Hank by Mark Ribowsky

Author:Mark Ribowsky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright

18

“THE GUN SHOT FOUR TIMES”

In mid-August 1951, Hank Williams was on the marquee of a medicine show like no other. It was a lavish, star-studded, ten-week affair sponsored by the snake oil he sold on the radio. Called the Hadacol Caravan, this decadent traveling show was Dudley LeBlanc’s second such venture pushing his 20 proof miracle cure. In 1950, drunk with success, and perhaps Hadacol’s main ingredient, he had put together the first, a procession of 130 trucks all painted white with the letters HADACOL in black, playing on one-night stands throughout the South, the Midwest, and the West Coast.

Tens of thousands of people paid admission with multiples of twenty-five-cent Hadacol boxtops to see talent LeBlanc had paid top dollar for. At each stop there would be a parade through the center of town to the fairgrounds, the trucks separated by giant blow-up balloons shaped like elephants. Bands played, chorus girls danced, circus acts flew through the air with ease.

Seeing even bigger profits, LeBlanc traded the trucks for a seventeen-Pullman-car train called the Hadacol Special. The shows featured bicycle giveaways, beauty contests, and clowns selling Hadacol just like Hank used to sell snake oil off the back of a truck. In what was an amorphous mélange of names that changed almost daily, the stars might be Bob Hope for a few shows, then Milton Berle, then Jimmy Durante, then Jack Benny, supplemented by Dick Haymes, Rudy Vallee, cartoon voice actor Candy Candido, Cesar Romero, and Benny’s stage butler, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. The band was Sharkey Bonano and His Kings of Dixieland, which featured a comedy act by two shucking and jiving black men called Pork Chops and Kidney Stew. Other acts included “the world’s tallest man,” dancers from the Chez Paree nightclub in Chicago, acrobats, magicians, clowns, and beauty queens. Former heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey was given a spot urging crowds to buy Defense Bonds. Minnie Pearl was back for the country set, and with LeBlanc owing a debt of thanks to Hank’s radio pitching, now the biggest hillbilly singer in the land was signed. Hank was allowed to bring with him his Drifting Cowboys band and Big Bill Lister, and permitted to leave on Saturdays to be flown by Minnie’s husband back to Nashville for the Opry, then catch up with the caravan on Sunday mornings.

The tour was scheduled to run through early October, hitting eighteen states, playing on county fair and bandshell stages for the most part, in murderous heat and humidity. It was far bigger and more hectic than any tour Hank had done with the Opry or the Drifting Cowboys, a showcase of high-voltage, vaudeville-trained stars, many of whom were enlisted for Hadacol print ads. LeBlanc was not content to do anything halfway. Hadacol was the second-largest advertiser in the country, behind only Coca-Cola. LeBlanc used the profits to sign up the famous names, boasting that he had spent half a million dollars. Rather than to bring entertainment to the masses, however, the tour was designed

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