Before rock ‘n’ roll swept the nation, or Dwight Eisenhower launched his unprecedented “I like Ike” media campaign, children from rural Clinton were already climbing the airwaves. Their story will be told in “Voices from the Past: Jackie Butler and his Playmates,” a new documentary from the North Carolina Broadcast History Museum (NCBHM), premiering on PBS-NC, Oct. 16, at 9:30 p.m. The cinematographer and director is Duplin County native, Denver Hollingsworth, and producer is Mike Weeks.
In 1951, a band of children from Clinton — led by 11-year-old Jackie Butler — recorded their first single on the Decoy label. With titles like “Just Lookin’” and “Pa Ain’t Got a Cent (to throw away on groceries),” their music combined homespun humor with country charm, quickly winning fans across the region.
“I remember one of the biggest things to happen in Clinton in the late 1940s was when the town got its first radio station and put up a tall tower right outside the city limits,” said Wade Hargrove, child band member and now a retired broadcast lawyer in Raleigh.
Hitting the airwaves on April 5, 1947 with 1 KW of power, WRRZ in Clinton had a curious advertising mascot in the form of a statue depicting tobacco leaves, personified. It marked a point in southern history when tobacco was king … and so was radio.
From a sepia photograph, youngsters dressed in their Saturday-go-to-hoedown finest stare back with mischievous grins, wearing cowboy hats at jaunty angles, their instruments proudly displayed in front of them, including an EB4, the first Gibson electric bass guitar sold in North Carolina. Recordings on the Decoy label, “Just Lookin’” and “Paw Ain’t Got a Cent (to throw away on groceries)” capture the signature sound the precocious children brought not only to their live WRRZ radio program, but to their own makeshift stage. On Saturday night in downtown Clinton, across from the hospital, next door to a grill on 600 Beamon Street, the children put on “The Good Ole Opry” show, complete with comedy, and attracted quite a crowd. The stage was built from the garage of Jackie Butler’s family’s house, and the band could walk out Jackie’s bedroom right onto the stage.
Hargrove’s family owned a fish market and lived in town, as did Butler. Carter would walk a mile or so into town to practice at the Butler’s house. Jackie’s dad, Mel Butler, described by Hargrove as “a genius,” taught his son Jackie how to play guitar at a young age. He also wrote the child band’s songs, jokes, and drove them to their performances.
More than 70 years later, band members Hargrove and Carter share their memories of the band’s origins — from a grade-school stunt-night performance of “Hillbilly Fever” to the makeshift stage built in Jackie Butler’s yard, where neighbors packed in for weekly shows.
Growing up in a rural farming community centered around the “golden leaf,” the boys were even hired to ride from farm to farm, singing jingles to attract business to Clinton’s booming tobacco market.
The band members went in different directions after graduation, pursuing education and careers. A serious student, Hargrove earned academic scholarships and went to UNC-Chapel Hill and law school. Carter attended college in Wilmington and ultimately started a successful business in Charlotte. The charismatic Jackie Butler moved to Nashville, Tennessee, pursuing his music career further and working as a disc jockey. He died too soon, in the 1990s. Ciana Butler still resides in the area.
Not long after the documentary was filmed, capturing stories from the personal perspectives of former band members Wade Hargrove and C.D. Carter, Carter passed unexpectedly. Carter’s legacy lives on, not only through his story captured for posterity on film, but his grandson, James Barbee, is a member of the Greenville-based band, High June. The style of music is very different from that of his grandfather, but the spirit of music-making clearly runs strong.
The legacy of Jackie Butler and his Playmates is more than a footnote — it’s a story of friendship, small-town pride, and the power of music to bring people together. The new PBS documentary ensures that this slice of North Carolina history, almost lost to time, will be remembered for generations to come.