Alberta Slim
Alberta Slim - Aka Eric Charles Edwards; country
singer/song writer/circus performer; CKCK Regina 1937-40; CFQC Saskatoon
1940-45; CKRM Regina 1945-47; entertainer Rangers Cabin and
host/entertainer 15 minute morning segment CKNW New Westminster
1947-52; entertainer at fairs and folk festivals; CBC-TV national special
Canada Day 2002; entertained at Victoria Rootsfest August 2002; Pioneer and
Lifetime Achievement Award, BC Country Music Association 2003. Died in Surrey BC November 25, 2005 at age 95.
Jenny
Gabruch in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on July 17, 2002
Born in
England, in 1910 he emigrated to Canada with his parents and six siblings
settling on a ranch near Lloydminster, Alberta. Eric loved to sing and he had
great encouragement from his piano-playing dad. It wasn’t very long until he
had his own guitar and he began to hear a fellow named Wilf Carter singing over
a Calgary radio station. Wilf became his
hero, and like Wilf, he began to write songs himself. A friend who was going
into the army gave him some of his shirts on which was stitched "Alberta
Slim". They were the right fit and wore well. People began to call him
"Alberta Slim". Eric Edwards became "Alberta Slim, the Yodelling
Cowboy".
Times were
tough during The Great Depression, and there were virtually no opportunities
for work in the west, let alone what Slim loved doing best – singing. As many
young Canadians did, he climbed aboard an eastbound freight train, riding the
rails as far as Regina where he
jumped off to find something to eat and a place to sleep. The Salvation Army’s
hospitality and the generosity of Reginians have never been forgotten. A chap
told Slim about a daily radio program on CKCK sponsored by the Army and Navy
Department Store and suggested that he might be able to earn a buck or two if
he could get to sing on it. Slim went to the store and somehow got to meet the
owner – Sam Cohen. Mr. Cohen told Slim that he would have to see Bill Schultz
who ran the program, but suggested that he might "tidy up" before he
did. Slim was unshaven, his clothes were worn, torn and dirty from his travels
and he was broke. Sam Cohen called to a clerk and said "dress this
man".
Slim met
Bill Schultz at CKCK and Bill gave him his first radio broadcast. Radio became
the springboard that launched Slim’s career. No pay, mind you – but the
opportunity to "sell" his talent over the air to the people of Saskatchewan and to
advertise his personal appearances and dances in the small towns throughout the
province. He also produced and sold postcards with pictures of himself as did
other performers – the proceeds often exceeding other earnings. After three
years, in 1940 Slim moved to Saskatoon and struck
up a similar relationship with CFQC. Soon he was working six mornings a week.
From 1945-47, Slim returned to Regina and sang
on CJRM and then he and his Saskatoon-wed wife Pearl moved to
BC, landing a morning show on CKNW. From this base, Slim began taking a show on
the road, and in due course became a fixture at country fairs, stampedes and
jamborees that went on for decades.
At 92 and
still not in retirement, from his home in Surrey, British Columbia, Alberta
Slim could look back on a lifetime career of singing, writing songs about
Canada, and making records – a dozen albums no less for RCA --- most of which
were transferred into a package of five CD’s.
He could
well remember when he had his own circus, with a harmonica-playing elephant he
named "Susie", trick horses, a blue donkey, singing dogs, a dancing
bear and his own horse "Kitten", who told fortunes.
Jumping off
that freight in Regina in the
dirty 30s was, for Alberta Slim, a fortuitous decision.
BC Radio History