“The Beverly Hillbillies” premiered on CBS in the fall of 1962
“The Beverly Hillbillies” premiered on CBS in the fall of 1962, chronicling the misadventures of the CLAMPetts, a family from the Ozark mountains of Missouri who suddenly became wealthy while drilling for oil. on his property and moved to Southern California. The film stars Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett, Donna Douglas as his daughter Elly May, and Irene Ryan as “Grandma” Daisy Mae.
The show’s opening sequence shows the CLAMPers arriving in Beverly Hills in their overloaded truck, with Jed’s nephew Jethro Bodine (Max Baer, Jr.) behind the wheel and a shotgun-toting grandmother in the back he. In between Granny and Elly May is Duke, the family beagle, played by a purebred father-son beagle pair throughout the show’s nine seasons.
The truck the CLAMPetts drove was a 1921 Oldsmobile 43-A roadster humorously called the “Swamp Rat”. The car’s rear had been cut off and replaced with a truck bed, and legendary Hollywood tuner George Barris (who also built the original Batmobile) found it in Fontana, California, behind a wing. door. animal feed products. Ultimately, four more Swamp Rat clones were created for the show, but only one survived.
The truck was originally donated by series creator Paul Henning to the Ralph Foster Museum in Branson, Missouri. A letter from Henning to the museum detailing how he planned to deliver the car is also on display, and her rocking chair and shotgun remain behind the driver’s seat.
Ralph Foster was a radio executive who also created the television show “Ozark Jubilee” to showcase some of the area’s musical talent. He tried to make Springfield a rival to Nashville as a country music mecca in the 1950s and likely significantly influenced Branson’s emergence as a modern-day destination for artists. Country music fans and musicians.
The museum bearing his name is located on the campus of the College of the Ozarks. Along with CLAMP’s car, the museum also displays antique guns, Native American artifacts, a Rolls Royce Phantom II and a variety of music industry memorabilia, including musical instruments and costumes. and profile. gold from artists such as Roy Acuff, Brenda Lee. , Eddie Rabbit and Barbara Mandrell.