Episode 3901

- [Narrator 1] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by.

- [Narrator 2] Some of our biggest trucks have also made the biggest difference. The Tennessee Lottery, proud to have raised more than $7.5 billion for education. Now that's some game changing, life changing fun.

- [Narrator 3] Discover Tennessee trails and byways where adventure, cuisine and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at tntrailsandbyways.com.

- [Narrator 4] The co-op system in Tennessee consists of independently owned co-ops, driven to serve farmer owners, rural lifestyle customers, and their communities throughout Tennessee and in five neighboring states. More at ourcoop.com.

- [Narrator 5] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives, and earn a living. More at mtsu.edu/cla.

- This week, prepare your palette for Cajun cuisine, feast your eyes on classic cars, meet a family known for their handcrafted woodwork, and explore the career of an entertainer whose co-star is actually made of wood. Holy, howdy, doody, what a show. I'm Laura Faber. Welcome to "Tennessee Crossroads." It seems like there are lots of people in Tennessee who are either from The Big Easy or have traveled there and are familiar with Cajun and Creole food. To do it well is no small task. In our first story, we found a place where the owner serves up his mama's recipes straight from New Orleans, and the place is packed because of it.

- Thank you.

- As a former TV news journalist, I learned early on to never bury the lead. In this story, the lead is the food. Jambalaya, muffuletta, po'boys, and gumbo, these dishes are the real deal. Just off the square of downtown Franklin in a building called The Factory, you can get a taste of authentic New Orleans at a place named after a mystical, but very rare reptile called The White Alligator. The white alligator is not albino, rather leucistic, a genetic variation of the American alligator with pale skin and blue eyes.

- [Rob] Okay, ladies, here's the beignet.

- [Laura] Rob Lippincott and his wife Carla always thought it would be a great name for a restaurant.

- If you look into the blue eyes of a leucistic alligator, they say you'll have good luck.

- Yeah.

- Good fortune.

- Yeah, it's reported that it was maybe Choctaw, the indigenous people of the area 'cause these, they were around, right? But it was, like I said, very rare occurrence. If you look into the blue eyes, you'll be blessed with good luck for life.

- [Carla] We opened December 8th of 2003, and the day we opened was the first ever leucistic alligator to be born into captivity.

- Yeah, isn't that wild?

- It is good luck, I think so. I think it says something.

- We're not gonna be able to get down here this weekend, so I'm getting it to go.

- [Rob] Good, good, hey, there's nothing wrong with that.

- [Laura] Rob grew up in New Orleans and knows Cajun and Creole food. He worked as a charter boat fisherman and was a captain at 21. He moved to San Diego to do the same thing, met Carla, got married and worked in restaurants to make ends meet. He found he was good at it.

- We started selling beignets out of the back of my old Ford pickup truck at markets and festivals, and it just, people kept saying, you know, you need a restaurant, you need a restaurant. And I convinced myself I needed a restaurant, and convincing Carla was another, you know, whole nother angle, but we did it.

- [Laura] They moved north to Sonoma's wine country and ran a successful po'boy and fried seafood brunch restaurant called The Parish Cafe.

- We were doing softshell crab, eggs benedicts, and jumbo lump crab meat omelets. And it was just something that people were lined up for. And sure enough, our bestseller to this day is a fried shrimp po'boy, because who doesn't love a fried shrimp po'boy?

- My favorite.

- [Laura] Eventually, the Lippincotts moved to Franklin and The White Alligator was born.

- Everyone that I meet, they want to tell me about their memories from New Orleans, you know? And going way back to when I was selling beignets at the markets, everyone and I used to tease, you know, the people working for me, I say, you see this, we're selling memories, like, we're selling this emotion. And I think that I was always really proud of that.

- [Carla] Our jambalaya and our gumbo recipe came from his mother. I mean, he obviously tweaked them a little bit to his own liking, but they're basically her recipes that he grew up with.

- Yeah, and to this day, if I have, if there's something I'm trying to change or work on, if I'm thinking about bringing something new to the menu, I call mom, you know? I get mom's advice and get her opinion and she's always got the right answer.

- Yes.

- Customers agree. Margaret Kirrin's husband is a New Orleans native.

- I got the gumbo and I got the roast beef po'boy. Now in New Orleans, a roast beef, po'boy is soft beef with gravy, and you order it dressed or undressed. It's delicious. Just the right amount of spice.

- [Rob] We have a great crew. They run on a fishing line.

- [Carla] Definitely think you always have to start with a po'boy. And our fried shrimp and our alligator are the top ones to be ordered.

- [Laura] They also serve a traditional muffuletta.

- [Rob] It's black forest ham, mortadella, cotto salami, smoked provolone, mozzarella, and our house made olive salad.

