NARRATOR 1: This program was made possible by the generous support of-- NARRATOR 2: Liberty, working to create a more sustainable future in the communities they serve by providing clean, renewable energy and strengthening the grid.

Information at libertyenergyandwater.com.

NARRATOR 1: Additional support provided by Easter Law Firm.

[joyful music] his sense of presence, on the street, just on the street.

It wasn't-- there's no theater here.

This is just a street in front of a bunch of old buildings.

He taught us.

We didn't know we were being taught.

But he taught us how to make entertainment really happen.

[upbeat country music] DALE MOORE: "Shad Heller-- Master of his Craft."

[upbeat country music] In the heart of the Ozarks Hills once stood Shad Heller, a blacksmith and performer whose forge shaped more than iron-- it shaped lives.

With every strike of his hammer, Shad crafted not only tools and treasures, but also a lasting legacy of wisdom and entertainment.

His warm, welcoming face and iconic white beard are etched in the memories of those who flocked to Branson in the early 1960s, when cherished landmarks like Shepherd of the Hills, Silver Dollar City, and Highway 76 were becoming the live entertainment capital of the world.

To understand the profound impact of Shad's inspiration on others, we must first explore the formative experiences and influences that cultivated his generous and compassionate nature.

[mellow jazz music] Born Lloyd Edward Heller on July 17, 1913, in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, to Horace and Anna Heller, Shad was the youngest of three siblings, following Stanley and Ethel.

Stroudsburg, a town of 15,000 and a stop on the vaudeville circuit, helped shape Lloyd's early years.

The Heller family valued hard work, with Horace transitioning from railroad laborer to leading a construction crew.

At 12, in the summer of 1925, Lloyd joined his father's business, contributing to the construction of the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg.

This experience, coupled with his love for silent films, at the local nickelodeon, ignited his lifelong passion for acting.

And he says in his biography, and he told me in an interview, that he fell in love with performing then, but that his family and his friends couldn't understand why you'd want to do that to make a living-- be a performer, in other words.

[jaunty vaudeville music] DALE MOORE: Lloyd's sister, Ethel, who had become a teacher, was the only one who championed his theatrical aspirations.

A move to Prescott, Arizona, was prompted by Ethel's tuberculosis diagnosis and relocation for the dry climate in the late 1920s.

It is in Arizona where Lloyd found his first show-business role as a stagehand and extra, setting the stage for his future career.

After returning to Pennsylvania for the summer to help his father's construction crew, Lloyd chose to return to Arizona by himself to complete high school, and became engaged in drama productions under the mentorship of George Beck and Lillian Savage.

Facing the Great Depression, Lloyd bounces between Pennsylvania and Arizona, taking work where he could, ultimately ending up in Prescott, Arizona, working with the Arizona Mining and Supply Company at the famous Bagdad Mine, learning iron smithing and building a life in Prescott.

As Shad said in his biography, written by Margaret Newton in 1982, "I was at Bagdad, an underground operation west of Prescott, when only 24 men worked there.

They have more than 5,000 workers today.

That's where I learned a lot about blacksmithing."

He married, started a family, and forged significant connections, including a friendship with Barry Goldwater, a notable figure participating in the Smoki show, showcasing Native American traditions.

DAWN LARSEN: This was a white men's group in Arizona that was concerned learned that Native rituals wouldn't last because young people weren't learning them.

And so we would consider it cultural appropriation now, really, a bunch of white men dressing up in Indian garb and performing rituals.

But I think their heart was in the right place because they were doing it to preserve these rituals because they thought it was so important.

DALE MOORE: While Lloyd found an outlet for his creativity and showmanship through the Smoki performances, his life in Arizona was marked by unpredictability.

He was taking odd jobs, bouncing between Pennsylvania and Arizona, painting signs and working construction.

The relentless financial uncertainty deepened the voids in his life, which he increasingly filled with alcohol.

[bouncy tune] In 1947, Lloyd found himself in New York at Madison Square Garden, where he was able to catch "the greatest show on earth," the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

He felt the pull of show business and joined the circus as a common laborer, but that was short lived, as his drinking made him unstable.

Over several years of drifting in and out of circus life, periodically returning to Arizona in attempts to reunite with his wife and children, these efforts were fleeting and unsuccessful.

As his marriage crumbled and his life fell into disarray, while in Arizona, he made the drastic decision to leave his life behind.

Hearing that the circus was performing in Phoenix, he hopped on a freight train to join them as a roustabout, seeking a new beginning and focusing on his sobriety.

He had been what they call a carpet clown, and that is, he took part in the opening parade, what they call the spec.

And then he got out of his costume and puts on his working man's clothes, and he's helping change props and stuff like that and move things around.

But he was exposed for seven years to the best clowns probably in the world-- Emmett Kelly, who was famous, was in movies, was in TV.

People that I had never heard of before but I later looked up-- Otto Griebling and Lou Jacobs and people like that.

And that was at a time in which Barnum and Bailey was huge.

They were still traveling under the big top.

