Harry McClintock
{{Short description|American singer-songwriter (1884–1957)}}
{{Infobox person
|name=Harry Kirby McClintock
|image=Harry McClintock.jpg
|image_size=
|caption=
|birth_name=Harry Kirby McClintock
|birth_place=Uhrichsville, Ohio
|birth_date= {{birth date|1884|10|08}}
|death_date = {{death date and age|1957|04|24|1884|10|08}}
|death_place= San Francisco, California
|death_cause=
|resting_place=
|resting_place_coordinates=
|nationality=
|other_names=Haywire Mac, Radio Mac, Strawlegs Martin
|known_for="The Big Rock Candy Mountains", "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum"
|education=
|employer=
|occupation= boomer, author, poet, busker, cowboy, union organizer
|title=
|footnotes=
}}
Harry Kirby McClintock (October 8, 1884 – April 24, 1957), also known as "Haywire Mac", was an American railroad man, radio personality, actor, singer, songwriter, and poet, best known for his song "The Big Rock Candy Mountains".
Life
McClintock was born on October 8, 1884, in Uhrichsville, Ohio.(Certified Copy of Birth Record)The State of Ohio, Tuscarawas County Probate Court No. 100191, Record of Births, Date Filed June 4, 1885 Vol. 1, Page 383, No. 35, Witness my signature and the seal of said Court, at New Philadelphia, Ohio, this 26th day of October, 1981. Judge George J. Demis By Janet Lane Deputy Clerk.{{Primary source inline|date=December 2022|reason=birth certificate}} Both his parents were from nearby Tippecanoe, Ohio; however, his family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee soon after his birth. In his youth, McClintock ran away from home to join the circus and drifted from place to place throughout his life. He railroaded in Africa, worked as a seaman, supplied food and ammunition to American soldiers while working as a civilian mule train packer in the Philippines, and in 1899 worked as an aide to newsmen in China covering the Boxer Rebellion.{{cn|date=February 2024}}
In America, Mac traveled as a railroader and minstrel.{{Cite web |title=Bluegrass Messengers - Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock- 1928 |url=http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/harry-%E2%80%9Chaywire-mac%E2%80%9D-mcclintock--1928-.aspx |website=Bluegrassmessengers.com}}"He's Gone to the Big Rock Candy Mountain", Railroad Magazine, Vol. 68 No. 6, Oct. 1957 p. 57 He worked for numerous railroads during his life.
On October 8, 1917, McClintock married Bessie K. Johnson in Farmington, Utah.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}} They had one daughter.
Radio and music
In 1925, McClintock participated in a KFRC Radio talent contest.{{Cite web|url=http://www.theradiohistorian.org/mac.htm|title=San Francisco Radio|website=Theradiohistorian.org}} His performance of his song "The Big Rock Candy Mountains" won him spots on two new KFRC radio shows: a children's program titled Mac and His Gang where he sang popular cowboy songs with his "Haywire Orchestry",{{Cite web|url=https://www.oldradio.com/archives/stations/sf/mac.htm|title=San Francisco Radio|website=Oldradio.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://bayarearadio.org/sf-radio-history/mac|title=Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock - KFRC Radio, San Francisco|date=August 12, 2014|website=Bay Area Radio Museum}}{{refn|group=note|This record's album cover (1972 - Folkways Records, FD 5272) is a 1929 photograph of "Mac's Haywire Orchestry". Names from left to right: Cecil "Rowdy" Wright (guitar), Waite "Chief" Woodall (fiddle), Frank Gilmore (accordion), Cleo "Doc" Shahan (guitar), "Duck" Buckholtz (drums), Asa "Ace" Wright (fiddle), Jerry Richard (banjo), Frank Baker (piano), Bessie McClintock (vocals) and "Haywire Mac" McClintock (banjo, guitar and vocals).{{cite web|url=https://ia800305.us.archive.org/32/items/CowboyAndHoboSongs/02HaywireMac.pdf|title=Harry McClintock : Haywire Mac|website=Ia800305.us.archive.org|access-date=2023-04-03}}}} and a variety program titled Blue Monday Jamboree, which he hosted with Meredith Willson, Bea Benaderet, Edna Fischer,{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/fischer.html|title=Edna Fischer (1902-1997) – San Francisco's First Lady of Radio|website=Sfmuseum.org|access-date=2022-04-20|archive-date=2022-05-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520171151/https://sfmuseum.org/hist1/fischer.html|url-status=dead}} and future I Love Lucy producer Jess Oppenheimer.