ABSTRACT
Though he was to be associated with Louisville and Kentucky for most of his career, Pee Wee was not born in Kentucky. Nor, in fact, was his name really Pee Wee King. His given name was Frank Kuczynski, and he was born February 14, 1914, in the middle of rich dairy country in Abrams, Wisconsin. His Polish-American father led a local polka band, and by the time he was fifteen, young Frank had gotten his first accordion and was soon leading his own band, playing polkas and cowboy songs on local radio stations. One day cowboy star Gene Autry, then appearing on Chicago’s WLS National Barn Dance, heard the band and hired them as his backup group. It was Autry who gave Frank the name “Pee Wee”; he did so because his new accordion player was, at five foot seven, the smallest member of the band. The King part of the name was borrowed from saxophonist Wayne King, who was a popular radio and recording star in the 1930s, best known for his dreamy “The Waltz You Saved for Me.” In 1934 Autry and Pee Wee moved to WHAS in Louisville, but Autry was beginning to get calls from Hollywood, and after eight months he went to the West Coast to work in films full time.
