The Grand Ole Opry Page 13

  It wasn’t long before the Nashville music business realized that rock ’n’ roll hadn’t killed country music. In fact, rock ’n’ roll had opened up pop airplay to such an extent that a country record could get played if it didn’t sound too country. In Hank Williams’s day, his songs had to be “covered” by pop artists if they were to get on the pop charts. It wasn’t long before artists such as Jim Reeves, who’d been an Opry member since 1955, and Patsy Cline stripped away their Southern accents along with hard country instruments like the steel guitar and fiddle. In came faultless diction, the piano, vibraphone, electric guitar, chorus, and strings. Just as WSM announcer David Cobb stumbled upon the phrase “Music City U.S.A.” to describe the industry moving to Nashville, so local magazine owner Char-lie Lamb coined the phrase “Nashville Sound” to describe the changes that were overtaking country music.

  BILL ANDERSON:

  Country music came back, but it didn’t come back as “Wreck on the Highway” or “In the Jailhouse Now.” It came back as “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”

  With several Nashville Sound pioneers in the cast, D. Kilpatrick decided to make another play for prime-time television. In April 1957, he.helped write a proposal to ABC-TV. The Opry had been on ABC-TV briefly in 1955–56, but, with the advent of the Nashville Sound, Kilpatrick believed that it was time to try again.

  Jim Reeves

  WSM proposal to ABC:

  The dividing lines between categories, eg. Pop, country, rock-and-roll, are vanishing. April 1957 is the month and the year of the “new formula” for hit songs. It is a formula composed of one part country, one part rock-and-roll, and one part pop. It is a formula whose mainstay is the country musician whose trademark is the small instrumental combination, and whose success is so certain that every recording studio in Nashville has been working night and day with recording stars and A&R men moving into the city from both coasts. Patsy Cline’s “Walking after Midnight” sold 400,000 records in 14 days! And she is a country artist. The mastery of this new formula is precisely the trump card which has shot many Grand Ole Opry stars into even greater prominence.

  ABC-TV didn’t go for the Opry’s pitch, but the Opry’s attendance slowly increased as country music itself rebounded. And Kilpatrick had made his point: the Nashville Sound was okay; rock ’n’ roll was not.

  Journalist BILL MAPLES, “Country Music Goes Country” in the Tennessean, May 18, 1958:

  The Grand Ole Opry may be one of the most persuasive forces in the revival of country music. In the first place, rock ’n’ roll is not allowed there. Some time ago, the Wilburn Brothers came on-stage in tuxes and sang one of their latest releases. “Ooh Bop Shee Boom.” After the performance, which was admittedly as good as rock ’n’ roll gets, D. Kilpatrick told the boys not to sing that particular song on the Opry again. Later, he explained to me why he’d taken this stand. “I can show you a huge file of critical letters we’ve received after doing such songs on the Opry,” he said. “WSM has operated very successfully with country music for 33 years. We figure that if we stay with country music, we’ll be here another 33 years. Besides, when the crowd gets to the Ryman on Saturday night expecting to hear country music and it hears rock ’n’ roll instead it’s like a bunch of fans going to Sulphur Dell expecting to see a baseball game and finding a mumble-peg match instead.”

  The Nashville Banner, November 10, 1958:

  Because the Grand Ole Opry lives:

  Nashville is Music City USA, trailing only Hollywood and New York in providing music for the world. (2) The community has some 3,000 or more residents who can trace their livelihood to the music industry. (3) Approximately $5,000,000 in fast-circulating tourist dollars come into this community every year with the 250,000 visitors attending the Opry.