{{Cite web|url=http://www.theradiohistorian.org/blue_mon_poster.jpg|format=JPG|title=Famous Radio Broadcasters : Poster|access-date=3 April 2023|archive-date=14 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414213935/http://www.theradiohistorian.org/blue_mon_poster.jpg|url-status=bot: unknown}}{{cite web|url=https://www.oldradio.com/archives/stations/sf/radio11.htm|title=KFRC's Blue Monday Jamboree Artists and Staff|website=Oldradio.com}} McClintock was also a member of Al Pearce's The Happy Go Lucky Hour,{{Cite web|url=http://www.theradiohistorian.org/pearce2.htm|title=The Happy Go Lucky Hour|website=Theradiohistorian.org}} a KFRC spin-off of Blue Monday Jamboree, alongside Edna Fischer and Tommy Harris.{{Cite web|url=https://bayarearadio.org/sf-radio-history/kfrc1|title=The History of KFRC Radio, San Francisco|date=August 11, 2014|website=Bay Area Radio Museum}}
"The Big Rock Candy Mountain" reached No. 1 on Billboard's "Hillbilly Hits" chart in 1939. The song was featured in the 2000 Coen brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou?{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/cd_o-brother-where-art-thou-music-from-the-mo_various-artists-alison-krauss-chris-thomas|title=O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Music From The Motion Picture)|date=May 5, 2000|via=Internet Archive}} McClintock's song "The Old Chisholm Trail" was featured in the end credits of "The Grandest Enterprise Under God" (episode 5) of the TV documentary miniseries The West. He was included in Robert Crumb's series of "Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country" trading cards.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/coming-this-week--441704675924026399/|title=Coming This Week | Robert crumb art, Robert crumb, Robert crumb comic|website=Pinterest.com|access-date=3 April 2023}}
Politics
McClintock was active in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He served with Frank Little in the Fresno Free Speech Fight from January 12 to March 4, 1911, and participated in the Tucker strike in Utah on June 14, 1913, with Joe Hill.Tucker Utah strike on June 14, 1913 (Salt Lake Tribune)."Joe Hill", Gibbs M. Smith, INC. Peregrine Smith Books, Salt Lake City 1984, photo of spellbinders Mac McClintock and Joe Hill on p. 118 McClintock wrote the marching song of the IWW, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum", and he is credited with being the first person to sing Hill's song "The Preacher and the Slave" in public.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phmZSW7G6Fk&gl=US&hl=en|title=Long Haired Preacher (Preacher and the Slave) - YouTube|website=YouTube |date=7 May 2022|access-date=3 April 2023|archive-date=7 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220507204924/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phmZSW7G6Fk&gl=US&hl=en|url-status=bot: unknown}} In the early 1920s, McClintock worked and organized union men in the oil fields of West Texas, where he met and recruited author Jim Thompson, who later incorporated him into several short stories using the name Strawlegs Martin.{{cite web|last=Burnett|first=Jay|title=Things Are Not As They Seem|url=http://www.pennilesspress.co.uk/prose/things_are_not_as_they_seem.htm|publisher=The Penniless Press On-Line|access-date=21 May 2013}}
Memberships
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}
- Initiated by W.F. Little into IWW Union No. 66 on March 4, 1911
- Deputy sheriff, San Francisco, California, deputized on February 7, 1930
- Screen Actors Guild, inducted as a member on May 5, 1939
- American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), inducted as a member on September 30, 1940
Selected discography
=78s=
| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
!scope="col" style="width: 20em;"|Title !Recording Date !Label / Catalog Number !Note |
| scope="row" |Ain't We Crazy?
