Thursday, February 26, 2015

Grand Ole Opry House Added to National Register of Historic Places

The Grand Ole Opry House, home of the Opry since the venue opened in 1974, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. Regarded as the home of country music, the world famous venue was recognized because of its impact on popular culture and the entertainment industry. It is one of six sites in Tennessee recently added to the list. Dr. Carroll Van West, Director of the Center for Historic Preservation at MTSU and the Tennessee State Historian, prepared the nomination which was supported by the Tennessee State Historical Commission.

The Opry House opened on March 16, 1974 with a standing room only Opry performance attended by President and Mrs. Richard Nixon, among other VIP guests. The Opry's sixth home, the venue is also the only home built specifically for the Opry and the residence the Opry has called home the longest. The venue has welcomed countless Opry artists, concert performers from virtually every genre of music, U.S. Presidents, foreign dignitaries, award shows, television tapings, and numerous special events and distinguished guests in its 41-year history. It is the reigning Academy of Country Music Venue of the Year.

The distinction for the Opry's permanent home comes as the Opry itself readies for a nine-month celebration of its 90th anniversary, set to begin with a kick-off show Tuesday March 24. Throughout that evening's performance, the Opry will announce various elements of the celebration, including special shows scheduled through December. The Opry's 90th Birthday Bash Weekend is scheduled for October 2-3.

(Press Release from the Grand Ole Opry).

A great honor for the Opry House that often gets overlooked in favor of the Ryman Auditorium. The facilities and presentation at the Opry House help to make the Opry an amazing show to experience.

For those who do not have tickets yet for the 90th Birthday Bash Weekend, they are going very fast. Many people, including myself, expect a star-studded weekend of shows and certainly are looking for an improvement upon the effort of the last couple of years. I am concerned a bit that by making the celebration a nine month affair, and adding special shows,  that those shows could come at the expense of the birthday weekend. Time will tell, but I am glad that they are planning on doing this up right. Oh, as a reminder, October is also Garth Brook's 25th year as an Opry member. Something to keep in mind.

Again, congratulations to the Opry for this great honor.

11 comments:

  1. I'm shocked it hasn't been on the register of historical places earlier in the 41 years its been open.

    It's a much deserved honor, and this makes sure it continues on for many years to come (and, with much hope, forever). I'm surprised the Opry's facebook page didn't mention that (but it has already credited itself as a historical place & landmark).

    I assume you're going to be rescheduling your Nashville trip to the week of March 24 then. Maybe having to reschedule was a blessing in disguise.
    I wonder if the Opry is going to re-announce plans for their new theme park with Dolly Parton on that night's show.
    It's already been a year to remember for the Opry, and I'm glad to hear it will continue that way over the rest of the year. It's just a pity that Little Jimmy Dickens wasn't able to be a part of the 90th anniversary festivities.
    Kyle

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  2. Glad to see this taking place. I grew up listening to the Opry at the Ryman in the 60s, but my first trip to the Opry was the last Friday night of January, 1975 (anyone have the line-up for that night?) so to my mind, the Grand Ole Opry House IS the proper home of the Opry. While it's true that there is no place like the Ryman and it's great that the show is moved there for special occasions, I've never liked the fact that they leave the Opry House for 3 months in the winter.

    The revitalization of downtown Nashville is great, but it seems to have come at the expense of the Opryland/Briley Parkway area, even after you factor in the closing of Opryland Theme Park in 1997. Music Valley Drive was once a thriving tourist area, but it's a sad drive through there now. There was even an outlet store complex across the street from the Opryland Hotel, but now it's half-empty office space.

    Along with the general decline of the area, the Opry House itself is much under-utilized. It used to be home to the annual CMA awards, but that was moved (once again) downtown and has since become more of a rock concert than an industry event. The Opry House is also home to full television production facilities that are sitting largely idle since the demise of the Nashville Network and Opry Live (are you listening, RFD-TV?).

