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National Barn Dance, broadcast by WLS-AM in Chicago, Illinois starting in 1924, was one of the first American country music radio programs.

National Barn Dance also set the stage for other similar programs, in part because the clear-channel signal of WLS could be received throughout most of the Midwest and even beyond in the late evening and nighttime hours, making much of the United States (and Canada) a potential audience. The program was well received and thus widely imitated, most prominently with the Grand Ole Opry. National Barn Dance ended its broadcast in 1968.

History

thumb|230px|The Barn Dance in 1940

National Barn Dance was founded by Edgar L. Bill, the program director at WLS at the time. Having lived on a farm, he knew how people loved the familiar sound and informal spirit of old-fashioned, "down home" barn dance music. The first broadcast was an impromptu sustaining program. An avalanche of telephone calls and letters indicated a definite demand from the public for this type of broadcast, and National Barn Dance was born. It first aired on WLS on April 19, 1924, and originated from the Eighth Street Theater starting in 1931. The show was picked up by NBC Radio in 1933. NBC expanded the program's coverage in 1942, adding it to the schedules of international broadcast shortwave stations. In 1946, it switched to the ABC Radio Network and aired until 1952 on Saturday nights from 6:30 p.m. to midnight.

George D. Hay, who came from WMC in Memphis, Tennessee and was familiar with barn dances, joined the series a month after its launch as an announcer. His tenure on the program lasted a year and a half before he returned to his native Tennessee—in this case, Nashville—to launch his own version of a barn dance on WSM, which by 1928 he had rebranded as the Grand Ole Opry.

Chronology

  • 1924–33: WLS (AM)
  • 1933–46: WLS (AM), carried by NBC Radio
  • 1946–52: WLS (AM), carried by ABC Radio
  • 1952–60: WLS (AM)
  • 1960–68: WGN-AM

Performers

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  • Herb and Kay Adams
  • Rex Allen
  • Arkie the Arkansas Woodchopper
  • Bob Atcher
  • Jimmy Atkins
  • Gene Autry
  • Charles M. Bardy
  • William Bardy
  • Cousin Tilford
  • Rube Tronson
  • Al Vlodek
  • Cecil and Ethel Ward
  • Otto Ward
  • Ozzie Waters
  • Dan White
  • Don White
  • Hank Williams Sr.
  • Colleen Wilson
  • Don Wilson
  • Donna Wilson
  • Grace Wilson
  • Winnie, Lou, and Sally
  • Arkansas Woodchopper
  • George Workman
  • Sam Workman

|}

Film and TV

A fictionalized account of the show's origins, The National Barn Dance (1944), was filmed by director Hugh Bennett from a screenplay by Hal Fimberg and Lee Loeb. The film starred Jean Heather, Charles Quigley, Robert Benchley, Mabel Paige and Charles Dingle, while Pat Buttram and Joe Kelly appeared as themselves. Two acts who were radio show regulars, The Hoosier Hotshots and The Dinning Sisters, also had featured musical spots in the film. Paramount Pictures reportedly paid WLS $75,000 for the rights in 1943.

ABC Barn Dance, a filmed TV series featuring some of the radio performers, was telecast on ABC from February 21–November 14, 1949. Hosted by Jack Stillwell and Hal O'Halloran, the 30-minute musical variety format presented a mix of folk music with country and Western tunes.

In 1964, it became a nationally syndicated program through Mid-America Video Tape Productions, then a subsidiary of television station WGN-TV in Chicago.

Offshoots

In 1925, prior to network radio or syndication, Hay brought his Barn Dance concept to Nashville, Tennessee. The result was a show called the WSM Barn Dance. It became so popular that on December 10, 1927, Hay renamed it the Grand Ole Opry. WSM became one of the first NBC affiliates in 1927, and the Opry is still on the air today.

A second program was launched in the 1930s by National Barn Dances then-president John Lair in Renfro Valley, Kentucky; the Renfro Valley Barn Dance still takes place weekly but is no longer aired on radio (although a sister program, the Renfro Valley Gatherin, does still air weekly on Sunday mornings).

References

Prairie Farmer WLS National Barn Dance Crew photograph dated June 16, 1934 in "WLS Family Album 1935." Chicago: The Prairie Farmer Publishing Company, 1934, p. 30.

Listen to

  • National Barn Dance (October 2, 1943)
  • WLS National Barn Dance
  • PBS: The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Barn Dance