Vintage Shirt by Nutya Kotlyarenko aka NUDIE Cohn

This shirt was tailored by Cohn for Army Sgt. Theodore C. Clemens, aka “Cowboy Clem.”

The Sgt was a singing cowboy and rodeo performer who served as a radio DJ on the US Military’s Far East Network (FEN) during the war and post-war periods.

The FEN (established 1942, absorbed into the Armed Forces Network in 1991) broadcast American radio and television programming to the island nations of the Pacific. While the network’s target audience was U.S. Forces and civilian support stationed in Japan, Okinawa, the Philippines, Guam, and Hawaii — the broadcasts also reached millions of locals. Cowboy Clem is credited as the person who introduced Japan to country music.

The secondary photo displays Clem in the shirt with his wife Masako Inoue Clemens and their daughter Jo-Ann.

Masako, also known as Patsy Inoue, a world-renowned, classically trained soprano in her own right, was a featured soloist for the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation Chorus when she met Clem in Osaka. The pair would marry and eventually settle in Pennsylvania. Masako lived to be 100, dying June 3rd of 2020.

Pit-to-pit 21.5”
Cuff-to-collar 31”