Who is Dave
Stein?
Linda Henning, Dave Stein & Meredith MacRae in June
1998
Dave Stein was born in 1956 and grew up loving '60s sitcoms
& music. When he acquired his first VCR in 1980, he soon
discovered that he could archive his favorite shows & bands.
By networking with people across the country and around the world,
he quickly accumulated one of the most envied collections of rare
Beatles video. And the friends he had made led him to others who
collected and traded television programs. Dave chose to collect on
his 3 favorite shows - "The Patty Duke Show", "That Girl" and
"Petticoat Junction". This proved difficult because the shows, at
that time, were only being aired on local channels in various
parts of the country - but that didn't stop Dave.
While gathering complete collections of these shows, he
decided that he wanted to contact/meet his favorite actresses and
give them something back in return for all the pleasure he got in
watching their shows. He sent Marlo Thomas a rare video of her
first appearance on television. She was very warm and
appreciative. Dave has since met her many, many times backstage at
a number of her plays and at her live appearances and is now her
unofficial "archivist", giving her an entire collection of
programs from the '60s in which she appeared (other than "That
Girl"). [click
here for photos & story]
Patty Duke proved more difficult to contact, but Dave didn't
give up. After trying many different avenues to reach her, he was
finally able to meet her in person. He presented her with a video
of some of her rare TV appearances from the '60s & some
hard-to-find memorabilia from her show. She was very shocked &
surprised because she didn't even know they existed.
[click
here for photo & story]
Dave's love for "Petticoat Junction" is the strongest of all.
After spending many years collecting the episodes, photos and
memorabilia, he met someone who knew Paul Henning, the creator of
the show. His friend introduced Dave to Paul and his wife, Ruth
and over the years, they had become very close friends. Paul &
Ruth, in turn, introduced Dave to their daughter, Linda, who was
Betty Jo on "Petticoat Junction". A collector friend of Dave's,
who happened to be managing editor of a magazine called
"Television Chronicles", knew of his relationship with the
Hennings and asked him if he could interview Linda for an article.
To his surprise, she agreed...to his amazement the whole thing
snowballed and, through the Henning's help and his own
determination, Dave was able to interview all living members of
the cast plus many behind the scenes people. These interviews led
to a 39 page cover story in "Television Chronicles" in April 1996.
Since then, Dave has continued his research and has the support of
those connected to the show to put together a complete and
comprehensive history of "Petticoat Junction". He is now in the
process of looking for a publisher to support this book.
This web site is an outlet for Dave's love and knowledge about
Petticoat Junction. He has been a fan for so many years and loves
talking with other people who feel the same way about the show.
Please feel free to contact him!
