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  • Music

Crazy Hillbilly Show was a 1930s radio broadcast originating in New York City, sponsored by the Crazy Hotel, a health spa in Mineral Wells, Texas, known for the curative properties of its mineral waters. Created by Carr P. Collins and Hal Collins, the show featured Old Timey music, a precursor to Bluegrass, with roots in folk music from the British Isles, Europe, and Africa, played on stringed instruments and harmonica. The show's advertising promoted the benefits of Crazy Water, a mineral water that was eventually turned into mineral salts to be more easily shipped and reconstituted with tap water. Though the claims made by the Collins brothers about the benefits of Crazy Water were not as extreme as some patent medicine salesmen, their claims eventually caught the attention of the Federal Government when the Pure Food and Medicine regulations were enacted. The Crazy Hillbilly Show's mix of music and promotion for Crazy Water made it a unique and entertaining radio show of its time.