When we speak of a very efficient person who can handle a variety of jobs and do all of them well, we say that person is wearing many different hats. Well, let’s personify the grand old Hippodrome of many Nashville years and say, “The old Hipprodome wore many different hats!”
The grand old building sat majestically at the same location we now see the Holiday Inn Select Vanderbilt on West End Avenue across from Centennial Park.
The very big hat worn by the Hipprodome was the great nights of roller skating. That floor was probably one of the largest and finest in the country for roller skating. The rink was well supervised. They even scheduled contests and prizes with fun and excitement. It was quite inexpensive to rent skates and have a safe and wonderful evening. I can hear the loud speaker in my mind as it roared with excitement, “Everybody skate!”
On weekends, the old Hipprodrome may have been used for a convention or a trade show. Political rallies were held there back in the old days. One could ride the streetcar from downtown and get off right in front of the Hippodrome.
Another hat the Hippodrome wore was when the ring was set up in the middle of the floor, and we could enjoy boxing and professional wrestling. Do you remember when each state held its own Golden Glove boxing matches? It was quite a thing to see boxing matches which revealed the Golden Gloves champion.
Nick Gulas was the entrepreneur who promoted the wrest- ling matches. If you attended, then you remember the Welsh Brothers, Farmer Brown, Len Rossi, Tojo Yamamoto, Jackie Fargo, and others.
I remember one night before I married my dear wife to be, Sonia, we walked from Peabody College to the Hippodrome in the snow to see Gorgeous George wrestle. When I say snow, I mean we trudged through about four inches of snow. When I say Gorgeous George, I mean the new black and white television sets which made him a gigantic star.
Finally, the Hippodrome hat which excited me the most was when we could go over there and stand in front of the big, name bands which came in for one-night-stands.
I can remember in the late 1930’s we saw Benny Goodman and His Orchestra. That is when Gene Krupa was playing drums with him. In the 1940’s, after I returned home from the Army during World War II, I got to see Harry James and His Orchestra. I got to see and hear Woody Herman and His Orchestra. Also, I enjoyed seeing and hearing Elliott Lawrence and His Orchestra. That band drove into town in a fleet of creamed colored convertibles.
Tony Sudekum gave us that great Hippodrome as well as fine movie theatres in Nashville and the Union Ice Cream Companty. I think I loved the big bands the most.
E. D. Thompson can be contacted at [email protected]