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Jefferson County Armory
In 1893 the Kentucky state legislators passed a law which required every city of 1st or 2nd class to provide an armory with a drill hall and ammunition repository for the local branch of the state militia." As it was not always possible to build a new armory, some of the towns adapted existing buildings which were adequate to meet the needs of the National Guard. In Louisville, a large plot of land was purchased in April of 1904 at the corner of Walnut Street, and Sixth Street from O.S. Basye and Company for $89,750.1 Originally it was the site where Aleck and Annie Craig’s Louisville home once stood.*
A large three-story brick, stone, and steel building on a raised basement, it was designed by Louisville architect Brinton B. Davis, and built by the Louisville firm of Caldwell & Drake. The building was designed in the Beaux Arts style, and featured eagles perched atop the facade, cannons along the cornice line, and an arched entranceway. The raised basement/foundation was built of rough-cut stone. The building cost a total of $440,000 to build, and it was largely finished and dedicated on December 31, 1905. An estimated 10,000 people attended the dedication ceremony.1
Although its main function was that of a military installation and arsenal for the famed Louisville Legion (the Louisville Legion was federally recognized as the 138th Field Artillery, Kentucky National Guard, in June of 1922), the building was also intended as a community center for the City of Louisville, which did not have a large meeting/ recreational facility at the turn of the century.1
The armory also contained offices, a swimming pool and a rifle range in the basement, a large drill hall with 53,055 square feet of floor space and offices on the main floor, a gym, bathrooms, a band room on the second floor, and locker rooms on the third floor.1
From the beginning, the armory served as a popular recreational and community gathering place. Sports activities such as basketball, tennis, badminton, roller skating, and ice hockey (a large sheet of ice was placed on the drill hall floor for a time) all took place there. Roller derbies and rodeos were other popular events which occurred at the armory.1 On November 8, 1911, President William Taft made a brief address at the armory advocating his policies looking toward international peace. The following year, ten thousand citizens attended a memorial service at the Armory following the Titanic disaster in 1912. Numerous entertainment acts graced the Armory's stage, including Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Mary Wells, Igor Stravinsky, and a national broadcast of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1936. During the Ohio River flood of 1937 it was used for six thousand refugees who sought dry accommodations.2
On January 5, 1937 the University of Kentucky and Notre Dame would meet in Louisville, Kentucky in the Armory, the first of many meetings. The crowd of 6,352 people in attendance was the largest to see a basketball game in the state of Kentucky up until that time, and far larger than UK's Alumni Gymnasium, where they played their home games, could accommodate. Despite concern over the state of the playing surface, $5,700 was collected as gate receipts and the experiment was considered a success. The Southeastern Conference men's basketball tournament was held at the Jefferson County Armory from 1941-1952. Additionally, the Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament was held there from 1949-1955 and again from 1964-1967.3
Over the years, community, sporting, and recreational events had eclipsed the building's main function as the home of the National Guard. The sheer number of activities which were held at the armory forced the Guard to find another location to drill. The Guard moved out of the armory into facilities closer to Standiford Field at the State fairgrounds and elsewhere in the county in 1946.1
In 1931, he helped organize and promote "walkathons", which at that time was another name for dance marathons, since most dancers ended up merely shuffling around for the duration of the contests, which could run as long as 40 days.4 He started the American Walkathon Company which was billed as the "Best Walkathon Organization" in the United States.5 He grossed $2 million before retiring, and moved his family to Chicago in 1933 citing that the events had become "vulgar." 4 In 1934 his organization was headquartered at the Arcadia Gardens Ballroom in Chicago and was also the owner of the Coliseum there.5 In 1935 he invented the sport of roller derby, initially as an endurance exhibition where skaters circled on a track traveling the equivalent distance of skating from coast to coast. While this version of the derby did prove to be popular, Seltzer quickly noticed that the spectators seemed to really enjoy when the skaters occasionally came into contact with each other and the crashes that ensued. In 1937, Leo Seltzer re-launched Roller Derby as a full contact sport, played on a banked track with teams competing against each other for points.5 In 1945 Seltzer leased the Armory in Louisville from Jefferson County with a 15 year lease as the Kentucky National Guard moved out. Irving Wayne was the manager at the Armory for Seltzer Enterprises and according to Billboard, would be instrumental in signing the Polack Bros. Circus to many successful exclusive (circus) engagements there setting attendance records.
