Page "Bob Wills" Paragraph 30

He commanded enormous fees playing dances there, and began to make more creative use of electric guitars to replace the big horn sections the Tulsa band had boasted.

For a very brief period in 1944 the Wills band included 23 members., and around mid year he toured Northern California and the Pacific Northwest with 21 pieces in the orchestra. Billboard reported that Wills outgrossed Harry James, Benny Goodman, " both Dorsies, et al.

" at Civic Auditorium in Oakland, California, in January 1944.