Paul Henning, the man who created The Beverly Hillbillies, was a certified “genius” — at least according to Irene Ryan, the actress who played Granny.
“He’s been right on everything so far,” Ryan told The Marshall News Messenger, per MeTV. That applied to everything, from the sitcom’s concept to production to publicity. Before the show’s premiere, “he didn’t want too much put out about the show, didn’t want it oversold, and had all his people photographed in character.” The promotional strategy worked, with The Beverly Hillbillies finishing as TV’s top program during its first two seasons and landing in the top 20 in eight of its nine seasons.
Ryan must have believed her casting was genius as well, especially since she had struggled to land an audition. Her agent suggested her for the part, “but the casting department thought I was too young,” she said. “You’re always too young or too old, too fat or too thin.”
But Ryan had worked with genius Henning before, and arranged a meeting. “I went to his office, chatted for a few moments, and he handed me a script of Hillbillies to read,” she remembered. “It was what I’d gone there for but hadn’t mentioned the fact. When I read it, I knew it was for me and said so.”
Her straightforward request won her an audition and eventually a role. Henning let her know by calling Ryan on the phone and asking, “How are you, Granny?”
The sitcom genius, however, has a slightly different recollection of how Ryan landed the role. He had another actress pestering him for the part as well — Bea Benaderet, who Henning would eventually cast in the Beverly Hillbillies spin-off Petticoat Junction. Benaderet “was more than just a good actress,” Henning told the Television Academy. “She was, in my opinion, a fine judge of material, and I asked her to read the (Hillbillies) script.” She not only loved the script but lobbied to play Granny herself.
“You’re not built like my picture of Granny,” Henning informed her.
In Henning’s memory, he ran into Ryan one day on the Universal lot. He knew her from earlier sitcom guest spots and asked her if she could play a hillbilly.
“Are you kidding?” Ryan asked. She told Henning about working in a stock company where an Arkansas theater manager wouldn’t let the crowds in until right before the curtain. The stage manager’s reason: If he let the masses in before the show started, they’d whittle away the seat handles. “So,” the actress concluded, “I know hillbilly.”
Ryan and Benaderet both showed up for the auditions, but it didn’t take long for Benaderet to figure out the show’s future. “As soon as Irene Ryan read the part,” Henning revealed, “Bea came over to me and she says, ‘There’s Granny.’”
Maybe Benaderet was the real genius all along.