And so every place, you had to get that tent up, you had to take that tent down, and you had to move hundreds and hundreds of people and animals and pieces of equipment.

And I think he really loved that, and I know that he absorbed all of that.

It showed later in the work he did.

DALE MOORE: Lloyd learned the ability to evoke both sadness and laughter in his performances, and was able to create his own clown character and became a real clown in Clown Alley for various performances.

[gentle melody] In his biography, "Shad," he is quoted as saying, "Don't build up that circus part of my life.

I was strictly a bum.

However, I guess I take adverse pride in being an alcoholic because I found out so much from it."

His decision to leave the circus after seven years came while in Independence, Kansas, when circus lifestyle had taken its toll, and he realized he needed to find himself by leaving the train.

It stopped and, he said, pulled into this little picture-perfect town.

And one thing that he had loved about it, the traveling, that had started to wear pretty thin on him.

And he felt that he could maintain his sobriety and he could be a better human being if he was in one place.

[gentle country music] And he's the kind of guy who could always find work doing just about anything.

And he later wound up getting a job with the Acme chemical company, which sounds like something out of a Warner Brothers cartoon, [laughs] but they actually made and sold janitorial supplies.

And because he had a good personality, he could sell darn near anything, and janitorial supplies, no problem.

DALE MOORE: While traveling his sales territory in Coffeyville, Kansas, Lloyd would meet an office manager of the local RuCo Insurance company named Ruth Soles.

Ruth was a widow with two grown children, and she was active in the local Coffeyville community theater.

The two found they shared many things in common, like the love of theater and entertaining.

Ruth and Lloyd became partners both on stage and off, being married in 1955, and continued their life in Coffeyville.

TERRY BLOODWORTH: --is that she was one of those people who made little theater in America in small towns possible.

She was the lady who would-- you need a set painted?

Oh, we'll do that.

You need an apron made, a piece of costume?

You need me to take a role that only has six or eight lines or whatever it is in it?

And she played with the Coffeyville little theater company for years and years and loved doing it, and especially loved doing comedy.

And that was one thing that she and Shad had in common.

He was, I think, five years younger than Ruth, but they just clicked.

And right from the very beginning, I think they had a relationship in which Shad was the sizzle and Mollie was the steak.

DALE MOORE: In 1957, Lloyd was on his sales route in Springfield, Missouri, and found himself with a little extra time to explore the area.

He headed down to Branson, and it was just a matter of an hour's drive down the highway.

And he had never been in the Ozarks, didn't know anything about it.

And when he got to a little town called Reeds Spring, the terrain starts to change, and it starts to remind him of his home.

DALE MOORE: Shad said in his biography, "The landscape was so like the lakes and mountains of my boyhood, as I passed Reeds Spring Junction on my way to Branson, I found myself in White River country.

Everywhere I looked, I saw springs and creeks.

The view from the ridges was something to see."

--and made it over to Branson.

And as Shad is Shad, met people and made friends with people and started asking questions, and saw that they had a thing called the "Shepherd of the Hills" show.

And they were amateur performers and some college actors as well.

Central Missouri State University had come down to do the play "The Shepherd of the Hills," and they used that waterfront theater, where the landing now sits, or kind of near the landing.

They used that theatrical space as their summer theater, for their college summer theater productions.

DALE MOORE: Upon his return to Coffeyville, Lloyd would tell Ruth of his experience and his fascination with the history and culture of the area.

TERRY BLOODWORTH: --telling her all about the "Shepherd of the Hills" people he had met, and of course, when she met them, wound up becoming close with them.

And at some point, they decided, you know, we ought to audition for that "Shepherd of the Hills" show.

Maybe, maybe we can get some small parts or something like that.

As it happened many times later on in their lives, they just happened to be the right people in the right place at the right time.

They auditioned.

They were both given roles in the show.

Shad was given the role of the shepherd.

Mollie played Aunt Mollie, you know, a major role as well.

DALE MOORE: For the next two years, Lloyd and Ruth would travel between Coffeyville and Branson to reprise their roles in the "Shepherd of the Hills" play on the waterfront.

In 1959, they decided to move to Branson permanently.

Lloyd now had a role in the play as the shepherd, and Ruth was playing Aunt Mollie, a name which would stick with her for the rest of her life.

A fortunate event happened that year, as KYTV, out of Springfield, in partnership with Ned Baker and Larry Dickson, recorded a version of "The Shepherd of the Hills" to create a new TV show with cutting-edge videotape.

NARRATOR: From the beautiful hills and valleys of the Ozarks came a man from the city.

Among the natives of the district, he found a peaceful atmosphere and medicine for the soul.

The Ozark people he lived with found him to be a good neighbor.

The love, the fighting, and the shame and life and death of the hill country became a classic under the pen of Harold Bell Wright.

"The Shepherd of the Hills" is our story.

DALE MOORE: Lloyd was cast as the shepherd, and other summer theater players filled the roles of select characters to condense the story.

The production was recorded on location in Marvel Cave, below what is now Silver Dollar City, and at the Shepherd of the Hills Farm.

