Ramblin' Tommy Scott

Biography

Ramblin' "Doc" Tommy Scott's Last Real Old Time Medicine Show In 1936, Scott joined "Doc" Chamberlain's Medicine Show, founded in 1890, when it rolled through Toccoa, Ga. When Chamberlain retired, he gave Scott the medicine and the show. As one of country music's first generation of stars, he began recording for RCA in the 1930's. He performed as a regular on some of the South's biggest radio shows from WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia to WSM's Grand Old Opry in the early 1940's joining stars like Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb and Pee Wee King. Scott said, "We played live on many stations and by tran-scriptions on the powerful Mexican stations like XERF Del Rio, XEG Mon-terey, Old Mexico." Like many of the stars of his era, success came from a combination of factors: the new medium of radio beamed their live performances all over the country; the popularity of new hillbilly records which started in Atlanta in 1923 with Fiddlin' John Carson and film "Soundies" which showed fans what their favorite singers from radio looked like on the silver screen. He benefited from all of these mediums, but his most lucrative medium was touring with his stage show. Scott said, "We kept the show on the road almost 350 days a year." Scott's stage show has taken many names in it's long history. The Georgia Peanut Band and The Hollywood Hillbillies are a couple of them. He has even run several shows at one time featuring different stars. It is this dedica-tion to the public that has put his show in more different towns than any other entertainer. He has walked on stage for more than 29,000 performances in front of more than 25,000,000 paid admissions. In the days when westerns were king of the silver screen, fans could have not only seen him on screen in musical films like "Southern Hayride," "Hillbilly Jamboree," and "Hobos and Indians," but for their 25 cents admission children catching a Saturday matinee at the Wink Theater in Dalton or the Tivoli in Chattanooga could have seen him live and in person with his whole show. "We played so many of those theaters, three to five shows a day. Some-times more than 200 in one year," he said. The documentary "Still Ramblin'" on WTCI gives a unique look at the life of America's Last Medicine Showman. It follows his career from the foothills of Georgia to his days at the Grand Ole Opry and in Hollywood. Through interviews, still photos and never before seen film footage, writer/director Randall Franks includes greats like Roy Acuff, Stringbean Akeman, Sunset Carson, Carolina Cotton, Col. Tim McCoy Charlie and Bill Monroe, Lash LaRue, Minnie Pearl, Al "Fuzzy" St. John, Curly Seckler and many more. "I just got the video back. Watching it brought back so many great memories of good times and old friends," Scott said. "Still Ramblin'" also features the digitally-restored anniversary edition of the western drama "Trail of the Hawk" featuring the music and comedy of Tommy and his Hollywood Hillbillies, Frankie Scott, Sandra Scott, Gaines Blevins, Eddy Williams and Luke McLuke. "Trail of the Hawk" was the directorial debut of Academy Award nominee Edward Dymtryk. The film, which was based on a James Oliver Curwood story, also featured western stars Yancey Lane, Betty Jordan, Dickie Jones, Lafe McKee among others. Scott's status as a treasure is evidenced by many accolades, including his recent nominations for the National Heritage Award, his 1976 placement in the Country Music Foundation's Walkway of Stars and the 1996 unveiling of his Georgia Music Hall of Fame exhibit, the museum's largest, in Macon. Scott, who counts appearances on television with Johnny Carson, Oprah Winfrey, David Letterman and Walter Cronkite, was also a pioneer in that medium hosting two of television's first country music shows, "The Ramblin' Tommy Scott Show" and "The Smokey Mountain Jamboree." With over 500 recordings to his credit, his chart success with included three titles "Rosebuds and You," "Dance With Her, Henry," and "Mule Train." He wrote around 300 of his recordings including "Rosebuds and You," recorded by numerous artists, and the bluegrass standard "Rainbow of My Dreams" popularized by Lester Flatt. While Lester Flatt, of Flatt & Scruggs, is considered the author of "Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms," Scott said, "Lester and I many times had a friendly discussion about who adapted the folk song first." In the seventies, when Suffolk marketing launched selling albums on television, Tommy Scott, Boxcar Willie and former Scott show alumnus, Slim Whitman reached an audience of millions in their homes. Scott's unique career has spanned eight decades.