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Roy Clark

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Template:Use American English Template:Short description {{#invoke:Other people|otherPeople}} Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist

Roy Linwood Clark (April 15, 1933 – November 15, 2018) was an American singer, musician, and television presenter. He is best known for having hosted Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark was an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and in helping to popularize the genre.

During the 1970s, Clark frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show; he also enjoyed a 30-million viewership for Hee Haw. Clark was highly regarded and renowned as a guitarist, banjo player, and fiddler. He was skilled in the traditions of many genres, including classical guitar, country music, Latin music, bluegrass, and pop. He had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g., "Yesterday, When I Was Young" and "Thank God and Greyhound"), and his instrumental skill had an enormous effect on generations of bluegrass and country musicians. He became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1987, and, in 2009, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He published his autobiography, My Life—in Spite of Myself, in 1994.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Early lifeEdit

Clark was born April 15, 1933, in Meherrin, Virginia,Template:Sfn one of five children<ref name=Thanki>Template:Cite news</ref> born to Hester Linwood Clark and Lillian Clark (Oliver).Template:Sfn His father was a tobacco farmer.Template:Sfn He spent his childhood in Meherrin and New York City, where his father moved the family to take jobs during the Great Depression.Template:Sfn When Clark was 11 years old, his family moved to a home on 1st Street SE in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Washington, D.C.,Template:Sfn after his father found work at the Washington Navy Yard.Template:Sfn

Clark's father was a semi-professional musician who played banjo, fiddle, and guitar,Template:Sfn and his mother played piano.Template:Sfn The first musical instrument Clark ever played was a four-string cigar box with a ukulele neck attached to it,Template:Sfn which he picked up in elementary school.<ref name=rcinterview>Template:Cite magazine</ref> His father taught Clark to play guitarTemplate:Sfn when Roy was 14 years old, and soon Clark was playing banjo, guitar, and mandolin.Template:Sfn "Guitar was my real love, though," Clark later said. "I never copied anyone, but I was certainly influenced by them; especially by George Barnes. I just loved his swing style and tone."Template:Sfn

Clark also found inspiration in other local D.C. musicians. "One of the things that influenced me growing up around Washington, D.C., in the '50s was that it had an awful lot of good musicians. And I used to go in and just steal them blind. I stole all their licks. It wasn't until years later that I found out that a lot of them used to cringe and say 'Oh, no! Here comes that kid again'<ref name=rcinterview /> when I'd come in. As for his banjo style, Clark said in 1985, "When I started playing, you didn't have many choices to follow, and Earl Scruggs was both of them."<ref name=rcinterview /> Clark won the National Banjo Championship in 1947 and 1948,Template:Sfn and briefly toured with a band when he was 15.Template:Sfn

Clark was very shy, and turned to humor as a way of easing his timidity. Country-western music was widely derided by Clark's schoolmates, leaving him socially isolated. Clowning around, he felt, helped him to fit in again. Clark used humor as a musician as well, and it was not until the mid-1960s that he felt confident enough to perform in public without using humor in his act.<ref name=rcinterview />

The D.C. area had a number of country-western music venues at the time. Duet acts were in favor, and for his public performance debut Clark teamed up with Carl Lukat. Lukat was the lead guitarist, and Clark supported him on rhythm guitar.<ref name=rcinterview /> In 1949, at the age of 16, Clark made his television debut on WTTG, the DuMont Television Network affiliate in Washington, D.C.Template:Sfn At 17, he made his first appearance on the Grand Ole OpryTemplate:Sfn in recognition for winning his second national banjo title.Template:Sfn By this time, he had begun to play fiddle and twelve-string guitar.Template:Sfn He toured the country for the next 18 months playing backup guitar during the week for David "Stringbean" Akeman, Annie Lou and Danny, Lonzo and Oscar, and Hal and Velma Smith, working county fairs and small town theaters. On weekends, these acts usually teamed up with country music superstars like Red Foley or Ernest Tubb and played large venues in big cities. He earned $150 a week ($Template:Inflation in Template:Inflation/year dollars).<ref name=rcinterview /> After the tour, Clark returned to performing at local country-music venues. He recorded singles for Coral Records and 4 Star Records.<ref name=rcinterview />