BROOKS BLEVINS: And Branson had been built on "Shepherd of the Hills" literary tourism.

And now, all of a sudden, it's kind of "Shepherd of the Hills" theatrical tourism that continues that tradition.

DALE MOORE: The Shepherd of the Hills Farm was owned by Mary Trimble and her son Mark, and they were keeping up Old Matt's Cabin.

But the increasing tourism trade had them wanting to bring the play to the farmstead from where Harold Bell Wright drew his inspiration for the novel the play was based on.

They made an agreement that the owners would build this amphitheater, and Shad, of course, helped with the design of that, brought the cast together.

Well, then Shad wanted to make this a bigger deal.

He wanted to make "The Shepherd of the Hills" more of a real pageant.

He thought it would have a lot of draw because "Shepherd of the Hills," actually, many of the characters are based on real people that lived around Branson, Missouri.

BROOKS BLEVINS: TV westerns are-- every network has a dozen of them in the late '50s and early '60s.

They were able to morph the Ozarks in to America's fascination with westerns.

And Shad Heller was the perfect embodiment of that.

DALE MOORE: Lloyd and his friend from Coffeyville, college professor James Collie, would work on creating an ambitious performance piece.

Being an outdoor drama, the script would be a departure from what had been performed by the Waterfront Players.

"Shepherd of the Hills" outdoor theater, the script that we use now was written in 1959 or 1960.

Has it been tweaked since then?

Yes, it has.

But when you take the entire book, this novel that was loved nationwide, worldwide, and you condense it down to two hours, that takes some real thought and takes some real skill.

Shad Heller, by helping sort of recraft this story for a modern audience-- and I think that's really what he did, more than anything-- he took a big, thick, very wordy book, but what he does is he, by turning it into this kind of rip-roaring, fast-moving play, he really introduces it to a whole new generation of people who probably otherwise never would have experienced "The Shepherd of the Hills."

DALE MOORE: Lloyd and Ruth would form the Old Mill Theater Players, casting the needed characters to fill out 25 speaking roles and dozens of extras as Bald Knobbers and townsfolks to perform the outdoor drama.

Horse-drawn wagons and livestock would be added to this pageant, providing audiences with an immersive experience.

JACK HERSCHEND: I think that the "Shepherd of the Hills" story probably never would have gotten off the ground had it not been for Shad Heller.

He was the professional actor, and everybody else was learning their trade as they went to the Shepherd of the Hills Farm.

And so he was the go-to man to say, How do we do this, and how do we pull off a burning building every night?

et cetera, et cetera.

So Shad played a huge role at the Shepherd of the Hills Farm.

DALE MOORE: When an actor becomes synonymous with a defining role, they often adopt a new name in the public's heart, as the character's identity entwines with their own, reshaping how the world sees them.

This is how Lloyd and Ruth Heller became known as Shad and Mollie.

TERRY BLOODWORTH: Mollie's nickname came from the fact that she played Aunt Mollie in "The Shepherd of the Hills."

She and Shad did the show hundreds of times.

And it's one of those things that just happens.

When you're playing something that long, it's a process that you kind of get melded with your character.

Well, she played Mollie hundreds of times.

She wound up being Mollie.

Shad, on the other hand, he was reading National Geographic, and there was an article about the Appalachians.

And one of the people in the article was a fellow named Shadrach.

And Lloyd thought, well, if I simplify that, that's got a nice ring to it.

So that sounds good in the Ozarks.

I'll just call myself Shad.

And it became so completely part of his character.

I knew Shad from the time I was 18, 19 years old until the time he passed.

I never called him Lloyd because he was always Shad.

DALE MOORE: Concurrently with the creation of the new outdoor pageant at the Shepherd of the Hills Farm, Shad and Mollie would find themselves playing additional roles as street performers at the May 1, 1960, opening of Silver Dollar City, atop the Marvel Cave.

--from Shad's building, right behind us, all the way out to the Wilderness Church.

It took every penny we had.

So we had one man on the staff, a gentleman by the name of Don Richardson.

Don came to us from the broadcast industry in Springfield, and he was the marketing department.

Don is the one who created the idea that we should call this place Silver Dollar City.

And he justified it, from a marketing standpoint, not because he thought the name was just glorious, but it could work.

And what he said is, we will give anybody who comes out here, if they buy a dollar's worth of something and pay for it with a $5 bill, they're going to get four silver dollars in return.

DALE MOORE: Balancing the part-time roles at Silver Dollar City during the day and "Shepherd of the Hills" during the evenings, Shad found an outlet for his creative passions shaping the early success of both ventures.

Along with Shad being a street performer, he contributed to the early success of Silver Dollar City with artwork and sign painting.

My first recollection of Shad, I was painting the logo on the steam train Frisco Silver Dollar line.

And Shad walked up, visited with me while I painted, and before very long, he said, Jack, I think you had better let me do that.

It was-- [laughs] and he was right.

He was a beautiful, beautiful letterer.