On September 30, 1948, while campaigning during the 1948 Presidential elections, in what would be considered as the greatest election upset in American history, President Harry S. Truman spoke at the Armory. His 9 p.m. address was carried on a nationwide radio broadcast. So sure was he expected to lose that The Chicago Tribune erroneously announced his defeat by Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey. The paper was printed before all the votes were counted. In August of 1950, Billboard reported that the Federal government put a tax lien of property belong to Seltzer enterprises against a claim of $47,928.46 due the Federal and State as amusement tax on admissions collected from October of 1945 thru July of 1949. After successful audits it was found that "amusement taxes for events sponsored by the company itself were handled and paid properly and in accordance with government regulations." They were cleared of all charges.
On November 25, 1956 Elvis, Scotty, Bill and DJ made their second appearance in Louisville when booked to perform two shows at the Armory. They had performed a year earlier in the City at the Rialto theater in an unadvertised show show for Philip Morris employees at the Rialto Theater a few blocks away. By this time though, they were national news, had been on network television and Elvis had completed his first movie, due to be released days before the show, at the very theater they performed at the year before.
While Love Me Tender may have been playing at the Rialto, it didn't stop other businesses in town to capitalize on the excitement of the Elvis craze. While RCA was plugging the show and record sales down the street from the Rialto, the Ohio Theater across the street offered free 8 x 10's to the first 500 adults to show up to see an Abbott and Costello double-feature. Gay's department stores were giving a free ticket away to a show at the Armory with any purchase of $9.95 or more in addition to selling tickets to the shows.
As excited as the fans were that Elvis was coming to Louisville, there were other factions that didn't share in the enthusiasm and saw the occasion as cause for concern. Coincidentally, Bill Haley and the Comets were scheduled to appear at the State fairgrounds across town the same day as the Armory shows. They had received reports reputedly of rioting in other parts of the country as a result of "simultaneous" rock and roll performances.
On November 7, the chief of the Louisville Police Department, Colonel Carl E. Heustis, contacted the regional F.B.I. field office in Louisville requesting any information on how to prevent any riots that might occur there, fearing a competition between Haley and Presley camps for "the attention of Rock and Roll fans." The regional office contacted Washington and Hoover responded saying they had no more information on the riots and that they be "tactfully suggested" to consult with the local police chiefs where the riots supposedly occurred. It was not the first time, nor would it be the last, that the F.B.I. had been contacted regarding Elvis Presley.
On November 14th, in an attempt at censorship and to thwart potential rioting, the chief announced that he was enforcing a "No Wiggle Ban" for Elvis' appearance at the show. The report in the papers the next day read, A no-wiggle restriction has been placed on Elvis Presley's appearance here Nov. 25. Police chief Carl Heustis said yesterday he wont permit "any lewd, lascivious contortion that would excite a crowd" when the long-sideburned, guitar-strumming singer comes to town. "As you can surmise," the Chief said, "I just don't happen to be one of his admirers." Ultimately, portions of the matinee show at the Armory filmed (reputedly by the police and most likely as evidence in case Elvis violated his restrictions), unfortunately for posterity, without sound.
