According to his manager,
Tillman B. Franks, the reason Johnny
wanted to get back to Shreveport as soon as possible after the November
4 show at the Skyline Club was that Saturday, November 5, was the
opening of duck season in Louisiana. Johnny wanted to be up early that
morning.
Claude King (famous for recording "Wolverton
Mountain") and his brother Perry had set up camp at a place called
Hall's Brake, near Ajax, LA, on Friday evening and were awaiting
Johnny's arrival to go duck hunting with them. Franks also disputes the
story that Johnny was scheduled to meet with
Ward Bond, the star
of
Carovane verso il west (1957), on the afternoon of November 5 to discuss
an appearance on the TV series, calling it "hype". As it turned out,
Bond himself died that afternoon of a heart attack after attending a
football game.