Country Music Holiday

In the late 1950's, modestly made rock-n-roll movies were the rage, or at least popular and profitable. Paramount came up with the rather bright idea to make a similar film on the burgeoning country music market, which was just starting to break out of it's limited niche and cross over into popular music sales. The result is COUNTRY MUSIC HOLIDAY which spawned a lot of knockoffs over the next ten years but this film remained the only one of it's type produced by a major studio.

HOLIDAY stars country singer Ferlin Husky ("Gone") as a good old boy who becomes a popular hillbilly singer and ultimately grabs a citified audience and even the romantic interest of a international vamp (Zsa Zsa Gabor - playing herself!!) much to the distress of his longtime sweetheart June Carter.

I have to admit I haven't seen this picture in over 25 years. When I was growing up it was a mainstay of the local late show but I haven't seen it anywhere since. This film has a modest storyline but more emphasis on music, from Husky, Faron Young, The Jordainaires, and the country comedy act Lonzo and Oscar. The movie is stolen however by a completely obscure vocal group, The Ladell Sisters who rock it with a sensational rockabilly number called "Wang Dang Doo". The Ladells were amazing - sort of the Andrews Sisters meet the Davis Sisters and completely predating the 1960's "girl group" pop sound. I would watch this movie every time it aired just to catch them. Alas, they apparently made no records or at the least certainly never had any hits, there's nothing about them even on the internet.

June Carter, as I recall, did not sing at all in the film and simply played a standard leading lady part. Grand Ole Opry comedian Rod Brasfield played Husky's father, an obscure actress with no other film credits played his mother.

Several major show biz names got early starts in this film. Child actress Patty Duke is seen in a small part in one of her first roles and the title song is written by then unknown team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David!! I don't recall much about the film beyond Gabor referring to country music as "peasant music" and Husky mangling her name as Jazz-Jazz but whenever this little rarity pops on my TV schedule if ever again I will be ready with recorder set.

This picture always has been my choice as worst picture of all time. Imagine Zaa Zaa Gabor in silken evening gown raving about the "wonders of country music." She stars in a cast of talentless people doing not much of anything why'll a sound track is in deep need of lip sync.

This black and white "farce" was decorated with sets built in haste and with limited funds, then decorated with hay bales scattered about, on which set a group of "hillbilly" extras obviously knowing they were performing in a stinker and wondering I suppose if they really were going to get paid for their efforts.

If you can think of some defect in a film you will most likely find it in this one.

Jesse White and Zsa Zsa Gabor seem awfully city-slickr-ish to star with two of country music's greatest talents, but, interestingly, it works.

Some of the cast members are not known today, and some only to the nostalgia-oriented, but Ferlin Husky and Faron Young show themselves to be not just great singers, but talented actors as well.

It's a perfectly feasible story, for its time, when country music was pretty much still new to the urban listeners, and record producers did not know where to find the "next big thing."

The story is about two small-town natives who are friends but are thrown into competition. And the ravishing and adorable Zsa Zsa wants in on the act. She was probably never lovelier, but she didn't give much of a performance.

In contrast, a very young June Carter looked young and lovely, but not until the end did she come out of her shell and start showing some spark.

By the way, Husky and Young were also friends, and their respective stories are worth reading about.

"Country Music Holiday" is probably best considered a showcase for the two singers, but Jesse White and Rocky Graziano are another reason to watch. Graziano showed some talent and even made fun of himself.

For years I refused to let myself listen to country music, and that was my loss. Yes, I still prefer classical and Celtic, but there is a lot of very good, very listenable music in the country genre. Husky and Young don't bring their best songs to this film, but their respective talents are worth taking time to watch "Country Music Holiday."