Ozark Jubilee - Legacy

Legacy

After cancellation by ABC, live performances from the Jewell Theatre continued over KWTO-AM (with 15 minutes carried by NBC Radio on Saturday afternoons through 1961), and groups of cast members continued making personal appearances. The theater was demolished five months later in February 1961; a marker in Jubilee Park, dedicated in 1988, notes its location at 216 South Jefferson Ave. Cast and production crew members held reunions at the 1988 dedication, in October 1992, and in April 1999.

The Jubilee was culturally significant for giving millions of urban and suburban American viewers their first regular exposure to country music. As Webb Pierce told TV Guide in 1956, "Once upon a time, it was almost impossible to sell country music in a place like New York City. Nowadays, television takes us everywhere, and country music records and sheet music sell as well in large cities as anywhere else." In return, the Jubilee gave many of the biggest names in country music their first experiences performing on television.

The program also gave national exposure to a number of female country music pioneers, including Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Wanda Jackson, Jan Howard, Jean Shepard, Kitty Wells and Norma Jean; the show also featured a local African-American group, the Philharmonics. It represented the peak of Red Foley's career, who had been America's top country star since World War II and who remains one of the biggest-selling country artists of all time. Finally, the Jubilee in many ways laid the groundwork for neighboring Branson, Missouri to become America's top country music tourist destination.

The program was the subject of a 1993 book, Remembering the Ozark Jubilee; and in 2003, Ozarks Public Television released an hour-long documentary, Ozark Jubilee: A Living Legacy. Cast and crew gathered once again for its premiere at the Landers Theatre.

Streets in a residential neighborhood of nearby Nixa, Missouri include Ozark Jubilee Drive, Red Foley Court, Slim Wilson Boulevard, Bill Ring Court, Zed Tennis Street and Haworth Court.