The night before the Louisville shows, the boys had performed in Troy, Ohio. According to Lee Cotten, after driving all night, Elvis arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, and booked himself into the Seelbach Hotel. It did not take long before fans began roaming the corridors in search of their idol. At some point during the Louisville trip, Elvis visited with his grandfather, Jesse D. Presley, who lived in a small house in southern Louisville. When Elvis left, he gave his grandfather a new car, a television set, and a $100 bill. By that time, a crowd of 500 had gathered in front of the elder Presley’s home. Later, J. D. and his second wife attended Elvis' matinee performance. When tickets for this show went on sale, mail orders came in from every county in Kentucky and more than 180 cities.7
Elvis was introduced on stage at the shows at the Armory by WKLO deejays Beecher Frank, and by his account, Pat Cowley. At that time WKLO was basically a country music station and Beecher Frank was the night disc jockey who played pop music and thus built a huge teenage audience. At the show, Beecher was presented with an award for his promotion of Elvis' music in Louisville. Pat Cowley was hired as a backup to Frank in anticipation of his move to station WGRC.8
The reviews of the shows in Louisville's paper the following day were as follows:
The Courier-Journal implied that Elvis' performance of "Peace in the Valley" appeared to have won over some of the adults at the Armory show(s). It would have the same effect two months later on national viewers when he performed it on his last Ed Sullivan appearance. Ed would announce that Elvis was "a real decent fine boy." The Armory shows completed the last of the tours for 1956 and the boys would only make only one more appearance that year, in December, to fulfill a final obligation to the Louisiana Hayride. In August of 1960, Seltzer's lease of the Armory expired and the Armory was taken over by the Jefferson County Recreation Board. In 1963, a large-scale renovation of the Armory took place, and the Louisville firm of Wagner & Potts redesigned the interior. The Armory needed to be revamped and modernized because of its age, and to attract more events. The renovation cost $1,950,000, and included the addition of air-conditioning, the conversion of the drill hall into a 5,000 seat arena with a stage at one end, and a considerable change to the front facade of the building. The original arched entry was removed, and a marquee was added on the main floor. The gym that had been located on the 2nd floor was converted into a small arena. All of these changes were made in order to attract new businesses and organizations to Louisville to use the facility and to generate a higher income for the county. In order to facilitate this, the building was renamed the Louisville Convention Center.1
The renamed convention center assumed a different role in the community by hosting smaller meetings, musical acts, and sports while complementing the larger State fairgrounds and Freedom Hall. The name was changed again in 1975 to avoid confusion with the new Commonwealth Convention Center being constructed a few blocks away. Dubbed Louisville Gardens, the Convention Center Operation Co. chose the name to evoke images of the celebrated Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden. In 1980 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places and beginning in 1991, was managed by the Kentucky Center for the Arts. In December of 1998, the name was changed to The Gardens of Louisville and underwent a $350,000 renovation.2
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the city renamed Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard, after one of its most famous former citizens. On February 14, 2003, fighting in her dad's original home town, Laila Ali TKO'd former world champion Mary Ann Almager of Midland, Texas at 1:55 in the fourth round at Louisville Gardens.9
In August of 2007, the Courier-Journal reported that Cordish Co. of Baltimore, owners of the 4th Street Live entertainment complex in Louisville, agreed to take over operation of "The Gardens" from the Metro Louisville Government as part of a $250 million development in downtown Louisville with plans to renovate the Gardens again into a performance and sports venue. That figure had jumped to $442 million in December when more detailed plans were presented to the tax commission for a preliminary vote.10
page added December 8, 2009 All
Louisville Times and
Courier-Journal ads and articles are courtesy the
Louisville Free Public
Library. *Special thanks to Adam Taylor for
his assistance with this page, and to
Keith Russell
for the use of his photos, quality prints of which can be obtained
direct from him at
1 excerpted from
Kentucky: National
Guard History eMuseum
The "Satiny" Gold Coat
The articles from the Louisville show mentioned Elvis wearing a "Satiny" gold coat for the second appearance. He also wore the same jacket days earlier at a performance in Toledo.
This was just over 4 months before he would appear onstage with the Gold Lame' suit custom made for him by Nudie's of Hollywood, and quite likely the inspiration for it.
In March of 1973, the coat was a prize in a contest won by David Wheeler, a fan from Michigan. Along with the coat David received a congratulatory telegram from "Elvis and the Colonel."
added January 11, 2010
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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. |
Leo A. Seltzer, a former film publicist, was only 26 years old when he owned a
chain of theaters in Portland, Oregon in 1929.
Portions of this story were also recently reprinted by our friends in
the December 2012 issue of
