More than four decades later, people still remember and talk about the time Lakeside Amusement Park brought in a Shakespearean actor from New York who could fluently speak six different languages.
But the hundreds of fans who came to Salem, Virginia on July 19, 1981, were not interested in hearing Sorrell Booke talk about his Yale master’s degree. They just wanted to shake Boss Hogg’s hand.
Before 1979, Booke was a familiar face on television, even if people didn’t know his name. He had appeared on numerous shows from Gunsmoke and Hawaii Five-O to M*A*S*H and All in the Family. But his role as Boss Hogg on the Duke’s of Hazzard made him a household name.
He played the role of the corrupt local crime boss on the show for seven seasons. He was in more episodes of the series than even stars John Schneider and Tom Wopat, who each quit for a season over a salary dispute.
Even though he was the bad guy, Booke drew crowds of fans wherever he went.
It was for that reason that Lakeside Amusement Park invited the actor to come and meet fans on July 19, 1981. It was a big hit.
Here is how the Roanoke Time’s Chris Gladden reported on the event that brought fans out in droves.
Out of his district… But Hazzard County’s ‘Boss Hogg’ wins by a landslide at Lakeside Amusement Park
By CHRIS GLADDEN ROANOKE TIMES
Why would Boss Hogg, the caricature of a money-grubbing Southern politician, run Santa Claus a close second among pre-teens?
“We’ve always tried to make him human,” said Sorrell Booke, the man behind the character on CBS-TV’s “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
Booke was at Lakeside Amusement Park on Sunday to sign auto graphs and treat the crowd to the bombastic rantings of the hapless backwoods politico.
Most politicians only dream of a loyal constituency such as the one Hogg claims. It may be too young to make itself heard at the polls, but it’s a constituency that speaks with a mighty voice in the ratings. “The Dukes of Hazzard” is not just popular in the rural South, where the show about the escapades of a pair of hot-rodding good ol’ boys is set. “It’s everywhere,” said Booke.
“Wherever I go, I find it has general appeal.” People who live in rural areas in this and in other countries identify with the show, Booke said, adding, “The French love this program.”
In France, the title translates to “Sheriff, Do Me Something,” he noted.
At Lakeside, youngsters lined up to get autographs signed and to shake hands with their favorite politician. “He gets a lot of sympathy because nothing goes right,” said Booke. “We all understand Boss Hogg because we all understand temptation. Everybody wants money.
Boss Hogg just isn’t a hypocrite.”
Sorrell Booke is a Yankee by birth and a Californian by residence. He has a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama. He uses Boss Hogg’s booming drawl offstage only when he wants to make a point about the character. His study of languages and mastery of dialects have removed any trace of a regional accent, and he trades in his long cigar for: a cigarette when relaxing. However, Booke will launch into any number of Southern regional dialects at the drop of a consonant.
Boss Hogg’s accent is a composite with a heavy dollop of Georgia Coast, Booke said. Booke said he landed the role of Boss Hogg because of his overall acting ability and not his talent for dialects. Among his many credits are two Southern-tinged stage roles – one in “Finian’s Rainbow” and one in “Purlie Victorious.” He described his “Purlie Victorious” role as a quintessential southern reprobate, and said his current character isn’t at all like that. “Boss Hogg is vigorous and he’s not even bigoted. It’s power now.
It’s the kind of local power that goes beyond that. It’s more modern because the emphasis is on money,” said Booke, quoting the adage about power corrupting. “We’re not a message show,” he’s quick to emphasize. “We’re not ‘Lou Grant.’ ” “You can write your own message. We don’t make Boss Hogg a villain.
It’s Sorrell Booke Playing to the crowd a fairy tale. All the characters are sympathetic. You can even like the dragon in a fairy tale.” Booke enjoys the kind of instant recognition his part has brought him. He lives near the major studios in Los Angeles where celebrities are more the rule than the exception. But he says he has only to walk through an airport in some other city to be set upon by Boss Hogg fans.
“I like it after all those years of anonymity. People are nice to me. Nobody comes up to me and challenges me.” Booke, in his 50s, wasn’t exactly anonymous in those years. He had appeared on such estimable television shows as “The Rockford Files,” “M*A*S*H” and “Gunsmoke,” along with many stage shows and several movies. Is he worried about being typed as a backwoods politician? “After all these years? The only thing I haven’t done is the circus, I think.
I certainly can’t say I’d be deprived. “If I can survive the success, we’ll see,” said Boss Hogg as he inspected his white Stetson and prepared for another confrontation with his constituency.”
Booke played Boss Hogg until 1985 when The Dukes of Hazzard was cancelled. After that, he limited most of his acting to voice over work in cartons.
Sorrell Booke died on February 11, 1994 of colorectal cancer at the age of 64.
