"Memorial Auditorium
opened in 1927 as a tribute
to Sacramento men and
women who died while
serving their country in
war.
Renovated in 1996, after a
ten year closure, the
Auditorium has hosted a
variety of events, including
concerts, family shows,
conventions, sporting
events and is the primary
location for school
graduations.
The Auditorium is a mixture
of Byzantine, Romanesque
and classical revival styles.
It resembles a cathedral
with its footprint,
buttresses, and a faux 'rose
window' medallion above
its columned façade.
It represents a priceless
link with the city's past and
the history of its cultural
development, and remains
one of Sacramento's most
beloved historical
landmarks.
Registered as a historic
landmark, the Memorial
Auditorium is a true
multi-use venue. There are
four seating levels in the
Auditorium: sloped main
floor, dress circle and two
balconies, with a seating
capacity totaling 3,855."
MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM
Sacramento Memories:
The Sacramento Memorial
Auditorium is a Local
Legend
(Sacramento Bee, Nov. 20,
2002)
By Chris Macias
What hasn't the
Sacramento Memorial
Auditorium seen in its
71-year history?
Roller derbies, basketball
games, grudge wrestling
matches with Hulk Hogan
and high school
graduations have all
headlined there, not to
mention more than a fair
share of concerts. Iron
Maiden, Duke Ellington, the
Beach Boys (who recorded
a live album from the
Memorial in 1964) and
countless others have
graced the Memorial's
stage.
Judy Goldbar, event
services administrator for
the Sacramento
Convention Center (which
oversees the Memorial
Auditorium), describes the
Memorial as "an
arena/performing arts
house."
It opened in 1927 on a
block donated by
Sacramento city founder
John Sutter and dedicated
to Sacramentans who died
in war. An honor roll listing
Sacramentans killed in
battle from the Spanish
American War through
Persian Gulf War is housed
in a room adjacent to the
main lobby.
In its early years, swing
concerts, circuses and
movies accompanied by a
looming pipe organ formed
the auditorium's rotating
lineup. The Memorial kept
its doors open until
numerous health and fire
code violations and the
need for earthquake retrofit
forced it to close in 1986. It
would take six years for
community leaders and
voters to agree on an
initiative -- 1992's Measure
H -- that would allocate
funding and devise a plan
for resurrecting the
auditorium.
But the remodel uncovered
some had some sticky
hinges. There were
questions of how the
Memorial Auditorium
should be reopened:
Would it continue to as a
multipurpose facility or act
as a refurbished, first-class
performing arts house?
Many wanted to upgrade
the auditorium's notorious
acoustics, which would
mean destroying some of
the building's classic
edifice. Others wanted the
building available for a
variety of uses, from
inaugural balls to
Soundgarden concerts.
The idea of keeping it as a
general facility passed, but
barely. Only 221 votes (out
of 84,000) decided the
measure. Operating on a
relatively small budget of
$10.8 million, the
renovation, which began in
1995, included fixing health
and fire code issues,
adding wheelchair ramps,
installing heating and air
conditioning and
retrofitting the building.
The Memorial's doors
sprung open in Nov. 1996
with a host of celebrations,
including a concert by the
Doobie Brothers.
Much of the Memorial's
original glory had been
uncovered by the
renovations. "See that red
and green?" said Goldbar,
pointing to ornate trim that
ran along the balcony.
"That never even showed
because it was so covered
with (cigarette) smoke."
Since the reopening, the
Memorial has not only
featured a host of concerts
and graduations, but also
reestablished itself as one
of the city's most popular
skateboard spots.
As Goldbar was about to
show some of the chipped
concrete and blackened
ledges caused by skaters,
two young skateboarders
rolled-up and jumped up
the stairs.
"Hey guys, sorry but you
can't skate here."
Goldbar called security on
her two-way radio and the
sullen skaters rode off.
"You know, I think
skateboarding is great
exercise and the things
they do are amazing," said
Goldbar. "But I wish (the
skaters) would realize this
is a historical landmark and
it should be respected."
