Janice Brooks
From:
Pleasant Gap Pa
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Posted 22 Apr 2005 2:34 pm |
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Co-founder of Baldknobbers show dead at 74
Associated Press
BRANSON, Mo. - Bill Mabe, a co-founder of the Baldknobbers, billed as
Branson's first country music and comedy show, is dead at 74.
Mabe died Thursday at his home in Nixa after a short illness, said Gary
Ellison, longtime publicist for the Baldknobbers Jamboree Show, now in
its 46th season in this southwest Missouri resort and entertainment
community.
He had been diagnosed with cancer just recently, Ellison said.
Mabe, who co-founded the Baldknobbers in 1959 with his brothers Bill,
Lyle and Bob, played Dobro guitar and sang harmony with the group from
the start until he retired from performing in the 1990s. But he
continued to work with the popular show as a producer into the current
season and his son, Dennis, is the group's lead vocalist.
The four brothers, among a family of 13 children, started out singing
gospel songs in their hometown of Nixa, 35 miles north of Branson. They
took to promoting themselves with loudspeakers mounted on cars and
signs held by their wives, attracting crowds of people, many who came
to fish at Lake Taneycomo, to see them perform in Branson. In 1968, the
group built its own theater, which now seats 1,700.
The Baldknobbers' show provides a mixture of broad hillbilly humor and
country music featuring instruments from guitars to banjos to jawbones
to washboards and tubs. Jim Mabe, who died in 2003, was featured as the
comic character "Droopy Drawers," who didn't speak, played a washboard
and engaged in various pratfalls. That role has since passed to his
son, Tim, who performs as "Droopy Drawers Jr."
The name Baldknobbers dates to the 1880s, when it was used to refer to
men who banded together to deal with lawbreakers on their own. They
held secret meetings on treeless hills known as "bald knobs."
Bill Mabe recalled in a 1998 interview that in the early days, the
brothers were frequently called on to perform at funerals.
"When we started up we were singing to all the funerals around town,"
he said. "I do remember them funerals. Every other day it seemed we
sang at somebody's funeral."
Ellison described Mabe as a man with a dry sense of humor and an
amazing musical ear.
"When we'd produce a video program, I'd be in the control truck calling
the shots and he'd be right next to me," Ellison said. "Only he'd never
look at the monitor - he'd just listen. And he had this incredible
musical ear - he could detect a singer being slightly sharp or flat."
Mabe would stop the performance and call in to the singers, singling
out the one who was just a little off key, Ellison said.
"And if they couldn't get it, he'd go in and do it for them, show them
where they needed to be," he said.
Ellison said the Baldknobbers were instrumental in helping build
Branson into today's entertainment mecca with nearly 50 theaters,
drawing people from around the world.
He said that when the brothers started out, the Branson entertainment
season ran for just three months in the summer, from Memorial Day to
Labor Day. The Baldknobbers began touring widely in the spring and
fall, traveling by bus to small towns and larger cities to perform and
urge people to come and see them in Branson.
"That's how the word of Branson spread initially," he said. "Those
people that came to see them became loyal fans. They'd come to Branson,
and they'd come year after year."
Visitation services for Mabe will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday at the Adams Funeral Home in Nixa. The funeral is scheduled
for 2 p.m. Sunday at Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield.
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