MINNIE PEARL An Autobiography Book Autographed Signed

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No one symbolized the exuberant spirit of The Grand Ole Opry better than comedienne Minnie Pearl, whose shrill “How-DEE!” has resounded through countless concert halls, and whose dime store hat with the dangling price tag is now a familiar trademark to fans around the world.  Her acceptance into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1975 was an unprecedented tribute for a performer who is neither a singer nor musician, but who is nevertheless one of the most beloved entertainers in the country music industry.

The young Sarah Ophelia Colley, who later became Minnie Pearl, would have been surprised to look into the future at this particular turn of events.  For this young woman thought rather little of country music; in fact, she had aspirations of becoming a dramatic actress.  In her wonderfully funny memoir, this gifted comic and gracious Southern lady traces the roundabout route she followed from reciting Shakespeare in finishing school to “cuttin’ the fool” on the Opry stage.

With anecdotes from both personal and professional life, Minnie Pearl shares such experiences as:  her earliest and most embarrassing comedy routine – as a last-minute contestant in a beauty pageant; her first encounter with the looser morals of “show biz” on the traveling minstrel circuit; her yearly nomination for the Country Music Hall of Fame Award – until she lost all hope of ever actually winning (her husband even gave up wearing his tux to the ceremony); and the parental advice that helped her retain a sense of humor through it all – “Never let the truth interfere with a good story.”

Within her own life story, Minnie Pearl presents one of the best accounts ever of life on the road, a phenomenon uniquely indigenous to country music.  Recounting her own thirty years of one-nighters, she evokes the adventure, the camaraderie and the exhilaration of the tours that were then the mainstay of a country performer’s career.  She also remembers the hard times – “when there was nothing to do but cry or be silly.”  With stirring recollections of the legendary greats who were her road companions, her advisers and her closest friends  – Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, Pee Wee King – Minnie offers a poignant glimpse at how this tough but rewarding profession made poor men into millionaires and turned young men old before their time.

Minnie Pearl’s reminiscences sparkle with laughter and vitality and capture vividly the personalities, the moods and the events of the innocent days of country-style entertainment.

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