Si Siman, the Ozark Jubilee, and Music Business at the Crossroads

As Executive Producer of the first continuous live network country music television show, the Ozark Jubilee (1955-1960), broadcast live from Springfield, Missouri. Si Siman had the task of selling country music to the fledgling ABC television network, whose executives viewed the Ozarks as a backwoods region “somewhere south of Times Square.” Yet ABC was barely off the ground and desperately needed inexpensive programming. Siman managed to talk ABC into signing a contract with a two-week cancellation option. Within a year after the weekly program began, the network spread its wings and repeatedly threatened to cancel the show. My presentation will be a discussion of the problems Siman had in getting and keeping the ABC network contract for the Jubilee. Other presentations available include general interest stories about Si Siman’s fascinating life in the entertainment business from the 1940s to the 1990s.