Huey Long (singer) Huey Long (singer) Huey Long (April 25, 1904 – June 10, 2009) was an American jazz and swing singer-songwriter and musician and was a member of the close harmony vocal traditional pop group The Ink Spots. Born in Sealy, Texas, Long began his musical career in 1925 playing banjo for Frank Davis' Louisiana Jazz Band, based in Houston. He switched from the banjo to the guitar after moving to Chicago, where he appeared at the 1933 World's Fair with Texas Guinan's Cuban Orchestra. He performed with artists such as Lil Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson, and his career also encompassed sideman,
Huey Long novel and well-received 1949 movie, earning Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress from the Academy Awards. Long inspired numerous other novelists. Adria Locke Langley's 1945 novel "A Lion Is in the Streets," and its 1953 film adaption starring James Cagney as the charismatic and ambitious but also unscrupulous Huey Long-like populist politician Hank Martin has often been compared to "All the King's Men". Bruce Sterling's "Distraction" features a colorful and dictatorial Louisiana governor named "Green Huey". Harry Turtledove's "American Empire" trilogy drew parallels between Confederate President Jake Featherston's populist, dictatorial style of rule and Long's governorship of Louisiana.