| Ellis Auditorium | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Former names | Memphis Auditorium and Market House |
| General information | |
| Address | Memphis, Tennessee |
| Coordinates | 35°09′3.0″N90°3′04.4″W / 35.150833°N 90.051222°W |
| Opened | 1924 |
| Closed | 1997 |
| Demolished | 1999 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | George Awsumb |
The Ellis Auditorium was a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. It hosted local sporting events and concerts.
The auditorium opened in 1924 as a multipurpose concert hall, convention center, and athletic arena. The first performance was held by John Philip Sousa. The building opened as the Memphis Auditorium and Market House and was renamed for Memphis Chamber of Commerce President Robert R. Ellis after his death in 1930. [1]
The auditorium was segregated and had a separate entrance and balcony for black patrons, [2] and in 1945 a performance of Annie, Get Your Gun did not go ahead because the cast included black members. [3]
Elvis Presley played Ellis Auditorium on May 15, 1956, to open the Cotton Carnival. [4] Presley also made a number of other appearances at the venue. [5] [6]
Other performers who played Ellis include David Bowie (1972) and Bruce Springsteen (1976 and 1996). [7] [8] [9]
Ellis Auditorium also hosted basketball events, including a 6,000-strong all-white crowd who watched the all-black Harlem Globetrotters play in 1953. [6]
The Memphis Tigers basketball team also played select games at Ellis. They upset number 3 ranked Louisville at the venue in February 1957. [10]
Ellis Auditorium was demolished in 1999 and replaced by the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts at the same location. [11]
The Memphis Pyramid, formerly known as the Great American Pyramid and the Pyramid Arena, and colloquially known as the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid, is a pyramid-shaped building located in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, United States, at the bank of the Mississippi River. Built in 1991 as a 20,142-seat arena, the facility was owned and operated jointly by the city of Memphis and Shelby County until Shelby County sold its share to Memphis in April 2009. Its structure plays on the city's namesake in Egypt, which is known for its ancient pyramids. It is 321 feet (98 m) tall and has base sides of 591 feet (180 m); it is by some measures the tenth-tallest pyramid in the world.
The St. Paul Civic Center was an indoor arena located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The arena opened in 1973 and was closed and demolished in 1998. It once sat near the Ordway Music Theater and the Roy Wilkins Auditorium. The Xcel Energy Center was built on the former site of the arena.
Winterland Ballroom was an ice skating rink and music venue in San Francisco, California, United States. The arena was located at the corner of Post Street and Steiner Street. It was converted for exclusive use as a music venue in 1971 by concert promoter Bill Graham and became a popular performance location for many rock acts. Graham later formed a merchandising company called Winterland Productions, which sold concert shirts, memorabilia, and official sports team merchandise.
The Pete Maravich Assembly Center is a 13,215-seat multi-purpose arena in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The arena opened in 1972. It was originally known as the LSU Assembly Center, but was renamed in honor of Pete Maravich, a Tiger basketball legend, shortly after his death in 1988. Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer signed an act to rename the building in Maravich's honor. Maravich never played in the arena as a collegian but played in it as a member of the Atlanta Hawks in a preseason game. But his exploits while at LSU led the university to build a larger home for the basketball team, which languished for decades in the shadow of the school's football program. The Maravich Center is known to locals as "The PMAC" or "Pete's Palace", or by its more nationally known nickname, "The Deaf Dome", coined by Dale Brown. The Maravich Center's neighbor, Tiger Stadium is known as "Death Valley".
Omaha Civic Auditorium was a multi-purpose convention center located in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 1954, it surpassed the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum as the largest convention/entertainment complex in the city, until the completion of CHI Health Center Omaha in 2003. With the opening of the Ralston Arena in 2012, all teams that played at the Civic Auditorium moved, which reduced the venue's viability. The auditorium closed its doors in June 2014 and was demolished two years later.
Whitehaven, informally known as "Blackhaven", is a predominantly African-American community in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. It was first organized in the late 19th century as a neighborhood for upper-class white families. Its current population is about 50,000.
Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite is a concert starring Elvis Presley that took place at the Honolulu International Center and was broadcast live via satellite to audiences in Asia and Oceania on January 14, 1973. The show was presented with a delay in Europe. In the United States, to avoid a programming conflict with Super Bowl VII and Elvis on Tour which was playing in cinemas at the time, NBC opted to air a ninety-minute television special of the concert on April 4.
Mobile Civic Center is a multi-purpose facility located in Mobile, Alabama. Owned by the City of Mobile and operated by ASM Global, the facility consists of three venues: a theater, an expo hall, and an arena. It is suitable for large indoor events including sporting events and trade shows. The theater seats for 1,938, while the expo hall can seat 3,000. The largest venue of the Mobile Civic Center is the arena, which can seat 10,112.