  GRANDOLEOPRY

  NEW MEMBERS: 1960s

  BILL ANDERSON

  ERNIE ASHWORTH

  BOBBY BARE

  THE BROWNS

  PATSY CLINE

  JIMMIE DRIFTWOOD

  THE FOUR GUYS

  THE GLASER BROTHERS

  JACK GREENE

  GEORGE HAMILTON IV

  SONNY JAMES

  JIMAND JESSE

  HANK LOCKLIN

  BOBBY LORD

  BOB LUMAN

  LORETTA LYNN

  WILLIE NELSON

  NORMA JEAN

  THE OSBORNE BROTHERS

  DOLLY PARTON

  STU PHILLIPS

  RAY PILLOW

  DEL REEVES

  TEX RITTER

  JEANNIE SEELY

  CONNIE SMITH

  LEROY VAN DYKE

  BILLY WALKER

  CHARLIE WALKER

  DOTTIE WEST

  MARION WORTH

  10

  “A FRIEND OF A FRIEND OF MINE IS A FRIEND OF OTT DEVINE”

  In 1959, D. Kilpatrick left the Opry to join Acuff-Rose. His replacement, Ottis “Ott” Devine, had been with WSM since 1935. In 1957, Devine had replaced Jack Stapp as WSM program director before taking over the Opry as well. The dust had settled. The Grand Ole Opry might not have been the force within the industry that it once was, but it was still the dream of everyone who sang country music. Ott Devine lowered the Saturday night commitment required for Opry membership, but held fast to that commitment. He managed the show for nine years, signing several artists who would become Opry mainstays, including Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Bill Anderson, Jan Howard, Bobby Bare, Willie Nelson, Jim and Jesse, Connie Smith, Dottie West, and Jack Greene.

  The Opry’s cautious approach to change was never more apparent than in its attitude toward women. There had been women on the Opry from the very first night when Eva Thompson accompanied Uncle Jimmy Thompson, but the Opry’s first female singing star was Kitty Wells. Kitty sang her finger-pointing hit, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” in a very unthreatening way, and her below-the-knee gingham gowns remained her trademark. She was a reluctant star, and her husband, Johnnie Wright of Johnnie & Jack, managed her career and pushed her into the spotlight.

  Kitty Wells made her living in a business overwhelmingly dominated by men . . .

  . . . while projecting an image of domesticity.

  Kitty Wells: 1952

  KITTY WELLS:

  Roy Acuff once informed Johnnie that a woman should not be starred in a country act because they couldn’t carry the show. Johnnie told Roy, “Well, we’re just gonna try it.”

  Jean Shepard joined the Opry in 1955, and stayed. Aside from Kitty Wells and Minnie Pearl, the only other female solo act in the cast at the time was pianist Del Wood. Others came but didn’t stay. Rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson made just one appearance, and Rose Maddox stayed only a few months. Like Jean Shepard, they’d launched their careers in western dance halls, but unlike her, they found the Opry to be a hard adjustment.

  WANDA JACKSON:

  I was just getting ready to go on in one of my new sexy little white and red fringe outfits, and Ernest Tubb said, “Are you Wanda Jackson? You’re on next, hun.” I said, “Okay, I’m ready.” He said, “Well, you can’t go on the stage at the Opry like that. You can’t show your shoulders!” So I went back and I happened to have a pretty decent white leather fringe jacket that I put on, but I was near tears. I came out of there and I said, “I’ll never come back to this place again!”

  ROSE MADDOX:

  I had a costume made for my record “Tall Man.” Blue satin skirt with silver fringe, bare midriff, long sleeves with the silver fringe, boots, neckerchief, and cowboy hat. I thought the Opry would come apart. The bosses nearly come unglued. Whenever I saw Minnie Pearl after that, she’d say, “Every one of them Opry bosses jumped on me. ‘Why’d you let her do that?’ ”

  A December 1959 memo to performers from D. Kilpatrick confirmed that there really was a dress code, even if it wasn’t very clear. “It is suggested that female performers dress more in keeping with the show,” wrote Kilpatrick, “and, when possible, the use of a guitar or another instrument is suggested
.”

  But a new addition to the Opry stage was soon to change the policy on attire for female performers.

  Patsy Cline:1960

  OTT DEVINE:

  I was standing onstage watching one of the performers when Patsy came up behind me and said a bit hesitantly, “Mr. Devine, do you think I could ever become a member of the Grand Ole Opry?” Of course I knew of her talent. I had heard her sing. She had a beautiful voice. And so I replied. “Patsy, if that’s all you want, you are on the Opry.”

