Fun_People Archive
1 May
As old as the music itself...

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon,  1 May 100 22:18:15 -0700
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Subject: As old as the music itself...

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From: Henry Sapoznik <Xanajew@aol.com>

First 100-Year-Old to Perform on The Grand Ole Opry

Fiddling Bob Douglas will make country music history on Friday, May 5, as
the first 100-year-old to perform on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville,
Tennessee. Admired as a national treasure, Douglas has discovered, taught
and performed with a number of Opry greats, but has long awaited his own
debut on the famous radio show.

In 1925, as the Grand Ole Opry was born, Douglas also opened the airwaves
for Southern fiddling, becoming the first country musician to perform on
Chattanooga radio. Opry fiddling legend Curly Fox was a young friend and
student of Douglas's, and followed him to his first professional job as a
medicine show performer. In the early 1940s, Douglas gave future Opry stars
Charlie and Ira Louvin their start in radio, as prized recruits in his
band, "The Foggy Mountain Boys."

Douglas's reputation as the winningest contest fiddler in Tennessee history
is hard to dispute. His first victory came in 1928, over Clayton McMitchen
and the rest of the Skillet Lickers string Band, Columbia's hottest
hillbilly recording artists. At the age of 75 he won the Smithsonian
Institution's National Fiddle Contest in Washington D.C., While in the
1980s he battled young Mark O'conner for prize money.  Many of his ribbons
and trophies are displayed at the Appalachian Hall of Fame in Norris,
Tennessee.

In his 100th year, Douglas shatters the myth of aging with his remarkable
vigor and active fiddling schedule. This past year's highlights include:
a national performance on A Prairie Home Companion; a week-long stint at
the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes near Seattle, Washington, a headline
performance at the WNOX auditorium in Knoxville, and the production of a
brand-new music video.

Like the Opry, Bob Douglas links us to our rich American musical past,
present and future.

Note: Bob Douglas was Born on March 9, 1900 in Sequatchie College,
Tennessee.

For more information contact:

Roger Harb
Tel: 865.558.1468
email: rogharb@bellsouth.net

Bobby Fulcher
Tel: 865.457.4065
email: fulcherrj@aol.com

© 2000 Peter Langston