In 1945 he did a stint on the WWVA Jamboree in West Virginia, then one at Washington, Pennsylvania, in addition to the junkets to Hollywood. By 1948 he was in Dallas, playing on the Big D Jamboree over KRLD and singing occasionally at a place called the Silver Spur, owned by a man named Jack Ruby—the same Jack Ruby who was to make history fifteen years later by gunning down Lee Harvey Oswald.
Hank was offered Hank Williams’s slot on Shreveport’s Louisiana Hayride when Williams left to join the Grand Ole Opry; he turned it down because the money wasn’t very good. During this period, he had been corresponding with Ernest Tubb about Jimmie Rodgers’s music. Finally he got a chance to work some dates with Tubb, who was impressed and promised to do what he could to get Snow on the Opry. As Hank remembered, “He kept pestering those people.
He’d drag my records from his record store, take ’em up there and play ’em, until he finally convinced them.” It all bore fruit in early 1950, when WSM’s Harry Stone offered Hank a job. Snow was stunned to find out that Hank Williams himself was set to introduce him on the Duck Head Overalls portion of the show. Williams did, and the two Hanks found themselves side by side. “Let’s call it short Hank and tall Hank,” joked Williams, referring to Snow’s build. At first, the Opry looked like another dry run. Looking back on his first appearance, Hank said, “I don’t mind telling you I bombed.
The people just sat there while I sang. And sat. No applause, no nothing, almost. Just sat.” The next few months were no improvement. Hank was sure Stone was going to fire him. Then “I’m Movin’ On” hit, and suddenly the Singing Ranger was the hottest act on the stage. The American breakthrough had come. The string of Number One hits began: “Golden Rocket” (1950), “Rhumba Boogie” (1951), “I Don’t Hurt Anymore” (1954), “I’ve Been Everywhere” (1962).