- And then going back to the jambalaya, which I absolutely love, we do ours Creole style, so it has tomato in it. So the Cajuns don't use tomato and we do.

- [Rob] Our gumbo, we use what's called the dark roux, which is the flour and oil, and we bring it to the brink. We use chicken and andouille sausage. It's not a seafood gumbo, it's a chicken and sausage gumbo. It's a stew, essentially served over rice or potato salad if you're from Cajun country.

- [Laura] The White Alligator also has a full bar and offers traditional New Orleans drinks and other spirits too. They'll shake you a handmade hurricane or a sazerac with caramelized absinthe, whip up in old fashioned or a French 75.

- [Carla] This is a French 75, so it is gin, lemon juice, simple syrup. Go ahead and top it with a little prosecco or champagne.

- [Laura] The food though is the thing here. Everything is homemade, even the sauces. This is their Honkey Donkey hot sauce.

- It's a 50% habanero, 25 jalapeno, 25 cayenne blend. So it's got a lot of body, but it's delicious.

- [Laura] Rob is careful not to say he has the best of everything, but he does serve the best of his favorite versions. Carla and Rob do feel lucky and couldn't be more grateful that this community has embraced the big easy vibe of The White Alligator.

- [Carla] We get to do this together. Our children also work here at times, so that's a blessing.

- We're not trying to be, you know, formal fine. We're a fried seafood house with some of the best gumbo and jambalaya you can get. And we're right here in Franklin, and I want people to come in and have fun, and to be able to talk to us, and tell us about, like I said, their memories. And if you think your gumbo is better than mine, you know, I can take it, you know, I can take it.

- Are you a car buff, a history buff, or maybe even a movie buff? If you are, have we got a museum for you? Miranda Cohen travels to Greenville to meet a man with a rare collection of vehicles you have to see to believe.

- [Miranda] One of Kent Bewley's earliest memories is of being around cars.

- You know, I was a car guy from very young, and enjoyed the dealerships, and did everything from carry out the garbage, to sell cars, to cleaning cars, worked in parts service, everything.

- [Miranda] Since 1937, his father, RR Bewley, owned several car dealerships in and around Greenville, and the younger Bewley grew to share a passion for his family business.

- [Kent] I told somebody that I've done everything you can do with a car. I've raced them, I've rented them, I've leased them, I've sold them, you know. So we're just big time car people.

- [Miranda] He is also somewhat of a vehicle historian as the owner of the City Garage Car Museum here on South Main Street.

- [Kent] Cars, I had over 40 cars stored in a warehouse with flat tires and dead batteries. And so this building became available, and so I bought it, and Bettye Anne, my wife and I, did most of the decorating and did the total layout, and it's just worked out beautifully.

- [Miranda] This 12,000 square foot, one-time service station, is now home to an impressive collection of 42 very rare vintage automobiles. You can see everything from a 1901 Oldsmobile to a very rare Canadian made Bricklin, to the very first Subaru that was ever shipped to the US. And Bewley does have a few favorites.

- [Kent] The DeTomaso Pantera, I bought it brand new. It has 4,900 miles on it and it has a certificate of origin, it's never been titled. It's the only one in existence, it's never been titled.

- [Miranda] The classic '57 Chevy and the '52 Pontiac have been in the family since they rolled off the assembly line. There are Corvettes, Cadillacs, and even a nod to NASCAR. And if you are a movie buff, there is plenty for you too.

- [Kent] The sheriff's car outside, it looks like the Barney Fife car, was in a movie, was in two movies. The Rolls-Royce Corniche back there was in the movie "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."

- [Miranda] Okay, Mr. Bewley, no doubt, one of the most recognizable cars in here is the DeLorean. So when was this car made and how many of them are still out there?

- I think they produced from '82 to '84, and there's probably less than 10,000. We think this one is the lowest mileage. It has 727 miles on it, and it's never been out of this county. It was purchased in Nashville, truck up here, and it's been in Greenville ever since.

- [Miranda] The vehicles are displayed with nostalgic memorabilia. It is like a drive down memory lane. Bewley has been collecting vintage cars for decades, and he is not putting the brakes on anytime soon. Private owners and dealers continually seek out Mr. Bewley with the hopes of adding to his grand collection.

- [Kent] The best source of getting cars for me now is wives that want their husbands to get rid of these cars. But we have opportunities almost monthly to buy and we're very selective in what we buy, but people come from far and wide, and let us appraise 'em, and then we end up buying some of them. Uniqueness, you know, very rare cars that are very rare, but, you know, there's no set rule for that. You just, it's just how you see it, and how it will fit in the museum.

- [Miranda] Bewley says the younger generation's marvel at the polished chrome, metal and meticulous engineering, but for many it is much more of an emotional journey.

