“The Beverly Hillbillies” premiered on CBS in the fall of 1962, chronicling the misadventures of the Clampetts, a family from the Ozark mountains of Missouri who become suddenly wealthy when they strike oil on their property and move to Southern California. The series starred Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett, Donna Douglas as his daughter Elly May, and Irene Ryan as “Granny” Daisy Mae.
The show’s opening sequence showed the Clampetts arriving in Beverly Hills in their overloaded truck, with Jed’s nephew Jethro Bodine (Max Baer, Jr.) at the wheel and a shotgun-toting Granny perched behind him. In between Granny and Elly May sits Duke, the family bloodhound, who was played by a father and son pair of purebred hounds during the show’s nine-season run.
The truck the Clampetts drove was a 1921 Oldsmobile 43-A roadster affectionately known as the “Swamp Rat.” The car’s rear had been hacked off and replaced with a truck bed, and legendary Hollywood vehicle customizer George Barris (he also built the original Batmobile) found it in Fontana, California, behind a feed store. Eventually, four more copies of the Swamp Rat were made for the show, but only one still survives.
The Swamp Rat is in a Missouri museum
The original truck was donated to the Ralph Foster Museum in Branson, Missouri, by series creator Paul Henning. A letter from Henning to the museum detailing how he intends to deliver the car is also on display, and Granny’s rocking chair and shotgun remain in their rightful places behind the driver’s seat.
Ralph Foster was a radio station executive who also created the television program “Ozark Jubilee” to showcase some of the region’s musical talent. He strove to make Springfield a rival to Nashville as a country music mecca in the 1950s and likely significantly influenced the emergence of Branson as a modern-day destination for country music artists and fans.
The museum that bears his name is situated on the College of the Ozarks campus. Along with the Clampetts’ car, the museum now houses exhibits featuring antique firearms, Native American artifacts, a Rolls Royce Phantom II, and an array of music industry memorabilia, including instruments, costumes, and gold records from artists like Roy Acuff, Brenda Lee, Eddie Rabbit, and Barbara Mandrell.
