‘Barn Dances’ coming back
Fundraising events to help restore Spruce Pine theater
by Paul Clark , PCLARK@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM
published December 31, 2006 12:15 am


SPRUCE PINE — Back in 1949, the whole nation started tuning in to “Carolina Barn Dance,” broadcast out of the Carolina Theatre in Spruce Pine.

Each Friday night, national acts such as Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe and Hank Snow played to a national audience, as well as a full house in the theater on Lower Street. Sonny James, Kitty Wells, Chet Atkins and String Bean played there on their way to becoming famous.

Other performers included Scotty and Lula Belle Wiseman, a local duo that became widely recognized for having written and performed the song “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?” Fiddlin’ Red Wilson, a local fellow who became one of North Carolina’s “Living Treasures,” also performed on the stage before “Carolina Barn Dance” ended sometime in 1954 or 1955.

The theater has largely been empty for years, but a local nonprofit group hopes to reopen the Carolina Theatre as the cultural event center in downtown Spruce Pine.

Quietly and locally for the past few months, the Carolina Theatre Preservation Association Inc. has been hosting entertainment and fundraising events for classic country enthusiasts and historical buffs in hopes of raising money to restore the historic theater.

The “Carolina” was built in 1937 during the heyday of the silver screen. By the late 1940s, a huge variety of entertainment was brought to this small mountain town. Even before it was a national act, “Carolina Barn Dance” was highly successful locally, with a packed house each Friday night. It featured live-performance country music and comedy by local talent, as well as by regionally known performers.

Around 1949, the Liberty Broadcasting Co. in Dallas, Texas, put Spruce Pine on the map by broadcasting “Carolina Barn Dance” live on 512 radio stations across the United States.

From 1949 until sometime in 1954, the show was broadcast by radio to every state in the nation, except Washington.

“On Friday night back then, they would have a guy from the telephone company climb the pole and hook the wires together before the show,” said Bill Hudson, who with Davis Gordon created The Carolina Theatre Preservation Association. “And after the show, he’d climb back up and unhook the lines. They did that for decades.”

Television is probably why the show folded. The theater was closed for years, but in 2004, Gordon and Hudson rescued the abandoned and deteriorating building.

“We’re trying to help Spruce Pine’s economy and change from a manufacturing, textile and mining town and turn the theater into a destination,” Hudson said.

“We’ve made inroads. There’s a new roof on it, to the point where we can have events. We’ve had three or four ‘Carolina Barn Dance’ events, including some (musicians) that played in 1940 and ’50s.”

That includes Lawrence Wiseman, who is 86 now. He played in 1937 when the theater was built. The next “Carolina Barn Dance” is scheduled for the third week in January. To learn more, contact Hudson at bhudsonhci@bellsouth.net.
www.carolinatheatresprucepine.com/default.php