Sometimes, such
landmarks are seeped in
mythology. Longtime
workers at the Memorial
talk of ghostly and
unexplained noises.
Back inside, a door
slammed. "Did you hear
that?" asked Goldbar.
"Hello, hello. Who's
there?" she called out
repeatedly.
Nothing. She got on her
radio again and asked the
guards if anyone was in
the building. "That's a
negative," came through.
"You know, people have
seen and heard strange
things here," said Goldbar.
Another voice came
through the radio. This
time there was no Casper.
Someone was just
delivering ice.
Quick Facts
Where: The Memorial
Auditorium is located at
15th and J streets in
downtown Sacramento.
Parking: Street parking is
available, and private
parking lots line 15th
Street.
For more information: Call
(916) 264-5181
Front cover of Sacramento
Memorial Auditorium: Seven
Decades of Memories by Bonnie
Wehle Snyder and Paula J.
Boghosian (1997)
California Athletic
Commission physician Dr.
Richard Russell examines
Ricky ("The Masked
Gladiator") Hunter
backstage at the KTXL
Channel 40 TV station in
Sacramento, California
c.1971
Ray Stevens at the KTXL
Channel 40 TV station in
Sacramento, California
1972
Rocky Johnson backstage
at the Sacramento
Memorial Auditorium
1972
Pepper Gomez with wrestling
announcer Hank Renner at
the KTXL Channel 40 TV
station in Sacramento,
California c.1971
Pat Patterson at the KTXL
Channel 40 TV station in
Sacramento, California
1972
In several territories
including Roy Shire's and
later with WWE, Pat
Patterson proved himself to
be one of the great wrestling
geniuses of all time, not only
in his rugged performances
in the ring and in TV
interviews, but especially in
his booking of the matches.
But for booker Pat Patterson
the Roy Shire empire may
well have crumbled much
earlier that it did.
Moondog Mayne
Nine times out of ten when
1970s fans of Sacramento
Memorial Auditorium
wrestling contact The House
of Deception to share
memories of their favorites,
they mention Moondog
Mayne, one of the decade's
most flamboyant and
memorable showmen.
This entry, sent in by 1970s
fan and now professional
wrestler L'Empereur,
currently working with Kirk
White's Big Time Wrestling in
the San Francisco Bay Area,
captures the flavor of the
house driven by Lonnie
"Moondog" Mayne, one of the
charasmatic greats of the
squared circle:
"How about old Moondog
making his way to the ring
from 'Crabtree, Arkansas,
weighing 290 lbs' in that
poncho and headband. He
would drop to his knees and
howl...that was SOOO over
with the crowd. Then, Peter
Maivia, with a gorgeous lei
around his neck came in.
From TV we knew that Maivia
had been down in LA with
Pepper Martin learning the
sleeper hold.
This was a two-out-of-three
falls match and in the third
fall Maivia busts out the
sleeper, out goes Mayne (he
even snored in the ring- what
a hoot!), and Maivia is the
New US Champ!! Of course,
Maivia sold to the crowd
asking if he should wake up
the snoozing Mayne. The
crowd chanted "No, No!", and
[ring announcer Allen] Bolte
announced that the decision
would be reversed if he did
not wake up his man. Maivia
did the traditional trapezius
massage, followed by a stiff
slap to the back of the neck,
and up springs Mayne, of
course 'not knowing' the
match was over. He attacks
Maivia, Peter alertly reverses
the whip into the ropes, and
BAM, another sleeper. Mayne
goes out again (Rene Goulet
used to do this too!), and
this time Maivia leaves the
ring. They had to 'call a
Doctor' to wake up Mayne.
God, what heat that
brought!"
Many of the wrestling pictures on this page
are shown here through the generous
written permission of the photographer Mr.
Viktor Berry, Attorney at Law, who holds the
copyright on the images.
If you copy his pictures or text without his
written permission, there will be serious
legal repercussions.
Simply stated: DON'T DO IT!
