After touring the Country Music Hall of Fame, we walked the three or four blocks over to the historic Ryman Auditorium. The Ryman was the original home of the Grand Ole Opry and much more. Here is a little Wikipedia information on the Ryman.
The auditorium opened as the
Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. Its construction was spearheaded by
Thomas Ryman (1843–1904), a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of
riverboats. Ryman conceived of the auditorium as a
tabernacle for the influential revivalist
Samuel Porter Jones.
[3] Ryman had attended one of Jones' 1885
tent revivals
with the intent to heckle, but was instead converted into a devout
Christian, and soon after pledged to build the tabernacle so the people
of Nashville could attend a large-scale revival indoors. It took seven
years to complete and cost
US$100,000 (equivalent to $2,633,704 in 2015).
[4]
However, Jones held his first revival at the site on May 25, 1890, with
only the building's foundation and six-foot walls standing.
[5] Architect
Hugh Cathcart Thompson designed the structure. Exceeding its construction budget, the tabernacle opened
US$20,000
(equivalent to $526,741 in 2015) in debt. Jones sought to name the
tabernacle in Ryman's honor, but Ryman denied the request several times.
When Ryman died in 1904, his memorial service was held at the
tabernacle. During the service, Jones proposed the building be renamed
Ryman Auditorium, which was met with the overwhelming approval of the
attendees.
[4] Jones died less than two years later, in 1906.
Though the building was designed to be a house of worship, a purpose
it continued to serve throughout most of its early existence, it was
often leased to promoters for non-religious events in an effort to pay
off its debts and remain open. In 1904,
Lula C. Naff,
a widow and mother who was working as a stenographer for the DeLong
Rice Lyceum Bureau, began to book and promote speaking engagements,
concerts,
boxing
matches, and other attractions at the Ryman. In 1914, her employer went
out of business, and Naff was free to spend more of her time booking
events. She eventually transitioned into a role as the Ryman's full-time
manager by 1920.
[6][7]
She preferred to go by the name "L.C. Naff" in an attempt to avoid
initial prejudices as a female executive in a male-dominated industry.
Naff gained a reputation for battling local censorship groups, who had
threatened to ban various performances deemed too risqué. In 1939, Naff
won a landmark lawsuit against the Nashville Board of Censors, which was
planning to arrest the star of the play
Tobacco Road due to its provocative nature. The court declared the law creating the censors invalid.
[5]
Naff's ability to book stage shows and world-renowned entertainers in
the city's largest indoor gathering place kept the Ryman at the
forefront of Nashville's conscience and enhanced the city's reputation
as a cultural center for the performing arts even as the building began
to age.
[7] W.C. Fields,
Will Rogers,
Charlie Chaplin,
Bob Hope,
Harry Houdini, and
John Philip Sousa (among others) performed at the venue over the years, earning the Ryman the nickname, "The
Carnegie Hall of the South".
[8] The Ryman hosted lectures by U.S. Presidents
Theodore Roosevelt and
William Howard Taft in 1907 and 1911, respectively. World famous opera singer
Enrico Caruso appeared in concert there in 1919. It also saw the inaugurations of three
governors of the state of Tennessee.
[5] The first event to sell out the Ryman was a lecture by
Helen Keller and
Anne Sullivan Macy in 1913.
[5] While being a trailblazer for working women, Naff also championed the cause of diversity.
[7] The building was used as a regular venue for the
Fisk Jubilee Singers from nearby
Fisk University, a
historically black college.
Jim Crow laws
often forced Ryman audiences to be segregated, while some shows were
designated for "White Audiences Only" and others for "Colored Audiences
Only", however, photographs show that Ryman audiences of the time were
often integrated.
[5] Naff retired in 1955 and died in 1960.
Since debuting in 1925, a local
country music radio program known as the
Grand Ole Opry had become a Nashville institution. Though not originally a stage show, the
Opry began to attract listeners from around the area who would come to the
WSM
studio to see it live. When crowds got too large for the studio, WSM
moved the show to various auditoriums around the city that could
accommodate the following. However, the
Opry was asked to leave both the
War Memorial Auditorium
and the Dixie Tabernacle due to its sometimes-uncivilized crowds, which
often resulted in upholstery damage. With its wooden pews and central
location, Naff and the other Ryman leaders thought the auditorium would
be a perfect venue for such an audience, and began renting the venue to
WSM for its shows.
[9] The
Grand Ole Opry
was first broadcast from the Ryman on June 5, 1943, and originated
there every week for nearly 31 years thereafter. Every show sold out,
and hundreds were often turned away.
[
In 1966, the company made minor upgrades to the Opry House, but soon thereafter began making plans to move the
Opry to a new location altogether. Despite the building's deteriorating condition, the lack of
air conditioning,
and the abundance of unsavory surroundings in its urban neighborhood,
the show's increasing popularity would often lead to crowds too large
for the venue.
[9]
The plans, announced in 1969, centered around a larger, custom-built
auditorium that would provide a more controlled and comfortable
atmosphere for audiences and performers alike, as well as better radio
and television production facilities. The company purchased a large
tract of land in a then-rural area a few miles away, where the new
Opry theater would serve as the anchor of a grand entertainment complex. The development became known as
Opryland USA, and came to include the Opryland theme park and, eventually, the
Opryland Hotel. The amusement park opened on May 27, 1972, and the new venue (also called the
Grand Ole Opry House) debuted on Saturday, March 16,
1974. The final
Opry
show at the Ryman occurred the night before, on Friday, March 15. The
final shows downtown were emotional. Sarah Cannon, performing as
Minnie Pearl, broke character and cried on stage.
[12] In an effort to maintain continuity with the
Opry's storied past, a large circle was cut from the floor of the Ryman stage and inlaid into the center of the new
Opry stage.
[13] The new venue also features pew seating, although (unlike the Ryman) they are cushioned.
There is more history to the Ryman but I am already over my usual limit for text in our posts. if interested, check out the rest of the Wikipedia post on your own.
As you can see, the Ryman is still very active with big name performers.
Here is where the history is written.
With the pew seating and stained glass windows, the church origins of the Ryman are obvious.
For a few bucks, you can get your photo on stage with a guitar.
The balcony was added years after the theater was built as was the stage. Views of the stage from the lower level last row aren't great.
Minnie Pearl's hat.
Minnie Pearl wore these shoes for every performance for over forty years.
I did like Marty Robbins.
Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl....the King and Queen of country music.
Next up is our first time Grand Ole Opry experience.
