Funky cool old thang of the day: Here’s a souvenir belt sold by Ernest Tubb, the Texas Troubadour, back in his commercial heyday of the mid-1940s. It’s a big wide belt made out of plastic, with screenprinted cartoons of Ernest and his Texas Troubadours, and some of Ernest’s biggest hits. I would date this belt from around 1946 or 1947, as Jimmie and Leon Short were gone by 1947. (I haven’t been able to date when this exact lineup existed, with Jimmie and Leon Short, Zeb Turner, Jack Drake and Red Herron, but it was probably early to mid-1947) Pretty amazing to see something that’s eighty years old looking like it was made yesterday! The belt “buckle” is pretty cool too—a crudely sawn-out piece of wood with white paint on it! Can you imagine going to the merch booth at an Ernest Tubb show in 1947 and thinking “Man, I need to wear this crazy four-inch-wide Ernest Tubb belt to school tomorrow to let all the cool kids know I was at the show last night!”
See some close-ups at Deke’s original post.