At the age of 23, Clark obtained his pilot's certificate and then bought a 1953 Piper Tri-Pacer (N1132C), which he flew for many years. This plane was raffled off on December 17, 2012, to benefit the charity Wings of Hope.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He owned other planes, including a Mitsubishi MU-2, Stearman PT-17<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and Mitsubishi MU-300 Diamond 1A business jet.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

CareerEdit

TelevisionEdit

File:Buddy Ebsen Roy Clark Hillbillies 1968.JPG
Clark (right) as "Myrtle Halsey" on The Beverly Hillbillies, 1968

Rising country music star Jimmy Dean asked Clark to join his band, the Texas Wildcats, in 1954.Template:Sfn Clark was the lead guitarist,Template:Sfn and made appearances on Dean's "Town and Country Time" program on WARL-AM and on WMAL-TV (after the show moved to television from radio in 1955).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Clark competed in 1956 on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, a variety show airing on CBS. It was his first network television appearance, and he came in second.<ref name=rcinterview /> Dean, who valued punctuality among musicians in his band, fired Clark for habitual tardiness in 1957.Template:Sfn Clark left D.C. and never lived there again.Template:Sfn During his D.C. years, Clark said he never intended to be a country guitarist. Rather, he played when he liked and what made him feel good, and never intended to begin a recording career or to perform on television.Template:Sfn In the spring of 1959, Clark appeared regularly on George Hamilton IV's short-lived television series in Washington, D.C.<ref name=onscreen />

In 1960, Clark went to Las Vegas, where he worked as a guitarist in a band led by former West Coast Western Swing bandleader-comedian Hank Penny. During the very early 1960s, he was also prominent in the backing band for Wanda Jackson—known as the Party Timers—during the latter part of her rockabilly period.<ref>Liner notes for the 1961 Wanda Jackson album, There's a Party Goin' On; retrieved October 27, 2012.</ref>

During Jack Paar's temporary absence from The Tonight Show in early 1960, Jimmy Dean was asked to guest-host the program. Dean asked Clark to appear on the last night of his guest-host stint, and showcased Clark in two songs.<ref name=onscreen>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Clark made his solo debut on The Tonight Show in January 1963.Template:Sfn

Subsequently, Clark appeared on The Beverly Hillbillies as a recurring character — actually two, as he played businessman Roy Halsey and Roy's mother, Myrtle. Once, in an episode of the Saturday evening Jackie Gleason Show dedicated to country music, Clark played a blistering rendition of "Down Home". Later, he appeared in an episode of The Odd Couple, where he played "Malagueña".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the mid-1960s, he was a co-host (along with Molly Bee and Rusty Draper) of a weekday daytime country variety series for NBC entitled Swingin' Country, which was canceled after two seasons. In 1969, Clark and Buck Owens debuted as hosts on the syndicated sketch comedy program Hee Haw which aired from 1969 until 1997 and propelled Clark to stardom. During its tenure, Clark was a member of the Million Dollar Band and participated in a host of comedy sketches. In 1976, Arthur Fiedler conducted Evening at Pops with Roy Clark and the Boston Pops Orchestra. In 1983, Clark opened the Roy Clark Celebrity Theatre in Branson, Missouri, which was the "first venue linked permanently to a widely known entertainer" in the resort town.Template:Sfn

Clark frequently played in Branson during the 1980s and 1990s. He sold the venue in 1992<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>(now owned by the Hughes Brothers and renamed the Hughes American Family Theatre) and went back to a light touring schedule. Clark annually appeared with Ramona Jones and the Jones Family Band at their annual tribute to Clark's former Hee Haw co-star Grandpa Jones in Mountain View, Arkansas.<ref name="FiddlerHoF">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On July 4, 1984, Roy played Washington D.C. along with several other acts to over 500,000 fans. Some of the other acts included Ringo Starr, the Beach Boys, Three Dog Night, George Jones, and B.J. Thomas.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

