RSS
Everybody's got a Coliseum story
While we tick down the final days of what's left of the New Haven Coliseum, everyone in the Greater New Haven area, and well beyond, seems to have a story to tell about the old place. My column yesterday on my top 10 shows and the news article today about promoter Jimmy Koplik's favorite performances elicited many phone calls and e-mail messages.
Sandy Popp of Northford, a devoted fan of singer Barry Manilow, was shocked! shocked! that I didn't include him in my top 10. I do have a whimsical memory of Barry M. doing his "Copacabana" schtick and covering his arrival at Tweed-New Haven Airport, but I simply could not in good conscience include him in the top 10. Who was I going to take out? Springsteen? The Who? Dylan?
Popp recalled camping out to get a ticket -- or at least going early in the morning. This reminded me of other mornings when I would go down to the Coliseum and see hundreds of determined bedraggled rock 'n' rollers with their sleeping bags on the sidewalk for the rock band of their choice. This was before people bought all their tickets via computer. There was something honest and fair about the camp-out system: you put in your time, you got your ticket.
Another anecdote was called in by Michael Smith of East Haven, who participated in two baseball card dealer shows at the Coliseum, in 1987 and 1988 -- if his memory serves him well. In 1988 he got Micky Mantle's autograph after standing in line to meet the great Yankee. Smith said the Coliseum was packed with collectors and dealers.
And John Licciardi, a former composing room worker at the New Haven Register told me that when Sinatra came to town in the late '70s, Licciardi was offered two free tickets -- albeit it in the upper level of the Coliseum. His wife and daughter didn't want to go, so he took his son Andrew, who was about 8. After they got to their helicopter seats, the kid said he didn't want to stay there -- and they got a break when a police officer let them go to the second or third row from the stage, an area Sinatra reserved for firemen and cops. Nobody else was using those particular seats, so Licciardi & son had a fine old time. Today his son is a huge Sinatra fan.
People will be holding onto their own sweet memories as the demolition topples the old joint this coming Saturday morning.
Sandy Popp of Northford, a devoted fan of singer Barry Manilow, was shocked! shocked! that I didn't include him in my top 10. I do have a whimsical memory of Barry M. doing his "Copacabana" schtick and covering his arrival at Tweed-New Haven Airport, but I simply could not in good conscience include him in the top 10. Who was I going to take out? Springsteen? The Who? Dylan?
Popp recalled camping out to get a ticket -- or at least going early in the morning. This reminded me of other mornings when I would go down to the Coliseum and see hundreds of determined bedraggled rock 'n' rollers with their sleeping bags on the sidewalk for the rock band of their choice. This was before people bought all their tickets via computer. There was something honest and fair about the camp-out system: you put in your time, you got your ticket.
Another anecdote was called in by Michael Smith of East Haven, who participated in two baseball card dealer shows at the Coliseum, in 1987 and 1988 -- if his memory serves him well. In 1988 he got Micky Mantle's autograph after standing in line to meet the great Yankee. Smith said the Coliseum was packed with collectors and dealers.
And John Licciardi, a former composing room worker at the New Haven Register told me that when Sinatra came to town in the late '70s, Licciardi was offered two free tickets -- albeit it in the upper level of the Coliseum. His wife and daughter didn't want to go, so he took his son Andrew, who was about 8. After they got to their helicopter seats, the kid said he didn't want to stay there -- and they got a break when a police officer let them go to the second or third row from the stage, an area Sinatra reserved for firemen and cops. Nobody else was using those particular seats, so Licciardi & son had a fine old time. Today his son is a huge Sinatra fan.
People will be holding onto their own sweet memories as the demolition topples the old joint this coming Saturday morning.
posted by Randall Beach at
5:38 PM
2 Comments
