Gaylord Entertainment Company - History

History

Gaylord Entertainment came into existence after Edward Gaylord was persuaded by his wife, Thelma, to purchase the Opryland USA properties that had been put up for sale by American General Insurance. The Gaylords took the Opryland businesses and merged them with their television stations and syndicated programs to form Gaylord Broadcasting. Gaylord Broadcasting became the Gaylord Entertainment Company when the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in the early 1990s. The company flourished as the leader in the "country lifestyle" business under the leadership of E.W. "Bud" Wendell until he retired in 1997.

The Opryland Lodging Group was formed with the opening of the 600 room Opryland Hotel (now named Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center) in November 1977. In addition to catering to guests from the Opryland USA Themepark and Grand Ole Opry, the hotel's first general manager, Jack Vaughn, sought to cater to conventions, a service that Nashville tourism had neglected until then. The hospitality group was a modest, but highly successful division of the Opryland USA properties of Gaylord Entertainment from the hotel's opening through the 1996 expansion of the hotel's almost 3,000 rooms and subsequent announcement of a future Opryland Hotels in Florida, Texas and Washington D.C..

New management in the early 2000s believed that Gaylord Entertainment's future lie solely in the management of the hospitality arm of the company. With the exception of the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, General Jackson Showboat, Wildhorse Saloon, and WSM-AM, all non-hotel businesses were abandoned or sold. The three previously announced additional hotels were built. Three other hotels were planned for the areas of San Diego, Phoenix and Denver but were never built. Two other hotel properties were announced as acquisitions; however those projects were abandoned as well. Ten years after stating that the company's future was in the hospitality and convention business, the same management team reversed course, stating the company could not succeed in managing its hotels.

The company sold the hotels brand to Marriott International in the spring of 2012, completing its transition from a media conglomerate that once owned cable networks, theme parks, television and radio stations, restaurants, giant retail chains, newspapers, sports teams, Internet portals, record companies and film studios into a simple real estate holding company. The once second largest private employer in Tennessee now employs less than 100.