Lum & Abner Jot’em Down Store and Museum

From the early 1930s to the mid-1950s, Lum & Abner were a comedy duo that rival Laurel and Hardy in popularity. The characters were played by Chester Lauck (Lum) and Norris Goff (Abner), natives of Mena, Arkansas. They started their bit locally and soon became famous around the country as a weekly radio program. By 1940, they were starring in the first of several movies.

The comedy was set in Pine Ridge, Arkansas, around the store of Dick Huddleston. Huddleston, and many other local natives, were the models for characters in the skits. The store and a couple other buildings from the time have been preserved and now serve as a museum. I drove down from London on a Wednesday afternoon and was the only visitor at the attraction—and perhaps in the town.

It looked very deserted, and I was bracing myself for the disappointment of a wasted two-hour drive. I walked up on the porch to read the signs but soon was greeted by a women who strolled down from her house.

She asked if I wanted to see inside and I told her yes, but first I wanted to use a bathroom. She directed me to a field behind the museum.

A sign in the outhouse informed me that it was an “Eleanor,” named for Eleanor Roosevelt whose efforts to improve the lives of rural Americans resulted in outhouses with cement foundations and outside vents.

Back at the museum, Kathy (that was the woman’s name) let me in through the back door. Later she informed me that “If I unlock the front door, I get more visitors than I like to deal with.” I wondered if she’d had any visitors in the past month.

The museum consisted of four rooms with a hodgepodge of old stuff mixed in with photos and artifacts related to Lum & Abner.

Photos of real residents of Pine Bluff who inspired characters on the show.

Kathy had worked at the museum for 30-some years and had created a lot of the displays. These mannequins were rescued from a clothing store in Mena.

Kathy must have been close to 90, and while she still retained her passion, she was losing her words. Many of her sentences began or ended in the middle. She referred to Covid as “that think that made everyone stay home.” I don’t know how much longer she’ll be able to run the place, and I wonder if there’s anyone interested enough to take over when she’s gone. She was very nice, and I enjoyed talking with her.

I mentioned that my parents liked Fibber McGee and Molly, and she showed me this photo of Lum and Abner with the Jordans.

One room of the museum was made up like an old general store with items from a local store that had modernized.

Pictures of the Huddleston Store in the early days.

And one from after the show became a hit. Huddleston cashed in on its popularity.

The store contained the Pine Ridge post office, no longer active.

I bought a few souvenirs in the store, including a book on Lum & Abner written by Kathy in the 1990s. We left through the back door, and after she’s locked up, she showed me some things outside, including some rock stacks she’d created to look like presidents (see the video). I was there about 45 minutes and never saw a hint of another visitor.

In the evening, I found the first Lum & Abner movie, Dreaming Out Loud, online and watched it. The first part was the cornball slapstick I expected, but then it became a drama with a young girl being killed by a hit-and-run driver and a doctor dying of a heart attack while saving a young boy with pneumonia. It wasn’t at all what I expected.

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