The Beverly Hillbillies
- Actor
- Soundtrack
The Beverly Hillbilles were created by three (Los Angeles radio
station)KMPC executives; station owner Raymond MacMillan (R.S.MacMillan
Petroleum Company), station manager Glen Rice, and staff announcer
(John McIntire). In an effort to
boost the station's ratings, their scenario was based on a fictional
group of characters, a group of Ozark refugees who lived in a remote
hollow in the mountains near Beverly Hills. Completely out of touch
with civilization, these transplanted mountaineers continued to live in
the mountain style of the 1850s. Rice "was sent" to discover a band of
musicians among these throwbacks. The band he "discovered' were staff
musician and some local talent. The first was accordionist Leo Ezekiel
Mannes, who took the name of (Zeke Manners)
in his new identity as leader of the musical mountaineers band called
(The Beverly Hillbillies.) Local
musicians Tom Murray (as the "Pappy character)and fiddler
(Harry Blaeholder)who was the character
Hank Skillet. Tenor Cyprain Paulette, better known as
(Ezra Paulette), joined the group as the
Ezra Longnecker character. (Aleth Hansen)
was added as the group's guitar player called Lem Giles. The band was
heavily recorded in the 1930-35 years, but it was the radio program
that the Beverly Hillbillies band was most known for; crowds in the
thousands gathered to see the Beverly Hillbillies at personal
appearance and publicity stunts, such as the 15-year-old yodeling
sensation (Elton Britt.) Other musicians who
were part of the band, or later reincarnations, included
(Stuart Hamblen),
(Ken Carson),
(Curley Bradley),
(Wesley Tuttle),
(Lloyd Perryman) and
(Jack Ross).
