Ryman Auditorium

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The Ryman Auditorium

The Ryman Auditorium is a 2,362-seat live performance venue located at 116 Fifth Avenue North in Nashville, Tennessee, and is best-known as the one-time home of the Grand Ole Opry.

The auditorium was first opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. It was built by Thomas Ryman (1843–1904), a riverboat captain and Nashville businessman. After his death, the Tabernacle was renamed Ryman Auditorium in his honor.

The Ryman was also the home of Trevecca Nazarene University for several years.^{[citation needed]}

It was used for Grand Ole Opry broadcasts from 1943 until 1974, when the Opry built a larger venue just outside Nashville at the Opryland USA theme park. The Ryman then sat mostly vacant until 1994 when it was restored and reopened as a performance venue and museum. Audiences at the Ryman find themselves sitting in pews, the 1994 renvovation notwithstanding. The seating is a reminder of the auditorium's origins as a house of worship.

Many of the greats of country music have performed at the Ryman over the years, including Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, Patsy Cline, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Emmylou Harris, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Glen Campbell, Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton, Marty Robbins, Ernest Tubb, Dottie West, Hank Williams, and Tammy Wynette.

Besides country, the venue also features alternative, bluegrass, blues, classical, gospel, jazz, pop, and rock, as well as musical theatre and stand-up comedy shows.

Among the countless other artists who have performed on the Ryman stage are Elvis Presley, Tallulah Bankhead, Ethel Barrymore, Sarah Bernhardt, Victor Borge, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes, Fanny Brice, James Brown, The Byrds, Enrico Caruso, Carol Channing, Charlie Chaplin, Kelly Clarkson, Neil Diamond, Oasis, The String Cheese Incident, W.C. Fields, Betty Grable, Erasure, Helen Hayes, Katharine Hepburn, Bob Hope, Anna Pavlova, and Van Morrison.

Ryman Auditorium has been featured in several movies, including Robert Altman's Nashville (1975) starring David Arkin, Barbara Baxley, Ned Beatty, and Karen Black; Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones; and Sweet Dreams (1985) starring Jessica Lange and Ed Harris. Neil Young used the venue in his powerful 2006 film Heart Of Gold

In 2001, the Ryman Auditorium was designated National Historic Landmark No. 71000819 and included in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Ryman Auditorium was named Pollstar Magazine's National Theatre of the Year for both 2003 and 2004, beating out such venues as New York's Radio City Music Hall and Hollywood's Gibson Universal Amphitheater.

Each dressing room behind the stage is dedicated to a legendary performer, including Johnny Cash and Minnie Pearl (among others).

The visitor tour claims that the Ryman Auditorium has been rated as having the second best acoustics in the world (after the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's home, the Salt Lake Tabernacle).

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[edit] References

Eiland, William. Nashville's Mother Church: The History of the Ryman Auditorium. Nashville, 1992.
Graham, Eleanor, ed. Nashville, A Short History and Selected Buildings. Hist. Comm. of Metro-Nashville-Davidson Co., 1974.
Hagan, Chet. Grand Ole Opry. New York, 1989.
Henderson, Jerry. "A History of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, 1892-1920." (Ph. D. Diss., Louisiana State University) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1962.