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Home , Grand Ole Opry, Hank Snow, Maybelle Carter, Minnie Pearl, Opryland USA

Saturday night at the brand new house where President The Grand Ole Opry ixon attended and even played at the grand opening; be- low , a 37-year veteran of Ain't Po' No MO' the Opry takes a last look from the stage of Ryman Audi- "The old may turned off the radio torium, where the and said final performance 'Where did all the old songs go?' was given Friday. —"What is Truth" by Copyright 2969 by HALM of Oath, 111c. Photos by Ken PeiL —The weahinstoa Post "Come and lay down by my side Till the early morning light. door had to pack its own picnic lunch. All I'rn asking i3 your time. But they got by, the song continued, by patching the cracks of their shack Help me make it through the with love. night." Winding up, Anderson leaned to- —"Hein Me Make I. Through the Night by Eris KrIstofferson, ward the microphone. "Everybody C.opyrIght 1970 by Combine Music Corp. here tonight is pa' folks," he told the

VIP audience. The crowd wabooed By Jeannette Smyth and applauded. NASHVIIIt Whisperin' Bill An- In Oshkosh B'Gosh Overalls or mink derson and his band, The Po' Boys, stoles, "pa" is a state of mind. stepped out on the stage for some pickin' and singin' Saturday night A down-home President Nixon was "He came here claiming he was a to arrive later on to play the piano, po' boy," Roy Acuff, the King of spin Acuff's trademark yo-yo, tell , told the crowd jam- some pretty good jokes. Meanwhile, ming the brand-new, red-swagged $15 four governors, including Alabama's million Grand Ole Opry House. "But , two senators, 13 con- I don't think so." gressmen, 's insurance mil- lionaires who own the Grand Ole Opry It's been a long time since either and its new $28-million Opryland Whisperin' Bill or most of the 4,400 , were among the in- opening night audience were poor vited guests opening night, along with folks. Country music is big business "virtually every known candidate for and, for many, good politics. governor of ," as one of the "There's a whole lot of people look- millionaires put it. ing down their noses at me," sang In the balcony sat the fans who'd Whisperin' Bill Anderson. He sang a brought tickets months ago: a denim song about poor folks living in a rich Mafia of freaky fans, blue-collar cou- folks' world, about being so poor ples in slacks on bus tours, knit-suit- when he grew up that the wolf at the ed young men and their bouffanted day. sates, people who work and vote and They like Lawrence Welk. buy $350 million worth of country They like to travel. They have visited records every year. Niagara Falls and Glacier National Park in Jasper, Canada, in their cam- Wallace and his wife, Cornelia (who ier trailer. They came to Opryland on sang with Roy Acuff in the late a bus tour from their home in Sheboy- ), held court in front row seats, gan, Wisc. he in a powder (blue knit suit and yel- About the President's Nashville visit, low shirt, she in lime green feathers. Leroy, who works in a paint-sprayer "I just love you to death, Governor factory, says, "I think he's trying to Wallace," one of the women with In- get back to the people. He's trying to stamatics said. "Can I kiss you?" get back something that's wrong, that the people think he's wrong. I still "I want to shake hands with the think he's wrong." next President of the ," Howard Thomas, a logger from a fat man said. Greensboro, Ga., declared he'd voted The ancient Crook Brothers, who Republican since 1942. "I've never started out with the Opry in 1925, are voted Democratic. The Democrats have warming up the audience. They dedi- never run anything but what we con- cate their harmonica-fiddle-piano-gui- sider white trash for President." tar instrumental "Amazing Grace" to "He's got more character than any- Wallace. body I've ever seen, said Betty Jo ebb, on the same bus tour as the See ()PRY, B2, Col. 1 Thomases. "Im just a little old Geor- gia girl but that's what I think. I think it's tacky to attack the President of the United States." The President is yo-yoing. The pretty young thing in the usher outfit says glowingly, "God, he's human isn't OPRY, From B/ het" Later, with President Nixon sitting In a box, stage left, the fat It is late Friday night, getting on to Jerry Glower, in a yellow suit, said Saturday morning, and the Grand Ole "Folks who used to make fun of me for Opry's last performance in the 84-year- being country — H0000000IEI — I old former tabernacle they've broad- maid. "It's sort of like home to the of cast from for 31 years is coming to a wish they could see me now." In a close. Tonight, the Grand Ole Gospel pointed joke, he added "Governor Time follows the Opry, making a four- (Wallace), if any trouble starts, I'm on hour marathon into a six or seven-hour one. your side." The American flag at stage right is Country music became a potent cul- spotlighted. The Oprty audience-3,000 tural force In America when radio be- people who visit the Coke stand in the gan in 1920. Radio has made a Mc- hack, or step outside the old fire trap Luhanesque global village of a widely for a cigarette when the Victorian scattered rural population which has pews begin to press the flesh too been listening to the Grand Ole Opry sternly—is a quiet one. Sometimes for three generations. they clap a little to the bluegrass Some 35 million people listen to rhythm. Sometimes they sing along softly. country music. Ninety per cent of it is They are recorded in Nashville, where four ma- tired; the average Opry fan drives 400 or 500 miles to Nashville jor and 18 independent recording stud- from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Texas. have the corner on the multi-mil- ios The Rev. Jimmy Snow is jumping. lion-dollar market. many of you would like to go The culture and values which coun- back to the simple things," he shouts. try music represents are broadcast at "Do you want to go back to the sim- Might over 12 "clear" radio channels to plicity of the gospel?" nearly 60 per cent of the United States Behind him on the stage are Johnny land area. WSM-radio, founded in 1925 Cash, Johnnys wife, , by Nashville's National Life and Acci- her mother, , scores of .41.41,ent ,.. Insurance Co., broadcasts on gospel singers including , channel 650 with a powerful 50,- "Pastor Jimmy's" father, glittering in a 400 watt beam. The station is seeking sequinned rose satin suit and toupee. 