Separate photos of Hank Williams playing guitar and singing with a sneer, and Jack Benny holding his hands to his face. Both from around 1950.
1/15
As a fan of both, I was intrigued to see vaudeville/radio comedian Jack Benny mentioned in a biography of Hank Williams. It was only a brief mention, but the context was interesting, as was the fact that their paths even crossed at all.
⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ THREAD⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
Bernadette Devlin campaigning for election. She's a white woman sat on a fence and holding a poster reading "vote people's democracy - jobs for all - houses for all - votes for all".
#OnThisDay, 22 April 1969, Bernadette Devlin makes her maiden speech in the House of Parliament in London. An Irish Republican, she had rejected their tradition of abstention in order to take her seat. She remained an MP until 1974.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #BritishHistory 🗃️
Joan Blondell is APO.
Other Men's Women (1931) (her third film).
Promo shot of the Beverly Hillbillies TV show cast in their jalopy on the streets of Beverly Hills.
15/15
At the end of the episode in the spoken credits, announcer Don Wilson referred to the sketch as the "Beverly Hillbillies", 11 years before Paul Henning's hit sitcom of the same name (and culture clash vibe) debuted on CBS, Benny's network.
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A young James Osterberg, later known as Iggy Pop, sits on a drum stool wearing a suit and sunglasses.
Iggy Pop (ca. 1964)
H/t Miriam Linna
14/15
Although I'm ashamed to say I laughed the first time I saw it, in fact the costumes and dialogue were pretty outrageous mockery of "rural oriented" people, and almost surely a reaction of Benny's (uncharacteristically snobby) impression of Williams and Pearl, and/or their audience.
Blurry screenshot of Jack Benny TV show hillbilly sketch.
13/15
Benny, his show's band members, and others including a 10 year old girl, were all hillbillied up playing "You are My Sunshine" on fiddles etc.
8 photos of the same woman in various poses
Contact sheet of Billie Holiday recording the album Music for Touching
Phil Stern, 1955
Cover of Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams by Paul Hemphill
This is the one I read. I know there are several out there.
Artist Title Toots & the Maytals 54-46 - That's My Number Caesar & His Romans Black Lantern The Beatles Dear Prudence Dionne Warwick Do You Know the Way to San Jose The Kinks Do You Remember Walter? The Beatles Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey Loretta Lynn Fist City Jeannie C. RIley Harper Valley PTA Chocolate Watchband I Aint No Miracle Worker Velvet Underground I Heard Her Call My Name Velvet Underground Lady Godiva's Operation Steppenwolf Magic Carpet Ride Merle Haggard Mama Tried Reparata & The Delrons Panic Blue Cheer Parchment Farm
#YearPlaylist: 1968 Part 1
Far more chart entries than normal for me this year.
Magic Carpet Ride and Mama Tried were on the jukebox at the bar I frequented in college.
Panic was covered by a friend's band.
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Posed studio promo portrait of singer Dorothy Shay
12/15
The show featured Dorothy Shay, "The Park Avenue Hillbilly". She sang a (pop) song, then introduced a sketch featuring "some of her kin folk", "Zeke Benny and the Mad Mountain Men" ...
A billboard in the desert, advertising the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, a local TV station, and RCA color TVs.
Billboard in Arizona (1962)
Photo: Outdoor Advertising Association of America Archives, Duke University Libraries
11/15
While Jack Benny didn't seem to have any such issues, he did do a TV sketch a few months later that must have been inspired by the Hadacol tour experience.
Image taken from an airplane showing the Irish coast and Atlantic ocean along with blue skies and white clouds.
West coast of Ireland (2024)
Promo shot of Bob Hope for the film Paleface
10/15
"When it finally subsided, Hope shuffled onto the stage, wearing the oversized cowboy hat he had worn in his recent movie 'Paleface', and said, 'Just call me Hank Hope.'" Afterwards, he begged not to have to follow Williams again.
9/15
Next time Bob Hope was set to close the show, "Hank went all out, whipping up the crowd and taking so many encores that the promoter couldn't even introduce Hope over the roar of the crowd."
Hank Williams and band at work on stage at the Opry
8/15
"...the crowd loved it, but not one of the [Drifting] Cowboys [Hank's band] did - they confronted Berle and threatened to break a guitar over his head if he did that when Hank was singing one of his sad songs of unrequited love."
Photo: Ralph G. Morrissey / U. of Tennessee-Knoxville
Milton Berle clowning
7/15
According to the book, Hope and Berle "ran afoul of Hank's drawing power. Berle, for example, had tactlessly whipped out a bandanna and begun faking a crying jag for all to see while [Dick] Haymes sang 'Old Man River'..."
A man sitting on the front of a red car parked on the side of a road smiling.
Man with Pontiac Silver Streak, USA (ca. 1940s-50s)
Photo: Dave's Old Slides on Flickr
Promo photo of Minnie Pearl and Hank Williams, stars of the Grand Ole Opry.
6/15
According to Hank Williams' biographer, Hollywood comedians Milton Berle & Bob Hope mocked Hank and co-star Minnie Pearl, who they hadn’t really known before, on stage. But the tour was in Opry country, so that didn’t go down well. Hope wound up asking the promoter not to have to follow Hank.⬇️
Wall plaque with five long narrow columns of text reading "Jane Doe" repeated up and down the wall. A flower arrangement is set in front of it.
Wall of Jane Does - memorial to the thousands of women who died of illegal abortions (1989)
Photo: Owen Brewer / Center for Sacramento History
5/5
Hadacol was viral craze, especially in the south. There were even records made about it.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a43h...
A bottle of Hadacol and the box it came packaged in.
4/15
The Hadacol elixir, a "miracle" cure for whatever ails you.
Sold as a vitamin supplement, its main attraction was that it contained 12% alcohol (listed on the label as a preservative), making it very popular in the dry counties of the southern United States." ⬇️
Image: Smithsonian Institution
Maybe not everyone in the Clampett family, and not all of the locals in Green Acres, but many of them. Eddie Albert and Eva Gabors characters were the stars but they came off losing every time. Mr Drysdale was a jackass, etc.
Benny came from vaudeville, where "ethnic humor" was a cornerstone, so despite not being racist he did do this.
Paul Henning's rural sitcoms played on the stereotypes but also made the "hillbilly" protagonists look better in the end, in terms of morality or intelligence, than the city slickers...
Front and back pages of the Hadacol Caravan show promo program.
Promo sheet advertising the program of the Hadacol Caravan show.
3/15
The book noted Benny's participation in the Hadacol Caravan Show, a modern-day, large-scale medicine show touring across the south with major talent drawn from both the regional rural and national urban traditions.
Cover of album Hank Williams and the Drifting Cowboys - Rare Radio Programmes - 1949 - Four Complete Shows
Yes, I bought this album in the '80s but didn't know (or forgot?) that Hadacol was the sponsor...
The stage of the Grand Ole Opry radio show in Nashville, Tenn. A band is on stage. Audience members can be seen. Stage lights above and additional musicians and crew members can been seen.
1930s postcard shows Radio City, Hollywood, Calif., new studios of CBS and NBC
2/15
Hank’s career was short, and although it coincided with Benny’s peak years in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s, they were stars in two completely different domains: the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and national radio/TV in Hollywood. ⬇️
#LookAndSee 380
#MusicChallenge
Bob Dylan - Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
youtu.be/06znpusKfwM
#LookAndSee 380
#MusicChallenge
Buddy Holly - Baby Won't You Come Out Tonight (1956)
youtu.be/e2HUTFIJ7VQ