And then, of course, like everybody that ever met Shad, I fell in love with Shad Heller.

He's just warmth and caring for other people like few people I know.

We realized, and we said it to each other, we've changed businesses.

We're no longer in the cave tour business.

We're in the entertainment business.

We didn't even know what that meant, except we knew we were, because it was true.

We were doing shows.

The entire staff of Silver Dollar City was 13 people plus Shad.

That was it.

So everyone, if we did a show, it meant the people, the gals who ran the general store or the guys who were doing other work, like me, we would jump down, change into costumes, such as they were, and we'd come out and do a show.

I don't think-- no, matter of fact, I know we did not-- we did not appreciate then the talent, the show talent, the sense of timing, the sense of theater that Shad brought to a corny little show, "Hatfields and McCoys."

He would be-- oft times, he would be Paul McCoy.

And his timing, how he handled himself, we learned by watching how Shad performed, because he was performing.

The rest of us were kind of amateurville.

DALE MOORE: Mollie would join Shad on the weekends as a performer and worked in the Silver Dollar City General Store.

As Shad became entwined with Silver Dollar City's community, his role would become legendary.

PETER HERSCHEND: Every old Ozark town had a blacksmith.

We wanted a blacksmith.

We had a blacksmith shop.

But we wanted-- we had a gentleman who ran the shop, not Shad.

And he was a very nice gentleman, but not Shad.

Shad came into our midst-- the "Shepherd of the Hills" play, the entertainment here brought him here, and he was a glove fit.

He just walked in and there he was.

He was home.

He evolved into the shop.

The shop didn't hire him.

He became the shop.

He was who the blacksmith was.

And he never quit.

He was the Silver Dollar City blacksmith wherever he went.

He was proud of that.

We were, too.

You know, boys, blacksmithing isn't what most people think it is.

They think it's sort of a romantic thing that's of the past.

Well, actually, it isn't, because originally, the blacksmith made everything you use-- for instance, Chris, out of the blacksmith shop and the foundry has come all the metalworking crafts we know.

Now, the blacksmith wasn't the guy that'd just shod horses.

No.

No, he made all your hand tools, all your hinges.

He made even utensils, knives, forks, spoons, and things like that, made wagons.

Fellows like John Deere were blacksmiths.

Studebaker was a blacksmith.

Ford, you know, was a machinist.

The blacksmiths, well, there were just as many blacksmiths as there are garages today.

He brought them in to his demonstrations.

A lot of them, of course, was fascinated and mesmerized by that old forge and all that metal being hot and him a-pounding on it.

And every child that walked up to the blacksmith's shop, he made them a horseshoe ring.

And you would be so impressed to know how many grown-ups have their horseshoe ring, and it's like they've got a big diamond ring.

It's a horseshoe ring made by Shad Heller.

Thousands of women got rings from Shad Heller.

My goodness, I didn't know he was of that religion.

[laughs] He-- again, it's PR.

He took his craft of blacksmanship, OK, blacksmithing, and to create something in front of you and say, well, here, what size-- well, yeah, put that on.

Well, there you go-- he's made this magic moment.

And it's real, and it's wonderful.

And that old man over there, he's funny, too.

Have you heard him tell some of those stories?

He was a major driving force.

And his appearance, his feel, and the way he would just talk to all of us, he made you feel like, well, you're family.

"Well, there's that little Terry Sanders from Mountain Grove.

How you doing?

Now, is your brother Leland doing OK?

Oh, he's with you.

Well, there he is."

He made you feel that he knew you and he was a part of your family.

He was like a father figure sometimes, and as he matured, more like the grandfatherly figure, because you just had this respect for him.

And I remember Shad at Shepherd.

I remember he and I talking about that in particular, about, when you come up with a character, you do the homework.

And he was really proud of his being the shepherd and the journey that that character had, to be this big, well-known person, you know, a preacher in "Chicagah," to come down to the Ozarks, looking for his son, and to be humbled by these people and realizing what he had missed, being a city person.

And again, it's about that journey.

And that was kind of Shad's journey, because he had had a family before.

He's got a new family now.

It was very interesting how he pulled it all together.

But he said, use all the things in your life to make these characters real.

DALE MOORE: Shad and Mollie always loved having young actors around them, through their daily interactions at Silver Dollar City and Shepherd of the Hills.

They were building a community within their Old Mill Players acting troupe, nurturing young talent at the Shepherd of the Hills Farm.

So the "Shepherd of the Hills" pageant at Shepherd of the Hills Farm opened August of 1960 and continued fairly successfully through 1966, when, in 1966, they lost-- they had leased the land to produce the pageant, and they lost the lease.

So that's kind of a-- that's another turning point in Shad and Mollie's performative career, I would say, is losing the lease to the Shepherd of the Hills.

It was about at that time, after they lost the lease on Shepherd of the Hills Farm, that not only did they emphasize Shad's work at Silver Dollar City-- and he really became Shad, at that point, to so many people who visited Silver Dollar City-- but also, they wanted to have more of an opportunity to perform.

