WELL OVER 50 ORIGINAL PHOTOS! I am sure this is one of the largest unpublished collections of early country and western performers extant. ALL IN COLOR. I'm no expert, but even I can, I think, Identify Ernest Tubb Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs Jim Reeves Little Jimmy Dickens a very young George Jones and more. Maybe Porter Wagner, Kitty Wells, Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, I'm not sure. You get the picture! Captured circa 1950 at a time when country was just starting to go electric and start to shake the "hillbilly" label. Here is literally the transition from country to rockabilly in photo form. Many performers are wearing their fancy dudes, many some Nudie costumes (look them up) ONLY ABOUT HALF ARE SHOWN HERE, there are many more. These were ALL taken at a WWVA "JAMBOREE" and are included in a new plastic sleeve album. There are some 65 photographs of musicians, another handful of family members. Altogether, I believe one of the finest collections of early American Music photos ever listed on ebay. Guitar afficianados will be able to identify the models and date the perfomance, but if you read the notes below, I believe they can be traced to a performance in 1957 but maybe earlier.

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In January, 1933 with George W. Smith managing director of the 5000 watt station, the idea was conceived to program something special for the late night Saturday night listeners. A program of country style music was put together, using local talent: the show was called a "Jamboree" In response to the public's demand to see their musical favorites in person, WWVA moved the Jamboree show to the Capitol Theatre, where it opened that first day of April, 1933 to an eager audience of 3,266 people, with still another thousand turned away from the "full house."

The Saturday night Jamboree, with its homespun style of singing and chatting was a welcome diversion to the thousands of depression-weary listeners in the early 30's and in December 1933, the Inquiring Mike, with Paul J. Miller, was added to the Jamboree, giving fans a chance to say "hi!" to the folks listening back home.

Those Jamboree songs and folksy messages being sent out over WWVA proved to be reaching far beyond national boundaries, when on June 15, 1934, an English radio fan recorded the Jamboree as he heard it in England and presented the recording to the station.

As WWVA embarked upon a second decade of broadcasting, two of its shows were proving to be big hits with the station's listeners. The Saturday night Jamboree and the Sunday afternoon Wheeling Steel Hour, two very diverse styles of musical entertainment, found great appeal with the public. The Jamboree had become a nationally known Saturday night country music tradition and WWVA's "Friendly Voice From Out of the Hills of West Virginia" was well-established as a leading figure in the Radio World.

The month of May 1957 saw a number of Jamboree talent groups take to the road with personal appearances and shows. Their travels took them to 8 states and Canada, with 68 personal appearances before 24,248 people. At this time, the weekly Jamboree shows were being held in the Virginia Theatre. With a number of Jamboree fans arriving in Wheeling early each Saturday, WWVA broadcast a Jamboree Preview show at 3:30 P.M. from the studios and visitors were invited to stop by, watch the broadcast and meet the stars they would be seeing that evening on the Jamboree.

With trends in country music starting to shift from the traditional toward the modern, the Jamboree began to present nationally known country artists each week as an added feature to the regular Jamboree talent line-up. Many of today's super stars, such as Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Bill Anderson, Cal Smith and Porter Wagoner sang before Jamboree audiences in the huge Jamboree Hall (formerly known as the Wheeling Island Exhibition Mall) during the late 60's.

Quite obviously, the passing of years was effecting changes in both country music and the Jamboree itself and that uptown beat and modern country sound that had been rumbling in the background since the Rex Theatre days, was beginning to make itself more loudly heard by now. Country music in general was becoming more strongly involved in a transition and, WWVA and the Jamboree were now firmly established as exemplary trend-setters in this exploding country music metamorphosis.

As WWVA and the Jamboree moved along into the 5th decade in the Golden Anniversary countdown, its growth and expansion into diversified areas of the radio and entertainment field were beginning to take shape... and that shape was being molded around the mushrooming popularity of country music that was suddenly sweeping the country.

The years between 1966 and 1969 saw a more uptown, sophisticated, popularly acceptable image begin to settle over the once-twangy, homespun American music folks had long referred to as "Hill-Billy" music

Are you bidding on them, after all they were all drinkers.
- L.M. 10-06-2007 11:13 am [add a comment]

i also search key word "hillbilly" because i found some moonshiner pics that way once. im a gonna giver a shot right at the end of the auction if i remember.
- bill 10-06-2007 1:52 pm [add a comment]

deep_catalog( 35) US $255.00 Oct-06-07 08:17:10 PDT



o***s( 238) US $252.99 Oct-06-07 08:17:11 PDT



t***i( 146) US $111.00 Oct-06-07 08:17:09 PDT



t***v( 1319) US $101.00 Oct-06-07 06:27:24 PDT



v***e( 543) US $96.96 Oct-05-07 12:46:24 PDT



t***v( 1319) US $95.00 Oct-06-07 06:26:47 PDT



t***v( 1319) US $86.65 Oct-06-07 06:26:11 PDT



t***v( 1319) US $80.00 Oct-06-07 06:26:01 PDT



t***v( 1319) US $75.00 Oct-06-07 06:25:42 PDT



b***e( 1609) US $42.00 Oct-06-07 05:22:39 PDT



v***e( 543) US $31.56 Sep-27-07 08:29:17 PDT



3***h( 22) US $30.00 Sep-30-07 19:31:17 PDT


Starting Price US $25.00 Sep-26-07 08:17:15 PDT
- bill 10-07-2007 1:40 am [add a comment]

i got distracted and missed the fireworks. sold for $255 divided by 65 imges. you do the math. some one bought well.
- bill 10-07-2007 1:40 am [add a comment]