15 Facts About Hank Penny

Herbert Clayton Penny was an American musician who played banjo mainly in the Western swing genre.

Hank Penny worked as a comedian best known for his backwoods character "That Plain Ol' Country Boy" on TV with Spade Cooley.

In 1944, Hank Penny left Cincinnati for Los Angeles where he formed larger Western swing bands that played local clubs and ballrooms, such as the Venice Pier in Santa Monica.

Hank Penny took over a band formerly led by ex-Spade Cooley bassist Deuce Spriggens.

Hank Penny modeled the Radio Cowboys' repertoire of Western Swing music on Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies.

Hank Penny's bands included jazz sidemen such as guitarists Jimmy Wyble and Benny Garcia.

Hank Penny was known for his unwillingness to compromise and occasionally combative attitude.

Hank Penny walked out on a 1945 engagement at Venice Pier when dance promoter Bert "Foreman" Phillips insisted Penny direct his musicians to quit playing improvisational jazz solos and stick to melodic instrumental passages in the style of conventional country singers such as Ernest Tubb or Roy Acuff.

Hank Penny was known to stand up to promoters and to King Records president Syd Nathan.

For several years, starting in 1948, Hank Penny was a member of the cast of Cooley's Saturday night television show over KTLA-TV in his guise as a country comedian, and seldom performed music on the show, even though he and his band played dances throughout the Los Angeles area.

In 1952, Penny began hosting his own local Los Angeles TV series, The Hank Penny Show, which was canceled after seven weeks.

Hank Penny's band backed Clark on his first album for Capitol Records.

Hank Penny made a 1970s appearance with Peggy Conner on America 2-Night, playing a country husband-and-wife singing duo called Buck and Harriet Pine.

Hank Penny died in 1992 at his Southern California home of heart failure.

Hank Penny was the father of actress Sydney Penny and producer Greg Penny.