY