The Log Cabin that Never Was: Memory, Myth, and the Origins of the Grand Ole Opry

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.