Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City

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Edwin Wilson Craig, insurance executive and newly minted broadcaster, in 1925. (Les Leverett Collection ) George D. Hay, the “Solemn Old Judge,” was WSM’s first anchoring personality and program director. The Grand Ole Opry was his invention, but it had Edwin Craig’s blessing. (Les Leverett Collection) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 1 7/17/07 10:29:52 AM The National Life and Accident Insurance Company headquarters, circa 1945. WSM occupied the building’s fifth floor from 1925–66. Studio C was added when the eleven-story addition to the right was built in 1934. (Les Leverett Collection) Jack DeWitt as chief engineer of WSM in about 1936. (Grand Ole Opry Archives) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 2 7/17/07 10:29:54 AM WSM’s Studio A in its earliest years. The drapes on the walls were thought to provide good acoustics. (National Archives) Deford Bailey was the only African American to emerge as a star from WSM’s cast of artists, and the only Grand Ole Opry artist who did not dress in hillbilly costumes. (Les Leverett Collection ) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 3 7/17/07 10:29:57 AM Band leader Francis Craig played WSM’s opening night and was still there two decades later when his record “Near You” became Nashville’s first million-seller. Band “mascot” Pee Wee Marquette went on to become emcee at Birdland in New York. (Les Leverett Collection) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 4 7/17/07 10:29:59 AM WSM’s tower was the tallest in North America when it was built in 1932. Though the transmitting equipment that feeds it has changed many times since then, the tower is still used by WSM today. (Craig Family Collection) Opposite: By the mid-1930s, WSM had assembled a top-flight announcing staff. From right: Harry Stone, Ott Devine, Jack Harris, David Stone, Tom Stewart, and David Cobb, who would coin the term “Music City USA” for Nashville in 1950. (Grand Ole Opry Archives) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 5 7/17/07 10:30:00 AM Harry Stone, far right, with Jack Harris, Jack DeWitt and Aaron Shelton (squatting) during a broadcast from onboard the Pan American passenger train. (Grand Ole Opry Archives) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 6 7/17/07 10:30:02 AM The daily broadcast of the Pan American passenger train, depicted in this postcard, became one of WSM’s most popular features during the 1930s. (Grand Ole Opry Archives) Opposite: Longtime WSM newsman Jud Collins on one of his first assignments— covering war games in Tennessee during the early years of World War II. (Grand Ole Opry Archives) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 7 7/17/07 10:30:03 AM Minnie Pearl and Pee Wee King (with accordion ) perform as part of a special Prince Albert Grand Ole Opry broadcast from the pleasure boat Idlewild in June 1946. The onlocation show was part of a weekend junket for national magazine writers and editors. (Grand Ole Opry Archives) Jack Stapp, WSM’s ambitious program director during the 1940s and 1950s, with Harry Stone, longtime general manager. (Grand Ole Opry Archives) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 8 7/17/07 10:30:04 AM Snooky Lanson and Dinah Shore,two of the biggest vocal stars to come out of WSM, singing together with Beasley Smith conducting.(Grand Ole Opry Archives) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 9 7/17/07 10:30:06 AM Grant Turner spun records in Texas before becoming WSM’s greatest Grand Ole Opry announcer and a favorite country DJ. He started on D-Day and died after an Opry broadcast in 1991. (Les Leverett Collection) Jim Denny working the room at a 1950s DJ convention, about the time he was named Billboard magazine’s “Country & Western Man of the Year.” (Grand Ole Opry Archives) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 10 7/17/07 10:30:08 AM Owen Bradley at the keyboard backing up singer Buddy Hall in the 1950s, not long before Bradley would leave WSM to start his own studio. (Grand Ole Opry Archives) Sunday Down South, here being produced in Studio C,was typical of the many ambitious live programs produced and syndicated by WSM.(Grand Ole Opry Archives) PHOTOS_Havi.indd 11 7/17/07 10...