Joseph Frank

Joseph Lee (J.L.) Frank (April 15, 1900 - May 4, 1952) was an American music promoter known for his promotion of country music artists during the second quarter of the 20th century. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 1967. Early life Frank was born in Mount Rozell, Alabama in Limestone County, but grew up across the state line in Giles County, Tennessee in the town of Pulaski after both of his parents died by the age of 7. As a young man, Frank worked in the steel mills of Birmingham before moving up to the coal mines in Illinois. Start of promotional career At 23, Frank moved to Chicago and worked as a bellboy for the Edgewater Beach Hotel. While working in Illinois, Frank owned a dry cleaners in Evanston, Illinois and had a night job as a theater set mover. Following his wife's persuasion, he became a booking agent for radio stars such as Fibber McGee and Molly, Gene Autry, and Amos 'n' Andy. This was for the WLS Roundup, where he was a show producer starting in 1928. Despite this, Frank still drove a dry-cleaning truck to supplement his income. By 1935, Frank quit both the radio and the dry cleaning job in Chicago, and moved his base of operations from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky where was now managing Autry prior to the star's move to Hollywood. Other acts that Frank managed while in Louisville included fiddler Clayton McMichen and Frankie More & His Log Cabin Boys. While managing Autry, Frank promoted the idea of the singing cowboy that would also include Pee Wee King, a future member of the Grand Ole Opry who was also Frank's son-in-law. It was while working with King, who was inducted into the Opry in 1937 that Frank began to work in country music, and eventually move his base of operations to Nashville by 1939. Move to Nashville and country promoter While promoting King on a tour in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1937, Frank befriended Roy Acuff. Using the same promotional techniques that admitted King into the Opry that year, Frank would get Acuff admitted into the Opry in 1938. Frank also suggested to Acuff to change his band's name from the Crazy Tennesseans to the nobler-sounding Smoky Mountain Boys. The success of inducting both Acuff and King into the Grand Ole Opry made Frank determined to promote Opry acts from small-town theaters and schools to big-city auditoriums within the United States.