“Small Town, Big Deal”, is a travel show that captures the best stories from villages and hamlets across this land and syndicates them via national broadcasts and a cable TV show. And just one such story is what brought my long-time friend, creator and co-host of the show, Rodney Miller, to town. He and I share a passion of looking for good “travel” stories, but, just this once, the story travelled to me, instead of me going to find it.
DeMoulin Museum calling
A recent call came from DeMoulin Museum founder and curator, John Goldsmith, inviting me to attend the filming of an episode for a travel show and asking if would I like to be an observer of this process. I’m up for new experiences, but unbeknownst to John, I happen to have been friends with Miller, the show’s creator, for about a quarter of a century. I hadn’t seen him in a decade, so I eagerly jumped on board. The last time we had visited at much length, he had an idea for a TV show and was looking for money. Apparently, he found some because the show first aired in 2012 and has run continuously since.
The fact that they found DeMoulin’s is due in part to the efforts of Goldsmith, his board and staff of volunteers who have hosted over 11,000 visitors for over 30 states during the past decade, and Michael Turley, local owner of The Milk House and Rolling Lawns Dairy and also a long-time acquaintance of Miller’s.
John’s mother worked a career at DeMoulin Bros. & Co., as they evolved from making lodge memorabilia and caps and gowns, into one of the leading makers of band uniforms in the world. Founded by the DeMoulin family and guided for many years by the three DeMoulin brothers and, later, succeeding generations of the family, until ownership outside the family took over in recent decades; the company has long been a staple in the Greenville community.
Goldsmith’s mother had saved so many items from being “tossed” during her tenure there, that she encouraged her son to write a book on DeMoulin’s history and open a museum, both of which have happened; the latter in March of 2010. The museum hours are on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from June through August and Saturday only from September through May. Check their Facebook site for exact hours.
Today, besides numerous band uniforms, the museum is also home to lodge initiation devices, including: the Museum’s mascot goat, Wink-A-Dink; a Paddle Machine; and the Lifting and Spanking Machine. You will not escape the Museum without receiving an electric charge, getting a face full of powder or water when it is least expected, or simply riding a goat. Just ask Rodney or Jann.
Co-hosts have small town roots
Miller is a Benton, IL farm boy, whose brother farms the family farm and a total of about 3,000 acres. He took his farm background to Rend Lake College for an ag-business degree and over a couple of decades became known as an expert in establishing dealerships to sell imported tractors like Mahindra, Montana and McCormick. Serving as CEO of the latter two.
Jann Carl, from the slightly larger town of Carthage, MO, got her media degree from the University of Missouri, and began a two-decade trek from entry level media jobs to reporting and week-end anchoring in the Los Angeles market, before ending up as the weekend anchor of ‘Entertainment Tonight’ for 14 years.
If it seems the two were worlds apart as they reached the “top” of their respective fields of endeavor, it would be true. Almost simultaneously, they both hit a point in life where they sensed they were ready for a major change and were seeking to do something meaningful in their remaining working years and have decided that “Small Town, Big Deal” is the answer.
“Small Town, Big Deal” launches
Miller launched “Small Town, Big Deal” on the RFD-TV cable network in September of 2012 and actually hosted the first 13 episodes by himself.
Along the way, Carl had seen his show and contacted him expressing a desire to participate in the kind of a show that dwelled on the “good things” that happen in the small towns across the country. A match was made and Carl has been “dubbed” into those early shows and they are part of the approximately 200 shows that are available on the Internet and 232 channels covering over 80% of the US each week. Nine Missouri and eight Illinois stations carry the show, including KTVI/KPLR in St. Louis. Some of the times are not prime time, for example the St. Louis shows are typically at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Although the two share on-screen time and ownership of the company, they split some of the other duties. Miller handles most of the “business” side of things, while Carl enjoys doing the research that must occur before an episode even gets on the schedule.
Usually the show travels with two or three support personnel besides the co-hosts and they started out their recent trip with that many but lost two to health issues by the time they reached Greenville. The lone camera man handled the filming of the DeMoulin episode with aplomb.
During the shooting, invited guests could alternately watch the filming and visit with the co-hosts, who, in parting, encouraged folks to send them ideas for future shows from anywhere in the country.
By joining the Goat Rider’s Club you can help support the Museum, which is not operated by the DeMoulin factory.
