Hillbilly - the Real Story - a few comments
The History Channel finally aired its two hour program that was originally called “Appalachia - America’s First Frontier.” The best part was about The Battle of Blair Mountain with William C. Blizzard and Ross Ballard talking about the event. I also enjoyed the stories about the early Revolutionary War Battle of Kings Mountain, the Scottish-Irish parts, and I learned something I didn’t know about early stock car racing. It’s unfortunate they opened with the moonshine piece and focused on the feud stories, reinforcing the stereotypes they claimed to be against. On their side, I have felt for almost 30 years that even Appalshop often does the same thing, often making films about Appalachians who perfectly fit the stereotype.
They really did an excellent job on telling the Battle of Blair Mountain, including info on the current attempts to blast it away. It was great to see Harvard Ayer and others locate the bullets that remain from the Battle. Bill Blizzard looked and sounded great despite his recent severe medical problems. Wess Harris, publisher of “When Miners March” and good friend to Bill Blizzard, deserves a lot of the credit for the accuracy of the stories - as does Ross Ballard who was great telling the stories.
