The Chicago Coliseum


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The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: liz (---.dsl.okcyok.swbell.net)
Date: March 05, 2010 05:30PM

From Wikipedia
The Chicago Coliseum was a large building in Chicago, Illinois from the 1890s to 1982 that served as a sports arena, convention
center, and exhibition hall over the course of its history. It hosted
the 1896 Democratic National Convention as well as the 1904–20 Republican National Conventions and the 1912 Progressive Party convention.

The first Coliseum was built on a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site at 63rd Street and Stony Island Avenue in the Woodlawn neighborhood, across from the main entrance of the World's Columbian Exposition, opening on 4 April 1893 to host Buffalo Bill's
"Wild West" show. After the Fair, it was opened for general exhibitions
such as the 1896 Democratic convention. It was later replaced with the
Tower, a large cinema, and is now the site of a YMCA.
The second Coliseum was built on Wabash Avenue, between 14th and 16th Streets, by candy manufacturer Charles F. Gunther, in 1899. It took the place of the transplanted Libby Prison, a warehouse turned Civil War prison that Gunter had shipped, brick by brick, from its original site in Richmond, Virginia, in 1889, and operated as a Civil War museum
Gunter preserved part of Libby's facade, leading to the
misconception that the Coliseum itself had once housed Union prisoners
of war. In fact, the only penitents to "serve time" within the
Coliseum's walls were hockey players sentenced to the penalty box.

The Coliseum hosted the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL from 1926–1929 with a seating capacity of 6,000. It was also the home of the Chicago Cardinals (later renamed
Chicago Americans) of the American Hockey Association 1926–27 and the Chicago Shamrocks of the American Hockey Association 1931–32. In June 1928, fight promoter Paddy Harmon announced plans to construct Chicago Stadium, with the Black Hawks as the marquee tenants.
As the 1928–29 NHL season approached, the Stadium was not yet ready, and Blackhawks owner Major Frederic McLaughlin had had a falling out with Harmon. Consequently, the Blackhawks
arranged to continue playing at the Coliseum. However, they could only
get ice time through January 1929; they played the remainder of their
"home" games in Detroit and in Fort Erie, Ontario, across the Niagara River from Buffalo.
The Hawks were back at the Coliseum as the 1929–30 season opened,
but negotiations with the Stadium resumed in the fall of 1929 after
Harmon was deposed as head of the Chicago Stadium Corporation. In
December 1929, they began play at the Stadium.
In 1932, another dispute led the Hawks to return temporarily to the
Coliseum, for their first three home games of the 1932–33 campaign. On
November 21, the Black Hawks defeated the Montreal Canadiens, 2–1, in their final game on Coliseum ice. Canadiens superstar Howie Morenz was the last player to score an NHL goal at the Coliseum, assisted by Aurel Joliat and Johnny Gagnon, at 7:06 of the second period.
With the Black Hawks gone, and the Depression on, use of the arena was limited. In 1935, promoter Leo Seltzer,
drawing on the Depression-era popularity of roller skating, conceived
the idea of a Roller Derby. in 1935, he staged the world's first Roller Derby at the arena. The event drew more than 20,000 people.
Refurbishing for use by the Chicago Zephyrs
The arena was re-furbished for use by the Chicago Packers, an expansion NBA team. Among the improvements was an increase of the seating capacity to 7000. After playing their first season in the International Amphitheater, the Packers changed their name to the Zephyrs and moved into the Coliseum in 1962. In 1963 they moved to Baltimore and once again renamed the team, as the Bullets. Today they are known as the Washington Wizards. The NBA would return to Chicago with the Bulls expansion team in 1966, but the Bulls opted to use the International Amphitheatre and then Chicago Stadium as their home courts, so the Coliseum remained without a major tenant.
After the Zephyrs' departure
The arena stood for a number of years after the Packers left,
serving rock concerts, and protests during the 1968 Democratic
Convention. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the radical antiwar organization, held their last national convention at the Coliseum in June 1969.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, The Coliseum saw duty as "The
Syndrome", a general-admission venue for rock music concerts. Many of
the popular bands of the era played there, including The Grateful Dead, Cream, Grand Funk Railroad, Steppenwolf, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and many others.
In the middle '70s the building fell into disuse and it was demolished in 1982. Part of the Libby facade was given to the Chicago History Museum. Coliseum Park, in the 1400 block of South Wabash, commemorates this historic structure.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: captain54 (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 05, 2010 06:40PM

parts of the facade (the turrets surrounding the entrance) remained until the late 90's...some of the remains have been relocated to the public park across the street

I remember the "Syndrome" being a major dump and a cesspool by the time it was a concert venue in the late 60's. The Kinetic Playground near Lawrence and Clark was much nicer.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: shoreline (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 05, 2010 06:41PM

I wish that I could say that I saw the Doors and Hendrix at the Coliseum. What I did catch was the Chicago Packers pro basketball team and The Bay City Bombers Roller Derby squad. The staged fighting on skates was great entertainment.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: irishtom29 (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 07, 2010 10:16PM

I only recall the Jimi Hendrix Experience playing once in Chicago; the show was at the Auditorium Theater, I was at the show.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: captain54 (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: March 08, 2010 05:06PM

Hendrix played at the Chicago Coliseum on December 1. 1968....

live concert recording

http://www.jimihendrix.com/us/node/479

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: Englewood (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: May 06, 2010 02:57AM

In August 1968, Mirisch Productions was on location in Chicago to film [i]Gaily, Gaily,[/i] the story of a young Ben Hecht's arrival in Chicago. The production company rented the Coliseum for makeup, prop storage, and wardrobe. I know because I was an extra in the opening scene, which was shot in Lincoln Park.

