Abstract: In November 1925, George D. Hay, program manager of Nashville's WSM radio station, founded the show that he would eventually rename the Grand Ole Opry . Specializing in what was then called hillbilly music, the Grand Ole Opry grew into the most iconic and long-lasting radio show on American airwaves. In 1945, Hay self-published a book chronicling the history and performers of the show's first twenty years. In that book he claimed that the inspiration for the Grand Ole Opry had come from a hoedown he attended near the small town of Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, during a trip to cover the funeral of a fallen World War I serviceman. The author explores the actual events of Hay's journey to the Arkansas Ozarks and reconsiders his Opry origin story, which has been largely ignored or downplayed by country music historians.
Brooks Blevins (Mon,) studied this question.