|1928-09-06 |Victor V-40101 |
| scope="row" |The Big Rock Candy Mountains
|1928-09-06 |Victor Talking Machine Co. 21704-B |
| scope="row" |Hallelujah! I'm a Bum
|1928-03-31 |Victor 21343-B (42137) |
| scope="row" |Get Along, Little Dogies
|1928-03-01 |Victor V-40016 |
| scope="row" |Fireman, Save My Child
|1929-12-15 |Victor V-40234 |
| scope="row" |The Texas Ranger
|1928-03-01 |Victor 21487 |
| scope="row" |Jerry, Go Oil That Car
|1928-03-16 |Victor 21521 |
| scope="row" |The Bum Song
|1928-03-16 |Victor 21343 |
| scope="row" |The Trail to Mexico
|1928-03-09 |Victor V-40016 |
| scope="row" |The Old Chisholm Trail
|1928-03-22 |Victor 21421 |
| scope="row" |Circus Days
|1928-03-31 |Victor 21567 |
| scope="row" |Goodbye, Old Paint
|1928-03-01 |Victor 21761 |
| scope="row" |The Bum Song #2
|1928-09-06 |Victor 21704 |
| scope="row" |The Trusty Lariat
|1929-12-15 |Victor V-40234 |
| scope="row" |My Last Dollar
|1928-03-22 |Victor 23690 |
| scope="row" |Billy Venero
|1928-03-31 |Victor 21487 |
| scope="row" |Red River Valley
|1928-03-27 |Vi 21421-B |
| scope="row" |Roamin
|1929-12-15 |Vi V-40264 |
| scope="row" |Sam Bass
|1928-03-01 |Vi 22420 |
| scope="row" |Hobo's Spring Song
|1929-04-30 |Vi 22003-A V-40112 |
| scope="row" |Jesse James
|1928-03-09 |Vi 21420 LPV548 |
| scope="row" |If I Had My Druthers
|1929-04-30 |Vi 22003-B V-40112 |
| scope="row" |Dad's Dinner Pail
|1928-03-09 |Vi 21521 |
= LPs =
| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
!scope="col" style="width: 20em;"|Title !Year !Label / Catalog Number |
| scope="row" |Haywire Mac
|1950 |Cook Records 01124 |
| scope="row" |Harry K. McClintock "Haywire Mac"
|1972 |Folkways Records FD 5272 |
| scope="row" |Hallelujah! I'm a Bum
|1981 |Rounder Records 1009 |
= Compilations =
| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
!scope="col" style="width: 20em;"|Title !Year !Label / Catalog Number !Track |
| scope="row" |Songs to Grow On, Vol. 3: American Work Songs
|1951 |Folkways Records 07027 |Track 4: "Jerry, Go Oil That Car" |
| scope="row" |Cowboy Songs on Folkways
|1991 |Smithsonian Folkways 40043 |Track 7: "Utah Carl" |
| scope="row" |Folk Song America, Vol. 1
|1991 |Smithsonian Collection 461 |Track 5: "Big Rock Candy Mountain" |
| scope="row" |Railroad Songs of the Early 1900s
|1998 |Rounder Select 1143 |Track 20: "Jerry, Go Oil That Car" |
| scope="row" |O Brother, Where Art Thou?
|2000 |Lost Highway Records 170069 |Track 2: "Big Rock Candy Mountain {{sic}}" |
| scope="row" |Back in the Saddle Again: American Cowboy Songs
|2004 |New World Records |Track 1: "Old Chisholm Trail" |
Bibliography
=Stories=
- "Railroaders are Tough" (Railroad Magazine, April, 1943)
- "Boomer and Their Women" (Railroad Magazine, December, 1957)
=Articles=
- "New Publications – Railroad Songs of Yesteryear" (Railroad Magazine, August 1943) Short biography is part of review.
Notes
{{reflist|group=note}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- "Haywire Mac and the Big Rock Candy Mountain" (Stillhouse Hollow Publishers Inc., Copyright 1981) By Henry Young. Santa Fe Railway locomotive engineer Retired Oct. 31, 1974. [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39324143-haywire-mac-and-the-big-rock-candy-mountain Goodreads]
External links
- [http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/harry-%E2%80%9Chaywire-mac%E2%80%9D-mcclintock--1928-.aspx Harry McClintock biography]
- [http://www.allmusic.com/artist/harry-mcclintock-p103496/biography Harry McClintock] at AllMusic.
- {{discogs artist|Harry McClintock}}
- {{IMDb name|0565860}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:McClintock, Harry}}
Category:American country singer-songwriters
Category:American country guitarists
Category:American male guitarists
Category:American male composers
Category:20th-century American composers
Category:Industrial Workers of the World members
Category:Musicians from Knoxville, Tennessee
Category:Singer-songwriters from Tennessee
Category:Guitarists from Tennessee
Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters
Category:Country musicians from Tennessee