February 4, 2005
LETTER TO PROGRAMMERS
SYNOPSIS OF THE DOCUMENTARY
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
FILMMAKERS' BIOGRAPHIES
CREDITS FOR THE DOCUMENTARY
IMAGES OF HANK WILLIAMS, SR.
LETTER TO PROGRAMMERS
Dear Programmer,
Hank Williams, Sr. was 29 years old when he was found dead in the backseat of his baby blue Cadillac on New Year’s Day in 1953. Fifty years later he is considered by many to be the greatest country songwriter of all time. But before the recording contracts and sold-out tours, he was a skinny country boy with a passion. Those who were with him as his career unfolded look back at his short life and magical rise to stardom.
NETA and award-winning Producer/Director June Mack along with Co-Producer Larry Powell are pleased to announce the national public television premiere of a one-hour documentary, "Hank Williams, Sr.: Along for the Ride." It's the remarkable story of the early years of Hank Williams' career told through rare interviews with members of his early bands — those who were at Hank's side during the '30's and '40's. Through these candid interviews we get a glimpse of the boy behind the legend. We explore his uncanny ability to write lyrics well beyond his years and limited education. We search for the secret of his amazing destiny in the humble beginnings of his short, tumultuous life.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will handle station relations for "Hank Williams, Sr.: Along for the Ride." Gayle Loeber and NETA are distributing the documentary and have set up a feed for Sunday, April 3, 2005 @ 1930-2030 ET/513. They suggest September would be a great month to air the program, coinciding with Hank Williams' birthday on September 17. A second time of interest may be the anniversary of his death, which falls on New Year's Day.
If you have any questions about "Hank Williams, Sr.: Along for the Ride," please contact June Mack at jmack@uab.edu, (205) 934-3852. Press materials and photos are posted at www.uab.edu/news.
We hope you will take the opportunity to record the NETA feed and share the inside story of this country music legend with your viewers.
Sincerely,
June Mack
University of Alabama at Birmingham
SYNOPSIS OF THE DOCUMENTARY
Hank Williams, Sr. was 29 years old when he was found dead in the backseat of his baby blue Cadillac on New Year’s Day in 1953. More than fifty years later he is considered by many to be the greatest country songwriter of all time. But before the recording contracts, the sold-out tours — before the Grand Ole Opry made him a household word — he was a skinny country boy with a passion. Those who were with him as his career unfolded — from singing on street corners as a shoe-shine boy to international acclaim as one of country music’s greatest stars — look back at his short life and magical rise to stardom.
Today many people think the name Hank Williams belongs exclusively to a current country music star. Perhaps lesser known by today’s fans, his father was a legendary songwriter. He authored such hits as “Hey Good Lookin’”, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, “Jambalaya”, “I Saw the Light”, “Take These Chains”, “Honky Tonkin’”, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” – the list goes on and on.
The stories about his short life &3151; like his tragic death — come in many varieties, as they have grown and changed in the telling over the years. To find out what Hank’s life was really like, we have found those of Hank’s early band members who are still with us. (Many of them have passed on to that great Honky Tonk in the sky.) Their interviews are presented here with rare photographs and a story line that takes the viewer through the entire life and death of the late, great Hank Williams, Sr.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
What makes this Hank Williams documentary different from the others? It’s no surprise that the story of Hank Williams, Sr. has captured the imagination of other filmmakers through the years. Produced out of Hollywood, most of these films center around his Nashville years — his stardom and the rapport he had with the other stars from the Grand Ole Opry. This documentary is an Alabama story told by Alabama folk.
How did we happen to make this documentary? My co-producer, Larry Powell, grew up in Georgiana, Alabama. Larry asked me to work with him in bringing an “early years” perspective to Hank’s life story. (Many of Hank’s early band members have never been interviewed by the “big shots.”) Larry is a researcher and Hank buff; I am a filmmaker and musician. The pairing seemed right to take on such a task. Hank’s early bandmates are getting older, for each year one or two are missing at the annual Hank Williams Festival in Georgiana. Larry felt an urgency to get their stories on film.
I hope you enjoy this ride along the “lost highway”— as we follow together the threads that make up the still-living fabric of the life and music of Hank Williams, Sr.
June Mack
FILMMAKERS' BIOGRAPHIES
June Mack, Producer-Director
June Mack’s films have won 22 international awards in film festivals around the world including the The International Television Movie Festival, The Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival, and the Canadian International Film Festival. She is currently on the faculty of the Communication Studies Department of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Mack holds an interdisciplinary B. A. in Music Composition, Theater, and Philosophy from Hollins College in Virginia. She holds an M.F. A. in Film Production from Florida State University and a Masters in Education from Harvard.
After receiving her B. A., Mack worked as a playwright and theater director for 15 years before going back to school to study film production. She then taught at the Florida State University Graduate Film Conservatory, Ringling School of Art and Design, and Ohio University. She teaches courses in film production, screenwriting, creativity theory and practice, and philosophy of communication. Professional work includes music composition, theater directing, playwriting, film directing and screenwriting. She has worked on more than 50 theater productions and 60 films.
Larry Powell, Producer-Interviewer
Larry Powell (Ph.D., University of Florida, 1975) is an associate professor of Communication Studies at University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has previously taught at Mississippi State University, Meisei University in Tokyo, Japan (visiting professor, 1984-1985), and the University of Central Florida. He also has 12 years experience as a political consultant with the Orlando (Florida) firm of Kitchens, Powell, and Kitchens.
Dr. Powell is the author of Political Campaign Communication: Inside an Out (Allyn & Bacon, 2003; with Joseph Cowart) and Bottom of the Ninth: An Oral History on the Life of Harry “The Hat” Walker (Writer’s Showcase, 2000). He has published more than sixty research studies in professional journals and is ranked as one of the top 100 communication researchers in the nation by the Association of Communication Administrators.
CREDITS FOR THE DOCUMENTARY
Producers: June Mack & Larry Powell
Director: June Mack
Narrator: Ward Haarbauer
Cinematographers: Joe Walker, Larry Powell, June Mack, Missy Morgan
Editor: June Mack
Interviewer: Larry Powell
Interviews:
Tillman Franks
Leila Williams Griffin
Clent Holmes
Lycretia Williams Hoover
Cecil Jackson
Pee Wee Moultrie
R. D. Norred
Braxton Schuffert
Bernice Turner
Lum York
Photos and Excerpts from:
Hank Williams, The Biography by Colin Escott, Little Brown & Co., Publisher
Ain’t Nothin as Sweet as My Baby by Jett Williams with Pamela Thomas, Harcourt Brace Javonovich, publishers
Hank Williams, Snapshots from the Lost Highway by Colin Escott and Kira Florita, DeCapo Press, publisher
Special Thanks to:
Beth Birtley
Gary Burttram
Barbara Clem
Allen Dunkin
Local Color
Bob Mack
Steve Maze
David Mitchell
Marianne Morgan
Jimmy Porter
Hank Williams, Sr. Boyhood Home Museum, Georgiana, Alabama
Hank Williams, Sr. Museum, Montgomery, Alabama
IMAGES OF HANK WILLIAMS, SR.
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