Sept. 8, 1976 interview: Tennessee Ernie Ford

 

There were many perks to writing for the arts and entertainment pages in the 1970s and one of the best was the assignment to cover the press conference that impresario Lew Fisher hosted for stars who were beginning a week-long run at Melody Fair in North Tonawanda. The stars were inevitably gracious and, for us rapacious reporters, there was always a splendid spread of hors d’oeuvres. 

Sept. 8, 1976

Tennessee Ernie’s Life Is an Open Book 

“Ninety percent of everything I talked about last night was the truth,” Tennessee Ernie Ford is saying Tuesday afternoon at a press conference in the Executive Motor Inn in Cheektowaga.

          For the story-telling entertainer, making one of his rare Eastern public appearances now through Sunday night under the Melody Fair dome in North Tonawanda, the truth is often amazing enough.

          Consider the tales that could come from boyhood in eastern Tennessee, working as a radio announcer in the ‘30s and ‘40s, having the fastest-selling hit record (“16 Tons”) known to man as of 1955, starring in two different TV series.

          Now, at 57, his own story is one of contentment. He and his wife live in the Portola Valley south of San Francisco. They have a condominium in Palm Springs for the winter and one in Hawaii, where they vacation through the summer months.

* * *

HIS MANAGER, Jim Loakes, says there are three other weeks Ernie will not devote to business.

          That’s during the Bing Crosby Golf Tournament in January, during the Phoenix Golf Tourney in February (which he hosts) and during the Masters Golf Classic in April. Ol’ Ern goes around the links himself with a respectable 13 or 14 handicap.

          He’s sold all but one of his beef cattle ranches. His appearances revolve around Las Vegas and TV specials. A couple years back, he headed a “Country Music USA” cultural exchange tour of the Soviet Union.

* * *

“YOU TAKE those audiences in those old, old concert halls who’ve seen nothing but ballet and orchestras in black suits and they’d darn near bust out the walls when they saw those little country girls in the quilted skirts and those 6-foot tall country boys,” he recalls.

          This Eastern swing – a warmup for a Vegas date this fall – also will take him to York, Pa., where he’s had an invitation to come for 20 years, and to Nashville to do commercials for Martha White Foods, one of four companies for which he’s commercial spokesman.

          Tanned, gray at the temples, he’s trimmed down to a steady 175 pounds. He confesses that he no longer can stow away the groceries the way he did as a boy working on the farm.

          “But I’ve retained that love for that food,” he drawls. “If I stay this weight, I’ll be hungry all my life. I could eat my shirt and gargle the buttons.”

* * *

“IN TENNESSEE,” he goes on, “they put gravy on everything but your shoes. If it’s not rolled in flour and fried, they’re suspicious of it.”

          Ernie says part of his success is being open and accessible to people, never being afraid to meet someone.

          Sometimes it gives him new stories to tell, like the one about the lady in the coffee shop in Lake Tahoe.

          “She was wearin’ a hat, but she wasn’t a kook,” he relates. “She just comes up to me and says that when she dies she wants to have an open casket and she wants me to come to the funeral.

          “Then she says she wants me to stand right beside the open casket and sing ‘How Great Thou Art.’ ‘If that doesn’t move me,’ she says, ‘then that’s it. Take the cover and shut it up.’”

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Tennessee Ernie Ford.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: I loved Tennessee Ernie. “Sixteen Tons” was a hit in the autumn of 1955 and its chorus became one of my ear worms just as I was beginning my rock 'n roll crazy high school years.

          By this time, though, Ernie’s star was fading. His recording contract with Capitol Records was over and his alcohol problem, one of the things he wasn't open about, was starting to take a toll. He died from severe liver failure right after being a guest of President George H. W. Bush at a state dinner in 1991 at the White House.