They took a lease on a little theater over there, the Royal Pavilion Theater, I think it was called, and they did a vaudeville show.

And they attempted, for three seasons, basically three summers, to make a go of it.

And it was a fun, fun show.

But by that time, Rockaway Beach's best days were behind it.

DALE MOORE: The Hellers would maintain the ownership of their Old Mill Players troupe and look for new ways of continuing their own show business efforts.

Shad's blacksmith role at Silver Dollar City was gaining fame, hinting at future success.

Within a decade, Shad the Blacksmith would become larger than life.

PETER HERSCHEND: One of the things I always expected to find when I walked by Shad's forge was a crowd.

He was a magnet.

The persona and what he was doing-- he was very broad in his demonstration.

He would pound that anvil-- there's a very ringing note to an anvil-- way more than he had to.

JACK HERSCHEND: Making big sparks.

PETER HERSCHEND: Sparks going-- oh, absolutely, sparks going everywhere.

It didn't have to make big sparks.

He made big sparks happen.

Why'd he do that?

Because he knew people enjoyed it.

That's the personification of a craft in action.

There's interaction between the craftsmen and the people.

And sometimes, there's even some bantering.

There is memory of some adolescents walking by the shop and yelling at him, hi, grandpa.

And he's like, Oh, what's your grandmother's name?

I might be.

OK. [laughs] And everybody around just hooting-- you know, that was a semi-regular thing.

Because adolescents are adolescents, [laughs] they think they're being funny, but they get one-upped by the old guy.

[laughs] I would watch him in awe to see how not only was he a craftsman, but how he was able to deliver this craft, because blacksmithing-- bing, bing, bing, oh, look, there's a nail, oh, look, here's whatever.

He made it a show, and his knowledge, but it didn't sound like he was a teacher.

He was just this man that was just so full of all this information and presented it so well and exciting, it's like, wow, this is what I want to be.

And as I went through the streets of Silver Dollar, there were other people that did the same thing.

June Ward, master candy maker since 1968, she's still down there in the basement making candy.

[laughs] They won't let her go home.

And so same thing with June.

But June and Shad were very close.

They were very good friends.

And so they would talk about, well, we beat you in sales today, Shad.

[laughs] Oh my gosh.

Well, there was a competition, but it was all friendly back then.

It was a good time, because we were working together for the main goal.

Every day, we got to see Shad, and most of the time, every day, we got to see Mollie.

That's when everyone knew, if they didn't know, that he was definitely an entertainer, and he played his part to the hilt.

BROOKS BLEVINS: --because he was believable, and you do, you look at those pictures and the films, and you really kind of buy into that, that this is your favorite uncle character, your grandpa, or something like that.

He always stood out.

And when he was going to be on camera, that beard would be-- oh, my gosh, it would be fluffed and buffed and everything was just perfect, and have on that red shirt and those suspenders.

And it was just refreshing to see him play the part of Silver Dollar City's mayor.

DALE MOORE: As Silver Dollar City continued to grow, marketing director Don Richardson had an idea that would put Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, in the hands of Americans in one of the most circulated magazines of the time.

PETER HERSCHEND: In the 1960s, the number one TV show in the nation for about a half a dozen years was "The Beverly Hillbillies."

["THE BALLAD OF JED CLAMPETT" PLAYING] Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed And then one day he was shooting at some food And up through the ground came a-bubbling crude Oil, that is, black gold, Texas tea PETER HERSCHEND: Don Richardson-- back to Don-- had an idea, and the idea was simply this.

It was a very simple premise, TV Guide does-- the cover story was a real hillbilly that reviews "The Beverly Hillbillies."

That was the premise.

He sent that to TV Guide.

They came back and said, we love it.

DALE MOORE: The TV Guide article was a huge hit and would draw the attention of Paul Henning, producer of "The Beverly Hillbillies."

Don went to Paul Henning and said, Wouldn't it be a neat idea, Paul, for the Beverly Hillbillies to come home?

And Paul said, yes.

Hey, look.

We's coming to the city limit.

[laughter] Does that sign say the population is 28?

Sure does.

Why, it's pertineer doubled since we left.

[laughter] Yeah, it seems like there's just no such thing as a small town anymore.

That's how "The Beverly Hillbillies" came to be here.

It was a true hinge point in the life of Silver Dollar City.

Those-- they did five shows in five days, five episodes in five days.

Those five shows, when they aired, changed Silver Dollar City, in the mind of the general public, from a nice, little park somewhere near Branson, Missouri, into a place of national standing.

TERRY BLOODWORTH: And while they were doing that, apparently, Henning-- [laughs] Henning saw this big, good-looking guy, you know, in the blacksmith shop, and had commented to someone, you know, we ought to use him for something, maybe give him a couple of lines or something.

Well, the next thing you know, a couple of lines turned into a lot of lines, and he wound up doing-- he was basically in all of the-- all five of the shows that were shot there.

I thought it was you, Clampetts.

Welcome home.

Thank you, Mr. Heller.

Good to see you, Shad.

