{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"12 | Early TV, Hermitage Hotel, WWII Marriage | \u2018Near You\u2019 and Music City USA | March 2019 Issue","description":"Dancing at the Hermitage Hotel. Being at teenager at the start of World War II. Confronting Jim Crow injustices. Host Allen Forkum (editor of The Nashville Retrospect newspaper) interviews 94-year-old Mary B. Williams, who also recalls her career as a presenter in the early days of Nashville television, when commercials were performed live and occasionally made for humorous bloopers. (Segment begins at 04:40) (Special thanks to Tom Vickstrom) Mary Binkley Williams and her husband, Thurman P. Williams, are pictured at the time of her marriage in 1942 when she was 18 years old. She grew up at 1509 Russell St. in East Nashville before going with her husband to Virginia the day after their marriage. (Image: Mary B. Williams) The Hermitage Hotel, Nashville\u2019s first million-dollar hotel, opened in 1910 and is pictured here on a vintage postcard. Mrs. Williams has fond memories of the hotel, from fraternity dances, to sorority lunches, and even her honeymoon. (Image: Mike Slate) Mrs. Williams landed a job modeling clothes for a N.Y. designer at Tinsley\u2019s, a women\u2019s clothing store in downtown Nashville. These advertisements appeared in the Jan. 21, 1945, Nashville Tennessean. (Image: Newspapers.com) Original caption from the Aug. 13, 1950, Nashville Tennessean: \u201cBehind the Camera\u2019s Eye\u2014Shelton Weaver, WSM-TV studio engineer, makes an adjustment on one of the station\u2019s expensive television cameras. A single tube used in the camera costs $1,300.\u201d In the podcast, Mrs. Williams recalls her career as at presenter in live commercials at WSM-TV. (Image: Newspapers.com, photo by Robert C. Holt Jr.) Mrs. Williams today lives in the Green Hills area of Nashville. Also hear Don Cusic, Curb professor of music industry history at Belmont University, tell the story of Nashville\u2019s first big hit record, \u201cNear You\u201d in 1947, and the beginnings of Music City USA. Hear Donia Dickerson recount the origins of the song, written by her father, Francis Craig, a famed Big Band leader in Nashville. (Segment begins at 46:00) (Special thanks to Beth Odle) Francis Craig and His Orchestra are picture at a performance at the Hermitage Hotel. (Image: Nashville Public Library, Nashville Room) Original caption from the Aug. 28, 1947, Nashville Banner: \u201cFrancis Craig, Nashville orchestra leader, is shown with the first record of \u2018Near You,\u2019 the song written and recorded by him and which is now the most popular choice on the juke boxes of America. Craig has broken an all-time record by being the first Southern man to write, play, and record a song in the South and see it make the Hit Parade.\u201d The record would go on to sell millions of copies and start Nashville on the road to being a recording center. (Image: Nashville Public Library, Nashville Room) This sheet music for Francis Craig\u2019s \u201cNear You\u201d is part of his collection of papers at the Nashville Public Library, which was donated by his daughter, Donia Craig Dickerson. And finally, Allen Forkum reviews some of the contents of the March 2019 issue, including Vanderbilt University first women\u2019s basketball team in 1897, the death of Daniel Boone in 1809, and an obscenity case against homosexual movies in 1979. (Notice: The mentioned Clover Bottom Massacre should have been 1780, not 1870.) (Segment begins at 02:00)   SHOW NOTES A list of articles relating to this episode that you can find in archive issues of The Nashville Retrospect (archive issues and be orderd by clicking here or on the issues links below): \u2022 \u201cCraig\u2019s \u2018Near You\u2019 Tops Hit Parade,\u201d Nashville Banner, Aug. 28, 1947 (The Nashville Retrospect, August 2011) \u2022 \u201cArtifacts: Francis Craig photo and record\u201d by Clinton J. Holloway, The Nashville Retrospect, July 2015 \u2022 \u201cFrancis Craig\u2019s Orchestra To Play For WSM Opening,\u201d Nashville Banner, Oct. 4, 1925 (The Nashville Retrospect, October 2009)   Links relating to this episode: *My Cup Runneth Over,\u201d by Mary B. Williams Nashville Sound: An Illustrated Timeline by Don Cusic \u201cFrancis Craig\u201d at Wikipedia The Hermitage Hotel \u201cHermitage Hotel\u201d at Wikipedia Kroger grocery stores \u201cCain-Sloan\u201d at Wikipedia   Audio excerpts: \u201cNear You\/Red Rose\u201d 78-rpm record and Donia Craig Dickson interviewed by Ken Berryhill (WRVU, 4\/13\/2000) from the Francis Craig Papers, Nashville Public Library, Nashville Room. Music: \u201cNear You\u201d by Francis Craig and His Orchestra (Bullet, 1947); \u201cQuiet Outro\u201d by ROZKOL (2018); \u201cCovered Wagon Days\u201d by Ted Weems and His Orchestra; and \u201cThe Buffalo Rag\u201d by Vess L. Ossman ","author_name":"Nashville Retrospect","author_url":"http:\/\/nashretro.libsyn.com\/website","html":"