Hillbillies Win in New York (Billboard, 1944)
To read a copy of the full story, see Additional Files below.
This 1944 news story, written in the usual flashy style of Billboard magazine, documents a surge of interest in "hillbilly music" in New York City. One focus of the article is the enthusiastic reception given the Broadway Barn Dance sponsored by radio station WOV: "At 85 cents a head, the 1,200-capacity hall has been jammed both Saturdays and is again tonight. Station is taking ticket orders for several weeks in advance, and next two broadcasts are sold out." Among those interviewed are the manager of the radio station as well as executives at numerous record companies, all of whom agree that there is a massive demand for this kind of music in juke boxes. Mention is also made of the Village BArn and its "14-year successful operation with the hip-and-holler boys.
Here's the opening paragraph:
"The fiddle and the bow are taking bows on Broadway these days. Hillbilly music, long an institution in the hinterlands and Chicago, is now at home in the cabins of the cosmopolites. Steady upward curves on pubs' and diskers' sales charts point to what they say Is a new market. Mountain music in the metropolitan area is taxing their present output. Manhattan's newly developed interest in bucolic bounce is said to stern from demands of transient war workers and servicemen for hoe-down hi-de-ho. Biz seismographs first tabbed new movement about two years ago thru increased juke box requests for ridge-runner rumbas. Swing-shift disk jockeys were next to report the sorghum and sowbelly sentiment as mall demand shifted from swing to square dance.
The article can be found online on three pages:
Start of story, p. 16
Jump page, p. 64
Final page, p. 65
Tags: hillbilly, New York, records, Village Barn
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: The Barn Dance Returns! (1937 article) |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Going to the Barn Dance Tonight - Soundie |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Arkie Woodchopper |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Ed Durlacher - Central Park Newsreel |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Village Barn |
| Item: The Li'l Abner Official Square Dance Handbook | is related to | This Item |
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This 1944 news story, written in the usual flashy style of Billboard magazine, documents a surge of interest in "hillbilly music" in New York City. One focus of the article is the enthusiastic reception given the Broadway Barn Dance sponsored by radio station WOV: "At 85 cents a head, the 1,200-capacity hall has been jammed both Saturdays and is again tonight. Station is taking ticket orders for several weeks in advance, and next two broadcasts are sold out." Among those interviewed are the manager of the radio station as well as executives at numerous record companies, all of whom agree that there is a massive demand for this kind of music in juke boxes. Mention is also made of the Village BArn and its "14-year successful operation with the hip-and-holler boys.
Here's the opening paragraph:
"The fiddle and the bow are taking bows on Broadway these days. Hillbilly music, long an institution in the hinterlands and Chicago, is now at home in the cabins of the cosmopolites. Steady upward curves on pubs' and diskers' sales charts point to what they say Is a new market. Mountain music in the metropolitan area is taxing their present output. Manhattan's newly developed interest in bucolic bounce is said to stern from demands of transient war workers and servicemen for hoe-down hi-de-ho. Biz seismographs first tabbed new movement about two years ago thru increased juke box requests for ridge-runner rumbas. Swing-shift disk jockeys were next to report the sorghum and sowbelly sentiment as mall demand shifted from swing to square dance.
The article can be found online on three pages:
Start of story, p. 16
Jump page, p. 64
Final page, p. 65