'permission from the Federal Commu- Johnny Cash is scratching his chin. • nications Commission to quadruple Pastor Jimmy asks the audience to that wattage. stand up for Jesus and for America. Some do. "Say it with me out loud, and • Leroy and Ethel DeStnith vote the mean it," says Pastor Jimmy. "Be sin- Democratic ticket, and they would cere. 'Jesus, I am a sinner.' Let me have voted for McGovern in the last hear you say it. I cannot say it myself. election if something hadn't prevented 'I stand in your presence to come into them from getting to the polls that your heart.' " The crowd murmurs. "Can I hear you say it nice and loud?' tion that the Ryman was ending as it says Pastor Jimmy softly. "I love you, began—with evangelism. It was built. Jesus." starting in 1889, by a formerly wicked The evening had started at 7 p.m. Cumberland River boat captain named Friday with the Grand Ole Opry stars Tom Ryman, who had been converted singin' and pickin', with breaks in the by a Georgia preachers tent-meeting entertainment for veteran announcer sermon on motherhood and wanted to Grant Turner to read advertisements build the evangelist a tabernacle. for Odom Sausage, Kroger Stores, A "Confederate Balcony" was added Schlitz and Beechnut Chewing To- In 1897 for a confederate soldiers reun- bacco, the sponsors who buy each half- ion. A stage was built over the pulpit hour of time. Some stars have been at the turn of the century, a stage on sponsored by the same company for so which the touring Nijinsky, Caruso, many years they put the name on their Billy Sunday, Carrie Nation, Tyrone stationery — "Very sincerely, Lester Power, Doris Day and Alma Gluck ap- Flatt, Sponsored by peared over the years. After four Foods Inc." moves in 14 years to accommodate an Hundreds of fans were turned away ever-burgeoning audience, the Grand and some stood in the rain outside Ole Opry moved to the Ryman Audito- leaning through the old Gothic win- rium in 1943. When WSM bought the dows to see the show. Ryman in 1963, they changed its name Herbert Hinkle, a dour Mothofce- to the Grand Ole Opry House. nica, W. Va., livestocu farmer, drove 12 It is listed in the National Register hours to visit the Opry for the first of Historic Places, but WSM president time. Hinkle, toting his portable tape Irving Waugh caused a minor furor recorder, more a crisp brown and when he said they'd raze the Ryman cream Western jacket, his wife a mink- and use its hand-made bricks and collared suede coat and a pantsuit. funky pews to build the "Little Church They had sent for their tickets a of Opryland," a nondenominational month ago. chapel, at their $26 million homespun Richard Collier, a Nashville archi- amusement park, Opryland U.S.A., tect who wore a bow tie, had been in- where the new Opry house opened Sat- urday night. National Life and Accident Insur- ance Co. hired New York stage de- signer Jo Mielziner who, not surpris- ingly, decided the Ryman was not vited to the Opry for the first time by worth saving, while company officials friends from WSM. "I love country maintained it would cost $3 million to music," he said, but he hadn't set foot renovate. WSM president Irving in the Ryman since his graduation cer- Waugh said no decision as to the Ry- emonies in 1936 from Hume Fogg High man's fate will be made before May. School. "Frankly, I'm scared to death of it," he said. In his book, "The Country Music Story," Robert Shelton accounts for Desmond Boutwell, who resembles the widening appeal of country music. Harry Truman in a Stetson, said he'd Trade groups such as the Country Mu- driven 12 hours from Jay, Fla., where sic Association, formed in 1956, line up he'd just struck oil. "I been coming commercial sponsors for increased ra- here for years," he said. "I used to dio and television programming; the drive school bus loads of kids from Jay Tin Pan Alley song writers are writing up here for the weekend. songs for teeny-boppers with a result- "I started listening to the Grand Ole ing decline In the appeal of lyrics and Opry when I was a kid." He likes Hank melodies for grown-ups; the migration Locklin best of the stars. "I guess I of rural Southerners to urban World would have to say he was one of my War II defense plants brought country home boys. Hank Snow sings at the old music to the city; and, finally, city peo- "We'll miss this place," Boutwell Grand Ole Opry, ple fed up with urban life are turning said "It's sort of like home• to those of to country music. us who enjoy country music. Further, rock musicians with wide Opryland? Well, its just going to be appeal to the young audience have in- new. I'm going to have to get used to troduced it to the country sound. Bob it. It'll be nice, and fine, but everybody Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" album was is going to have to get used to it. the first reek record to be recorded in "The performance tonight is just Nashville. about the same thing It's always been," Dylan then went "country"—more Boutwell continued. "They got a few 1Nrical—producing his "John Wesley new girls starting out. The way every- Harding" and "" al- body talked, we figured there would be bums. He did more to countrify rock a little crying and carrying on. But it than other artts, but Nashville's hot doesn't look like there will be." young record producer of the moment, It had not escaped anybody's atten- Columbies Billy Sherrill, says Dylan had no effect on his life at all. He's never been to the Grand Ole Opry, ei- 111111111.2a...v. George Washington takes the oath of office. Billy Sherrill, Nashville's hottest young record producer, in his office. Ninety per cent of country music is recorded in Nashville.