    I'll get off my soapbox now, as I have the feeling that on some of these points, I'm largely "preaching to the choir", but hopefully, this recognition will help bring back some much deserved attention to the Opry House and the surrounding area.

    ~Steve

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    1. Steve,

      If you've ever done the Opry backstage tour in recent years, they go to the TV studio section where shows like Hee Haw were filmed, and they say that these soundstages are now used for filming scenes for "Nashville," although they do admit that the studio audience portion hasn't been used in some time and is quite dusty.

      It would be really nice if Country's Family Reunion would use this soundstage at some point to film episodes. There are a lot of people who enjoy watching the show and would probably like to attend one of these tapings, so they could use the studio audience section for them to see this.
      Kyle

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  3. I wish RFD and the Opry could make a deal to air an hour of the Opry on Saturdays. It would be a start. I suppose they don't think the network is big enough or they want more money.

    A.B.

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  4. The majority of the Opry's members work on RFD TV already, and I think it's a tragedy that the Opry isn't airing on Television anywhere.

    RFD TV might not be huge in the eyes of Opry management, but they really should find a channel to air the show. By only having the Opry on radio really defeats the purpose of the show, which is why it has become a bit forgotten and not enough newer members choose to show up for it.
    Kyle

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  5. As far as the studio section of the Opry House, the final years of Hee Haw were filmed there. Originally Hee Haw was filmed at a television studio in downtown Nashville. Most of the Hee Haw filming was done twice a year, usually for two weeks at at time. After Hee Haw went off the air, they used it for various televison shows that aired on TNN including The Statler Brothers show and the game show, "Top Card" which I was lucky to be a contestant on Later, Mike Snider had a summer show that took place there, which lasted for a year. Mike's show was not filmed or televised, as it was just a live show and a chance to offer live music during the week in the Opry area. I also know that a few of the Christmas specials that aired on TNN were also filmed there. The only purpose that the Opry uses it now for is that there are a couple of dressing rooms back there that are used by a few of the bigger name Opry artists that do not want to use the normal dressing rooms as that area of the Opry House is not opened up to those backstage and gives those artists a bit more privacy. They also use it when they host private receptions such as when Jim Ed Brown had his 50th anniversary. The last time I peaked in it was basically empty.

    Let's not forget that the Opry is a radio show and not a television show. When they left GAC it was basically a money issue as the Opry wanted a certain price for the show that GAC was not willing to pay. There is nothing going on at all on the television front and to be honest, as much as many of us would like to see the Opry on RFD, the type of artists that the Opry would want to have on a television segment are not those that would appeal to the normal RFD viewer. When the Opry was on GAC, GAC was telling the Opry what artists they wanted on and helped to pick up the costs of many of those artists.

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  6. Fred, Bismarck:

    Good point (and sad truth) by Byron: that, if they had the Opry on TV again, we probably wouldn't want to watch. Or would watch with clenched teeth, as I did as early as its final days on TNN, the Katie Cook period. When they would cut away from the oldtimers most of us wanted to see -- when those oldtimers could even get scheduled on the TV portion --in favor of backstage palaver with one or another of the sex objects of the day.

    I can only imagine how bad it must have been on GAC, which coverage I don't think I ever saw. (Unless Katie was GAC; the old memory isn't what it used to be.)

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    1. Keith Bilbrey hosted the Opry on TNN, Katie Cook was on the GAC version.
      Kyle

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    2. Keith was on TNN, Katie was on CMT, and Nan Kelley was on GAC.

      A.B.

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  7. Keith Bilbrey was GREAT on Opry Live - never liked it after they fired him; couldn't stand that Nan, I actually turned down the sound when she "read the cue cards"

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  8. The Opry House is indeed deserving of this honor but to me the Ryman will always be the magic place and I only attend the show during the winter months just for that reason. One thing that does bother me somewhat is the fact that they sell booze at the Ryman. While I enjoy a sip of burbon or a bottle of beer occasionally, I do not believe that Captain Tom Ryman would approve of drinking in his church. Nevertheless, I hope they continue to host shows at the Ryman for years to come.

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