03-28-2011
( Reply#: 6521 ) |
Tom J |
Great idea for a discussion starter, Paddy!
OK, I remember going to the circus at the Civic Center when I was very young, maybe five or six years old.
I remember attending Sportman's Club meetings with my dad at the Civic Center in the early 60s.
I remember Hammond High basketball games there.
Finally, I fondly recall playing pick-up basketball games there on Saturday mornings while I was attending Purdue Calumet and still living at home during the 1967-1968 school year. I probably played there sometimes when I was home from Purdue West Lafayette for weekends and holidays later on.
I have nothing but fond memories of the Civic Center.
Tom |
03-28-2011
( Reply#: 6522 ) |
seejay2 |
As kids, our neighborhood was heavy into TV wrestling. We would watch characters like Bobo Brazil (famous for the 'headbutt'), Killer Kowalski and the ilk. When the show was over, we kids were all juiced up and would rope off an area of the back yard and knock the crap out of one another trying things like knee drops, figure 4 grapevines and such. I don't know why no one became crippled after that.
Then my big 'right of passage' came when all of these heros were scheduled to show up at Civic Center. I was actually going to see them "LIVE"!! Well I went. That was when I saw what a fake ripoff the whole thing really was. I was so devastasted by it all that I went home and threw out all my wrestling magazines. I was pretty morose after that. I think that's when I started smoking...Cj |
03-28-2011
( Reply#: 6523 ) |
Paddy |
quote:
I remember going to the circus at the Civic Center when I was very young, maybe five or six years old.
Of my many memories of the Civic Center, the circus holds a special place. I was just a kid, yet my status as a worker put me within arms length of the caged lions and tigers as I walked through the backstage area.
The caged chimpanzees taught me a lesson about the difference between fantasy and reality. They seemed so docile and cute when on stage, but were just the opposite backstage. I felt safer walking by the lions and tigers.
I never tired of watching the clowns, the animals and trapeeze acts. But the aerial ballets became an indelible memory. They were a circus "slight of hand" that focused the audience attention away from the floor as the crews set up the nets for the trapeeze acts. The house lights darkened, and the band struck up Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Spotlights came on to follow the dozens of beautiful ladies clad in sequins and feathers as ropes lifted them in unison. There they twirled by hand and foot to that beautiful music. I could not help but watch because the house lights were dark. We hawkers were silenced, and all eyes were on the ladies in the air.
Those memories came back to me in a very special way many years later. When I was the Fire Marshal for the Richfield MN fire department in the 1980's, the Chamber of Commerce sponsored a three-ring circus in the center of town. Unlike the circus at the Hammond Civic Center, this one was held under a huge tent.
My job was to enforce fire safety regulations, and I was there in uniform to monitor the situation. I was standing off to the side when they began the aerial ballet, and happened to be near a crewman preparing to hoist one of the ladies. To this day, I don't know if he really needed my help or not, but he yelled at me to grab the rope and help him loft his ballerina into the lights. There I was, the fire official empowered to shut down the whole show with one command, and this guy was asking me to be a part of the circus crew.
I grabbed the rope. |
03-29-2011
( Reply#: 6524 ) |
seejay2 |
Doesn't it give you a sense of worth when you get your priorities in order?
I'm still trying to get my ducks in a row...Cj |
03-31-2011
( Reply#: 6525 ) |
Jim Plummer |
I remember seeing the Shrine circus there for years. I always thought the clowns were amazing the way so many of them came out of a small car. We saw wrestling there when there was nothing playing at the Parthenon or the Paramont. I think the admission price was about the same. We always watched 'the little old ladies' in the front row going nuts over the matches. I think I also went to some Scouting events there as well.
The place also had a definite smell to it. |
03-31-2011
( Reply#: 6526 ) |
tom w |
Jim and Paddy have summed up pretty well, my memories of the Civic Center except for a few short points. I heard that there was a olympic size swimming pool under a movable floor. Never saw it!
Also in my memory as a Tech student, some of the best fights I ever saw were on the Tech side of the Center.
Did anyone see the country and western shows or the campaign visit from George Wallace? Tom W |
03-31-2011
( Reply#: 6527 ) |
Roger D |
I remember going to see Johnny Cash Show and The Everly Brothers.
I also saw the circus, the Globetrotters and high school basketball at the Civic Center.
I had met the Everly Brothers dad, he was a friend of an uncle of mine. I now live in Kentucky just a few miles from where the Everlys were raised.
The last time I was at the Civic Center was in the early 90's at the outdoor show. |
03-31-2011
( Reply#: 6530 ) |
Paddy |
quote:
I heard that there was a olympic size swimming pool under a movable floor. Never saw it.
The pool was in the basement and open to the public. A lot of Hammondites probably were not aware of it because they had public pools in their neighborhoods.
The Civic Center pool was huge. I think that the diving end was 17 feet deep. Living close to the Civic Center, I often swam there when it was open to the public.
I now confess that I swam there when the Civic Center was closed. I worked as a hawker for Sam Miller at Civic Center events. Sam appointed Ron Wilson, a kid who was a year older than me, as a manager. With that status came a key to the exterior door to the vending area. Once in the vending area, we had access to the public areas. We could turn on the house lights and shoot baskets on the main floor, and we could swim in the pool.
We took advantage of both. For many stolen moments, the basketball floor and pool became our private domains. It would be neat if the moral of this story was that one or both of us went on to fame in either of those sports. That didn't happen. We were just two kids exploiting an advantage and having fun. |
03-31-2011
( Reply#: 6531 ) |
Paddy |
quote:
Did anyone see the country and western shows ... .
I hawked peanuts, popcorn and Cokes at all of the Civic Center's country western shows during my teenage years. They were road productions of the Grand Old Oprey. The comedy was tame by today's standards, but the musicianship was exquisite. |
04-01-2011
( Reply#: 6532 ) |
wvcogs |
quote:
Originally posted by tom w
Did anyone see the country and western shows or the campaign visit from George Wallace? Tom W
How about some pictures from a country/western show that was at the Civic Center in 1956 or 1957? I was just a country boy in the big city. It was okay for us to take cameras to the shows back in the good old days.
[url="http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/wvcogs72/Hammond/HankSnow.jpg"]Hank Snow[/url]
[url="http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/wvcogs72/Hammond/TheCarterFamily.jpg"]Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters[/url]
Ken |
04-01-2011
( Reply#: 6533 ) |
Paddy |
quote:
How about some pictures from a country/western show that was at the Civic Center in 1956 or 1957? I was just a country boy in the big city. It was okay for us to take cameras to the shows back in the good old days.
How about those sequined jackets that stars like Hank Snow wore?
My only encounter with the Oprey performers was with Brenda Lee. The backstage was actually the north hallway of the Civic Center, and our vending office opened into the hallway at stage right. I came bounding out of the office with a fresh load of popcorn and saw Brenda standing a few yards away waiting for her introduction. I was at the awkward age of my early teens, but I knew enough to understand that it was not a good time to disturb her. I smiled and waved, and moved on to hawk my wares. She went on stage and proceeded to wow the audience. |
04-01-2011
( Reply#: 6534 ) |
Paddy |
quote:
I also saw the circus, the Globetrotters and high school basketball at the Civic Center.
I already talked about the annual Shriner's Circus, and could go on about the very entertaining Globetrotters. This about basketball.
Basketball was king in Indiana, and many of its princes came from high schools in the Region. The Civic Center hosted playoffs, and basketball fans packed the 5,000 seats for every game. When I was attending Noll, our team was pitted against the Crispus Attucks from Indianapolis. As I recall, a win would have put us into the State Finals. We led by one point with one second to go when they called a Noll Warrior for a foul. The crowd went wild as this kid from Indy stepped to the line. How insolent could he be to think that he could make both baskets and defeat the mighty Warriors?
The kid acted like he was all alone on the floor. In spite of the frenzy surrounding him, he calmly and methodically sank both shots. Of course, I hated him at the time for ruining my team's chance for fame, but his abilities at that age made a lasting impression. His name was Oscar Robertson, and he went on to become one of the most esteemed basketball players in the NBA. |
04-02-2011
( Reply#: 6535 ) |
Jim Plummer |
I don't remember seeing George Wallace at the Civic Center. I did see him over in Gary. Pam Austin the Dodge Rebellion girl was selling kisses for a $100 donation. She sold a lot. It also seemed that a lot of blacks got up to say how much George had done for them! |
04-06-2011
( Reply#: 6536 ) |
Paddy |
quote:
Then my big 'right of passage' came when all of these heros were scheduled to show up at Civic Center. I was actually going to see them "LIVE"!! Well I went. That was when I saw what a fake ripoff the whole thing really was.