Hampton Coliseum is a multi-purpose arena in Hampton, Virginia. Construction began on May 24, 1968. The venue held its first event on December 1, 1969, with the nearby College of William & Mary playing North Carolina State University in a college men's basketball game. On January 31, 1970, the Coliseum formally opened as the first large multi-purpose arena in the Hampton Roads region and the state of Virginia
The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum was a multi-purpose arena located in Jacksonville, Florida. Built in 1960 and known as "northern Florida's most historic concert venue", it was home to most of the city's indoor professional sports teams and it hosted various concerts, circuses, and other events. It was demolished in 2003 and replaced with the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.
Bayfront Center was an indoor arena located in St. Petersburg, Florida that hosted many concerts, sporting and other events. Depending on the configuration, it could hold up to 8,600 people. The arena was opened in 1965 and demolished in 2004. It adjoined the Mahaffey Theater, which is still standing.
Elvis: The Concert is a concert tour started in 1997 that features audio and video recordings of Elvis Presley, accompanied live by his 1970s backup band, backing vocalists, and orchestral musicians. In 2001, Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), on the website Elvis.com, described this show as, "in effect, Elvis' first-ever world concert tour, which began in America in 1998." According to EPE in 2006, the tour also features a 16-piece orchestra; at least for the major anniversary concerts, this role was fulfilled by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
The Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium is a performance venue in Stockton, California. Construction began in 1924 and the auditorium opened in November 1925, it seats about 5,000 people. Local architects Glenn Allen and Wright & Satterlee were awarded construction, while Stocktonians conducted bond drives to fund construction of the Memorial Auditorium to honor those who gave their lives while serving in the Armed Forces in World War I.
The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is a convention center in the Convention Center District of downtown Dallas, Texas.
The Born to Run tours were the unofficially-named concert tours surrounding the release of Bruce Springsteen's 1975 album Born to Run which occurred between 1974 and 1977. The album represented Springsteen's commercial breakthrough, and was marked by a grueling and meticulous recording process. To make ends meet Springsteen and the E Street Band toured constantly during the first set of recording sessions for it, performing his new songs as he developed them. Financial success was short-lived, however, as he was soon plunged into legal battles with his former manager Mike Appel and enjoined from further studio recording. Touring continued as a means of making a living, long after the conventional period of playing in connection with an album's release was over; only when his legal issues were finally resolved in 1977 did these tours conclude.
Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center is a building located in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, that is part of the Iowa Events Center. Named to honor the World War II veterans of Polk County, it opened on February 1, 1955.
Freedom Hall Civic Center is a multi-purpose arena in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Bruce Robert Jackson was an Australian audio engineer who co-founded JANDS, an Australian audio, lighting and staging company. He joined American touring audio engineer Roy Clair and mixed concert stage monitors for Elvis Presley in the 1970s. With Clair Brothers, a concert sound company, Jackson designed audio electronics including a custom mixing console. Beginning in 1978, Jackson toured as Bruce Springsteen's band engineer for a decade, using Clair Brothers sound systems. A business interest in Fairlight CMI in Sydney introduced Jackson to digital audio, and he subsequently founded the digital audio company Apogee Electronics in Santa Monica, California, where he lived at the time. After selling his share of Apogee, Jackson co-founded with Roy and Gene Clair a joint venture which produced the Clair iO, a loudspeaker management system for control of complex concert sound systems. Jackson turned the venture commercial with the help of Dave McGrath's Lake Technology. Dolby Laboratories bought the technology and formed Dolby Lake with Jackson as vice president, then in 2009 Lab.gruppen acquired the brand. Jackson was honoured with the Parnelli Innovator Award in 2005 for his inventive loudspeaker controller.
The Administration Building is a structure on the campus of the University of Memphis in Memphis, TN. Along with Mynders Hall and the President’s House, the then named Administration/Academic Building was one of the three original buildings on the campus. Construction began in 1911, and all three structures were collectively dedicated on September 10, 1912. In its original configuration, the building had a large staircase on the front of the structure leading to what is now the second floor. For many years, these steps were the site of many campus group gatherings and photographs. Many fraternities and sororities held initiation activities on the staircase as well. For example, fraternity pledges were required to push pennies up the steps with their noses and sororities required initiates to clean the steps with toothbrushes. In the university’s early years, male athletes lived on the top floor of the building. The stairs were later removed, and a large addition was installed on the rear of the building. Into the 1940s, the student handbook declared that first year students were not allowed to “use the front steps of the Administration Building” on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the first six weeks of the school year.
The Club Handy was a nightclub at 195 Hernando Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Originally called the Domino Lounge, the venue was owned and operated by Sunbeam Mitchell. He renamed the nightclub in honor of composer W.C. Handy in 1958. The Club Handy was a stop on the "Chitlin' Circuit," a selection of venues considered safe and acceptable for African-American entertainers in the era of racial segregation in the United States.
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