The Rainbow Ballroom, at 38 E 5th Avenue (at N Lincoln Street),

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, was a dance hall that was one of the best known dance halls west of the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, according to a 1946 ''Billboard'' article. Its capacity of 3,000 made it the largest indoor dance hall in Colorado during its 28 years of existence — from its opening day on September 16, 1933, to its closing day in 1961.

Dance band era

The ballroom was host venue for national big bands (often referred to as orchestras) and territory bands. The bands included: * Louis Armstrong's Big Band (with

Sid Catlett Sidney "Big Sid" Catlett (January 17, 1910 – March 25, 1951) was an American jazz drummer. Catlett was one of the most versatile drummers of his era, adapting with the changing music scene as bebop emerged. Early life Catlett was born in Eva ...

) * Clyde Knight Orchestra (1941) * Les Brown * Verne Byers and His Orchestra (1949 for 17 weeks) * Duke Ellington (1952, 53) * Fletcher Henderson Sammy Kaye (Swing and sway with Sammy Kaye and his orchestra) *

Lawrence Welk Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted the '' The Lawrence Welk Show'' from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known as "champagne music" to his radio, te ...

(1936) *

Wayne King Harold Wayne King (February 16, 1901 – July 16, 1985) was an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader with a long association with both NBC and CBS. He was referred to as "the Waltz King" because much of his most popular music involved ...

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...

* Al Sky and His Musical Stars (1930s) * Little Joe Hart and his Boys (1937) * Kay Barclay and Her California All-Girl Orchestra (1937) *

Tiny Hill Tiny may refer to: Kane Places * Tiny, Ontario, a township in Canada * Tiny, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the US * Tiny Glacier, Wyoming, US Computing * Tiny BASIC, a dialect of the computer programming language BASIC * Tiny Encryp ...

Woody Herman Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...

* Bobby Beers * Don Reid Orchestra * Billy Eckstine * Carl (The Squeakin' Deacon) Moore *

Ralph Flanagan Ralph Elias Flenniken (April 7, 1914 – December 30, 1995), known professionally as Ralph Flanagan, was an American big band leader, pianist, composer, and arranger for the orchestras of Hal McIntyre, Sammy Kaye, Blue Barron, Charlie Barnet, a ...

Orchestra (1954) * Joe Houston (1954) * Benny Goodman * The Dean Bushnell Orchestra *

Lalo Guerrero Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero (December 24, 1916 – March 17, 2005) was an American guitarist, singer and farm labor activist best known for his strong influence on later Latin musical artists. Early life Guerrero was born in Tucson, Arizona, one o ...

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...

(1954) *

Sauter-Finegan Orchestra The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra was an American swing jazz band popular in the 1950s. The orchestra was led by Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan, who were both experienced big band arrangers. Sauter played mellophone, trumpet, and drums, and had atten ...

(1954) *

Bennie Moten Benjamin Moten (November 13, 1893 – April 2, 1935) was an American jazz pianist and band leader born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. He led his Kansas City Orchestra, the most important of the regional, blues-based orchest ...

(1935)† * Johnny Otis (1954) * Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy (with

Mary Lou Williams Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, an ...

) (1935, 1940) *

Seger Ellis Seger Pillot Ellis (July 4, 1904 – September 29, 1995) was an American jazz pianist and vocalist. He also made a few brief film appearances, most notably in collaboration with director Ida Lupino. Life and career He was born in Houston, Texas, ...

(1940) *

Lefty Frizzell William Orville "Lefty" Frizzell (March 31, 1928 – July 19, 1975) was an American country music singer-songwriter and honky-tonk singer. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982. Frizzell released many songs that charted ...

(1953) * Lionel Hampton * Gene Ammons *

Illinois Jacquet Jean-Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet (October 30, 1922 – July 22, 2004) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, best remembered for his solo on " Flying Home", critically recognized as the first R&B saxophone solo. Although he was a pioneer of ...

Tab Smith Talmadge "Tab" Smith (January 11, 1909 – August 17, 1971) was an American swing and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist. He is best remembered for the tracks "Because of You" and "Pretend". He worked with Count Basie, the Mills Rhythm Boys a ...

