The Dorothy Shay, Park Avenue Hillbillie Centennial

Born 100 years ago today. Dorothy Shay (Dorothy Sims, 1921-1978) popularly billed as “The Park Avenue Hillbillie”.

Ironically, Shay was originally from Jacksonville, Florida and had taken vocal and speech lessons to get rid of her accent. In her early ’20s she toured with the USO as a singer and fronted Morton Gould’s band. In 1946 she released her incest-themed novelty number “Uncle Fud” , and this launched her association with comedy hillbilly material. Her nightclub act was just like it sounds — a country repertoire, delivered by a classy, posh dame with vocal training, in an evening gown. The following year was a peak of sorts: she performed on Spike Jones’ radio show, released the LP Dorothy Shay (The Park Avenue Hillbillie) Sings (with songs by Bob Merrill), and had her highest charting single “Feudin’ and Fightin'”.

In 1951 she was in the Abbott and Costello feature Comin’ Round the Mountain, but most of her screen credits were in television. As a singer she appeared on The Ken Murray Show, The Alan Young Show,The Saturday Night Revue with Jack Carter, The Jack Benny Program, The Red Skelton Hour,Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall,Rosemary Clooney Show, and The Lawrence Welk Show in the ’50s and early ’60s. She also sang at President Eisenhower’s first inaugural ball. In the ’70s, she acted on tv shows like Adam-12,The Virginian,Room 222, The Brady Bunch,Police Woman, and Starsky and Hutch.

In her last years Shay had a recurring past as Thelma, proprietress of the Dew Drop Inn on The Waltons. A heart attack felled her at the young age of 57.

For more on the history of variety enetertainment, please see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.