Network Television’s First, Live, Country Music Show

From July 5, 1953 – September 13, 1953, the Dumont Network broadcast the ‘Old American Barn Dance’ live from 10:30 till 11 on Sunday nights. This was a summer replacement show done from Chicago.

In 1949, ABC had been the first with country music on television with the ‘ABC Barn Dance’, but that was shot on film in Chicago at the WLS radio show ‘National Barn Dance’. Now you wouldn’t necessarily think of Chicago as the home of country music, but truth be told…that was ground zero!

Before there was ‘The Grand Old Opry’, or even it’s predecessor, ‘The WSM Barn Dance’ in 1925, WLS in Chicago had ‘The National Barn Dance’ show which started in 1924. WLS, whose call letters stand for “World’s Largest Store” was owned by Sears and was a 50,000 watt, clear channel powerhouse that covered a good part of the midwest and eastern US. I used to listen to WLS every night here in Atlanta in the late ’60s.

WBAP in Dallas actually had the first live country show TV show in 1948, but their ‘Saturday Night Barn Dance’ was local and very popular.

In Nashville, WSM hired long-time announcer and program director George D. “Judge” Hay, from the ‘National Barn Dance’ program at WLS in Chicago, who was also named the most popular radio announcer in America. 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’.

On December 10, 1927 the phrase “Grand Ole Opry” was first uttered on-air.

That night ‘Barn Dance’ followed the NBC Red Network’s Music Appreciation Hour, a program of classical music and selections from Grand Opera presented by classical conductor Walter Damrosch. That night, Damrosch remarked that “there is no place in the classics for realism,”

In response, Opry presenter George Hay said: “Friends, the program which just came to a close was devoted to the classics. Doctor Damrosch told us that there is no place in the classics for realism. However, from here on out for the next three hours, we will present nothing but realism. It will be down to earth for the ‘earthy’.”

Hay then introduced DeFord Bailey, the man he had dubbed the “Harmonica Wizard”, saying:

“For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on, we will present the ‘Grand Ole Opry’.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNM_lVNNx5s&list=PLkcjBnooz6qktKtF-iEmBQJN5M_oJakQP&index=2

A Country Music show from 1953. Featuring in order; Bill Bailey, Kay Brewer, The Saddle Pals, Nancy Lee, Kenny Roberts, Homer & Jethro, Doc Hopkins, The Cand…

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