Production
Ozark Jubilee's first broadcast was December 26, 1953 with an hour-long telecast from the studio of KYTV before a live audience, hosted by Bill Bailey. The two-and-a-half-hour radio version, hosted by Foley, began July 17, 1954 on KWTO from Springfield's 1,100-seat Jewell Theatre, a former movie theater. ABC Radio began carrying 30 minutes of the program August 7, and added another half-hour on a delayed basis on Tuesday nights starting October 5. The KYTV show followed with 90-minute TV simulcasts from the theater starting September 4, 1954.
The program debuted on ABC-TV on January 22, 1955, but the first 14 national telecasts were staged at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri because network television transmission capability from Springfield was not available. Columbia had a microwave transmitter, however, for ABC coverage of University of Missouri football games. After AT&T installed a microwave link in Springfield to transmit to Kansas City (which could feed to the network via Chicago), and modifications were made to the Jewell (including extending the stage and adding a control room), the program returned to the theater with the first broadcast April 30. The show was sent to KYTV by a local microwave link from the station's remote van. Rehearsals for Saturday shows were held on Fridays, with run-throughs Saturday afternoons.
The program used equipment and staff from KYTV, which was then a dual ABC-NBC network affiliate. It debuted using two black-and-white RCA TK-11 cameras with a third added a year later. Vocals of some hit songs were lip-synched. Overhead shots of square dancing and for other creative purposes were accomplished using a large mirror angled above the stage. One 1960 show included an elephant from a visiting Adams & Sells Circus quietly performing on stage behind an "oblivious" Uncle Cyp. The program had two remote broadcasts: June 22, 1957 from the Oklahoma State Fair during the state's semi-centennial; and February 21, 1959 from the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit, Michigan for a Massey Ferguson dealers convention.
In July 1957, Dan Lounsbery, producer of NBC's Your Hit Parade, and its art director, Paul Barnes, were hired by ABC to spend several weeks with the show to improve the sets and pacing. July 6 saw the first program under the name Country Music Jubilee, which, according to ABC Vice President James Aubry Jr., "recognizes the wide popularity of country music."
The Jubilee's executive producers were Crossroads vice presidents Si Siman and John Mahaffey, and the producer-director was Bryan "Walt" Bisney. The co-writers were publicist Don Richardson and Bob "Bevo" Tubert. Fred I. Rains was floor director and Bill Ring frequently served as associate producer. The original scenic designer was Don Sebring; his successor, Andy Miller, later did scenic design for nearby Silver Dollar City and Richardson became its public relations director.
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