100 Fun Facts About Hillbilly Trivia Questions and Answers

Besides Appalachia, which US upland region is most closely associated with the word "hillbilly"?

The term spread north and west with the people who left both regions during the Great Depression.

In the Scottish origin story for the word, "billy" meant what?

"Hill-folk" were people who kept apart from society; the combined term was applied to Covenanters hiding in the southern Scottish hills.

The earliest known printed use of 'hillbilly', in 1892, was in a journal for which industry's workers?

An 1899 photograph labelled "Camp Hillbilly" and a 1900 New York Journal definition followed.

A 1900 New York Journal definition called a "Hill-Billie" a free and untrammeled white citizen of which state?

He supposedly "drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him".

One theory ties the word to Scottish 'hill-folk' Covenanters who followed which Presbyterian preacher?

His followers, the Cameronians, fled to the hills of southern Scotland in the late 17th century to avoid persecution.

The disputed "Billy's Boys" origin story links the word to Protestant supporters of which king?

Scholar Michael Montgomery calls this Ulster derivation "almost certainly incorrect", since the American word is first attested only in the 1890s.

Which Chicago neighbourhood was nicknamed "Hillbilly Heaven" in the 1960s for its Appalachian migrants?

Migrants also clustered in Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron and other industrial cities along what was called the Hillbilly Highway.

Steve Earle's 1986 debut album, which included his song "Hillbilly Highway", was called what?

The song follows three generations of Appalachian men who leave home to find work.

Dwight Yoakam's 1987 song about coal-country kids heading north is named for which highway?

It appeared on the album Hillbilly Deluxe, and the road runs north out of Prestonsburg.

Which country pianist coined "hillbilly music" as a label in 1925?

Columbia had success with his band, the Hill Billies, and the label stuck to the whole genre until the 1950s.

Which OKeh Records recording director applied the Virginia term 'hillbilly' to all Southern country music?

He was also the talent scout and recordist at the August 1927 sessions that first captured the Carter Family.

Which Tennessee city has Congress recognized as the 'Birthplace of Country Music' for its 1927 recording sessions?

The Johnson City sessions of 1928–29 and the Knoxville sessions of 1929–30 are also cited by historians.

On which Nashville station has the Grand Ole Opry aired since 1925?

OKeh Records began issuing hillbilly records in the same decade.

What was Elvis Presley called early in his career, when he was playing rockabilly?

Rockabilly and hillbilly boogie were the styles that mixed hillbilly and African American music.

The "hillbilly" label for the genre faded after which trade organisation was founded in 1958?

The industry then merged hillbilly, Western swing and cowboy music into "Country and Western".

Which country star was notably offended by the "hillbilly music" label?

The term is still used today, mostly for old-time music and bluegrass.

What is Ivy League station WHRB's long-running weekly old-time and bluegrass show called?

It is one of the few places the old label survives without irony.

Which duo recorded "Hillbilly Boogie", an early song to put the word in its title after "Hillbilly Rose"?

The boogie style they helped popularise fed directly into rockabilly.

Which black fiddler made the 1927 Gennett recordings filed as 'made for Hillbilly'?

The recordings were made in Richmond, Indiana.

Bluegrass music takes its name from the band of which musician?

Traditionalists still treat his band's line-up of guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo and bass as the correct instrumentation.

Which bluegrass duo performed "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" for The Beverly Hillbillies?

Jerry Scoggins sang the theme over the credits, backed by the pair.

The Clampetts moved to Beverly Hills after striking what on their land?

The opening credits show Jed finding it while shooting at a rabbit; the first episode credits a company surveyor instead.

Who created The Beverly Hillbillies?

He also wrote the theme song, and CBS followed with two more of his rural comedies.

Which CBS series from the same creator reversed The Beverly Hillbillies by sending city folk to the country?

It was a spin-off of Petticoat Junction and completed a trio of rural CBS hits.

Ma and Pa Kettle first appeared in which 1945 best-selling memoir?

Betty MacDonald based them on real farming neighbours in Washington state.

Which actress played Ma Kettle in all ten films and got an Oscar nod for the 1947 original?

