Norris Goff
Norris Goff( May 30, 1906 – June 7, 1978) was an American comedian in radio and film best known for his portrayal of Abner Peabody on the rural comedy" Lum and Abner".
Nicknamed" Tuffy," Goff was born in Cove, Arkansas, but soon moved to Mena, Arkansas where he met his longtime friend and partner Chester Lauck( Lum) and graduating from Mena High School in 1924.
Despite their fame as backwoodsmen, both actors graduated from the University of Arkansas, where Goff became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.
Goff and his partner had experience as blackface entertainers, but had also worked up a hillbilly skit based on their own life experiences and friends.
Performing on local radio, they soon landed their own network series in 1931.
In addition to playing the role of the likable but naive, checker- playing Abner( who worked with Lum at the" Jot' Em down Store" in fictitious Pine Ridge),
Goff co-wrote the earliest episodes with Lauck, and played many of the other recurring characters, including postmaster Dick Huddleston( named after a real life friend in Mena), con-man Squire Skimp, Mousy Gray, and in the sentimental annual Christmas show, Doc Miller.
Goff and Lauck also guest starred as Lum and Abner on radio series such as Bing Crosby's" Kraft Music Hall"; Goff also made a handful of solo appearances, notably guesting as the father of Andy Devine in an episode of" The Jack Benny Program."
Goff reprised his role as Abner for seven films between 1940 and 1956.
Unlike Lauck, who virtually retired outside of playing Lum, Goff continued to make occasional guest appearances on television in the 1960s.
Goff appeared in one episode apiece of two situation comedies with rural themes:" Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."( as Gomer's grandfather) and" The Andy Griffith Show"( playing a local storekeeper).
Upon retirement he lived in Palm Springs, California.
He died of a stroke at the age of 72 in Palm Desert, California.
Opie Cates
Opie Cates( 10 October 1909, in Arkansas – 6 November 1987, in Oklahoma) was an American clarinet player and band leader in the 1930s and 1940s, during the swing era, who became a radio actor.
Cates was born Opal Taft Cates, the son of a farmer in Arkansas, and was also raised in Kansas and Missouri.
By 1931 he was on the radio with his own band.
He served for a time in the 1940s as musical director on radio's" Judy Canova Show", where his Arkansas drawl amused audiences when he introduced songs.
He then became the star of his own radio sitcom," The Opie Cates Show", on ABC in 1947 – 1948, where he played a naive rube getting adjusted to big city life.
Barbara Fuller played his love interest, with Francis X. Bushman as her father, Opie's boss.
Cates would begin each show by saying," The doggonedest thing happened to me th' other day," and proceed to introduce the episode's plot.
The show found no sponsor and lasted only thirteen weeks.
He reappeared in more or less the same role in the rural milieu of radio's" Lum and Abner" in 1949, telling stories about his hometown of Clinton, Arkansas, and was included in the pilot episode of an unsold television version of" Lum and Abner" that year.
Cates was also musical director of the NBC radio show" Meet Me at Parky's"( 1945), starring Parkyakarkus, and of" Granby's Green Acres", a 1950 CBS radio show with much of the" Lum and Abner" cast that later inspired the television series" Green Acres".
Andy Griffith named his character's son" Opie Taylor" on" The Andy Griffith Show" after Opie Cates, whom Griffith and producer Sheldon Leonard both liked.
Dreaming Out Loud (film)
Dreaming Out Loud is a 1940 American film based on the radio series" Lum and Abner", directed by Harold Young starring Chester Lauck and Norris Goff.
It is also known as Money Is n't Everything.
Lum and Abner Abroad
Lum and Abner Abroad is a 1956 American comedy film directed by James V. Kern and written by Carl Herzinger.
The film stars Chester Lauck, Norris Goff, Jill Alis, Lila Audres, Gene Gary and Chris Peters.
The film was released on January 1, 1956.
Chester Lauck
Chester" Chet" Lauck( February 9, 1902 – February 21, 1980) was a comic actor who played the character of Lum Edwards on the classic American radio comedy" Lum and Abner".
The Bashful Bachelor
The Bashful Bachelor is a 1942 American film directed by Malcolm St. Clair.
It was the second film in the" Lum and Abner" film series.
Lum and Abner
Lum and Abner was an American network radio comedy program created by Chester Lauck and Norris Goff that was aired from 1931 to 1954.
Modeled on life in the small town of Waters, Arkansas, near where Lauck and Goff grew up, the show proved immensely popular.
In 1936, Waters changed its name to Pine Ridge after the show's fictional town.
Goin' to Town (1944 film)
Goin' to Town is a 1944 American comedy film directed by Leslie Goodwins from an original screenplay by Charles E. Roberts and Charles R. Marion, based upon the successful radio program Lum and Abner created by Chester Lauck and Norris Goff.
It was the fifth of seven films in the Lum and Abner series, and was released by RKO Radio Pictures on September 28, 1944.
The film stars Lauck and Goff, along with Florence Lake and Andrew Tombes.
Two Weeks to Live
Two Weeks to Live is a 1943 American Lum and Abner film directed by Malcolm St. Clair.
James V. Kern
James V. Kern (September 22, 1909, New York City, New York – November 9, 1966, Encino, California) was an American singer, songwriter, screenwriter, actor, and director.
Educated at the Fordham Law School, Kern worked for a while as an attorney.
He sang with the George Olsen Trio, and appeared with the Olsen orchestra in the musical "Good News".
From 1927 to 1939, he sang with and wrote for the Yacht Club Boys quartet, with whom he appeared in several motion pictures.
He became a screenwriter and later a director.
In film, he directed mainly "B" pictures, but after he moved to television, he directed hundreds of series episodes.
He was one of the house directors on "I Love Lucy" in the 1950s.
He directed "My Three Sons" for most of two seasons in the 1960s.
When he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 57, several episodes of the show remained only partially completed for the 1966/67 season, so director James Sheldon was brought in by series producers to round out the season.
He joined ASCAP in 1955.
His popular-song compositions include "Easy Street,Lover, Lover,Little Red Fox," and "Shut the Door."

Question: Where was the place of death of the director of film Lum And Abner Abroad?
Answer: Encino