Country Style USA with Eddy Arnold and Chet Atkins (1958) Rare Animated Army Commercial!

Country Style, USA is a series of 15-minute radio and film programs produced by the US Army as a recruiting aid from 1957 to 1960 featuring top American country music artists. Each year 13 episodes were produced in Nashville, Tennessee and distributed to local radio and TV stations. Among the hosts were Jody McCrea, Charlie Applewhite and others. Artists featured on the shows included Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, and Chet Atkins. The programs were produced by Owen Bradley and his brother Harold. They should not be confused with the 1950 DuMont TV series, Country Style. Richard Edward "Eddy" Arnold (May 15, 1918 -- May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a so-called Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the Billboard country music charts, second only to George Jones. With the rise of rock and roll in the 1950s, Arnold's record sales declined, though he and fellow RCA Victor recording artist Jim Reeves had a greater audience with popular-sounding string-laced arrangements. Arnold annoyed many people of the country music establishment by recording with the Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra at RCA's studios in New York. The pop-oriented arrangements of "The Cattle Call" and "The Richest Man (in the World)", however, helped to expand his appeal beyond its country music base. This style, pioneered by Reeves and Arnold, became known as the "Nashville Sound". Chester Burton "Chet" Atkins (June 20, 1924 -- June 30, 2001) was an American guitarist, occasional vocalist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well. Atkins' signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis. Other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul and later Jerry Reed. His trademark picking style and musicianship brought him admirers within and outside the country scene, both in the United States and internationally. Atkins produced records for The Browns, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings and many others. Among many honors, Atkins received 14 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum. 16mm film to digital transfer by Gerald Santana