Terrace Ballroom

The Terrace Ballroom was a ballroom, located on 464 South Main Street, in Salt Lake City, Utah. During the 1930s, when it was called "Coconut Grove", there was no larger ballroom in the United States. Its name was originally changed in the 1940s to "Rainbow Randevu",[1] before it settled in the 1950s to "Terrace Ballroom".[2] When the Rainbow Randevu was taken over by the operators of Lagoon Amusement Park, a policy was in place excluding blacks; like the park itself, Robert E. Freed opened the ballroom to all people in the 1940s.[3]

Terrace Ballroom Promotional Poster

The ballroom has hosted concerts by many famous artists, including Kansas, Frank Zappa, Grateful Dead, Wishbone Ash, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, KISS, The Police, Alice Cooper, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane & The Doors, among others.

The last Terrace Ballroom concert, Farewell to the Terrace, was held on December 11, 1981 and featured Claudia Appling singing Folk, Cow Jazz known for Country-Rock, and Anthem, an upcoming Rock-Metal band. Promoted by Raymond Cannefax as a token of respect to a venue he felt was one of America's best concert halls, in line with San Francisco's Winterland. Claudia Appling sang Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi with its apropos chorus, "They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot." In 2018, the parcel remains a parking lot.

The venue closed in 1981 and was demolished. The site is now occupied by a parking lot.

The last concert held at the Terrace Ballroom was actually The David LaFlamme Band, who played there on December 26, 1981. LaFlamme (born Gary Posie) was a former member of San Francisco band It's a Beautiful Day, known for its signature song "White Bird".[4]

References
  1. Rainbow Randevu sign
  2. Venue information and background http://www.ledzeppelin-database.com
  3. Coleman, Ronald G. (1976), "Blacks in Utah History", in Papanikolas, Helen (ed.), The Peoples of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah State Historical Society, pp. 115–140, ISBN 0913738263, OCLC 2523229. Reprint, with permission, at historytogo.utah.gov
  4. Chronological list of performers http://lagoonhistory.com/project/attractions/outside-the-park/the-terrace/the-terrace-chronological-list-of-performers

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.