Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes is in jail when radio personality Marcia Jeffries interviews him and has him sing a song for her weekly radio program. He proves to be quite popular with his homespun humor and decidedly populist song lyrics. He soon has a radio show of his own that becomes so popular that he gets his own television show. Soon everyone wants a piece of him with ships and buildings being named after him. He rises to the occasion and comes to very much enjoy the attention and the power that he has. He begins to exercise that power and becomes arrogant and dismissive of those around him. He is eventually brought down in a very public way.—garykmcd