The “National Barn Dance” was not raised in a barn.

The longtime radio show was, in fact, broadcast every Saturday from a theater in what was then the second-largest city in the United States: Chicago.

But everything else about the “National Barn Dance” was as rural as advertised.

“National Barn Dance,” which debuted in 1927 on WLS in the Windy City and was picked up for national broadcast by NBC in 1933, was a showcase of country music and country comedy as both were defined in the mid-20th century.

These days, a Brooklynite who can’t tell a sheep from a goat and who knows more about hair bands than jug bands has as much of a chance of becoming a country music superstar as anyone else.

But back then, the people who came to Chicago to seek fame on “National Barn Dance” traveled there from farms.

Like Patsy Montana, for example.

In the summer of 1933, when Montana was still known as Ruby Blevins, she and her brothers traveled to the Chicago World’s Fair from Arkansas to enter a prize watermelon in a contest.

While there, she landed a job as a vocalist for the Prairie Ramblers and subsequently became a star on “National Barn Dance.”

Patsy Montana was the first woman in country music to have a million-selling single, according to former Warsaw resident Stephen Parry.

If you want to know about “National Barn Dance,” there may not be a better source for information than Parry. He said he first became fascinated with the radio program in 2004 when he heard amateur pickers in the parking lot of a bluegrass festival chat up the show.

“National Barn Dance,” like Charles Dickens’ other Christmas books and Arthur Fonzarelli’s white windbreaker, is one of those things that was a very big deal in its time but is largely forgotten today.

So Parry resolved to make a documentary about the program.

It took him seven years, but “The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Barn Dance” will make its debut at 5 p.m. Sept. 25 on WFWA-TV Channel 39 and on other stations nationwide throughout the fall.

Parry said the story of the “National Barn Dance” show is nothing less than the story of our nation.

“In the first half of the 20th century, there was a migration from rural to urban and the popularity of the ‘National Barn Dance’ really paralleled that,” he says.

“People had just left the farm and were nostalgic (for that style of entertainment),” Parry said, “and there were city people not too far removed from the farm who shared similar sentiments.”

During the Great Depression, the “National Barn Dance” broadcast helped people cope, Parry said.

Parry is a commercial videographer and editor by trade, so he had to raise money for, research and assemble “The Hayloft Gang: The Story of the National Barn Dance” in his spare time.

Parry said the four-hour show happened every Saturday night for 36 years and yet there are only 20 audio recordings available.

The documentary consists of such sound snippets plus new interviews with surviving musicians, new recordings of classic tunes, home movies and still photos.

One of Parry’s major coups was convincing Garrison Keillor to provide narration for the project.

Keillor’s radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion,” was partly inspired by “National Barn Dance” and live shows like it.

Parry said he has never met Keillor in person; the NPR staple recorded the script in his studio in St. Paul, Minn. But Keillor adds undeniable and invaluable marquee value to the project.

Much of the film was paid for by an NEA Folk and Traditional Arts grant, Parry said, although it is still being paid for. He has started a fundraising page to solicit individual donations at Kickstarter.com.

As part of the run-up to the airdate, Parry is having a contest wherein participants can submit their own videos inspired by “National Barn Dance.” Grand prize is a $4,000 Martin guitar. The contest begins Aug. 15. Details can be found at contest.hayloftgang.com.

Parry said the “National Barn Dance” story resonates with us in these contentious and economically challenging times, because it possessed an innocence that has since been lost.

“These days, country music; … either you hate it or love it,” he said. “Personally, I am not a big fan of where country has gone.

“This was Americana – it was a real mix of music,” Parry said. “So it was an untold story that really needed to be told.”