Hillbillies become a marketable commodity in the MOzarks
BRANSON MO NEWS:
I have written in past columns about the conflicted relationship we MOzarkers have with the term hillbillies. Personally, I don’t mind being called a hillbilly, but it has been used as a term of derision by non-hillbillies for a long time.
Even Bugs Bunny cartoons got in on the act when Bugs came up against a clan of hillbillies intent on making him into rabbit stew.
Later came “The Beverly Hillbillies” TV show, which was created and produced by a Missourian and had as its main characters a group of hill-folk from the MOzarks. The show even filmed several episodes at Silver Dollar City in the late ’60s. (Google my past columns “Missouri Man Sends Hillbillies to Beverly Hills” and “The Beverly Hillbillies Return to the Ozarks.”)
There have been other people, without the ties to Missouri, who have used hillbillies as humor like the popular comedy play, “Maid in the Ozarks.” (Google my column ‘The Curious Story of “Maid in the Ozarks”’)
Then there was Al Capp’s “Lil’ Abner” comic strip with its Dogpatch denizens. It was never noted that Dogpatch was in the Ozarks, but it made its appearances here anyway. The play, “Lil’ …
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