Major champion Steve Elkington goes backstage at famed city’s first theater
and talks golf with longtime buddy Rocco Mediate
Like all iconic places, things had to start somewhere. And in this week’s episode of the hit show “The Rural Golfer”, RFD-TV viewers will join Steve Elkington in discovering where the roots of Branson, Mo began.
The Rural Golfer airs on RFD-TV at 9:30 p.m. (ET) Friday, with encore shows airing at 12:30 p.m. Sunday (ET) and the following Friday at 6 a.m. (ET).
This week’s episode finds Elkington in legendary Branson, where he not only discovered the new home of the Legends of Golf – the palatial Big Cedar Lodge – but discovered how the southwestern Missouri city in the Ozarks became the hub of family entertainment throughout the Midwest and South.
It all started in a cave.
That’s where the Presley Family began what morphed into the Presleys’ Country Jubilee – two miles underground in the nearby Fantastic Caverns. Family patriarch Lloyd Presley created Branson’s first underground entertainment.
“Back in the early ’60s, not many people had air conditioning, so we’d play about a couple miles underground in Fantastic Caverns. We’d play our summertime show in a cool cave and not only could people see our show, but they could see it in a cool cave,” said Gary “Herkimer” Presley, who took over for his late father as Presley patriarch.
In 1967, Lloyd Presley took a flyer, fled the caves and came aboveground to build a theater on a stretch of Highway 76 just outside Branson. Gary Presley said his dad hedged his bet on whether it would work with his own Plan B.
“Branson is known as a fishing place and we didn’t know if the show would work. So when we built our first theater, we built it with a flat floor and double doors. That way, if the show didn’t work, we could park boats there in the wintertime,” Gary Presley said.
The show worked. It’s been working for now four generations of Presleys and more than 50 years. It’s worked through seven theater renovations and a return to the caves in 2013 for a 50th anniversary performance. And when Elkington visited the Presley’s iconic theater, he saw up close exactly why it works.
“We’re not just in the music business, we’re probably a tourist attraction first,” Gary Presley said. “We’ve been the most popular show in Branson for 50 years.”
When Elkington wasn’t discovering the Presley’s theater abilities, he was discovering why Eric “Cecil” Presley, Gary’s son and the comedic yin to Gary’s yang, nearly set a course record on one of Branson’s 12 golf courses. Eric Presley’s secret: when you travel in your tour bus, make room for the golf clubs.
“At the (Champions Tour’s Legends of Golf) pro-am last week, I was a nervous wreck standing on the first tee,” Eric Presley said. “It’s a lot like performing; that week, we had written five or six new jokes into the show and when you’re standing on stage waiting to try them out, it’s a lot like standing on the first tee. You’re either going to go out and it’s going to sell and they’re going to laugh or you’re going to shank it.”
When watching him swing a golf club, “The Rural Golfer” viewers will discover Eric Presley doesn’t shank many things, especially after Elkington showed him and his dad how he hits his trademark fade. And Elkington didn’t embarrass himself on Big Cedar Lodge’s mammoth replica of the famed Himalayas putting green at St. Andrews.
“Everyone loves putt-putt. This is the real putt-putt,” said Elkington, as he maneuvered his ball around the swales and cliffs of the Tom Watson-designed putting green.
And everyone loves Rocco Mediate, Elkington’s good friend and partner in the two-man Legends format, who spends time “nestled” in Missouri talking about everything from their alternate-shot strategy to how Elkington beat Mediate nearly 30 years ago at PGA Tour Qualifying School.
“I’m still mad at you for that,” Mediate said.
Yet in a place as serene and picturesque as Branson, both Elkington and Mediate realize pretty quickly that it’s hard to stay mad for long about anything.
About Rural Media Group, Inc.: Rural Media Group, Inc. (RMG) is the world’s leading provider of multimedia content dedicated to the rural and western lifestyle. RMG is the parent company of RFD-TV, FamilyNet, RURAL TV, RURAL RADIO on SiriusXM channel 80, RFD-TV The Magazine and RFD-TV The Theatre. RFD-TV, the flagship network for RMG, launched in December 2000. RFD-TV is the nation’s first 24-hour television network dedicated to serving the needs and interests of rural America with programming focused on agriculture, equine, rural lifestyle, traditional country music and entertainment. Daily productions include Market Day Report and the Rural Evening News. RMG networks are distributed into more than 63-million homes worldwide by DBS, telco and cable systems including DISH Network, DIRECTV®, Comcast, Verizon FiOS TV, AT&T U-Verse, Mediacom, Charter, Brighthouse, Suddenlink, Time Warner, Cox and more than 600 independent rural cable systems. RFD-TV The Magazine is the print programming guide for the networks, which has attracted over 200,000 paid subscribers. RFD-TV The Theatre is a 2000 capacity soft seat venue in Branson, MO where entertainment programming is produced. RMG corporate headquarters are based in Omaha, NE and production operations are in Nashville, TN. For more information, visit www.rfdtv.com and join us on Facebook: RFD-TV Twitter: @OfficialRFDTV and Instagram: http://instagram.com/rfdtv
About Rural Golfer: Just about every person who has picked up a golf club has been afflicted with the desire to find the secret to the game. Some find it in practice, some in playing, and some in hardcore instruction. It is said to be found “in the dirt.” The Rural Golfer with Steve Elkington is a journey to find that elusive secret. A quest as seen through the eyes of Steve Elkington and his Rural Golfer team. The Rural Golfer follows Steve Elkington and the team on a quest to find the holy grail of golf, “the secret in the dirt,” that takes them on a journey of undiscovered territory. Rural Golfer will highlight the flavor of golf in major cities surrounding Champions Tour venues and along the way will delve into the hidden gems along the way that define golf in America.
For more information about The Rural Golfer with Steve Elkington, please visit www.ruralgolfer.com and join us on Facebook: Rural Golfer and on Twitter: @RuralGolfer.
Contact:
Brian Robin, Brener Zwikel & Associates
brianr@bzapr.com (818) 462-5610