Why, Shad, you old beaver, what happened to your beard?

You trimmed it off.

Oh, I didn't exactly trim it, Granny.

I got to pumping the forge too hard and it caught fire.

[laughter] Where's Big Jethro?

Well, Jethro stayed back in "Californee."

He's going to college now.

Oh, do tell.

What's he studying?

Well, as far as I can figure, it's mainly protesting.

Well, what's he protesting?

Far as I can figure, it's mainly college.

[laughter] Then why is he going?

Shad, that's as far as I can figure.

[laughter] Then, this was just testimony to Shad Heller being a consummate actor.

And Paul Henning picked up on the fact that he related to Granny and to the whole cast, and he just fit in beautifully.

And he had a chance to work with Buddy Ebsen.

He had a chance to work with Irene Ryan, who played Granny.

And he developed a close friendship with them.

Is Elverna Bradshaw's daughter married yet?

Nope.

Is the date set for the wedding.

I don't think so.

Good.

If that homely daughter of hers beat Elly May to the altar, Elverna would never let me forget it.

I'll tell my wife you asked about her.

[laughter] Who?

My wife, Mollie.

Oh.

Oh, yeah.

How is she?

Fine, except for a little touch of the "rheumatiz."

Well, where is she?

I've got some dandy "rheumatiz" medicine right here.

She's over to the shop.

Well, let's go see her.

Is that the same medicine you used to prescribe?

Yep.

Pure Possum Ridge painkiller.

Well, don't uncork it too close to the fire.

I don't want to lose the rest of my beard.

[laughter] [jaunty vaudeville music] JAE MCFERRON: Irene Ryan and Lloyd, Shad, would talk between takes.

If you've ever been around a movie, there's a lot of waiting, lots and lots of waiting.

So while they were waiting, they talked and they were very-- she was very personable, and they liked each other.

And they all liked each other.

But one of the things they discovered was they had a very similar upbringing, as far as their love show business.

TERRY SANDERS: And they talked about the old days of vaudeville and all those amazing people, George Burns and Gracie and all those people, Al Jolson.

They knew these people.

They knew them.

And so Irene said, now you've got that show, the vaudeville show, you know, Shad, a long time ago, there was those traveling shows, the Toby show.

He'd go, oh, yes.

Oh, yeah.

There was, at one time, probably 200 of them.

"Exactly, Shad.

You know what you ought to do?

Look at what's coming into town.

The people that come here, they're gonna remember that.

Their parents saw the original Toby shows."

And so that was the impetus right there for Shad to go "aha."

And so he took that.

Thank God for Irene Ryan.

So they put in the Wilderness Settlement.

DALE MOORE: In 1967, Shad and Mollie had started building the Wilderness Settlement along Highway 76, where he could have a larger forge and blacksmith shop to produce items during the winter to get ahead of production needs for the coming year at Silver Dollar City.

They had bought a few acres of land, when people could still buy [laughs] a few acres of land, along Highway 76.

And Shad had built for Mollie-- and she had stocked it and all that-- Aunt Mollie's General Store.

JAN LAFEVERS: You know, Shad and Mollie, at that point, their Wilderness Settlement had been there, but it became busier.

And at that point, we saw less of Mollie at Silver Dollar City, more there.

[laughs] You know, she was at the Settlement, and she was running things there.

And so they had a venue.

And then they put in, in 1971, the Corn Crib Theater.

And this is where they said, OK, this is where we're going to put on a Toby show.

Historic Toby shows were the only entertainment for rural America.

Now, remember, this is the turn of the century.

There's no TV or radio or moving pictures, really, in rural America.

There's nothing, besides maybe a ball game.

And so there were companies that would come to towns and perform plays.

Somebody came up with the idea to take these play performance repertory companies out in tents, and that was the beginning of the tent show.

And so tent shows became the most popular form of rural entertainment.

At the Toby show, for years-- it came from the old repertory theaters, where they used to play in lodge halls up over the stores in the towns and the communities.

And then they got such big crowds, they had to go a different way, so they started traveling with tents.

But the old repertory shows were very, very famous, too, and out of that came the Toby show.

The old boy, Toby, was a universal character.

It goes back to England, you know, during the times of Shakespeare.

Historic Toby shows were like three-act plays, where this character, Toby, might break the fourth wall and talk to you and make you laugh, but he was always a part of the play.

And he typically was not the straight man.

He was the comic character.

In Shad's show, because he didn't know what a historic Toby show was, and he was operating out of these vaudeville revues, which he did know what those were, his Toby show was almost opposite, because his Toby was the straight man, and rather than being a three-act play with some variety acts stuck in, like the historic shows, Shad's was like a variety show with some plot bits stuck in.

And the Corn Crib Theater was where I worked and where "The Toby Show" was produced.

And it was-- the Corn Crib Theater was cool.

It was cool.

But anyway, don't worry.

It's gonna have a happy ending because, you see, this here's a Toby show.

My name is Toby, and this is one place where nothing bad ever happens to the hero.

Oh, the hero!