I know what you mean. I learned early on that "professional" wrestling was not a real sport.
On wrestling nights at the Civic Center, as with any other event, I arrived hours earlier to help pop popcorn and bag peanuts. We had free time between our chores and the event, and where else better to spend the time than cavorting in the wrestling ring? The ring was ready and the lights were on, but there was no crowd and no wrestlers. Just me and my buddy Ron Wilson.
We took our shoes off and bounded into the ring. We pretended to be wrestlers, throwing ourselves onto the mat and bouncing off the ropes. The mat was more of a trampoline than floor. I was amazed at how I could bounce up when I hit the mat at the center of the ring, me a flyweight 13 year old. Imagine its effect on wrestlers.
I also got to witness the wrestling matches while I sold the "hot and fresh" popcorn that we had popped hours earlier. In each match, there was always a good guy and a bad guy. Miraculously, the good guy always won two of three falls. Adding to the silliness of it all, the wrestling promoters called on our boss Sam Miller to stand in as a referee if the scheduled refs didn't show.
Sam was a great boss and good soul. He could also ham it up, and did so when asked to trade his vendor's apron for a referee's white shirt and bow tie. His part of the drama was to add an official air to the pre-ordained outcome of the match, which he did with a flair. |
04-07-2011
( Reply#: 6537 ) |
Bill Bucko |
quote:
... In each match, there was always a good guy and a bad guy.
In the profession, they're called the "babyface" and the "heel." Very colorful!
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
04-07-2011
( Reply#: 6538 ) |
seejay2 |
What also amazed me was, after I was 'all growed up' and started (ugh) working for a living, the number of people who believed that this stuff was 'honest to God' and it's outcome was real. I'm talking about guys in their 40's and 50's. I guess that was the forerunner to today's "reality" shows. What could be more credible than someone taking a beating with a chair for 20 minutes and taking dropkicks to the face, all of a sudden pull himself together and win the match...Cj |
04-08-2011
( Reply#: 6540 ) |
dilligaf717 |
My most vivid memory of the Civic Center was the holiday basketball tourney in either 1969 or 70. I had moved to Munster and when we went to the tourney, we had all hell break loose after winning the first rounds. People beat the windows out of several of the busses and God only knows how many fights there were. We learned that a can of hairspray and a Bic lighter made a pretty good defensive weapon. Try it sometime. It makes a real good flamethrower. All of this happened in the innocent years, I shudder to think what would happen now days.
Jim
Still runnin against the wind. |
04-08-2011
( Reply#: 6541 ) |
Jim R |
As a kid, I used to go swimming at the Civic Center pool while my father was in his stamp club meetings.
Harding K thru 7
Morton 8 thru 12
Class of 1972 |
04-14-2011
( Reply#: 6546 ) |
LegulusQ |
I remember playing basketball at the Civic Center almost every Saturday morning during the mid-sixties. Kids from one neighborhood would challenge teams of kids from other areas of the city. Tom J, we might have played against each other! Of course, attending the sectionals there during high school is another fond memory. Except for the night I watched Jim Bradley single-handedly destroy my Morton Governors!
Another great memory is attending my very first concert there: The Animals and The Turtles (along with several other lesser known bands)! I still have a copy of a Turtles double album greatest hits collection issued in 1974 with pictures of lots of Turtles' memorabilia on the inner gatefold of the jacket. Close inspection of this memorabilia reveals two tickets to the above show at the Hammond Civic Center, one on each side of the center divide. The tickets are slightly blurry, but the date of the concert was Friday, April 15th, 1966. The ticket price is a little fuzzy, but it looks like $2.50! I think there were about 5,000 kids at that show. I remember thinking that Hammond had really hit the big time!
LegulusQ |
04-15-2011
( Reply#: 6547 ) |
Paddy |
For many of us, the Civic Center was part of growing up in Hammond. I have written about my experiences with basketball playoffs, the circus, Grand Ole Oprey and wrestling matches. But I have one more experience to relate. It was also the place where I first fell in love.
Her name was Novelene, a lovely redhead that I met in my Junior year at Noll. She was a Sophomore who rode the same bus to and from school. We managed to meet up a couple of times after school, but the big moment happened at the Civic Center.
