We always knew the Hillbillies were high art.
As Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage.” Apparently, that includes the fictional, er, hamlet of Hooterville. The Lyric Theater in Brownwood, Texas, is currently staging a production of The Beverly Hillbillies. If you find yourself smack in the middle of the Lone Star State this weekend, perhaps you might want to check it out, as the final three performances happen tonight, Saturday and Sunday.
To our knowledge, this is the first stage adaptation of the The Beverly Hillbillies, the wildly popular sitcom that aired from 1962–71. “The vision we had was for each of the major characters — particularly the Clampetts and the Drysdales and Miss Hathaway,” director Larry Mathis explained to the Brownwood Bulletin. The dramatis personaæ includes Granny, Jed, Elly May, Jethro, Cousin Pearl, Hathaway and more. Beginning in the Clampetts mountain cabin, the narrative follows Jed and kin as they discover oil, then head west to the good life in Beverly Hills.
The theater constructed three elaborate sets for the affair, including the Clampett cabin, the parlor of their California mansion and Milburn Drysdale’s bank. We’re assuming they have not wrangled a live kangaroo and hippo to recreate those classic sitcom moments.
Playwright David Rogers did take some liberties and introduced new characters. If it does well, may we suggest a Petticoat Junction sequel?
A new book tells the story of the man behind ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and ‘Petticoat Junction’
An unpublished bio of TV legend Paul Henning, written by his wife, has been unearthed.
Paul Henning was working as a soda jerk in his local Brown’s Drugstore when he met Harry Truman. Henning was merely a young man living in Independence, Missouri, while Truman was county judge for Jackson County. The future president advised Henning to go to law school. He did just that.
Yet, decades later, the two men will end up in far different places. Truman, of course, sat in the Oval Office. Henning, on the other hand, created the wildly popular sitcoms The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction.
Between his legal studies and television career, Henning worked as a writer on the radio program The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. There he got his foot in the door and honed his comedy-writing chops.
Henning died in 2005. Luckily, a decade earlier, Ruth Henning, his wife, had written a memoir detailing his early life and showbiz career. Ruth passed in 2002. That’s the couple in the above photo, on the right.
Recently, the Jackson County Historical Society unearthed this manuscript. On September 26, the book, titled The First Beverly Hillbilly: The Untold Story of the Creator of Rural TV Comedy, will at last be published. You can order it now for $27.
The JCHS has another historical gem for fans of the Clampetts. It has posted a 1997 audio interview with Henning, who was 86 at the time. Listen to the interview and check out some exclusive photos at JCHS.org.