  Signing Patsy Cline seems like an easy decision, but when she joined the Opry in 1960, she’d had just one hit, “Walkin’ after Midnight,” and that was three years earlier. Her career was at its lowest ebb, and she told her family and booking agent to leave messages for her at the Opry because she couldn’t afford the fifty dollars to get a phone connected. The following year, though, she signed with Decca Records, and her first Decca record, “I Fall to Pieces,” became a number-one country hit.

  Patsy Cline.

  After Patsy joined the Opry, she went home and typed out her biography for the Opry’s news service.

  Married to Charles Dicks and have one little girl . . . Julia Simadore (Bible name). Living at 213 East Marthona Road . . . off of Old Hickory . . . out Gallatin Road . . . Madison Tennessee (buying home) Neighbor to Hank Snow. Husbnad [sic] . . . lineatype operator . . . he works. Curley Printing Co. I don’t want to get rich . . . just live good.

  Patsy gradually began to challenge the women’s dress code. She didn’t play guitar or other stringed instruments, and her fringed cowgirl outfits slowly gave way to sheath dresses and pantsuits.

  DOTTIE WEST:

  One night in ’62 or ’63, Patsy showed up in this gorgeous Nudie-designed pantsuit, and Ott Devine told her she couldn’t wear it. You had to wear a dress back then.

  MINNIE PEARL:

  Patsy was not coy by any means. This was unusual at the time, especially for a woman performing country music. Her sense of herself was evident in the way she sang and the way she moved, revealing her pain and deepest emotions. She never attempted to tone down her sexuality, but that was Patsy.

  On June 14, 1961, Patsy was involved in a near-fatal car wreck near her home in Madison. “They thought I was gone twice during the sewing up and had to give me three pints of blood,” she said later. On July 3, Patsy wrote to WSM employee Trudy Stamper.

  Patsy in her pantsuit caught inadvertently in a shot for an Opry sponsor.

  If you can’t read this letter, blame it on this splint. I’m doing lots better and my operation last Tuesday was a great step forward and the Dr. says after three months more, after this heals up and over good I’ll go back for another operation and have these scars cut out and pulled together again. I’ll be back to singing in between now and that operation even with the scars. Little make-up should make me presentable enough to stand me. I’m sure glad I had those new pictures made when I did. I’ve got to cut a single because there’s not a song in the can at all.

  Love,

  Patsy Cline

  PS. Many thanks to Ira Looney [Ira Louvin] who had all the artists sign two pages of autographs to me last Sat night. I’ll always keep it. Sure made me feel great.

  One month later, Patsy recorded her next single, “Crazy.”

  PATSY CLINE, introducing “Crazy” on the Opry:

  I recorded a song called “I Fall to Pieces,” and I was in a car wreck. Now I’m really worried, because I have a brand-new record, and it’s called “Crazy.”

  GRANT TURNER:

  Patsy had a lot of hard luck in her career. One time, they brought her out onstage in a wheelchair. She’d been involved in a very serious auto wreck. She was in the hospital for months, it seemed, and then they brought her out, not to sing but just to greet her fans.

  PATSY CLINE, from her wheelchair on the Opry stage:

  The greatest gift I think you folks could have given me was the encouragement you gave me right at the very time when I needed you the most. You came through with the flyingest colors. I just want to say you’ll never know how happy you made this ol’ country gal.

  THE SECOND CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT

  In November 3333, Patsy Cline joined the Grand Ole Opry cast in bringing the show back to Carnegie Hall for the first time since the 3333 concerts.

  DOROTHY KILLGALLEN, gossip columnist:

  You hipsters who have been planning a fall vacation might want to leave early. The Grand Ole Opry does a gig at Carnegie Hall this month. Remember when Carnegie Hall was associated with music?

