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Denver Coliseum The first Western Livestock Show was held on the outskirts of Denver Colorado and began on January 26, 1906 and lasted for 6 days. "Stockmen from around the West gathered to show their animals, buy and sell breeding stock and encourage a meatpacking center to rival those in Kansas City and Chicago. The event was very successful and plans were underway to repeat the next year. From this beginning, the National Western Stock Show, Rodeo and Horse Show was born." 1
"For the 1908 show they built a wooden stadium topped with the canvas roof of the huge tent that had housed the show in its first two years, but this was to be only a temporary solution. That summer ground was broken for the construction of a large, permanent stadium and it was ready for the opening of the fourth stock show on January 18, 1909. The National Amphitheater, now known as the Stadium Arena, was built with the latest technology of the times and has faithfully served the National Western ever since."1
Space became a problem almost since the beginning as the show grew in size and popularity. By the later 1940s the Stadium Arena was still the only venue for ticketed performances. Box seats always sold out long before opening day and thousands were turned away. The desperate need for new facilities was a perennial topic at meetings of the National Western’s board of directors, and in the mid-1940s livestock exhibitors began contributing a portion of their sale proceeds to a building fund.1
Quigg Newton was elected the new mayor in 1947 and he believed Denver taxpayers should have a multi-purpose facility that could be used year-round, not just during the January show. A committee of National Western leaders, show exhibitors, meat packers and Union Stock Yards officials was formed to raise $750,000. The Colorado & Southern Railroad donated the land on which the Coliseum would sit while the Union Pacific Railroad gave land for a vast parking lot and finally in September of 1949, ground was broke. The Coliseum encompassed almost three acres centered on a 30,000 square-foot arena surrounded by seating for up to 11,000 spectators. The arched roof required 5,400 tons of concrete and the plywood for the forms would have built a small town. It was completed in 1951 and the city quickly put it to use for ice skating shows and sports events. Stock Show folks had hoped for a name incorporating “National Western” or Stock Show but the city council named it the Denver Coliseum.1
Opening night for the National Western in the new facility was on January 10, 1952 complete with two huge floral horseshoes, one made of 1,000 Hawaiian orchids and another made with 7,000 Colorado carnations to greet arriving guests. Four brass bands enlivened the festivities, dignitaries entered in horse-drawn surreys and pop music groups and TV and movie personalities performed. Following a dedication address by Mayor Newtonwas a 14-float parade.
At the time, it was the largest of Denver's recreation buildings and had a seating capacity of 7933 seats. On special occasions it has been known to accommodate nearly 12,000. In addition to a skating rink, the Arena is equipped for basketball and any indoor sport. Four years later, Elvis, Scotty, Bill and DJ would make their only appearance in Denver together at the Coliseum for two shows on April 8, 1956. Having made their first appearance on the Milton Berle show from the deck of the USS. Hancock in San Diego, it followed dates at the San Diego Arena and, according to Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen in Elvis Day by Day, was the start of a tour booked by A.V. Bamford of North Hollywood , CA.
AV "Bam" Bamford was a colorful country music producer originally from Cuba. During the mid-1930s, he owned and operated a string of radio stations, mostly in the southern United States. As a promoter of these stations, he often befriended performers who would perform live on the radio or at remote locations such as state fairs. Over the years he was asked to manage a number of musicians, including Hank Williams.2 This tour would be the last tour Elvis and the boys would make with contemporaries from the Hayride and others that they had shared stages with since almost the beginning. This show also featured Faron Young, Jimmy and Johnny and Wanda Jackson .
The reviews in both the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain news were, like many of the time, not all that favorable though they noted Elvis' overwhelming popularity with his audience. As is probably not all that surprising for Colorado at the time, the writer for the Post must have been clearly a Country fan with little chance of being won over by anything else.
At age 19, Faron Young had first performed on the Louisiana Hayride in October 1951 and had signed with Capitol Records in January 1952. Within six months he was singing on the Grand Ole Opry though his first hit, Goin’ Steady, wasn't released until November, two weeks after being inducted in the Army. After his discharge, Faron had put together the band fronted by the Wilburn Brothers, and started touring in November 1954. From a name-the-band contest they acquired “The Young Sheriff and his Country Deputies.” Over the next four decades, the Deputy roster included such names as Gordon Terry, Darrell McCall, Roger Miller, Johnny Paycheck, Lloyd Green, Ben Keith, and Vassar Clements. Faron later changed his title to The Singing Sheriff. 3
As mentioned in the Post, Faron's band the Country Deputies didn't arrive in time to perform and he was backed by the KLAK Ranch hands. KLAK was a radio station on 1580 AM started by Morey Davolt on January 8, 1955 which featured "country-and-Western" music exclusively, except for an hour on Sundays, when it played Hawaiian melodies (because Morey liked it). Employees wore cowboy hats, cowboy boots, fringed jackets and bolo ties. The station had titles like "Ranch Hands" for the DJs, "Blacksmith" for the radio engineer and "Range Riders" for the sales staff. Morey was "Boss Man." 4
The review of Elvis' show in Denver by the Rocky Mountain News went as follows:
From Denver, the tour would move on to dates across Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma the next couple of weeks before Elvis and the boys went to Las Vegas and on to heading their own show which acts weren't remotely considered rivals. As history has told, the reviewer's predictions from the post were a tad off. Negotiations with Paramount had begun with an offer from Hall Wallis days before the Denver show and would complete when Elvis signed by the end of the month.
In the 1950s, Faron starred in four easily forgettable movies: Hidden Guns, Daniel Boone–Trailblazer, Raiders of Old California, and Country Music Holiday. He appeared as himself in cameo roles and performances in later country music movies and was a frequent guest on television shows throughout his career. Faron stayed with Capitol for ten years and then Shelby Singleton, who would later buy Sun records, signed him to Mercury Records in 1962. His hits continued into the 1960s and 1970s, while he established himself as a Nashville businessman. By the 1980s, he had become an elder statesman of the country music industry and was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.3
In the 70s, with the TCB band, Elvis would perform there two more times, on September 17, 1970 and April 30, 1973. The Coliseum would later host other performers, including Bob Dylan.
In 1998, the Coliseum was host to WCW's Spring Stampede and home to the Colorado Wildcats of the Professional Indoor Football League.5 The Coliseum celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2002 and recently completed an interior make-over to the concourse areas plus the construction of a new box office.6
The Coliseum is still home to the National Western Stock Show and has since been host to a multitude of other events including: rodeos, motor shows, concerts, pow wows, public ice skating, dances, Disney on Ice, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, exhibits and trade shows.
Wanda Jackson continues to perform and earlier this year was inducted into to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Bill black and D.J. Fontana. page added October 12, 2009 Special Thanks to Curtis Sobolik, Production Manager and Ron Garrison ,Guest Services Manager for Red Rocks & Denver Coliseum, City and County of Denver and to Janice Prater of the Western History / Genealogy Department of the Denver Public Library for their assistance with this page.
1
excerpts from
The History of the National Western Stock Show
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All photos on this site (that we didn't borrow) unless otherwise indicated are the property of either Scotty Moore or James V. Roy and unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited. |
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