months I carried you, No Charge," fol- lowed by a list of motherly work like ther. wiping noses and walking the floor at As ' vice president night. for artists and repertoire in Nashville, "Its the only music today that's Sherrill is responsible for such coun- right down to the American way of try hits as "Behind Closed Doors," life," says Roy Acuff.- "It's for fami- "The Most Beautiful Girl in the lies.' World" and "Stand By Your Man," "You can really get into the lyrics, which he wrote with . says Sherrill. "I think it's adult mu- The other day he played Tammy Wy- sic." He credits Kris Kristofferson nette's newest single for a visitor, with causing a breakthrough to called "No Charge" by Tina and franker, better lyrics with his 19713 hit, "Help Me Make It Through the Night." "That loosened up the good writers around town," Sherrill says. "You can Mommy. Tina is Miss Wynette's 8-year- say things now you couldn't before." old daughter, and the song has the He cites as an example Miss Wynette's child presenting a $14.75 bill to her last hit, in which she says the ward mother for services rendered—going "damn." "I thought the way we did it to the store, making herbed. Miss Wy- was very tasty," Sherrill says. "She nette, a millionaire, sings that she's didn't like it. She cried all night." standing in the kitchen, "Fixin' sup- What about the oldtimers like Roy per," wipes her hands on her apron, Acuff and who have oh- and tells the child that "for the nine Alabama Gov. George Wallace and his wife, Cornelia, held court Saturday night from their front-row seats.

