Welcome aboard! By Jake Mabe Hi, folks. If you’re a longtime reader, thanks for spending time with the Shopper this week. We
appreciate you. But, if you’re holding this newspaper in your hand for the first time and wondering, “What the heck is this?” I’d like to tell you
VOL. 52 NO. 33
IN THIS ISSUE
Miracle Maker
The chief academic officer for Knox County Schools, Dr. Elizabeth Alves, says parents and students should embrace the new Common Core state standards.
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See S. Clark’s story on A-9
King of the Nerds It’s noon on Tuesday, and Randy Cross’ shipment of new comic books hasn’t arrived. He’s worried. He has regular customers who’ll be in on Wednesday to see what’s new, and he doesn’t want to disappoint them. He’s calling the distributor when his front door signals a new arrival with the swooshing sound made by the USS Enterprise’s hatches when they open from “Star Trek.” Randy says he was a geek when geekdom wasn’t cool. Just call him the aspiring King of the Knoxville Nerds, he says.
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See Betty Bean’s story on A-3
Comedy of errors? We could call the Highway 33 bridge dilemma “a comedy of errors” but William Shakespeare wouldn’t like that. His early play was a farce loaded with slapstick. The bridge saga is sad.
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See Marvin West’s story on A-5
7049 Maynardville Pike 37918 (865) 922-4136 NEWS news@ShopperNewsNow.com Sandra Clark | Cindy Taylor ADVERTISING SALES ads@ShopperNewsNow.com Shannon Carey Jim Brannon | Tony Cranmore Brandi Davis | Patty Fecco
about us. Today marks our expansion of the Shopper-News into your community. Here’s why this matters to you. Since 1971, our newspaper has been dedicated to covering the communities we serve. That means you will see us at school events, community meetings and will read stories about your family members, friends and
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neighbors. If your sports team or church or civic club is having an event, we’ll publicize it for you. It’s what we do. But it also means we want your community to thrive. If a sewer line is leaking, call us. If the highway has a huge hole in it, call us. At our essence, we are community activists in the best sense of the word. Let us help you. You will be seeing veteran reporter Betty Bean, photographer/school beat reporter Ruth White and community reporter Cindy
Taylor. You will be reunited with old friends like legendary sportswriter Marvin West. You’ll read politics with a punch from Sandra Clark and, yep, even former mayor Victor Ashe. You will grow to love our feature writers: Dr. Bob Collier, Dr. Jim Tumblin, Malcolm Shell, Carol Zinavage and special guest appearances by me. We are guided by four simple words. “Tell me a story.” We look forward to telling yours. Welcome aboard, y’all. Here’s hoping you enjoy the ride.
August 19, 2013
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Archie Campbell The rest of the story By Jake Mabe If all you know of Archie Campbell is Kornfield Kounty and cornpone “Hee Haw” humor, you need to know, to coin a phrase, the rest of the story. Don’t get me wrong. Ol’ Arch was the heart and soul of “Hee Haw.” The popular country music variety show brushed aside negative reviews and network cancellation to survive and thrive on the air for more than 20 years. It wasn’t just popular down South, either. The show was a huge hit in the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles TV markets, too. A big reason was Archie Campbell. His terrific comedic timing, ubiquitous grin and cigar, charisma and writing talent made him the heart and soul of the show’s success. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, y’all. “Archie has this amazing history,” says Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound cofounder Bradley Reeves, whose organization is collecting and preserving Campbell’s recordings. “ ‘Hee Haw’ is just a small part. His talent, his acting ability, his humor, his singing – he could be all things to all people. “And the thing that interests me is that Archie was a pioneer. We’re getting ready to celebrate the 60th anniversary of television coming to Knoxville this October, and Archie made the switch from WROL radio to WROL-TV, an NBC affiliate which later became WATE.” But let’s not rush the story. Archie Campbell was born in Bulls Gap, Tenn., and came to Knoxville in the 1930s virtually penniless and without a place to stay after bumming around Alabama as what he later called a “wandering minstrel.” Having hoboed his way here, Archie said in the 1981 book he wrote with Ben Byrd that, “I looked like a bum and I guess I was.” He ducked into a VFW dance hall to wash up and ended up get-
Sammy Davis Jr. and Archie Campbell laugh it up on the set of “Hee Haw,” 1970s. Photos courtesy of TAMIS/Campbell family collection
on the popular WNOXAM “Mid-Day Merry Go Round.” He struck out on his own a few times, always returning to WNOX, and in the late 1940s left for good, to rival WROLAM radio. “He brought with him Archie Campbell was a Knoxville televi- ratings comparable to sion pioneer, shown here at WATE-TV. WNOX and hosted two shows, ‘Country Playhouse’ ting a job playing guitar. He found and ‘The Dinner Bell.’” Reeves a place to stay at the Lay Houses. says. Archie’s first character was Soon fired by his own band, Archie had nowhere to go and noth- Grandpappy (for those of you of ing to eat. He sold stuff door-to- a certain age, think of a country door but didn’t get anywhere in a Charley Weaver). Grandpappy was Depression-era job based solely on so popular that when Archie came home from World War II, Knoxcommission. No longer able to afford room ville held a Grandpappy Day. One and board and food, on a freez- end of Gay Street was packed with ing winter night when the tem- fans, Reeves said. Archie didn’t forget about his perature was about 8 degrees, he ducked into the Gold Sun restau- humble beginnings and his work rant on Market Street. He lied and ethic showed it. He would often told the man behind the counter host three radio shows a day, perhe was looking for his topcoat. The form on live TV, make personal man, named Nick, knew better. He appearances and appear at local fi xed Archie a meal and told him benefits, “everything from a goshe could sleep there until the place pel reunion to a men’s friars club.” When WROL-TV signed on the opened for business the next day. “Years later, when I was on air, Archie was right in the thick of the Knox County school board,” it. He later hosted “Little Country Archie wrote, “sometimes kids Church” on WBIR, a rival to the would come before us in trouble … “Mull’s Singing Convention.” “Hardly any early TV footage and I would always be as lenient as I could with them. What is it that exists, except Archie’s stuff, which they say? There, but for the grace he kept.” Archie’s son Phil Campbell, a of God, go I.” Archie soon got his big break humorist and singer in his own
right, recently let the TAMIS crew dig around in the basement of the Powell home Archie shared with his wife, Mary “Pudge” Campbell, on her family’s homestead. Among the treasures were early Mercury records from the 1940s Archie recorded with George “Speedy” Krise and Red Kirk, the most haunting of which is “No One Came to Meet Me,” recorded at the Hamilton bank building in 1949. When country music starting migrating from Knoxville to Nashville, Archie and Jack Comer did the best they could to keep it here. They founded Valley Records and Archie put out the very first recording – “In the Valley of the Mountains” and “Blue Memories.” “It’s so rare,” Reeves says. “We had searched all over and were surprised to find two 78s in mint condition in his garage.” And guess what? Archie’s doing more crooning than country twanging! You can also thank (or blame) Archie for inadvertently serving as the inspiration for “Rocky Top.” Guitar legend/RCA executive and Union County native Chet Atkins commissioned Boudleaux and Felice Bryant to write songs for Archie’s maudlin mid-1960s album, “The Golden Years.” “The story goes that the Bryants were so depressed afterwards, they had to take a break and com-
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