Busy streets and empty stages Sepia Saturday 215

This week prompted  busy streets, traffic or where the mind wandered and for me, that will always be as far away as can be from the congestion and bustle of a metro area. While browsing our photos,  I found plenty of wide open roads, but few of traffic which I have long detested having spent too many years on the congestion of California freeways. I was able to find some with many cars parked though and then, well you see, I took a turn to a side path. 

In 1986 we drove cross country from California where we lived back to visit family in Minnesota and  Pennsylvania from where we swung south on our way back west and stopped in Nashville, Tennessee.   Here in September 1986 is the former home to the Grand Ole Opry, the original Ryman Auditorium.  It first opened in 1892,  a vision of Captain Thomas G Ryman.  With the start of the Grand Ole Opry show in 1943 the Ryman became the Mother Church of Country Music.  In my photo below  a man  by the fence about middle of photo is taking a picture of the iconic  Ryman as we did.  There is a crane on the other side but this is well before renovations were considered. 

September 1986 The old Ryman Auditorium

September 1986 back side alley and a truck load of trash?
All the space was taken up by these vehicles leaving no room to drive past.

It was congested and Nashville was growing but we were able to walk around and take in the sights, some as this alley near the Ryman are not all that scenic but reflect activity in the big cities.   I wonder why we took this photo and even  more why I've kept it. 

 In 1974, the Opry moved to its magnificent current home by the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center and left the Ryman vacant.  Attempting to maintain continuity with the Opry's storied past, a large circle was cut from the floor of the Ryman stage and inlaid into the center of the new Opry stage.  The Ryman then sat mostly vacant and fell into disrepair until 1992 when Emmylou Harris and her band, the Nash Ramblers, performed concerts there and renewed interest in restoring the Ryman.   Renovations had been proposed  as  far back as 1920 when a New York promoter considered placing the Ryman on a southern theater circuit however the  Ryman facilities were considered rustic at best with the 1892 structure remaining intact .It lacked proper dressing rooms and other backstage amenities.  The confederate style gallery wrapped around the stage to the back wall limiting available space for dressing rooms so sections of the balcony were replaced with a  4 story bldg. erected on each side for dressing rooms, an elevator and office and catering room.  The full interior renovation began in 1993 and by 1994 the Ryman was restored at a total cost of upwards from $8.5 million to the national showplace that it is today.

In January 2012, it was announced that the Ryman's 61 year old stage installed in 1951 and lasting far longer than expectations  would be replaced.  The stage will be replaced with a medium-brown Brazilian teak that will be extremely durable and also camera-friendly, an important aspect that is often overlooked. It will retain a 36-inch lip of the blonde oak at the front of the stage, similar to the way the Ryman stage was commemorated in a circle of wood at the new Opry House. Beneath the stage, the original hickory support beams will be kept and reinforced with concrete foundations, crossbeams and joist work that will help triple the stage's load capacity.  

This next 1986 photo shows me on stage at the Ryman.  Now you know why I included so much information about that stage.  I jumped up there and had Jerry take my photo while our tour guide prodded me on. We were on a private tour so there were no other observers to shock.  I can now say I was on stage at the Ryman.  I have learned researching for this post that today   tours offer the opportunity for one to ascend the Ryman stage and have a souvenir photo taken, for a fee of course.  I was ahead of the curve back in 1986. 

Pat onstage at the Ryman Auditorium 1986

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