Biography

Besides being a popular radio singer, he recorded hundreds of records, as one of the prominent studio vocalists. His smooth, honest style of singing was featured on many important hot jazz sides of the late 1920s and early 1930s (a good example of his vocal style on a great hot jazz record is his vocal on Frank Traumbauer's version of "Happy Feet" from 1930, which is available on CD). He also had his own band for a time during the early 1930s.

According to Don Creacy in an in-depth article on Smith in "Classic Images" (April 2010), the cowboy actor retired from Hollywood and moved to Fort Worth, TX, where he became a manager in the missiles division of an aircraft company.

At various points in his career he sang and/or played guitar with Ben Pollack's Orchestra, Hal Kemp and His Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Ted Fio Rito Orchestra.

Contrary to popular opinion, Ballew did NOT dub John Wayne's singing voice in Riders of Destiny (1933), which is generally considered to be the first "singing" western. Wayne's voice was dubbed by Bill Bradbury, an actor who was the son of the film's director, Robert N. Bradbury.

Attended the University of Texas and got his first part-time job as a singer on a local radio station.