This year, the Grand Ole Opry has been celebrating its 100th birthday. The show helped cement Nashville’s Music City nickname, and propelled us into becoming the country music capital of the world. Here’s how it all started.
📻 A Radio Program Is Born
In 1925, National Life and Accident Insurance Company founded its own radio station with headquarters in a small downtown Nashville studio. “We Shield Millions,” or WSM, officially launched on Oct. 5, 1925. A month later, WSM hired George D. Hay, a prominent announcer known for his successful National Barn Dance program. Hay and Uncle Jimmy Thompson, a 77-year-old fiddle player, launched WSM Barn Dance on Nov. 28, which is considered the official day the Grand Ole Opry was born.
The program became known as the Grand Ole Opry in 1927, when Hay announced, following a classical music program, "For the past hour we have been listening to the music taken largely from the Grand Opera, but from now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.”
The Grand Old Opry featured folk music, fiddling, and country-western music. WSM recognized a growing nostalgia for the rural past, and required live performers to dress in period costumes and adopt old-timey names.
🚚 Time To Get Moving
The show became so popular that people would crowd the fifth-floor hallways within the National Life building at 7th and Union to watch the broadcasts. National Life built separate studios to accommodate the fans, but soon outgrew those, too.
From 1934-1936, the Opry moved to the Hillsboro Theater, which later became the Belcourt Theatre. Artists often performed twice in one night to accommodate audiences. Still searching for its perfect venue, the Opry moved into East Nashville’s Dixie Tabernacle in 1936, with a dirt floor, wooden plank benches, and roll-up canvas walls. In 1939, they upgraded to the War Memorial Auditorium, but rowdy fans wore out their welcome by 1943.
Ryman Auditorium’s general manager, Lula Clay Naff, brought the Opry to the Mother Church in June of that year, and the radio program would remain there until 1974. It still returns every winter.
The Grand Ole Opry House was the first venue built specifically for the program, opening in 1974 with 4,400 seats. President Richard Nixon, Hank Snow, Stonewall Jackson, Jeannie Seely, and many more performed at its opening ceremony. In 2010, the Opry briefly moved back to the War Memorial Auditorium following historic flooding that devastated the Opry House — but the wooden circle in the stage survived.
🎵 Famous Performances
Many famous performers have sung for the Opry over the years. In December 1945, Earl Scruggs made his debut with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, coining a new bluegrass sound. 25-year-old Hank Williams took the stage for the first time in 1949. Elvis Presley performed in 1954, where he was not well received by the country music audience. Johnny Cash was added to the cast in 1956, where he later met his wife, June Carter Cash. Dolly Parton first performed at the Opry when she was 10.
Modern performers include Reba McEntire, Randy Travis, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Brad Paisley, and many, many more.
After all these years, the Grand Ole Opry still feels like home for many country performers.
