PINE RIDGE -- In the 1930s, Arkansans Chester Lauck and Norris Goff ranked among America's most famous radio personalities. Millions of listeners across the nation tuned in faithfully to their comedy show.
Their renown was great enough that the Montgomery County hamlet of Waters switched its name to Pine Ridge in their honor. The change was proclaimed by Gov. J. Marion Futrell at a festive state Capitol ceremony in 1936.
That same year, their show was ranked No. 4 in popularity across the United States -- ahead of "Amos 'n' Andy," "Fibber McGee and Molly," and fellow Arkansan Bob Burns. They trailed only Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, and George Burns and Gracie Allen.
On the air, they were Lum and Abner, household names in the pre-television decade of the Great Depression.
As proprietors of the Jot 'Em Down Store, they brought homespun laughs to Americans via nearly 6,000 live broadcasts from 1931 to 1955. Armed Forces Radio took them around the globe during World War II. They also starred in a half-dozen Hollywood movies.
If you've never heard of Lum (played by Lauck) and Abner (Goff), that's evidence for the adage that fame is fleeting. But they still take top billing in tiny Pine Ridge. That's thanks to Kathryn Moore Stucker and husband Noah Lon Stucker.
The Stuckers own the Lum and Abner Museum and Jot 'Em Down Store in two connected wood buildings, one of which inspired the show's fictive setting. Packed with memorabilia, the museum and store reflect bygone life in rural Arkansas as well as Lum and Abner's phenomenal success.
Lauck and Goff grew up in Mena, 20 miles west of Pine Ridge, where many of the locals they knew became models for their radio characters. Not long after they'd created Lum and Abner on a lark for a Hot Springs radio station, NBC picked up the program. It later aired on the ABC, CBS and Mutual networks.
Visitors to the Pine Ridge museum can hear a typical episode of Lum & Abner, which, in its prime, aired for 15 minutes five days a week. If the dialogue doesn't seem all that hilarious, the problem perhaps lies with the transience of wit. Even some lines in Shakespeare's comedies can seem lame to a 21st-century ear.
Writing for The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, Kathryn Stucker aims to explain Lum and Abner's popularity: "Their humor was clean and honest, reflecting small-town life and human nature. The stories had universal themes."
A booklet by Stucker for sale at the museum and store elaborates on their sustained popularity:
"Without making fun of anyone, and without phony airs, two men possessing a lot of talent connected with a town containing the ingredients needed to entertain the country during a period when there was little to laugh about. The format they created has been used from Nashville to Hollywood and continues to be popular to this day."
As examples of their show's legacy, she cites "Gomer Pyle and all of his friends, Andy Taylor and the population of Mayberry, the Green Acres cast, the whole Hee Haw gang, and even cartoon characters like Li'l Abner and Daisy Mae."
Dare one add to the list such recent televised effusions as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Duck Dynasty and Hollywood Hillbillies?
Lauck and Goff, dead now for a third of a century, might well decline that honor.
The Lum and Abner Museum and Jot 'Em Down Store, on Arkansas 88 in Pine Ridge, is open noon-4 p.m. Sunday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, but closed most holidays. Admission is free, with donations welcome. For details, call (870) 326-4442 or visit lum-abner.com.
Weekend on 04/16/2015