Grand Ole Opry OTR-4

About this film

The Grand Ole Opry started as the WSM Barn Dance in the new fifth-floor radio station studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company in downtown Nashville, Tennessee on November 28, 1925. On October 18, 1925, management began a program featuring "Dr. Humphrey Bate and his string quartet of old-time musicians." On November 2, WSM hired long-time announcer and program director George D. "Judge" Hay, an enterprising pioneer from the National Barn Dance program at WLS Radio in Chicago, who was also named the most popular radio announcer in America as a result of his radio work with both WLS in Chicago and WMC in Memphis. Hay launched the WSM Barn Dance with 77-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson on November 28, 1925, which is celebrated as the birth date of the Grand Ole Opry. Some of the bands regularly featured on the show during its early days included the Possum Hunters (with Dr. Humphrey Bate), the Fruit Jar Drinkers, the Crook Brothers, the Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, Uncle Dave Macon, Sid Harkreader, Deford Bailey, Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, and the Gully Jumpers. However, Judge Hay liked the Fruit Jar Drinkers and asked them to appear last on each show because…

Directors & creators

dont1961

Subjects

OTR;WSM;Roy Acuff;Red Foley;Webb Pierce;Faron Young;Carl Smith;George Jones;Johnny Cash;Minnie Pearl;Hank Snow;Hank Thompson;Marty Robins;Don Gibson;Grandpa Jones;Stringbean;June Carter;Jim Reeves;Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs;Red Sovine;Maybelle Carter;Carter Sisters

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