Jan 27 2008
Hank Williams: Hey Good Lookin’
In the spring of 1952 the cast of the Grand Old Opry made two trips to New York to appear on the Kate Smith Hour on NBC TV. This clip, from the first appearance, begins with a short comedy sketch with Oprey MC, Roy Acuff and June Carter, which introduces Hank Williams. This was a few months before June married country singer Carl Smith and about four years before she met Johnny Cash. It is interesting to see the contrast between the real June Carter in performance here, and the far more sophisticated June Carter depicted by Reese Witherspoon in the movie “Walk The Line.”
Hank Williams was at the top of his game, here, but would be fired by the Grand Old Opry in October because of his drug and alcohol use. On January 1st 1953 Hank Williams died, possibly from an overdose of morphine, while riding in a chauffeur driven car from Knoxville Tennessee to Canton Ohio for his next gig.
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June Carter is a trip! I remember her being a goof ball!
Hollywood always changes people to what they are not after they are gone.
Stardom changes people to what they are not before they die!
Kyle
Oh I only got to view a peek. My computer is running too slow tonight.
But, thank you so much for this. I was weened on Hank Williams and all of the old country stars.
My mother’s greatest wish was to get a trip to the Grand Ole Opry. She had seen all of these stars at the Louissiana hayride and churches and such.
She actually dated one of The Wilburn Brothers for a while. And, she was a cousin to Tex Ritter via marriage.
Oh my what memories you just brought back for me. We took my mother to The Grand Ole Oprey just a few years before she passed away. So she did get to go. Oh she used to tell me all the time about seeing all of these stars before they became stars.
Thank you so very,very much!!
I got to see it all tonight. It was great:)