Percy Kilbride played Pa in the first eight.

The Ma and Pa Kettle films are said to have saved which studio from bankruptcy?

The nine spin-off films grossed an estimated $35 million.

Which 1941 Gary Cooper film is cited, with the Kettle series, as portraying the hillbilly as 'wild but good-natured'?

Sixties television took the sympathetic line further, letting mountain folk outwit city slickers.

Which Gunsmoke character is cited as a quick-witted hillbilly who merely lacked "education"?

He arrived as Matt Dillon's deputy in the show's later years.

Who wrote and drew Li'l Abner for its entire 43-year run?

The strip ran from 1934 to 1977 and reached 60 million readers in over 900 US newspapers.

What was the name of the impoverished mountain village where Li'l Abner lived?

Early on the strip placed it in a real state, but later kept its location deliberately vague.

Li'l Abner created which pseudo-holiday in 1937, on which unmarried women chase bachelors?

By 1952 it was reportedly celebrated at 40,000 venues, and it survives as the girls-ask-boys dance.

In Li'l Abner, what was the potent moonshine brewed by Hairless Joe and Lonesome Polecat called?

Its fumes alone were said to melt the rivets off battleships; the name later went on a real soft drink.

Which Li'l Abner creature bred exponentially, ate nothing and tasted like pork, chicken or steak?

The creatures were a satire of a consumer's paradise, and set off a merchandising craze.

The 800-acre theme park based on Li'l Abner opened in 1968 in Marble Falls, in which state?

Its gift shops sold corncob pipes and moonshine jugs, and 300,000 people visited in the first year.

Snuffy Smith entered the Barney Google strip in 1934 when Barney visited the mountains of which state?

The tiny moonshiner soon took over the strip, and Barney was written out in 1954.

What is the name of the Appalachian hamlet where Snuffy Smith lives?

Barney Google finally moved back there permanently in a 2021 storyline.

What was the name of Barney Google's bow-legged, blanket-wearing racehorse?

The horse was so popular in the 1920s that the strip was briefly retitled after him.

Which two country stars hosted Hee Haw for most of its run?

The pair represented the two poles of country at the time: the Bakersfield sound and Nashville's Music Row.

Hee Haw was set in which fictional rural community?

The show ran from 1969 to 1993, most of it in syndication.

Hee Haw was modelled on which fast-cut comedy show of the late 1960s?

CBS actually picked it up as a last-minute replacement for the Smothers Brothers.

CBS dropped Hee Haw and all its other country-themed shows in 1971 in what became known as what?

Hee Haw sat at No. 16 in the ratings when it was cancelled, and simply moved into syndication.

What phone number did Junior Samples repeat at the end of his Hee Haw used-car commercials?

The number later became the name of a 1990s alt-country band.

In the WWF storyline, which champion "trained" Hillbilly Jim after he turned down Roddy Piper's offer?

Vignettes in early 1985 showed the training and Jim receiving his first wrestling boots.

In which year was Hillbilly Jim inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame?

Jimmy Hart did the honours; Jim had earlier managed the pig-farming Godwinns.

Who wrote the 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy?

The book topped The New York Times best-seller list in August 2016; its author later became vice president.

Hillbilly Elegy centres on the author's hometown, which Ohio city?

His grandparents had moved there from Breathitt County in the Appalachian hills after World War II.

Who directed the 2020 film adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy?

The Netflix film drew negative reviews and three Razzie nominations.

Which actress played the grandmother in Hillbilly Elegy and got a Golden Raspberry nomination?

Amy Adams played the mother, Bev.

Which Pulitzer Prize-winning novel did Barbara Kingsolver write partly as a rebuttal to Hillbilly Elegy?

She wanted a "great Appalachian novel" that pushed back on the memoir's stereotypes.

The Hatfields and McCoys lived on opposite sides of which river?

The Hatfields were mostly on the West Virginia side of the water and the McCoys on the other.

What was the nickname of the Hatfield patriarch, whose timber business enriched the family?

His timbering business made the Hatfields wealthier and better connected than the McCoys.

The feud's second recorded act of violence, in 1878, followed a dispute over the ownership of what?

