Today in History - 1925

The Grand Ole Opry started out as the WSM Barn Dance in the new fifth floor radio station studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company in downtown Nashville, a 60-minute show at 10 p.m. The featured performer on the first two shows—before the name "Barn Dance" eventually stuck—was "Dr. Humphrey Bate and his string quartet of old-time musicians." On its third broadcast, WSM added future star Uncle Dave Macon with Sid Harkreader to the bill in a policeman's benefit at the Ryman Auditorium.

On November 5, WSM hired long-time announcer and program director George D. Hay, known on the air as "The Solemn Old Judge," He was only 30 at the time and was not a judge, but was an enterprising pioneer who launched the Barn Dance as a spin-off of his National Barn Dance program at WLS Radio in Chicago. The first appearance of Uncle Jimmy Thompson, a fiddler who was then 77 years old and for many years propped up by Opry revisionist publicists as its first performer, did not take place until November 28, 1925.

Some of the bands regularly featured on the show during its early days included the Possum Hunters (with Dr. Humphrey Bate), the Fruit Jar Drinkers, the Crook Brothers and the Gully Jumpers. They arrived in this order. However, Judge Hay liked the Fruit Jar Drinkers and asked them to appear last on each show because he wanted to always close each segment with "red hot fiddle playing." They were the second band accepted on the "Barn Dance." And, when the Opry began having square dancers on the show, the Fruit Jar Drinkers always played for them.