[cheering] Thank you, boys.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

Now let me introduce you to some of the folks you're gonna be seeing out here tonight.

You've already met my musical cousins, Cosmo and Gizmo.

Yay!

[cheering] Next, that dirty dog from the big city, Bartholomew Bates.

[booing] His lovely female accomplice, Ms. Lillian Dumont.

[piano interlude] [cheering] [whistling] And last and certainly least, my poor halfwit brother, Zenus.

[laughter] [applause] So let's get this show started with a great, big, fat-- ALL: Howdy We'll be right back!

Don't go away!

JAE MCFERRON: It was funny.

Lloyd did this character, Mr. Posie.

[laughter] He was something.

He was something.

And he loved the clown.

He really did.

And he-- that's his character, Mr. Posie, who was a silent clown.

[laughter] And when you line them all up, as far as who really got you, it wasn't Mr. Posie.

He was fantastic.

[laughter] Mollie played Aunt Kate.

She was pretty good, too.

I tell you what.

Why don't you tell him a joke from St. Louis?

You got one?

Oh, yes, of course.

Well, go right ahead.

I always have one.

Let's see.

Oh.

Can you tell the difference between me, Uncle Sam, and a rooster?

Let's see.

Can I tell the difference between you, Uncle Sam, and a rooster?

I don't guess I can.

Well, Uncle Sam says yankee doodle-do.

Yeah.

A rooster says cock-a-doodle-doo.

Uh-huh.

And I say any dude'll do.

[slide whistle] [drumroll] [laughter] [applause] I do, Toby.

[laughs] Got them right in the palm of my hand.

She was the silly old lovesick lady.

And that would give her a chance for her to work with Shad as Mr. Posie.

[upbeat piano tune] [applause] [jaunty vaudeville music] Basically, everybody who played in that show became part of Shad and Mollie's family.

Shad had an interest in aspiring actors and actresses.

And the Toby theater really was his opportunity to give aspiring actors and actresses an opportunity to be on stage and to hone their skills.

So he just touched a lot of lives in various, different ways.

One day, Shad came walking down the hill, and we were doing what you call line entertainment.

The line for the ride, it was a newer ride, and so the line was rather long.

And so we'd go out there and we'd work the audience, you know, get them all hyped up about, what we're going to do, we're gonna go down under the lake.

Silver-- we're gonna find those silver dollars.

It's gonna be the best thing ever.

And so Shad stopped.

And I remember doing my thing because-- like, this is the audience over here.

I'd be talking, oh, now, what we're going to do-- what's your name?

And all of a sudden, I see Shad slightly over here, and I'm, like, talking.

But then I realized he's stopped and he's watching me.

And I thought, oh, no, I'm in trouble, because, did I steal one of his lines?

You know, oh, my gosh.

And then he just looked and he walked on.

The next day, he approached me.

He said, I like what you do down there, son.

I said, well, thank you, Mr. Heller.

He goes, no, now it's Shad.

You know, again, that was him, just, no, I'm just Shad.

But, "I really would like to have you be a part of my Toby show over there at the Wilderness Settlement, at the Corn Crib."

I said, oh, my gosh, because that, that was the go-to.

For us in entertainment, to go to "The Toby Show"-- because no two shows were ever the same, and that's what we would do.

On nights off, we'd go to "The Toby Show."

And if they had 35 people, they were thrilled.

Oh, we've got a big audience, you know.

And so they had what they called the cheap seats in the back, for all the locals, or SDC especially, to watch the show.

And so I was honored that he, one, watched me; two, saw something in me that no one else had seen before.

And so he knew I was hopefully workable.

And so he said, OK, well, what are you doing on Thursday night?

I said, I'm open.

He said, come over.

I'm gonna show you around, and we're gonna get things going for you.

We'll get you all signed up.

And so I was thrilled.

So I show up on Thursday.

And of course, Mollie's there.

And Mollie was the businesswoman.

Now, Shad was the personality, but Mollie was more businesslike.

She was nice but firm-- not that she was ever mean, per se, but could come off that way because business, business, business.

And so he shows me the theater, and here's a little room that he goes to after-- he would work at Silver Dollar all day.

And of course, you know, here's this, here's that.

Then we walk up the aisle of the outdoor venue.

We go into the concession stand.

He said, now, Terry, this is a popcorn popper, and here's how you make popcorn.

I'm like, oh, OK.

He said, now, I know what you're thinking already.

But, he said, you've got to start out somewhere in this business, and it is show business.

We have about 35 people, on average, every night.

Now, that kind of covers some of the bills.

But what makes us is concessions.

You've got Cokes.

You've got the popcorn.

You've got the candy bars.

And so this is show business.

He said, now, I know you're thinking, well, I want to be in the show, and you will be.

But what I want you to do, as an actor, is to watch every show.

Every night that you're here, popping popcorn and doing all those things, learning people skills, he said, I want you to watch every character and study them, because I'm gonna throw you in there.

Ready or not, I'm just gonna say, Terry, tonight's the night that you're going to play.

