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Accession Number: 88
The Jostes Sisters Renfro Valley Photographic and Clippings Collection
0.4 Linear Feet
Online Catalog
Record (BANC)
Overview
History
Box List
Access and Use
Provenance:
These photographs and clippings are
the gift of Mildred and Pauline Jostes, performers on the Renfro Valley
Barn Dance and associated radio programs in the 1940s.
Preferred Citation:
The Jostes Sisters Renfro Valley
Photographic and Clippings Collection, Berea College Special
Collections & Archives,
Berea, Ky.
Related Archives
Overview
The collection’s thirty 8 x 10 prints, 99 smaller images (snapshots and
postcards) and a small number of newspaper clippings, dating from 1940 to 1958,
document Renfro Valley personalities, events, grounds, and structures. They constitute
a useful supplement to the photographs and clippings found in the Papers of Renfro
Valley’s founder, John Lair (SAA 66).
History
John Lair started the Renfro Valley Barn Dance radio program while he worked
at Cincinnati's WLW. While developing a Renfro Valley radio identity on WLW,
Lair set about building his Kentucky country music tourist complex in Rockcastle
County, Kentucky, that eventually opened in 1939. It included a barn-like auditorium,
the one-room log school of his youth, and a restored, water driven gristmill.
There was also a rustic appearing but newly built restaurant, gift shop, U.S.
Post Office, and overnight cabins. Later there would a pioneer museum and old
fashioned country store.
His radio programs were heavy on comedy, turn-of-the-century sentimental songs,
old English ballads, and rural string band music. The two programs he is best
known for are the Saturday night Renfro Valley Barn Dance and Sunday morning
Renfro Valley Gatherin’. The Barn Dance was heard widely on WLW and later
Louisville’s WHAS. The Gatherin’, started in 1943, was carried
by WHAS and the CBS Network. The music and Lair’s low key commercial
delivery attracted a large radio audience, especially in the Midwest, Northeast
and Upper South. On weekends, visitors came from great distances to attend
the broadcast stage performances and to enjoy the Valley’s up-to-date
facilities and serene atmosphere. His performers were also in great demand
for shows at schools, movie theaters, and county fairs. During much of the
1940s he kept a tent show on the road from May to October that ranged all the
way from Georgia to upper New York State and parts of New England.
Mildred and Pauline Jostes, of Peoria, Illinois, were among the performers
with the Renfro Valley tent shows in the 1940s. They also were part of the
Renfro Valley road show cast who performed in theaters and other indoor venues
in colder months.
Most of the photos and memorabilia collected by the Jostes sisters comes from
the 1940s. However, some postcards and photographs in the collection represent
subsequent correspondence or visits with former Renfro Valley associates.
Box List
1 Manuscript Box
Box 1
- Baker, Wade [40s-50s]
- Behrens, Jerry [40s]
- Blakeman, Guy [40s]
- Blue Bonnet Girls [1945], Florence?, Lily Holland, Sylvia?
- Bradford, Shorty (40s]
- Clark, Joe [40s]
- Cobb, Gene [40s] - 2
- Coon Creek Girls ( Minnie “Black Eyed Susan” Ledford, Charlotte “Rosie” Ledford,
Violet, Lily)
- Cornelison, Ernest [40s] (“Ernie Lee”)
- Covington, Tommy [40s]
- Fly, Patty [46]
- Furguson, Glenn, and Buddy Nelson (tent shows); Buddy Nelson
- Holden Brothers, Jack and Fairly [40s]
- Holland, Hank [40s] (road shows)
- Jostes Sisters, Pauline and Mildred [40s] (road and tent shows)
- Lair, John [50s]
- Langdon, Freddy [40s-50s] (worked with Slim King and Jay Neace)
- Little Eller Long (Beth Cremer) and Shorty Hobbs [40s]
- Martin, Emory [40s]
- Miller, Homer “Slim” [30s-40s]
- Miller, Homer “Slim” and Granny Harper (Flora Williams) [50s]
- Randolph, Mary [40s-50s]
- Simmons, Bob [40s]
- Steele, Jeanie and Mel (road and tent shows)
- Travis Twins (Ruby and Ruth Hilgerson) [40s]
- Crusaders Quartet: Ruel and Flossie Thomas, Leslie Andrew, Glenn Pennington
[‘76]
- Mulligan Brothers: Connie and Curly (road and tent shows)
- Sosebee, Tommy [40s] (road and tent shows)
- Jostes Sisters and Slim Miller [40s]
- Radio broadcast from the Renfro Valley lodge: (standing) Lige Turner, Slim
Miller, Brownie Reynolds, Jerry Behrens, Fairly Holden; (seated) Rosie Ledford,
Elsie Behrens, Smoky Ward, Bernice Scott, Virginia Sutton, John Lair; (back
to camera) Ernie Lee, Susie Ledford, Red Turner, ? Eller Long, Waitress:
Sidney Lyons; Engineers: (far corner) Leland “Tut” Flora, unidentified
[40s]
- Black and white snapshots of the Jostes sisters (including some from road
and tent shows), other performers, and Renfro Valley buildings, including
a few post cards
- Clippings: a few ads for Renfro Valley road shows, ranging from North Carolina
to Florida, that included the Jostes sisters
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