Friday, April 14, 2017

Movies . . . um, comic strips with Log Cabins.

Back in the day when comic strips were almost as important as the headline news, Lil Abner was one of the biggest.
Created by Al Capp it did what many strips did back then, masked social commentary with humor.

Set in the back woods of Kentucky, Dogpatch was everything you would expect of a parody of an Appalachian small town.

". . .  Dogpatch consisted mostly of hopelessly ramshackle log cabins, "tarnip" fields, pine trees and "hawg" wallows."









Lil Abner was made into several movies, the two most remembered are from 1940 and 1959.


This image is from the 1959 production.

While it was filmed in a sound studio as a musical, the cabin up on the hill is very interesting.











In 1968 Dogpatch USA opened in Ark.
It didn't last many years, and although several have tried to reopen it, it is at this time abandoned.
When building the theme park the developers rebuilt several old log cabins for the park.
These are pictures of them.

 If I am ever down that way I may see if I can find the place.