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Old Dominion Barn Dance is an American
country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
show broadcast over WRVA,
Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...
each Saturday night. Mary Workman, better known as "
Sunshine Sue Mary Workman (born Mary Arlene Higdon, November 12, 1912 – June 13, 1979), better known by the stage name Sunshine Sue, was an American country music singer best known for her work on the ''Old Dominion Barn Dance'' radio program. Her obituary, d ...
" was the host (1946–1957). Gregg Kimball of the Library of Virginia said of the program, "It was unique because it featured a female host and gained a national audience through syndication on CBS radio." In 1957,
Carlton Haney Lawrence Carlton Haney (September 19, 1928 – March 16, 2011) was an American booking agent, festival promoter, and songwriter primarily active in bluegrass music. Once dubbed “The P.T. Barnum of Country Music” for his large personality, Ha ...
began the ''New Dominion Barn Dance'', which WRVA broadcast until 1964. The music and humor show was broadcast live on radio in over 38 states and Canada and were transmitted to military personnel overseas via recordings on the
Armed Forces Radio Service The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...
. The broadcasts originated at the Lyric Theater (later renamed the WRVA Theater) on North 9th Street and East Broad Street. The theater was filled to capacity every Saturday night with lines that wrapped around the block. Two shows broadcast, one at 7:30pm and the other at 9:30pm nationwide and introduced America to Country Music. This show was attended by all ages and classes. A big fan of the Old Dominion Barn Dance, Virginia Governor William "Bill" Munford Tuck (1946-1950) had a private box reserved for him where he would frequently attend the show on Saturday nights. The Lyric Theater was built in 1913 and demolished in 1963. The show also toured at times. The June 7, 1947, issue of ''
The Free Lance–Star ''The Free Lance–Star'' is the principal daily newspaper distributed throughout Fredericksburg, Virginia, United States, with a circulation area including the city of Fredericksburg and all or parts of the counties of Spotsylvania, Stafford, ...
'' in Fredericksburg, Virginia, carried an advertisement promoting the appearance of "20 Radio Stars," the "entire cast" of the Old Dominion Barn Dance for two shows at James Monroe High School on June 9, 1947. In 1973, an effort was made to revive the ''Old Dominion Barn Dance'', but it was unsuccessful. After almost 5,000 people attended the initial performance, attendance dropped to 900 for the second show and went even lower the third week. An article in
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
magazine's April 7, 1973, issue quoted a spokesman for the show as saying "We can't understand what happened, and we're trying to evaluate the situation, but people just stopped coming after that first show." The program was broadcast on WTVR. Beginning in 2015, Donna Meade Dean (the widow of Jimmy Dean), brought back the Old Dominion Barn Dance for four performances in the Henrico Theater in Highland Springs, Virginia. Marty Stuart headlined the first show on February 21, 2015.


Performers


References


Hillbilly.Music.comFinding Aid for the WRVA Radio Collection at the Library of VirginiaOld Dominion Barn Dance.com
American country music radio programs {{US-radio-show-stub