The “Beverly Hillbillies” ran on TV for nine seasons, but its success left actor Max Baer, Jr., jobless. If the role wasn’t a Jethro-Bodine country bumpkin, he lost the part. After refusing to be typecast, you’d think he would invest his nest egg conservatively. Not Max Baer. In 1974 he gambled his last $110,000 on an independent film. According to producer Ted Chalmers, indies lose money 97 percent of the time. Was Jethro ever this dumb?
It gets worse. Baer not only bankrolled his first film, he wrote the script and played the leading role. Macon County Line portrays a “vengeful” Georgia sheriff “out for blood after his wife is brutally killed.” New York Times critic Vincent Canby said after the first 30 minutes, any “bright 10-year-old” could predict the ending. That was one of the nicer reviews, prompting Baer to prepare for life as a door-to-door salesman. Quite a comedown for the former successful actor and business-school graduate.
Then something happened … moviegoers loved the action thriller; more and more theatres booked it. Thirty-five million dollars later, Macon County Line was the most profitable film of 1974, and held the all-time record for profit-to-cost ratio for 25 years. Who’s dumb now?
Proving it was no fluke, Baer produced and directed the 1976 hit, Ode to Billy Joe, based on the Bobbie Gentry song. Inventing the genre of songs-adapted-for-film, it cashed in another $35 million. Its sensitive portrayal of gay attraction prompts author Ben Ackerly to call it, “a breakthrough attempt to depict a life and death in the heart of the Bible Belt.” Pretty smart, Jethro, pretty smart. (His close friends call him “Jethro.”) Today Max Baer lives comfortably on Lake Tahoe.
I’m Jeff Gentry
Best reference:
Akerley, B.E. (2006). What Ode to Billy Joe (the Movie) Disclosed in ’76. Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, 13(4), 32.
Dumb Ideas that Changed the World copyright 2025 by Jeff Gentry. All rights reserved.