MusicEdit

File:Roy Clark onstage.png
Roy Clark performing onstage in New York, late 1980s or early 1990s

In 1960,<ref name=rcinterview /> Clark began touring with rockabilly star Wanda Jackson, and playing backup instrumentals on several of her recordings.Template:Sfn Through Jackson, Clark met Jim Halsey. Clark signed with the Halsey Agency, which represented him for the remainder of his career.<ref name=rcinterview /> During this period, Jackson performed at the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas. Within two years, Clark had become a headliner in Vegas,<ref name=rcinterview /> and made numerous appearances there in the 1960s and 1970s.Template:Sfn

Clark's backup work for Jackson brought him to the attention of Capitol Records. He signed with Capitol and in 1962 released his first solo album, The Lightning Fingers of Roy Clark. The album won solid critical praise, and "above-average" notice from fans.Template:Sfn By the early 1970s, Clark was the highest-paid country music star in the United States, earning $7 million ($Template:Inflation in Template:Inflation-year dollars) a year.<ref name=rcinterview />

He switched to Dot Records and again scored hits. He later recorded for ABC Records, which had acquired Dot, and MCA Records, the latter of which then was allowed to absorb the ABC label.Template:Citation needed

EndorsementsEdit

Clark endorsed Mosrite, Gretsch, and Heritage Guitars; the latter produced a signature model.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the 1980s, he served as a spokesman for Hunt's ketchup.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

Clark married Ruby Conley in 1954. They had a son, Roy Linwood Clark Jr. The couple divorced in 1957. Roy married Barbara Joyce Rupard on August 31, 1957. They remained wed until Roy's passing in 2018.Template:Sfn The couple had five children.<ref name=Thanki/> They made their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the Roy Clark Elementary School was named in his honor in 1978.<ref name=rcinterview /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Clark died on November 15, 2018, at age 85, at his Tulsa home from complications of pneumonia.<ref name=Thanki/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

HonorsEdit

By the early 1970s, Clark had been named "Entertainer of the Year" three times by the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association (CMA). The Academy also named him "Best Lead Guitar Player" and "Best Comedy Act", while the CMA named him an "International Friendship Ambassador" in 1976 after Clark toured the Soviet Union.<ref name=rcinterview />

On August 22, 1987, Clark was made a member of the Grand Ole Opry.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He played an annual benefit concert at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, the proceeds of which went to fund scholarships for aspiring musicians.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Clark was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009.<ref name=Thanki/> On April 12, 2011, Clark was honored by the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He was honored by the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame as Oklahoma's Music Ambassador for Children and presented with a commendation from Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2007, he was inducted into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was inducted into the Fiddlers Hall of Fame.<ref name="FiddlerHoF" /> Roy Clark was one of the founding inductees into the Virginia Musical Museum & Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Wayne Newton, Ella Fitzgerald, The Carter Family, The Statler Brothers, Bruce Hornsby, Pearl Bailey, and Ralph Stanley were the other founding inductees.

Selected filmographyEdit

Template:More citations needed

Film and televisionEdit

DiscographyEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

AwardsEdit

  • 1970 – CMA – Comedian of the Year
  • 1972 – ACM – Entertainer of the Year
  • 1973 – ACM – Entertainer of the Year
  • 1973 – CMA – Entertainer of the Year
  • 1975 – CMA – Instrumental Group of the Year (with Buck Trent)
  • 1976 – CMA – Instrumental Group of the Year (with Buck Trent)
  • 1977 – CMA – Instrumentalist of the Year
  • 1978 – CMA – Instrumentalist of the Year
  • 1980 – CMA – Instrumentalist of the Year
  • 1982 – Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance for his recording of Alabama Jubilee

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

BibliographyEdit

External linksEdit

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Template:Roy Clark Template:Academy of Country Music Award for Entertainer of the Year Template:CMA Entertainer of the Year Template:CMA Musician of the Year Template:Grand Ole Opry members Template:2000s Country Music Hall of Fame Template:Authority control

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