Big Slim, The Lone Cowboy (May 9, 1901 - October 13, 1966) was an important contributor to country music, with a strong, deep singing voice. He was a good representation of the Cowboy Singer/Entertainer that was popular in the 40s and 50s --their singing was augmented with horse and gun tricks --in Slim's case it was his skill with a bullwhip that contributed to his popularity. A big talent, but nowadays his is undeservedly forgotten.
Born Harry Clarence McAuliffe, possibly near Bluefield, Mercer County, West Virginia, The year of his birth remains obscure, due to what has been politely described as ‘his own capacity for contradictory statements’. Big Slim claimed that his birth year was between 1899 and 1905, although 1901 is on his grave stone.
He also claimed that he was born on a 750-acre farm but on other occasions said it was Bluefield, and there have even been claims that he was born in Pennsylvania. He may well have, as he always claimed, worked both as a cowboy and on the railroad, before gaining radio work in Pittsburgh in 1929.
He certainly had considerable skill with horses, which he later used to great effect in his stage act. It has also been alleged that he worked on the border radio station at Eagle Pass, Texas. On 17 December 1936, in New York, as Big Slim Aliff and with only his own guitar, he recorded four sides for Decca Records, including the first recording of ‘Footprints In The Snow’, a song that is now a country standard. In 1937, he joined WWVA, first as a member of Doc Williams’ band but he soon became one of the Wheeling Jamboree’s most loved stars.
Although, on occasions, he made some appearances on other stations, he spent most of his career at WWVA and never made the big time outside his home state. He possessed a strong deep voice and his renditions of western songs, such as ‘Strawberry Roan’ and ‘Patanio, The Pride Of The Plains’, endeared him to radio listeners and live audiences alike. Along with his horse, Golden Flash, Slim’s skill with a bullwhip was part of his stage act.
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| Big Slim with Toby Stroud & Johnnie Hill as The Happy Ranch Gang from the Wheeling Jamboree |
He had many aliases and variations of his name over the years, such as Big Slim, Big Slim Ailiff, Big Slim Aliff, Big Slim Mac Aulife, Big Slim of WWVA and Slim McAuliffe.
He copyrighted some songs including ‘On the Sunny Side of the Mountain’, although some of his claims for authorship have been disputed. In the late 40s, he made recordings for Dixie and Page and some years later, he had three albums released by the Canadian Arc label.
Surrounded by what was no doubt his own carefully spun mixture of fact and fiction, he was an important contributor to country music, not only through his personal input but certainly for the fact that both Hank Snow and Hawkshaw Hawkins owed a great deal to Big Slim for his help in the early stages of their careers.
Snow relates a considerable amount of information about their association in his autobiography. Big Slim married Beatrice Benard Reinbeau and had a son Kenneth G. Aliff (1955 – 2016). Big Slim died on13 October 1966, New York, USA and is buried at Wheeling, West Virginia.