They were supposed to shoot three days in Chicago but limited it to just a single day, which was from sun-up to sunset. The rumor was that director Norman Jewison got tired of having to pay off everybody in the city in order to shoot his film. So he left and went to Milwaukee.

Also, the original Coliseum at 63rd & Stony Island was where William Jennings Bryan made his historic [i]Cross of Gold[/i] speech.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: Brule Laker (---.c3-0.mart-ubr1.chi-mart.il.cable.rcn.com)
Date: May 08, 2011 01:32AM

Bulls played their first playoff game there in 1967. As an expansion team, they didn't expect to make the playoffs. The Amphitheatre was booked, Wirtz wouldn't let them play in the Stadium, so they had to play there. I remember seeing the game vs. the St. Louis Hawks on black-and-white TV. They had to put in extra lighting but with the haze from the cigarette smoke, it looked like the game was being played in a night club.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: daveg (---.lightspeed.joltil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: May 08, 2011 08:36PM

Brule Laker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bulls played their first playoff game there in
> 1967. As an expansion team, they didn't expect to
> make the playoffs. The Amphitheatre was booked,
> Wirtz wouldn't let them play in the Stadium, so
> they had to play there. I remember seeing the
> game vs. the St. Louis Hawks on black-and-white
> TV. They had to put in extra lighting but with
> the haze from the cigarette smoke, it looked like
> the game was being played in a night club.

I saw several Bulls games at the Amphitheatre but didn't recall the playoff story at the Coliseum. Thanks for that update.

As mentioned above, the Coliseum had an interesting history.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: Jazzman (---.bankofamerica.com)
Date: July 15, 2011 08:08PM

I was there once --1963 or 64 --- Saw the Roller Derby.... San Francisco Bay Area Bombers... and Joanie Weston... I was all of 10 ! My uncles friend was one of the referees - thus how he got tickets.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: garpo3000 (12.34.6.---)
Date: July 15, 2011 08:51PM

I was randomly walking around that neighborhood the other night and noticed that a few of the new appartment complexes have "Coliseum" in the name and there is a park at the SW corner of 14th and Wabash called "Coliseum Park" that has some small columns and stone pieces. I was not able to find any type of plaque or information. Is that the former location or was it across the street?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2011 04:55PM by garpo3000.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: Jazzman (---.bankofamerica.com)
Date: July 15, 2011 10:27PM

It was on the East side of Wabash...

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: Mr Downtown (---.c3-0.drb-ubr1.chi-drb.il.cable.rcn.com)
Date: July 16, 2011 01:27AM

Soka Gakkai USA Cultural Center occupies the actual site of the Coliseum. The park was the former Haven School site, and was given the name to commemorate the neighborhood landmark shortly after it was completely erased in the 1990s. The townhouse development just to the south took the name as well.

I'll be talking about it on the South Loop Twilight Tour next week. July 20, 6 pm. [url=http://southloopneighbors.org/Article.asp?EntryID=1671&ReturnTo=Home.asp]Tickets here.[/url]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2011 10:41AM by Mr Downtown.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: s justice (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: November 02, 2011 12:52AM

The Chicago Coliseum held the American Bowling Congress tournament in 1953.

Skip

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: tommy wilson (---.lv.lv.cox.net)
Date: December 17, 2012 11:30AM

THE STADIUM WAS A CHICAGO LANDMARK IT SHOULD STILL BE STANDING
THE RATS FROM CITY HALL AT WORK.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: tomc (---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: December 19, 2012 04:09AM

Hi Liz, I'm starting to get the handle on this thing and lost you for awhile. You sure know your stuff!! Regarding Buffalo Bill's Circus, We once had an old teacher at Mount Carmel and he talked about the old day. He told us that there was a guy in the circus who could jump over an elephant.Regarding the Roller Derby, I worked with a gal st the U of C who ovce was a skater. Her name was Joanie snd tough as nails Tom C

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: CURTIS_LOCKE (---.lightspeed.cicril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: December 05, 2014 08:33PM

Captain 54, the remains of the Coliseum were most definitely gone by 1995. Furthermore, I don't believe that there are any artifacts which were "repurposed" into the park across the street. The name is all that remains.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: WayOutWardell (---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: December 05, 2014 09:26PM

The music video for Urge Overkill's song 'The Kids Are Insane' has scenes filmed inside the Coliseum remnants. It was shot in '91 so that's probably just before it was torn down completely.

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: WayOutWardell (---.dsl.chcgil.sbcglobal.net)
Date: December 15, 2014 02:05AM

BTW - anyone know why the remnants of the walls were left standing after the rest of the building was demolished? Why not finish knocking down the whole thing?

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Re: The Chicago Coliseum
Posted by: davey7 (---.dsl.chcgil.ameritech.net)
Date: December 15, 2014 01:55PM

I seem to remember having heard something about the cost of demo - the walls were pretty solid - or reuse, but can't for the life of me remember where I'd heard it to confirm.

WayOutWardell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BTW - anyone know why the remnants of the walls
> were left standing after the rest of the building
> was demolished? Why not finish knocking down the
> whole thing?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2014 01:56PM by davey7.

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