From Southwest Ledger
During the dark days of the Great Depression, one essential piece of technology was the radio. After long hours of trying to put food on the table, families gathered around the radio to listen to news, FDR’s Fireside Chats, radio programs and most importantly, music. With the depression, buying records was difficult but radio was free.
Weekends were especially important time in the South. Sundays meant going to church, but on Saturday nights, Southerners worshiped at the “mother church” where a 50,000-watt radio broadcast played the most popular program of the day: The Grand Ole Opry.
This radio program that turns 100 years old this week did more than anything else to create country music.
In the 1920s, the most popular radio station, WLS in Chicago, had a strong enough signal to reach most of the U.S. One of their most popular programs was the National Barn Dance which played old time music, gospel, and what record labels called ‘hillbilly’ music.
However, in 1925, National Life & Accident Insurance Company, wanting to promote their business, purchased WSM in Nashville. To rival the National Barn Dance, on Nov. 28, 1925,WSM Barn Dance was launched. The program was an instant hit with gospel music, hillbilly music, and comedy. Three years later, the announcer began the show with, “For the past hour, we have been listening to music largely from Grand Opera, but from now on, we will present ‘The Grand Ole Opry.’” The name stuck and became a national phenomenon that shaped the development of country music, elevated rural Southern culture onto a national stage, and helped redefine American entertainment in the 20th century.
The show’s first performer was fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson, but it quickly grew to include country acts like Bill Monroe and the Delmore Brothers. Other groups changed their names and dressed up like hillbillies to become regulars on the show like the Possum Hunters, the Fruit Jar Drinkers with Uncle Dave Macon, the Crook Brothers, the Binkley Brothers’ Dixie Clodhoppers.
DeFord Bailey was an important addition to the Opry, not only for his musical talent, but as the first and only Black performer for many years. The Opry also added a college-educated actress who dressed up like a sophisticated mountain girl and told jokes about her made up hometown. Her parents named her Sarah Colley, but the world came to know her as Minnie Pearl.
Probably the important addition to the early days of the Opry was Roy Acuff, who became the face of the program. Most of country music at the time could be classified as Southern music or mountain music, but in the 1930s, two acts from Oklahoma changed that when they brought Western music to the stage and changed country music forever.
One of those acts that joined the Opry was Bob Wills, while the other, Gene Autry never did. While Wills is from Texas, he and his Texas Playboys gained popularity at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa. Autry, too, was born in Texas, but as a boy moved to Ravia, in Johnston County, Oklahoma. He later bought a ranch in Berwyn, Oklahoma. That town later changed its name to Gene Autry.
As the 1940s brought more change to the Opry, it was picked up by the Armed Services Radio during World War II and introduced country music to a much larger audience. With its growing fame, the Opry was forced to change venues several times to accommodate crowds. In 1943, it finally settled in the “Mother Church of Country Music,” Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
My greatest personal connection to the Opry was in 1992 when my high school choir traveled to Nashville and we were allowed to sing on the Ryman stage. It was one of the coolest days in my life.
In the 1940s, as the honkytonk sound swept through country music, the Opry added famous names like Ernest Tubb and the Hillbilly Shakespeare Hank Williams, possibly the most important country singer of all time with songs like “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, “Hey, Good Lookin’”, and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”
A couple of Okies were also invited to join the Opry in the ’40s. Jimmy Wakely was a singing cowboy who joined in 1945 and had a No. 1 song of 1949 with “Slippin’ Around.” The Willis Brothers become a regular band on the Opry stage after the war and often traveled as the backup band for Hank Williams.
The Opry took a popularity hit in the 1950s and ’60s as rock-n-roll, Motown and folk music drew away many fans. Elvis did play on the Opry stage, but did not impress the traditionally country crowd at first. However, even with their numbers down, being invited to play and possibly join the Grand Ole Opry was still the greatest achievement for any country artist. While Opry numbers may have slipped, country music still produced some its biggest stars who joined the Opry like Hank Snow, Lefty Frizzell, and the man who rivals Williams in importance to the music scene, Johnny Cash.
In these decades, more women began to hit the Opry stage including Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and Connie Smith. Also included in that list are two Oklahoma women. Jean Shepard who was one of country music’s first big female stars with songs like “A Satisfied Mind”, “I Thought of You”, and “Beautiful Lies,” and Norma Jean Beasler. Though not as big as Shepard, Beasler’s song “The Game of Triangles” did reach No. 5. In some ways, her biggest contribution to country music was leaving The Porter Wagoner Show, which opened a spot for a young girl from east Tennessee. That girl, Dolly Parton, was also invited to join the Opry in the 1960s.
By the late ’60s and early ’70s, America was very divided over cultures. Country music played a unifier as popular acts like Johnny Cash appealed to both sides. After a stint of being expelled from the Opry, Cash was welcomed back in 1968 to help keep its popularity.
In 1974, the Opry left the Ryman Auditorium for the much larger Opry House. The bigger venue allowed it to set record attendance. New members also helped draw larger crowds, with singers like Don Williams and Barbara Mandrell. The only Okie that decade was Jan Howard, whose biggest hit was a duet with Bill Anderson called “For Loving You” in 1967.
By the 1980s, with competition from television and other radio programs, the Grand Ole Opry was not as popular as it once was in its heyday. But that did not diminish the Opry’s importance as a being asked to join still ranked as the highlight of musicians’ careers.
However, the ’80s were a great decade for country music, and Oklahoma as a string of major artists being asked to join the Opry. B. J. Thomas and Mel McDaniel may not be household names today, but anyone who likes country music knows their songs “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” and “Louisiana Saturday Night,” respectively. Other names invited in the ’80s, ’90s, and beyond need no introduction: Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Joe Diffie, Trisha Yearwood, Carrie Underwood, and finally Blake Shelton.
What began as a simple radio broadcast in 1925 soon grew into a cornerstone of American cultural identity. It became the leading stage for country music—and, in many ways, its guardian. From the beginning, it also highlighted artists with Oklahoma ties, including Bob Wills and his pioneering Western Swing sound, which opened the door for others to follow. That helped Oklahoma leave its lasting mark on country music and, even more importantly, on the Opry itself.
James Finck is a professor of American history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
Historically Speaking 