Hootenanny

Hootenanny was an American musical variety television show broadcast on ABC from April 1963 to September 1964. The program was hosted by Jack Linkletter. It primarily featured pop-oriented folk music acts, including The Journeymen, The Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels, The Brothers Four, Ian & Sylvia, The Big 3, Hoyt Axton, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, The Tarriers, Bud & Travis, and the Smothers Brothers. Although both popular and influential, the program is primarily remembered today for the controversy created when the producers blacklisted certain folk music acts, which then led to a boycott by others. After two seasons, the shifting musical tastes of the era- heavily influenced by the British Invasion starting in 1964 - and a decline in the program's variety led to its effective replacement by Shindig!, a similar but more broadly-based and pop music oriented variety program. History Background Hootenanny was created in 1962 by Dan Melnick, Vice President of ABC-TV, and the Ashley-Steiner Talent Agency. The pilot was conceived as a half-hour special. The agency and network hired producer-director Gil Cates to oversee the initial production. It was Cates’ idea to tape the program at a college campus, and to liberally include the student audience on camera, singing and clapping along with the music. Cates staged the show as theater in the round, with the students seated on the floor or in bleachers, surrounding the performers.