Zeke Manners; Musician Hosted Live-Performance Radio Shows

Before there was Jed Clampett, before he and his clan--Granny, Jethro and Elly May--caught the attention of television audiences in the 1960s and early ‘70s, there was Zeke Manners, the original Beverly Hill Billie.

Manners, a composer, musician and all-around character who also hosted popular radio programs in Los Angeles and New York in the 1940s and ‘50s, died Oct. 14 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 89.

Manners either cowrote or wrote more than 100 songs, including “The Pennsylvania Polka,” which became a hit for the Andrews Sisters; “Take My Wife Please,” which he wrote with comedian Henny Youngman; and “Los Angeles,” which he wrote with legendary guitarist Les Paul. Manners also wrote a number of songs with Buddy Ebsen, who played Clampett on the popular CBS television series “The Beverly Hillbillies” from 1962 to 1971.

But it was during the era of live radio performance that Manners first made his mark as an original member of the Beverly Hill Billies, a hugely successful band that offered corn pone humor and played a folksy strain of Western swing music--first on KMPC in Los Angeles and then at various New York stations during the 1930s.

“I had this trio playing on old KLAC doing piano comedy bits,” Manners recalled years ago. “Harry Von Zell was our ukulele player. At any rate, I left and went over to KMPC, where they came up with this idea of playing what we then called hillbilly music. They created this story of old mountain boys who rode down from the hills [of Beverly Glen, behind Benedict Canyon] to play this music. That was the Beverly Hill Billies.”

Manners played accordion and organ in the five-piece group, which performed six nights a week, excluding Monday, on KMPC from 10 to 11 p.m. They also packed local concert venues like Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Pantages and the downtown Orpheum.

When the band broke up after several years, Manners formed Zeke & the City Fellers, which played the same kind of music. Manners took the band to New York, where it was featured on local radio stations. He also led a well-received tour of Europe before the outbreak of World War II.

The uncle of the actor and filmmaker Albert Brooks, Manners was “a cigar-smoking, storytelling guy. A character in the real sense of the word,” Brooks said.

Manners was also very funny.

Brooks recalled that during the Mitch Miller television craze in the 1960s, Manners did his own parody of the popular “Sing Along With Mitch” format.

On Miller’s program, words to songs would be cut into the television screen so viewers at home could sing along. Manners took the format to the magic of radio.

“Zeke had a sing-along radio show on KNX,” Brooks said. “He would say the lyrics on the radio and people would sing along.

“It was hysterical.”

Manners’ career ran the gamut of radio programming. During the ‘40s, he hosted “One Man Variety Show” coast to coast--spinning stories, jokes and songs in the “Breakfast Club” format of the early mornings.

In the ‘50s, he jumped on the rock ‘n’ roll bandwagon, first on KFWB in Los Angeles and then on WINS in New York--opening up his request lines for the sounds of Fats Domino, the Platters, the Coasters and then Elvis Presley. He also had a daytime talk show on television.

Although Manners may have affected a country persona during his Beverly Hill Billies days, he was anything but a hick. Born in San Francisco, Manners grew up in Los Angeles and attended Fairfax High School. By graduation, Manners was playing a variety of instruments including violin, piano and banjo.

He went into show business playing first in a traveling tent show before joining a succession of bands specializing in western swing music.

During World War II, Manners served in the Army Air Corps and was stationed at a studio in Culver City writing training films. A young film actor, Ronald Reagan, was part of his unit.

A popular radio personality into the 1960s, Manners regretted the passing of the live performance era on radio.

“The thing back then was that if you had a show, you were in charge of that block of time,” Manners told a Times reporter years ago. “You were the showman; you were responsible. If you wanted to play Gershwin, Stravinsky or ‘Rock Around the Clock,’ it was your time, and as long as you kept the numbers, they left you alone. Radio wasn’t the copycat business it is today.”

In his later years, Manners did occasional stand-up comedy and started a mail order music lesson business. He had small roles in two films by his nephew Brooks (“Real Life” and “Lost in America”) and also in “Barfly,” the film of the Charles Bukowski book.

Manners is survived by his daughter, Susanne Manners.