O.D. “Cal” Calhoun
O.D. "Cal" Calhoun (born January 5, 1910) was a theater operator and radio emcee from Erwin, Tennessee. He worked in the Panama Canal Zone during World War II, managing a commissary, and took over the struggling Carolina Theatre in Spruce Pine when he returned. He and guitarist and harmonica player Myron Houston added live country music sets between films, and these grew into the Carolina Barn Dance. The show was carried over WRBM in Marion. The Liberty Broadcasting System broadcast it nationally from September 1949 to November 1954 by sending it over a telephone line to the network's Texas studios. Calhoun emceed the program, which featured performers including Chet Atkins, Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe, Kitty Wells, and Lulu Belle, and Scotty Wiseman. He ran the theater for about 11 years.
In the newsletter
- No. 18 Winter 1999