ABSTRACT
Not long ago, the late Grandpa Jones was conducting one of his informal seminars on country music history. Several old friends, and a few young ones, were gathered around the picnic table on his patio. “Today it’s all about records,” he said. “People remember you because of your records. But there were a lot of people in the old days that were known as big radio stars who hardly ever made any hit records. They were fine, old-time showmen who knew how to entertain you in person. Big Slim was one of them, and Blue Grass Roy up in Illinois, and Sunshine Sue, who was in Richmond, and Cousin Emmy. The best salesman we ever had on the Opry was Lew Childre. Doctor Lew, they called him. A lot of these new people never heard of him, but if you’d been around here in the 1940s, you’d sure have known who he was.”