It was basketball season, and Noll was playing at the Civic Center. I was working in the vending area when someone told me that I had a visitor. I walked out the door to see Novelene dressed in a slim skirt and heels, not something you would see students dressed at Noll.
Her beauty, this lovely girl-turned-woman, left me dumbstruck. Had I been able to speak, I would have blurted out something like "Novelene, you are beautiful beyond words." I was deeply smitten, but too young to express what I felt.
Alas, Novelene turned out to be as fickle as she was lovely. When we met the next day between classes, she dumped me for a Senior that she had eyes on. A bittersweet memory, but a memory of the Civic Center nonetheless. |
04-15-2011
( Reply#: 6548 ) |
LegulusQ |
I was amused to realize after I got up this morning that today, Friday, April 15th 2011, is the 45th anniversary of the concert I mentioned in my previous post.
When I was a kid, I looked at photos from World War I and thought that was ancient history. Now that 45-year period is no more than the length of time passed since I attended that concert! I guess that proves that "ancient" really depends on one's point of reference!
LegulusQ |
04-16-2011
( Reply#: 6549 ) |
Bill Bucko |
quote:
Originally posted by LegulusQ
... Another great memory is attending my very first concert there: The Animals and The Turtles (along with several other lesser known bands)! I still have a copy of a Turtles double album greatest hits collection issued in 1974 with pictures of lots of Turtles' memorabilia on the inner gatefold of the jacket. Close inspection of this memorabilia reveals two tickets to the above show at the Hammond Civic Center, one on each side of the center divide. The tickets are slightly blurry, but the date of the concert was Friday, April 15th, 1966. The ticket price is a little fuzzy, but it looks like $2.50! I think there were about 5,000 kids at that show. I remember thinking that Hammond had really hit the big time!
LegulusQ
I was there that night, too. I remember my 1964 ticket to see the Beatles in Chicago cost $2.
Bill
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
05-11-2011
( Reply#: 6571 ) |
BobK |
I used to go to the Civic Center for the Circus and basketball games and the sock hops after. My mother took me there for swimming lessons and I almost drowned. My Father in his later years went there to exercise and had a massive heart attack and died while on the treadmill.
Bob
|
05-16-2011
( Reply#: 6582 ) |
Jay |
My earliest memory of the Civic Center?
The Fraternal Order of Police used to sponsor concerts every year back in the 1960's. Some of the performers that I remember were:
- a country singer named Skeeter Davis who had a top 40 hit in the 60's;
- the United States Marine Corp band in their bright red uniforms;
- a man who created sound effects with his voice (I can't remember his name but we purchased one of his records)
Also, my dad and I were once members of the Hammond Civic Gun club back in the 1960's. This entitled us to participate in target shooting at the indoor range in the basement of the Civic Center. |
05-16-2011
( Reply#: 6583 ) |
Tom J |
I forgot to mention that I saw the Globetrotters at the Civic Center when I was just a little kid. |
05-17-2011
( Reply#: 6584 ) |
seejay2 |
A friend of mine and I used to go the Center to shoot .22's. The instructor there was a teacher from Tech, but I don't remember his name. Here's the good part:
When we went to the center, we took the #2 bus from Hessville carrying the cased rifles with us and nobody thought a thing of it---2 kids with guns on the bus!
Try that today. I dare you...Cj |
05-17-2011
( Reply#: 6586 ) |
BobK |
Ah, I do remember going to a Jerry Lee Lewis concert at the Civic Center.
Bob
|
05-31-2011
( Reply#: 6601 ) |
LegulusQ |
quote:
Originally posted by Jay
My earliest memory of the Civic Center?
The Fraternal Order of Police used to sponsor concerts every year back in the 1960's. Some of the performers that I remember were:
- a country singer named Skeeter Davis who had a top 40 hit in the 60's;
Skeeter Davis! The End Of The World!
"Why does the sun go on shining
Why does the sea rush to shore
Don't they know it's the end of the world
'Cause you don't love me any more
Why do the birds go on singing
Why do the stars glow above
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when I lost your love
I wake up in the morning and I wonder
Why everything's the same as it was
I can't understand, no, I can't understand
How life goes on the way it does
Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye
Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye"
What a great song! A Billboard Top 5 hit in March, 1963.
LegulusQ |
