Grand Ole Opry House

The Grand Ole Opry's 4,400-seat home since March 16, 1974, in Donelson east of downtown Nashville. A 6-foot circle of the old Ryman Auditorium stage, cut out that January, sits at center stage.

Robert Altman's crew filmed here in summer 1974 for “Nashville” (1975), with Roy Acuff hosting them on stage and supplying genuine Opry patrons as extras. The footage shot inside the house is brief.

The film's long Barbara Jean sequence was shot at the Opryland theme park's outdoor theater next door, not in this hall. That park closed in 1997, and Opry Mills mall stands there now.

Studio A, a television studio built inside the house, was the taping home of “Hee Haw” through the 1970s and 1980s. Crook & Chase and CMT's Crossroads later shot there.

ABC's scripted “Nashville” (2012 to 2018) also shot here, including the pilot scene where Rayna Jaymes first meets Juliette Barnes backstage. Opry Entertainment's Steve Buchanan was an executive producer, which opened the door.

The AFI Catalog dates Altman's principal photography to July 8 through early September 1974, in sequence and on location in Nashville. It names no venue; later Nashville press places the shoot in this house.

Opry shows are ticketed year-round, and paid daytime backstage tours take in Studio A and the Ryman circle at center stage. Nothing on site marks the Altman shoot.