looks at the cracking green plaster and jected over the years to amplified mu- the cramped stage. "Most of my memo- sic, drums and now sex in country ries of the are of music? "They don't sell any records," misery, sweating out here on this Sherrill grins. stage, the audience suffering too. But Performers and producers alike feel at Opryland. people are being treated respectably." that country music has been discrimi- People who think the new Opry nated against from a money-making House is too slick are "foolish," he point of view. says. "It's first class, and nothing is too "The only thing that really galls good for country music, We've been me," says Sherrill, "is the old cowboy shackled all of my career," says the 37- boots and hay image country music year Opry veteran. He found the tiny, has had. Because we live under this shabby dressing rooms stigma, they say, 'Aw, that's country.' so cramped he bought a building 11 may be selling 8 million records, but across the alley so he could have a big- it's a country song." ger one. Then too, the Opry performers have Acuff, like most of the 82 regular been looked down upon by Nashville Grand Ole Opry performers, feels no society, which likes to emphasize the sorrow in leaving the funky old Ryman highbrow culture of the place by call- for the luxurious new Opry House 10 ing it the "Athens of the South," a ref- miles out of town. erence to the many colleges there, from Pat Boone's alma mater, David "It irritates me to think that no Lipscomb College, to Fisk and Vander- other musicians would put up with this bilt Universities. place," Acuff says, waving his hand at Our people in Nashville don't want the Ryman's Confederate Gallery, to come down here," Acuff says. "They where football sized slabs of gilt have thought the Ryman was a good place fallen away to reveal the lathing. He for country music. A slum." So there is a kind of Okie-from-Mus- kogee militancy among the perform- ers, which appeals to all those fans who in turn attract politicians looking to score points with the heartland constituency. Acuff himself ran for governor in 1948 on the Republican ticket. "I'm proud to be a ," says Acuff. "All of my people ahead of me were . I've been taught right —to respect people." With those sentiments enjoying some vogue, Acuff and the opry moved "uptown"—to the suburbs—Sat- urday night, to the compliments of people, some of- whom used to call them hillbillies. President Nixon's visit, says Acuff, "is the greatest com- pliment that's ever been paid to coun- try music." With its pink-flowered oil-cloth bar, Tootsie's Orchid Lounge is the Sardi's of Nashville. Opry stars used to step

across the alley from the old Ryman for a break in the four-hour broadcast for a beer and adulation. They attract groupies, bus tours, musicians eithet hopeful or has-been, winos, songwri. ters, and an apologetic black man who for $2 will take a Polaroid of you with —oh say, second string Opry star. , in his green suit and pink rut fled shirt and diamond ring. It was raining last Friday night, but the alley behind the Ryman was full of people. Roy Acuff drove through in his t olive Mercedes Benz. A man named Billy Wilhelm, middle-aged, mous. Wled, accompanied by his wife, was handing out copies of a 45-RPM record of his to anybody who looked influen- tial. "They say it takes five years in Nashville to get heard and seen," says Billy Wilhelm. "I've lived my five years ..." Johnny Cash performs at the closing set on Friday night. SCENE

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Part of Saturday night's audience at the new, $15•million house were formally attired, in

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Photos by Ken Fell—The Washington Post contrast to the regular crowd which showed up the night before to bid farewell to Ryman's.