- [Kent] Just the memories, you know, the pleasant memories and it is just a special attachment. Well, it's kinda like a fraternity, or sorority, or whatever you want to call it. But you know, car people are car people, and it's intriguing in a small town like Greenville, and they seem to think it's much smaller than it is. But a lot of people come in, and they'll say, well, they're in a hurry, and they end up staying an hour or two hours, you know, they become enamored with it. We draw a lot of people into Greenville that would not come otherwise, they come here to see cars.

- If you have to commute to Nashville, I'm sure you'd agree that rush hour is now rush hours. Wouldn't it be great if your commute was just a stroll to your garage? Well, Cindy Carter found a family in Murfreesboro who's living that dream while making handcrafted items for the home.

- [Cindy] The dust often flies inside Dustin and Trinity McDaniel's Murfreesboro garage, Sawdust, that is. But don't mistake this family garage for Dustin's man cave. This is the hub and home of Little Owl Craft Co.

- We mainly sell home decor items, plant stands, plant hangers, tea light holders, and then functional home decor such as cutting boards, serving trays. We make jewelry, earrings.

- [Cindy] Dustin has always been a handy guy, but during the pandemic he was a handyman with time on his hands. He started building small things with and for his daughter to help pass the time.

- [Dustin] I've worked with wood, but never hardwoods, and you know, some of the more specialty woods, and so it just went from there. Ordered my first pack of wood online during the pandemic and I had it delivered here and haven't stopped since.

- [Cindy] And since then, under the watchful eyes of Dustin's grandmother's owl that inspired their name, Little Owl Craft Co has grown stronger like the hardwoods Dustin uses to create his beautiful results. He chooses his raw materials very carefully, letting the textures and variations work with and enhance his designs.

- You can see sort of the way the grain's move and the way, you just, sort of things just pop into your head. It's hard to explain.

- Now, the wood they use is locally sourced from nearby sawmills, walnut, maple ash, white oak, cherry. It gives the finished pieces character and makes them uniquely Tennessee.

- It's like a new piece of art coming out the other end, you know, it never gets old seeing that. You know, you're never quite sure when you go to the sawmill what you're gonna get. And then when you run it through that planer and you see that face for the first time, it's.

- [Cindy] Dustin spends countless hours in his workshop/garage. His general approach may be mechanized, but each step from start to finish represents his aesthetic.

- We use painter's tape and CA glue to hold our work pieces down instead of clamps or anything else. No broken bits this way.

- [Cindy] Dustin sells pieces that reflect his own artistic expression, but also does a lot of custom work for both individuals and companies.

- Well, the CNC is sort of the hub of our business. We do a lot of family name signs, customized cutting boards for real estate agents, closing gifts, stuff like that, corporate gifts that we put logos on, cutting boards for companies. We've got every other woodworking tool you can imagine, from planers, to table saws, to jointers.

- Spread glue.

- Spread glue. You know how to do that.

- [Cindy] Little Owl Craft Co is a family business. Trinity makes and sells the company's macrame plant hangers and fashion's earrings from Dustin's scraps. She's also the fuel that keeps this entire machine running.

- I do help, you know, make some of the products. Probably more of my role is gonna be like, you know, the behind the scenes stuff. The bookkeeping, the social media, the newsletter.

- [Cindy] Little Owl's word of mouth is strong, especially on Instagram. But Trinity and Dustin say the best part is when they bring their finished work to market and can actually interact with their customers, something Dustin was admittedly shy about when they first started.

- You know, you have the imposter syndrome a little bit, like, maybe I'm not good enough to do this. And then when you put your work out there, you know, in front of 5,000 people on a Saturday and everyone loves it, it's sort of, you know, it really boosts you to get back the back in the shop on Monday and get back at it and be proud of your work.

- [Cindy] Work Dustin is grateful to have. Little Owl Craft Co keeps him close to his daughter, collaborating with his wife, and never needing to leave his garage.

- We're all here every day. We have lunch together. We're able to work and still be together. It changed my whole life.

- Our final story is all about a pair of unique entertainers. One is human, the other made of wood. Together, they've entertained audiences worldwide while preserving the zany art of ventriloquism. Joe Elmore has the story of Shannon and Rod.

- You know, when I was five years old, saw these great ventriloquism and said, I wanna do that.

- Yeah, and he's been working with dummies ever since.

- [Joe] Shannon Schrum has been a ventriloquist since growing up in rural Colorado, throwing his voice and eventually catching laughs from audiences around the world. And for most of those years he's worked as the straight man beside the same wisecracking funny guy.

- Well, I'm Shannon, this is Rod.

- Yes, indeed. My name is Rod and I'm made of wood.

- What kind of wood?

- Oak wood.

- Oak wood?

- Yeah.

- What's your sister made of?

- Oak Wood.

- Yeah. And your dad?

- Oak wood. I got a cousin, he's all mixed up.

