FALLEN MUSICIANS HAVE LONG FASCINATED DENNIS QUAID

(PRLEAP.COM) LOS ANGELES, CA – Spade Cooley, the self-proclaimed King of Western Swing, rose to prominence in the 1940s, but the popular fiddler and bandleader’s life was dramatically changed in 1961 when he stomped his estranged wife, Ella Mae, to death while his teenage daughter, Melody, looked on.

In December 2004, actor-director Dennis Quaid, star of last summer’s blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow’, announced plans to direct and star in a bio-pic of the controversial swing musician’s life. Katie Holmes ("Wonder Boys’) is slated to co-star with Quaid as Cooley’s long-suffering wife.

"This is the culmination of a life-long fascination Dennis has had with fallen musicians,’ says author and journalist Rodger Jacobs, 47, who first met Quaid in 1980 while working as a research consultant on the western "The Longriders’.

In the early 80s, Jacobs says, Quaid, like many in Hollywood, became a hobbyist in the newly-burgeoning world of home video.

"Dennis toyed with the idea of becoming a documentary film-maker,’ Jacobs remarks.

Quaid found a subject for his lens in a down-and-out former jazz pianist who lived at a soup kitchen in L.A.’s infamous Skid Row, 50 blocks of downtown asphalt and sidewalk sprawled between Third Street to Seventh Street and Main to Alameda.

Jacobs writes about one of his Skid Row excursions with Quaid in the short story "Dennis Quaid and the Piano Man’ from the just-published book "Christopher Walken and the Tuna Fish Sandwich and Other L.A. Stories.’

"Dennis’ fascination with this aging black piano man was intense and remarkable to watch,’ says Jacobs. "There seemed to be something personal there, perhaps an obsession with unresolved talent and a fall from grace.’

Known for his dimpled smile and his insouciant manner, Quaid, 51, suffered from his own fall from grace in the early 90’s after he admitted to cocaine dependency. After cleaning up his act, the younger brother of actor Randy Quaid, seemingly forgotten by film-makers and movie-goers, struck back with powerhouse performances in "The Rookie’ and "Far From Heaven’ (2002). He is currently starring in the remake of "The Flight of the Phoenix’ and "In Good Company’.

Aside from acting, Quaid is also a musician and often performs with his band, Dennis Quaid and the Sharks.

"Given Dennis’ fascination with the subject matter, I think the Spade Cooley project could be the crowning achievement of Quaid’s career,’ says Jacobs.

The title of the bio-pic is "Shame On You’, taken from the theme song during Cooley’s long-running television career that also became his epitaph.

On April 3, 1961, Cooley kicked, beat, and strangled to death former singer Ella Mae Cooley while forcing their 14-year old daughter to watch. The disgraced musician was found guilty of first-degree murder in August 1961 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Cooley was a model prisoner at the state penitentiary in Vacaville, CA. In November 1969 he was afforded a three-day leave to appear at a sheriff’s benefit concert in Oakland. He succumbed to a fatal heart attack back stage shortly after his final appearance before an appreciative crowd.

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