Randall McCoy said the notches on its ears were McCoy marks; a Hatfield justice of the peace ruled for the Hatfields.

When the two families met on Family Feud in 1979, what was the result?

A pig was kept on stage as part of the prize, and the McCoys' cash was topped up to beat the Hatfields' total by a dollar.

Kevin Costner's 2012 miniseries Hatfields & McCoys set a ratings record for which network?

Bill Paxton played Randolph McCoy opposite Costner.

When the feud reached the US Supreme Court in 1888, the justices ruled 7–2 in favour of which state?

The court held that a fugitive brought back illegally could still be tried; the men were convicted and one was hanged.

Local members of which organisation started Pikeville's Hillbilly Days festival as a fundraiser?

The money supports their children's hospital; the town also hosted the families' official 2003 truce.

Which US president received Springfield's "Hillbilly Medallion" after a breakfast speech in 1952?

Generals Omar Bradley and Matthew Ridgway and retailer J. C. Penney were also made honorary hillbillies.

The word "moonshine" comes from a tradition of doing what?

Modern distilleries have since adopted the name for its outlaw cachet on perfectly legal spirits.

Which of these states allows the production of moonshine for personal consumption?

Only six states do; North Dakota technically permits it up to the federal limit of zero gallons.

Traditional American moonshine is a clear, unaged whiskey made from a mash of what?

In Scotland and Ireland the traditional base was barley.

Which instrumental became a pop-culture landmark thanks to a scene in Deliverance?

The film grossed $46.1 million on a $2 million budget.

Deliverance was shot mainly in Rabun County, in which state?

Locals have since criticised the film for cementing Appalachian stereotypes.

Who wrote the 1970 novel Deliverance and adapted it for the screen?

The Hillbilly article credits the film with introducing a darker, murderous image of mountain people to a new generation.

Barred from owning guns by probation, what did Bo and Luke Duke arm themselves with?

The arrows were sometimes tipped with dynamite.

Who wrote and sang the Dukes of Hazzard theme "Good Ol' Boys" and narrated the show as the Balladeer?

The single version differs from the one heard over the opening credits.

The Dukes of Hazzard grew out of which 1975 bootlegging film by the show's creator?

Warner Bros. wanted a series after the success of Smokey and the Bandit, which also influenced the show.

The TV series Justified sent Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens back to his coal-country hometown of what?

Its plots leaned on hillbilly tropes such as homemade drugs and snake-handling revivalists.

Which 2010 horror comedy parodies the murderous-hillbilly trope of Deliverance and Texas Chainsaw Massacre?

The other three play the trope straight.

Which two politicians joined the campaign against CBS's proposed The Real Beverly Hillbillies?

The Center for Rural Strategies argued that no other group could be demeaned so openly.

Roughly what share of Appalachia's workforce did coal mining employ by the 2020s?

Tourism by then accounted for around $30 billion and 600,000 jobs.

How many episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies were made?

Jed, Granny and Elly May appear in every one; Jethro misses only the final two.

How much of the Clampett fortune was banker Milburn Drysdale guarding, in 1969 dollars?

He kept it at the Commerce Bank of Beverly Hills and would do anything to keep the family in town.

Miss Jane Hathaway, Drysdale's secretary, held a degree from which college?

She was also fluent in French and knew Latin.

Which future Manson-family murder victim played bank secretary Janet Trego in 15 episodes?

Her character assisted Jane Hathaway and was often the object of Jethro's romantic overtures.

In the 1981 reunion TV movie, what job does Elly May Clampett hold?

Fitting for a character famed for her collection of animal 'critters'.

In the 1993 film, Jane Hathaway had become a federal agent working for which agency?

The plot had Jed back home in Bugtussle after dividing his fortune between Elly May and Jethro.

In which year did the McCoys' Kentucky homeplace host a joint family reunion attended by over 5,000 people?

It was organised by Bo and Ron McCoy, great-great-great-grandsons of Randolph McCoy.

Who played Devil Anse Hatfield's rival Randolph McCoy in the 2012 History Channel miniseries?

Kevin Costner played Devil Anse, with Tom Berenger as Jim Vance.

