Biography

Hofner was born in Lavaca County, Texas near Moulton

Moulton, Texas

Moulton is a town in Lavaca County, Texas, United States. The population was 944 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Moulton is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....

 into a family of Czech-German origin. He grew up listening to Czech- and Hawaiian music. When he was ten years old his family moved to San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...

. He and his younger brother Emil, together with Simon Garcia, formed the "Hawaiian Serenaders" performing locally. Influenced by Milton Brown

Milton Brown

Milton Brown was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid, thus giving him the nickname, "Father of Western Swing"...

 and His Brownies, Hofner decided to become a singer in a Western Swing band. In the mid 1930s, he joined Jimmie Revard's Oklahoma Playboys and in October 1936, he made his first recordings with them as singer and guitarist. Hofner made his solo debut in 1938 when he was offered a contract with Bluebird Records

Bluebird Records

Bluebird Records is a sub-label of RCA Victor Records originally created in 1932 to counter the American Record Company in the "3 records for a dollar" market. Along with ARC's Perfect Records, Melotone Records and Romeo Records, and the independent US Decca label, Bluebird became one of the best...

. With support from Eli Oberstein, the recording manager of Bluebird, Hofner formed a swing band "Adolph Hofner and His Texans". They made their recording debut on April 5, 1938 and they played their first gig outside Leming on May 13, 1939. Meanwhile he recorded with "Tom Dickey's Show Boys". Hofner had his first and biggest hit in 1940 with "Maria Elena".

In 1941, Hofner signed a recording contract with Okeh

Okeh Records

Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...

. During World War II, he and his band was hired by Foreman Phillips' chain of dance halls to perform around Los Angeles under the name of "Dolph Hofner and His San Antonians". Some of his hits during this period were "Cotton-Eyed Joe", "Alamo Rag", and "Jessie Polka". Despite his relative success, he failed to have his contract renewed and he returned to Texas. Sponsored by Pearl Beer in 1950, Hofner formed the "Pearl Wranglers" performing at KTSA in San Antonio with their musical mix of swing, country, rockabilly, and polka. They recorded for the obscure Sarg label.

Among the Czech-American songs they recorded, many with the original Czech lyrics, are the "Happy Go Lucky Polka", "Prune Walz", "Barbara Polka", "Geen Meadow Polka", and "Farewell to Prague" ("Kdyz Jsme Opustili Prahu"). In order to accommodate their sponsor, Pearl Beer, the Hofners recorded the original version of "Farewell to Prague", which had been known in the old country, instead of the more recent Czech-American "Shiner Beer Polka," the same song with the word Prague (Prahu) changed to Shiner. This avoided the implied reference to the rival Spoetzl brewery in Shiner, Spoetzl's being closely identified with the "Shiner Beer Polka." The brothers could not however resist inserting a joke in Czech at the end of the recording, when one of the Hofners asks the other to "give me a dark beer" ("Daj mne cervene pivo"), Spoetzl's Shiner Bock being the most well-known dark beer in Texas at that time, as it remains today. The other brother firmly replies, "No!" ("Ne!").

In the mid-1980s, Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers were filmed at the Farmer's Daughter dance hall for the British Channel 4 series "The A to Z of C & W". Hofner's career ended in 1993 when he suffered a stroke. He died in June 2000.

Discography

• Texas-Czech, Bohemian and Moravian Bands - Arhoolie/Folklyric Records (1980)
• South Texas Swing - Arhoolie/Folklyric Records (1980)
• Country - Frémeaux Records
• Western Swing: Texas 1928-1944 - Frémeaux Records
• Hillbilly Blues 1928-1946 - Frémeaux Records
• Doughboys, Playboys, and Cowboys - Proper Records