And I said, yes, sir, yes, sir.

And so I did that, the popcorn.

I parked cars, you know, and seated people and just-- but I did, I studied every character.

And all the characters there were true, true comedians-- you know, Terry Bloodworth.

We had Dan Embry, Wayne Milnus, who no one could touch.

Wayne was the epitome of actors and comedians.

He was like the Jim Carrey of the Ozarks.

[laughter] Aha!

[bell ringing] [laughter] Don't you worry, old Toby, old buddy, old Toby.

Toby-- Toby, or not Toby.

[laughter] Don't you worry, old Toby Wan Kenobi.

[buzzing] [laughter] [blows raspberry] [laughter] Don't worry.

Don't worry, huh?

[laughter] Well, why not?

Because.

Because why?

Because I got one of these.

[laughs] Aw, but, Zenus, we've got to have more than that to go to Broadway.

[jaunty vaudeville music] And of course, Wayne and Shad were very close.

But that's how, as an actor, how we feel when we could gravitate to this man who had experience, he had trained as a clown with Barnum and Bailey, he had traveled the world.

All these things were right there within Shad.

And so we knew, listen to this man.

And his style of directing and just being one of us was never demanding.

Shad had this way about him, just pose it where, well, what do you think about this?

or, Have you tried that?

You know, or if you had an idea, he's say, I think that might work.

Let's try it.

What can we lose?

Try it.

Just go out there and see if we can make it work.

And if it doesn't, we'll see what we can do to make it work.

And so that was his style.

And so for me, as a fledgling actor at this point, oh my goodness, to be with the man and these other comedians and doing what we were doing, it was, at that point, the pinnacle of what I wanted to do in the business, to be with these people and do what I'm doing, because, again, learning.

And that's all because Shad Heller set the bar up here for all of us who came into Branson to learn how to do it the right way, and also how to face adversity, you know, because he faced a lot of that.

He was such an amazing man.

He started the first AA meetings in Branson, Missouri.

And for him to be outspoken at that time-- because, again, drinking was common.

"Oh, well, that's OK.

He gets drunk all the time."

Shad knew that he had a problem, and he wanted to help others.

Shad was a living embodiment of AA and the 12-step program, Shad was a living embodiment of AA and the 12-step program, because he had been an alcoholic.

He was ready to admit that, so I'm not revealing things that were not said.

But he was-- as he said, you're never a recovered alcoholic.

You're always recovering.

[gentle melody] He would stop almost whatever he was doing and-- because he had a reputation.

And there were other people here on the park who were having addiction problems, and they'd come talk to him, or he would go find them.

And, how are you doing?

I mean, he really meant it, How are you doing?

And he meant it.

Yeah.

Don't give me the "I'm fine."

I'm glad to hear you're fine.

Now, how are you doing?

So he was a bulldog.

He cared.

INTERVIEWER: He touched a lot of lives very deeply.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well said.

Way more than being a good entertainer, way more than just training an actor or showing somebody how to do a better demonstration.

He did all that.

He did it, and did it in spades.

But the depth was far deeper.

[gentle piano melody] DALE MOORE: As time went on, Shad's health deteriorated.

Yet, many of his friends and colleagues would make it a point to visit with him regularly, always finding him giving them sparks of encouragement.

Terry Sanders remembers the night he got the call about Shad.

I get home and, oh, I got the movie.

You know, how I am, and, oh, it smells good, honey.

And the phone rang, and it was our friend Richard Baldock, who also worked with Shad at Silver Dollar and also at the Corn Crib Theater.

And he said, hey, hoss.

Hey, hoss.

Just wanted to let you know Shad just passed away.

It hit me so hard because my mind said, you should've been there.

Terry, you should've been there.

And then it's almost as if Shad had came to me and said, son, it's OK. You're a daddy, and you're a husband.

You're doing what you're supposed to do.

And you've seen me all your life, and I'm OK now.

And it gave me peace.

And so it was-- it was, if you will, life changing, because, again, I knew that that was the end of an era, the end of this man, and that our job was to take what he had given us, so openly, so freely, to give it back and to continue that.

And one of the last conversations we had, at the healthcare facility, he said, son, keep it alive, keep it going.

I said yes, sir.

DALE MOORE: Lloyd "Shad" Heller passed away January 13, 1991.

And, six years later, Ruth "Mollie" Heller would follow him offstage, passing away March 31, 1997.

Shad left a lasting legacy as the iconic blacksmith at Silver Dollar City, captivating millions with his wit and character, and as a key figure in transforming the "Shepherd of the Hills" play into a grand outdoor pageant.

His contributions to the Ozarks cultural landscape and mentoring young actors cemented his enduring impact on the region's entertainment and heritage.

[gentle country music] NARRATOR 1: This program progwas made possible by the generous support of-- NARRATOR 2: Liberty, working to create a more sustainable future in the communities they serve by providing clean, renewable energy and strengthening the grid.

Information at libertyenergyandwater.com.

NARRATOR 1: Additional support provided by Easter Law Firm.

[joyful music]