In the 1949 Samuel Goldwyn film Roseanna McCoy, who played Johnse Hatfield?

Joan Evans played the title role in the fictionalized romance.

Mountain Dew, named after old slang for moonshine, was first created in which Tennessee city?

The Hartman brothers invented it in 1940 as a whiskey mixer, and early labels showed a barefoot mountaineer with a rifle and a jug.

In Hillbilly Hare (1950), the Martin brothers mistake Bugs Bunny for a member of which clan?

The short ends with Bugs calling an increasingly violent square dance that the brothers obediently follow right off a cliff.

What was the surname of the feuding cartoon family in Hanna-Barbera's The Hillbilly Bears?

Paw's feud with the neighbours usually involved firing the same bullet back and forth from rocking chairs; the family later ran a cafe in Jellystone!

Which Chicago group of Appalachian migrants joined the Black Panthers in the 1969 Rainbow Coalition?

The leftist group used a Confederate battle flag as its symbol while allying with Fred Hampton's Black Panthers and the Puerto Rican Young Lords.

Who hosted Ozark Jubilee, the 1950s ABC country music show broadcast live from Springfield?

The show drew more than nine million viewers and gave an 11-year-old Brenda Lee her first national exposure.

Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro Bodine, was the son of a world champion in which sport?

Unlike Jethro and his sixth-grade education, Baer holds a business degree from Santa Clara University.

The Real McCoys left Appalachia for an inherited farm in which part of California?

Walter Brennan's Grandpa Amos sat out the final eleven episodes, explained away as a visit to family back home in the mountains.

What price was shown on the tag that dangled from Minnie Pearl's hat?

She bought the original hat at a department store in Aiken, South Carolina, just before her first performance as Minnie Pearl in 1939.

Hee Haw banjo picker Stringbean was also a semiprofessional player of which sport?

He met his future bandleader, the father of bluegrass, through the sport, since that pioneer fielded a rival semipro team.

Jesco White, the mountain dancer of the 1991 documentary Dancing Outlaw, comes from which state?

He performs in the tap shoes of his father D. Ray White, whom the Smithsonian had filmed as one of America's greatest mountain dancers.

How did Appalachian moonshiner Marvin Sutton earn his famous nickname?

His self-published guide to the trade, Me and My Likker, was described by The New York Times as rambling, obscene and often hilarious.

Which president pardoned NASCAR legend Junior Johnson for his 1956 moonshining conviction?

Johnson was never caught hauling liquor at speed; revenue agents got him at the still instead, costing him a year in an Ohio prison.

Bluegrass anthem 'Rocky Top' was written in 1967 by which husband-and-wife songwriting team?

The Bryants dashed it off in about 15 minutes as a break from writing slow songs at the Gatlinburg Inn; Tennessee made it a state song in 1982.

Who played Ree Dolly, the teenager searching for her missing father, in Winter's Bone (2010)?

The $2 million film won Sundance's Grand Jury Prize and earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

Robert Mitchum based his 1958 moonshine film Thunder Road on a story from which writer?

The film flopped at first but became a Southern drive-in staple for decades, and its poster inspired the title of a Bruce Springsteen song.

The doomed canoe trip in Deliverance takes place on which fictional river?

Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox both made their feature film debuts in the 1972 thriller, which was added to the National Film Registry in 2008.

Mayberry's wild mountain man Ernest T. Bass was notorious for hurling what through windows?

Howard Morris's character called himself the best thrower in the county and claimed to be saving up for a gold tooth.

Which real bluegrass band played the Darling family on The Andy Griffith Show?

The band was signed by Elektra within weeks of reaching Los Angeles in 1962 and played the mountain musicians from 1963 to 1966.

The bluegrass band The Hillbilly Thomists is made up of friars from which Catholic order?

The name comes from Flannery O'Connor, who wanted readers to see her as a 'hillbilly Thomist' rather than a 'hillbilly nihilist'.

The General Lee, the Duke boys' car in The Dukes of Hazzard, was what make and model?

Its doors were welded shut, so the Dukes climbed in through the windows, and crews went through an estimated 255 to 325 cars during the series.