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If
you’re an older East Texan, the chances are good that you remember
Lum and Abner, the lovable proprietors of the Jot ‘Em Down Store in
Pine Ridge, Arkansas.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the Lum and Abner radio show was one of America’s
most popular radio shows, often outranking Amos and Andy and Jack
Benny. On the first weekend each June in Mena, Arkansas--where Chet
Lauck (Lum) and Norris Goff (Abner) grew up and started their careers--the
Lum and Abner Festival pays tribute to the duo with musical performances,
reenactments of their radio shows, the showing of some of their seven
movies, music of all types, and special events like baby-crawling
contests and antique tractor shows.
You will always find at the festival an ample crowd of East Texans
who have driven up Highway 41 between New
Boston, Texas, and Mena, a distance of about 90 miles.
Lum and Abner started their careers with an imitation of Amos and
Andy and in 1931, they were scheduled to appear in Hot Springs. But
on their way they passed through the small town of Waters, stopped
at a local store, and decided at the last minute to appear as two
old-time Arkansas storekeepers. They invented the names of “Pine Ridge”
and “the Jot ‘Em Down Store.”
Their popularity took off and just three months later they made their
national radio debut on NBC Radio from Chicago with Quaker Oats as
their first sponsor.
For the next 25 years they delighted American audiences. Their radio
show was lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.
By 1953, television was the rage in America and Lauck and Goff developed
a television plot, but Goff’s health problems were too much for him.
So Lum and Abner retired.
Lauck moved to Houston,
worked as a public relations man for Conoco Oil Company and continued
to speak throughout the U.S.
One night in the 1960s, while I was working for the Houston Chronicle,
Doris and I drove from Lufkin
to Crockett to report
on a chamber of commerce banquet where Lauck was speaking.
When the event ended, the chamber’s manager asked us to drive Lauck
back to the Lufkin
airport in our car.
So, for the next hour, Chet Lauck joined us in our Volkswagen, his
six-foot frame folded in the front seat, and talked about Lum and
Abner.
Lauck had the ability to do all of the voices on the old radio show:
Cedric Weehunt, Grandpappy Spears, Squire Skimp--and even his partner
Abner Peabody. It was a marvelous, one-man radio show that Doris and
I will remember the rest of our lives.
Bob Bowman's East Texas May
23, 2010 Column
A weekly column syndicated in 70 East Texas newspapers
Copyright Bob Bowman |
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