The Old Fiddler. (original) (raw)

Way back in the l930s, Henderson County storekeeper John Hatton leaped from obscurity into statewide prominence when Athensstarted its annual Old Fiddlers Reunion.

Hatton, who ran a store in the little community of Opelika and did some farming on the side, was used in the publicity shots showing him drawing a bow across a fiddle.

According to a story told by the late Dallas newspaperman Bob Hays in his 1971 book, �It Really Happened in East Texas,� Hatton�s photo appeared in scores of Texas newspapers as �the best known of all fiddlers.�

Walter Robinson, an Athens newspaperman, and Linden Jones, a state employee, had volunteered to promote the fiddlers reunion and went looking for a someone who could become a symbol for the reunion.

When they saw Hatton--with his wiry build, leathery face and stubbled beard--they agreed he he was the perfect picture of an old-time fiddler.

Hatton loved fiddle music and agreed to help promote the reunion. Photographers snapped hundreds of photos, which popped up in newspapers and magazines all over the country. Hatton, indeed, became a living symbol of an old fiddler. One photographer made a close-up of Hatton and called it �the Old Fiddler�s Metronome,� For a while, Hatton was Athens� most recognizable face.

In the late thirties, according to Hays, Robinson and Jones ran out of promotion ideas, so they carried Hatton to the Dallas Morning News and asked photographer Earl Moore to make some new photos that would appeal to a new crowd of editors. Moore set up his lights in the News� studio and told Hatton he wanted to shoot some action shots. �How about playing Sally Goodin� while I shoot away?,� he asked Hatton.

�I don�t know it,� said Hatton.

�How about Rosin� Down the Bow?� asked Moore.

�I don�t know that�n either,� said Hatton.

�Al'right,� said Moore, somewhat frustrated. �Give me a round of Turkey in the Straw. Surely you know that one.�

Hatton was silent for a minute or two. Finally, he confessed he couldn�t play the fiddle.� It turned out that Hatton was willing to help promote the Old Fiddlers Reunion, but he didn�t know one note from another.

Moore asked him how he had kept up the deception for years.

�I never said I could play the fiddle and, until now, no body ever asked me to,� he said.