(1955) *

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(1959) * Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra (1959) * Phil Urso and His Quintet (1959) † On the opening night for

's band at the Rainbow Ballroom in 1935, Bennie had stayed behind in Kansas City for a routine

tonsillectomy Tonsillectomy is a list of surgical procedures, surgical procedure in which both palatine tonsils are fully removed from the back of the throat. The procedure is mainly performed for recurrent tonsillitis, throat infections and obstructive sleep ...

. As the band got underway, the band found out from a phone call to Bus Moten, Bennie's brother, that Bennie had died on the operating table. Bus Moten took over the band for six months or so and then the band broke up. After the break-up, Moten's pianist and arranger, known then as " Bill Basie," organized a small band of his own, composed of several leading musicians from the Moten band. Eventually (still in 1935), Basie enlarged the band at the Reno Club in Kansas City to the big band model that sustained him the rest of his career.

Ownership

In 1933, its owner, Orlaf K. Farr (b. 1894 Ogden, Utah; d. 1981 Sun City, CA; married to Dorcas N. Farr), hired Rudolph Michael Schindler, a well-known architect, to design a conversion from an existing arena amusement hall that had been built in 1927. Schindler's task, essentially was to design the installation of a $50,000 dance floor. The building, still in existence, is located on the southwest corner of 5th Avenue and Lincoln,

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Beyer was owner of the York Hotel in Denver and Norton was the owner of the Lewiston Hotel at 731 18th Street, Denver (both hotels may have been more like boarding houses). Farr operated Rainbow Ballroom since its opening until selling in December 1946 to Felix Bernard Beyer (b. Sept. 28, 1888,

Denver, CO Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

; d. Oct. 4, 1977, Lakewood, CO) and James Raymond Norton (b. 1894, Prairie City, IA; d. 1990

Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Verne Byers Vincent LeRoy Beyer (March 14, 1918, Denver, Colorado – December 19, 2008 in Las Cruces, New Mexico), known professionally as Verne Byers or Vern Byers, was an American jazz bandleader, double bass player, promoter, and nightclub owner. He brought ...

, Felix Beyer's son, became manager of the Rainbow Room January 24, 1947. Byers continued the past policy of booking territory bands and name bands. The hall had a capacity of 3000 and was open six nights a week. In 1948, James Norton purchased Felix Beyer's interest in the ballroom and then leased it for 10 years to Joseph Leher, an ex-GI. At some point in the 1950s, Joseph Leher (1921–1990) purchased the Rainbow Ballroom.

Affiliations

Its original owner, Orlaf K. Farr, was a charter member of the Midwestern Ballroom Operators' Association (MBOA), established in 1942.

Closing

The Rainbow Ballroom closed in 1961. Subsequent to its closing as a ballroom, the building was used as a demonstration chamber for missiles by Martin Company, then a warehouse, then, in 2002, a renovated office building.

Riot at the ballroom

In July 1959, a race riot broke out during a

Fats Domino Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New O ...

concert/dance when an unidentified man kicked over the table of a man and woman who had just finished a dance – the man was African American and the woman was Caucasian. It took more than an hour to quell the disturbance which drew 18 police patrol cars, three police paddy wagons, and an ambulance. Police estimated that were 2,500 people in the ballroom during the disturbance and that 40 different fights were going on when they arrived. The concert promoter, LeRoy Smith (1911–1989), estimated that 1,600 were in attendance and that only 4 fights had broken out. There were no serious injuries or damage to the ballroom. No arrests were made.

Current use

After years of abuse and neglect, the red brick building at 38 E. Fifth Avenue was renovated in 2002 into offices by the architectural firm of Sink Combs Dethlefs.Dick Kreck, "Ballroom Takes a New Turn", ''

The Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

'', Sect. A, pg 2, March 20, 2002 The renewed facility serves as the national headquarters for the architectural firm and is shared with several businesses. The entrance is at 475 N Lincoln Street.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rainbow Ballroom Defunct nightclubs in the United States Dance venues in the United States Former music venues in the United States Music venues in Colorado 1933 establishments in Colorado 1961 disestablishments in Colorado Rudolph Schindler buildings