- What is he?

- Particle board.

- [Joe] If you're a longtime Nashvillian and this pair looks familiar, well, there's a good reason for that.

- Many years we were out at Opryland, and just had a great time doing our show.

- [Rod] Working with all the great legends in show business.

- Yeah, we were very blessed. We got to work with some amazing people, like Minnie Pearl.

- And Vander Lee. Yeah, Porter Wagoner, all the legends, yeah. And learned so much from them too.

- [Joe] Even got Minnie's hat over there.

- [Rod] We do, we do. We actually do, yeah.

- [Joe] Shannon and Rod also worked as the warmup act for the old "Hee Haw" show. Why, they even made it off with the show's trademark cornfield. This room in Shannon's home is like a personal museum, full of artifacts and special memories.

- It has been a lifetime of collecting and you know, we just love spending time in here. It's surrounding yourself with things that make you happy that I think is important.

- Yeah, it's not really like a man cave, you know. It's like a tuttet tarlor.

- Puppet parlor.

- Yeah, 'cause you know, he plays with dolls.

- Will you cut that out.

- [Joe] Entertainers have been playing with dolls for centuries, and while the exact origin of ventriloquism is debatable, we do know it gained widespread popularity in the 19th century. A man named Fred Russell was regarded as the father of modern ventriloquism, but it was none other than Edgar Bergen who earned the most fame and fortune.

- [Shannon] You know, no one has ever achieved greater heights in ventriloquism than Edgar Bergen. You know, I mean, he was just a superstar in his day in the 1930s, and for many decades after that. So there was a lot of merchandise. Edgar Bergen and Walt Disney were the two kings of merchandise in the day.

- I'm pretty smart, pretty smart. I can count to 10.

- Count to 10.

- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

- Count higher.

- Oh, 1, 2, 3, 4.

- Cut that out.

- [Joe] Shannon is so good at this form of stagecraft, you almost forget he is sharing his voice with a dummy. He is not really an extension of your personality, he's like a different person to me.

- Well, he seems like, he's just, he's everything that I would like to be and he says everything I would like to say, but I couldn't.

- Yeah, so I'm gonna one that gets away with it.

- [Joe] Ventriloquism might have been only a hobby for Shannon had he not been inspired by Russell Scott, AKA Blinky the Clown.

- [Shannon] Blinky was a clown in the 1950s when children's television shows were popular. Blinky was in Denver, and I grew up in Colorado, and I watched Blinky on television.

- [Rod] Yeah, Blinky really got him into the business.

- That's right.

- Yeah. 'Cause he watched him every day.

- [Shannon] Every day when I was a little kid. In fact, I was on his show.

- No kidding.

- I was on his show.

- In Denver?

- In Denver, yes. And he would sing Happy Birthday to the kids every day and it was just a blast. But that one moment, that one experience just inspired me to go into the entertainment business.

- [Joe] The two became close friends and Shannon, who's also a talented artist, created this tribute to his hero.

- Spent about four and a half months painting that. And I wanted to use the Norman Rockwell style.

- Yeah.

- Because I wanted it to tell the story. There's so many elements in that painting that are connected to parts of his life. That is Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor.

- [Joe] And this is Shannon's workshop. While entertaining is pretty much on the back burner these days, Shannon spends a lot of time in here creating puppets and puppet pieces for other ventriloquist around the country.

- Yeah, I do a lot of puppets. I paint puppets and I build puppets. A lot of times they'll just send me the finished puppet head and I'll paint it.

- [Joe] Shannon has enjoyed an incredible career as a ventriloquist, a performer and craftsman, making people laugh while preserving some of the history of this timeless entertainment art form.

- We're just saving them to preserve them for somebody else to take care of them in the future.

- [Joe] Well, it's good to meet you Rod.

- Nice to meet you too, Joe.

- Yeah, in fact, I tell you what, we love "Tennessee Crossroads." It's our favorite show on public television.

- You took the Lords right outta my mouth.

- I usually do.

- Well, we've come to the end of our half hour, but you can watch us anytime at tennesseecrossroads.org or on the PBS app, and please join us back here again next week. Thanks for watching.

- [Narrator 1] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by.

- [Narrator 2] Students across Tennessee have benefited from over seven and a half billion dollars we've raised for education, providing more than 2 million scholarships and grants. The Tennessee Lottery, game changing, life changing fun.

- [Narrator 3] Discover Tennessee Trails and Byways, where adventure, cuisine and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at tntrailsandbyways.com.

- [Narrator 4] The co-op system in Tennessee consists of independently owned co-ops, driven to serve farmer owners, rural lifestyle customers, and their communities throughout Tennessee and in five neighboring states. More at ourcoop.com.

- [Narrator 5] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives, and earn a living. More at mtsu.edu/cla.