Radio doings (Dec 1930-Jun1932)

ELTON BRITT WHEN Glenn Rice, originator of the Beverly Hill Billies, swooped down into the Ozarks in a tri-motored plan in search of hill billy talent, he got the surprise of his life. Although he had accumulated a fund of information about these mountaineers out of library books, he had naturally supposed that times had changed, and that the old-fashioned hill billy would be a hard specimen to locate. But when he returned in a few weeks with Elton Britt, the 16-year old yodeler who accompanies himself on the "gitter" on the Hill Billy program. Glenn was exuberant, and at the same time, still surprised. The story he told of the finding of Elton was a strange one, but was borne out by the presence of Elton himself, a hov <o A Heal Hill Billy Comes To Tovrn Elton Britt Scarcely Knew What a Radio Was Until Glenn Rice Flew Into the Heart of the Ozarks and Brought Him to Hollywood to Play and Sing with the Beverly Hill Billies. This Article Reveals the True Home Life of the Genuine Hill Billy of Arkansas — That Secluded, Mysterious American Who Still Lives in a Forgotten Century. by Don Frank typically and obviously a hill billy of the first water. When Elton tells the story of his life in the Ozarks it takes one back a hundred years into the past, with a glimpse of home and social life that the civilization-steeped modern finds it hard to conceive of. Elton Britt, the youngest of three boys, was born in Searcy County, in southern Arkansas, less than sixteen years ago. The family home was a tiny two-room log cabin, built by Grandfather Britt from logs he had hewn and split himself. The floor was of dirt, packed hard by three generations of tough bare feet. When Elton was still little more than a baby, the home farm "ran out," as the soil in these localities has a habit of doing after scores of years of intensive cultivation. So Daddy Britt moved his family, pigs and mules to another cabin some ten miles away, to more fertile land. The new home boasted a wood floor — with cracks nearly wide enough for the baby to fall through — but wood, nevertheless. Elton was sent to school, but like many of the hill billy boys, quit while still in the early grades, and stayed home to help Daddv Britt. He was rather glad to escape the five-mile walk every morning to the little school, carrying a lunch of cold biscuits and cold pork. There was plenty to be done — the corn had to be plowed, raising garden truck was a continual battle with ravenous mountain weed sand insects, not to mention the frequent drouths that visit the Ozarks. Up with the birds, work until late at night — it wasn't an easv life. But sometimes, in the evenings, when the work was done, and things were going smoothly, the hill billies gathered at someone's cabin and there was a dance. When the corn was picked, "'shuckin' " bees afforded many a hectic evening of hill billy "whoopee." Everyone sang ; nearly everyone played an instrument — fiddles, guitars, harmonicas, jews' harps — simple instruments, played by a simple, rustic people. The Britt boys, as they grew older, were in great demand at these parties and "shuckin' bees." Elton's two brothers played the fiddle and banjo, and Elton strummed his guitar, sang and yodelled. The songs they sang were simple ones — melancholy old tunes they had learned from their \Turn to Page 37] If you don't think there are any real hill billies left, take a look at this. At the left is Elton Britt's birthplace, built by his grandfather. In the center is a hill billy "straight-eight" — the only means of transportation in the heart of the Ozarks. Right, the Britt famil y at home — that's Elton leaning away from the post. RADIO DOINGS Page Twenty