  UPI wire service report:

  The Grand Ole Opry staged its show at Carnegie Hall last night, and, well sir, them yankees loved it. The jampacked audience was a little different from most Carnegie crowds. There were no dowager ladies in mink coats. But there were a lot of sideburns, and how those cowboy boots did shine. Audience reaction was a little different, too. Instead of applauding at the end of a number, they applauded as the songs started and they rhythmically clapped through the number. The crowd was made up of widely assorted groups including New Yorkers, Tennesseans, and one lady from Paris who only said, “If slower they sing, I understand the words.” Grandpa Jones got the only encore. His “Mountain Dew” could hardly be heard because everybody was singing along with it. Bill Monroe scored a screaming hit, especially when he played “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” a Monroe song made famous by Elvis Presley. Minnie Pearl was the one who put her trip to its best use. She learned to dance the twist. Faron Young showed up in a powder blue sequined suit and Patsy Cline has certainly recovered from her auto accident. T. Tommy Cutrer tried to calculate how much hay he could store in the hall. Marty Robbins and Jim Reeves were begged for encores, but the group had to clear the stage by 11:30 p.m.

  New left: The Opry at Carnegie Hall, 1961.

  right: Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl, Faron Young, Bill Monroe, and Patsy Cline show off their keys to New York City.

  Stony Mountain Cloggers and Tommy Jackson on the stage at Carnegie Hall.

  Marty Robbins plays for a full house at Carnegie Hall.

  On March 5, 1963, Patsy Cline; her manager, Randy Hughes; Jean Shepard’s husband, Hawkshaw Hawkins; and Hughes’s father-in-law, Cowboy Copas, flew back to Nashville from Kansas City in a small plane that Hughes piloted. They had just performed at a benefit for the widow of a local deejay, “Cactus Jack,” who had died in a car wreck.

  Nashville Banner,March 6, 1963.

  BILL ANDERSON:

  My phone rang about seven in the morning, which was highly unusual. A friend of mine called me and said, “Have you got your radio or TV on?” I said, “No.” He said, “Hawkshaw Hawkins was killed in a plane crash.” I thought an airliner went down, and I turned on the radio and heard Grant Turner and T. Tommy Cutrer give the news. They were breaking down. The emotion of it was unbelievable.

  Though Bill at first had only heard about Hawkshaw, the news was even worse—there were no survivors of the crash. On March 7, there was a Nashville memorial service for Patsy Cline, whose remains were to be returned to Virginia. Among those scheduled to attend were Kitty Wells and her husband, Johnnie Wright, as well as Wright’s singing partner, Jack Anglin.

  BILL ANDERSON:

  I was sitting right in front of Johnnie Wright and his wife, Kitty Wells, at Patsy’s memorial service, and I turned around and spoke to them. Then, as we were leaving, I saw somebody take Johnnie by the arm and pull him aside.

  JOHNNIE WRIGHT:

  I was standing outside when my daughter Ruby got hold of Opry manager Ott Devine on the phone. She told Ott what had happened and then asked him to put me on the phone. Ott said, “Your daughter’s on the phone, Johnnie, and it’s very serious.” She said, “Daddy, Jackson’s dead.” I couldn’t believe it. We’d just gotten in off the road.

  Johnnie’s singing partner Jack Anglin had died in a car wreck just a few miles from the funeral home where the memorial service was held.

  BILL ANDERSON:

  Johnnie was
sobbing as he went away and Kitty was just walking along behind. It almost defied description. It was almost surreal. What could possibly happen next? We were starting to wonder if we were jinxed.

  OTT DEVINE, leaving the funeral home:

  I just don’t know. Jack Anglin’s death on top of all the others. It’s almost more than we can stand.

  Two days later, Devine took the stage at the Grand Ole Opry, and said:

  All of us were shocked and saddened this week when word was received from a hillside near Camden, Tennessee, that within the wreckage of a small plane the lives of four members of our Grand Ole Opry cast had ended. And then came Thursday’s tragic automobile accident taking the life of Jack Anglin of the team of Johnnie and Jack.

  What do we say when we lose such friends? We can reflect upon their contributions to us all through entertainment, their acts of charity and of love. We can think of the pleasure they brought to the lives of millions, and take some comfort in knowing that they found fulfillment in the time allotted to them. We can share the sorrow of the families in their loss, and appreciate the loss, not only to WSM and the Grand Ole Opry, but to their associates and the music industry, and especially to all of you, their friends. There is great significance that Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Randy Hughes were returning from a performance staged to help someone else. They will never be forgotten.