European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 25, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The Pride of Nashville by Joe Edwards associated press it has survived three the great de floods and it has weathered Rock v disco and new in this Era of the grand Ole opry is As Plain As a paper this Folksy hillbilly dressed up a bit through the is Ameri Cas Al time musical this year the opry celebrates its 60th an american institution As country As a rocking As appealing As Bacon and eggs frying on a Bright Spring its like a family reunion Allday singing and Din Ner on the says humorist Minnie who has spent 45 years on the show in her flowered Straw hat with dangling Price always bounding up to the microphone and exclaiming  in just so proud to be Here the opry Bills itself As the oldest continuous live radio in the Best of the tradition that holds that the show must go this for the first it is also being televised it has been staged hundreds of times More than a chorus which is the longest running Broadway play Ever almost it predates the rocket pcs in radio City music Hall by seven years and is 30 years older than the opry offers Little More than the simple music of guitars and fiddles and banjos and fancy step Ping Square dancers grabbing their partners to Dos Ido As they have for but rare is the aspiring coun try music Singer who Doest dream of standing Center stage at the grand Ole opry and declaring now id like to sing my latest about a million people a up to a capacity at each see the show in and Mil Lions in the United states and Canada hear the live radio broadcast on ism the newly added Tele vision on the Nashville network on Cable reaches million the opry has made such a contribution to the it used to be the country now its the says her vision of the opry legacy stretching far beyond her sentimental Grinders the string of broadcasts has been threatened through the in 1968 a curfew in Nashville in the aftermath of the assassination in Memphis of Martin Luther King made it illegal for anyone to be on the streets at so a taped broadcast was ten years the Cumberland River flooded the new opry but the show went on at the Down town municipal fans travel an average of Miles round trip for the they pay to for tickets for a show that typically features about 25 each performing from one to three we really liked the old timers like Hank Snow and Charlie says Bill Schlundt of a Semi retired executive for the Bendix after Page 14 Bill Monroe Center and his Blue grass boys Belt out a tune at Nashville grand Ole the stars and stripes seeing the opry for the first despite its Boondocks the opry is now presented in an million auditorium within a million Oryland it was moved from the old downtown Ryman which was too Stuffy and anti but even in the fancier the audience can still sit Back in carpeted pews and hear unadorned songs like Roy cuffs famous Wabash the show is not performers know what time there due on the Orange curtained stage and How Many songs to their own bands supplement the Oprysk 11member which uses charts if necessary to play tunes they dont a quartet of backup the Carol Lee also uses charts if theres no script except on the says people say what they think and do As they booze is and there is no the audience merely sits and clapping on signal from Well scrubbed opry the opry is a Temple of no Rowdy West Texas Elvis Presley was not invited Back after he demonstrated his trademark wiggle on the entertainers themselves Are As diverse As the far Flung John Conlee is a former Kentucky under Stu Phillips is an Episcopalian Porter Wagoner is a Rhineston speckled former grocery store clerk from Southern Charlie Walker was a disc jockey in and Boxcar Willie once operated a Bowling just Ordinary and the fans love the reason its stayed on is the the says the people on the opry have tried to make those people listening believe that they were singing and talking directly to people in or Tell me that they feel like the people on the opry Are talking to Calvin Coolige was president when the opry opened nov Ronald Reagan was 14 years old and playing football in the featured performer on the first opry show was an 80yearold fiddler named Uncle Jimmy who boasted that he could fiddle the haters off the the opry got its name by Accident when announcer George Hay introduced the show following a pro Gram of classical for the past hour we have been listening to music taken largely from grand Hay but from now on we will present the grand Ole in the As people stood in the bread lines of the Uncle Dave Macon was entertaining opry audiences with rippling Banjo numbers like buddy wont you Roll Down the y who had a Mouth full of Gold Teeth and a belly full of was the Oprysk first in the opry moved from a local auditorium to the fabled Ryman auditorium in downtown Nashville where the show was presented until originally a Tabernacle built by a former riverboat Captain for religious it had hard wooden pews and no air conditioning to fend off the Dixie Side walk vendors did Swift business Selling old funeral Par Lor Type cardboard hand fans to people in the lines waiting to get during the opry officials kept a nurse on duty to tend to the people who often a dozen or so each saturday today the Ryman is a Monument among rundown downtown dives a tourist attraction where people a year pay to walk through and stand on the a photo announcer George Hay with Uncle Jimmy same stage where Hank Marty Loretta Lynn and the rest once Hank who has been an opry regular since misses the although he acknowledges it was i dont feel the warmth now that i did at the old he i voice the thoughts of an awful lot of entertainers who say a lot of people come to the new opry House out of lets see what this is All the response is not when the new opry House some people thought the auditorium was rather Highfalutin for a show that once boasted of such colourful acts As the Possum Gully jumpers and Skillet to keep the Ryman tradition Oak flooring was trans a photo Minnie Pearl 45 years with the planted from the Ryman stage to the new the president Nixon was on hand March for the first opry show in the new facility in suburban a Homey style of Hail to the chief played by banjos and a steel guitar greeted his appearance in the sparkling new who resigned less than five months later in the watergate briefly played the piano and got a Yoyo lesson from the legendary Roy if nothing Nixon appearance on the opry stage was As Long As the Memphis Singer performed on the opry As a rising Star in september but feisty opry manager Jim Denny was not impressed with Presley Denny told the Young entertainer to return to Memphis and remain a truck with that in some opry critics say privately that the show has too Many has been performers and has not kept up with the More sophisticated sound of contemporary country in country superstars such As Willie Dolly Barbara Kenny Rogers and Alabama rarely appear on the opry officials re Spond by saying Treyve added contemporary recording artists like Ricky Ronnie Milsap and John con Lee in the past few at any in 60 years the opry has fathered the Nashville music Industry and raised some impressive offspring recording record Compa song publishing a Cable to network and Talent Nashville is known As the country music capital of the world and music City Usa primarily because the Industry followed the opry the Nashville area chamber of Commerce says its a billion a year says Snow the opry got momentum going in the 40s and 50s with All the great acts at that time red Ernest Tubb Hank Williams Ray Faron Webb All those people left a big left their Snow then the acts went to foreign countries and got them adjusted to country the momentum built and Snow believes the opry will continue As Long As they keep it the Way it has that was the philosophy of announcer credited with starting the known As the solemn of judge for reasons that have faded into per haps Best summed up the Oprysk popularity it sends Forth the Aroma of Bacon and eggs frying on the Kitchen stove on a Bright Spring the stars and stripes Page 15