Roy Shire & Louie Miller Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Wednesday, January 17, 1962
Roy Shire & Louie Miller Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Tuesday, January 30, 1962
Roy Shire & Louie Miller Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Wednesday, February 14, 1962
Roy Shire & Louie Miller Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Wednesday, February 28, 1962
PAIR OF FANS GRAPPLE FOR MEMORIES
(Sacramento Bee, July 11, 1997)
By Jim Carnes
Remember body slams and flying leg drops? Remember beefy boys in tights doing
somersaults off the ropes and landing—splat! -- on an opponent? Remember
half-nelsons and head-slams into the turnbuckles?
Remember Gorgeous George and George "The Animal" Steele?
Remember professional wrestling at Memorial Auditorium?
T.C. Martin and Jim Hanzalik do. As president and chief financial officer, respectively, of
the National Wrestling Conference, the Sacramento pair want to create slammin’
memories for a new generation of fans.
"My dad would drop me off just about every week when I was a kid," Martin recalled the
other day. "I was like a diehard fan."
Still is. He can hardly sit still as he discusses Saturday’s upcoming show at the
Memorial, the third since the auditorium reopened last November. "It’s such a natural
mix. Wrestling and the Memorial Auditorium go hand-in-hand," he said.
Indeed, during the late 1960s and ‘70s, the auditorium was the hub of wrestling activity
in Northern California. Matches were broadcast on local television, and audiences
consistently packed the place—whole families who squealed and screamed as the
good guys battled the bad guys inside the roped-off arena.
It was contained and safe—and yet totally unpredictable.
"Our mission is to create that family-friendly entertainment again," said Hanzalik, a
former coach and physical education teacher.
It may be a tall order. Anyone who has seen professional wrestling these days—usually
on pay-per-view, or once every few years at Arco Arena—knows that things have
changed from the old days. The kind of bare-bones production featuring guys who
might actually have been athletes has long since disappeared. Now, there are smoke
machines, loud music, outlandish costumes and characters with psychotic
personalities acting out some script. Or so it appears.
Martin, a former sports radio host and ring announcer for the World Wrestling
Federation, formed the NWC and staged its first bout at the Aladdin Theater on the Las
Vegas strip Oct. 8, 1994. Three weeks later, he moved to the Silver Nugget Pavilion,
where it has been ever since.
But Martin and Hanzalik want to make Sacramento the hub of operations, with regular
shows at the Memorial Auditorium, expansion into Reno (where talks have already
begun about staging matches) and onto television, with a weekly show like in the old
days. All the auditorium matches are being videotaped for possible TV use.
The National Wrestling Conference has an uphill battle against the glitz and blitz of the
sport’s two biggies, the WWF and World Championship Wrestling, but it relishes the
role of 300-pound guerrilla. "At our first match in Vegas, a pin fall could occur anywhere
in the casino," Martin said. "They were slamming each other into the slot machines, and
there were chips flying everywhere! We had a Steel Cage War with weapons, where the
wrestlers took fire extinguishers to each other. And one of our Vegas matches ended in
a 15-man Battle Royal with all the wrestlers in the ring at once."
At the group’s second match in Sacramento, 52-year-old wrestling legend George "The
Animal" Steele raced from the upper balcony of Memorial Auditorium down to the ring
to challenge that no-goodnik The Thug, who used an illegal object to defeat the Navajo
Kid.
Saturday’s show will feature an "Arabian Death Match" in which the loser will leave the
ring in a casket.
The upstart organization has signed some familiar names from the world of big-time
wrestling, stars such as Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Bam Bam Bigelow, the the Iron
Sheik and, of course, Steele. There are new stars, too, including San Francisco’s
Johnny "Psycho" Paine.
And there’s a school — the School of Hard Knocks, no less, run by wrestling greats
Jesse Hernandez and Bill Anderson down L.A. way — that helps train aspiring pro
wrestlers. "They teach them hold-for-hold wrestling, how to fly off the ropes, that sort of
thing," Martin said.
"Most of the guys have some athletic background, so the school builds on that and
teaches charisma, how to project an image and develop a character."
So it is all fake?
"There’s an element of entertainment in all sports," Hanzalik said. "Is wrestling real? I’m
not going to say anything other than all sports is entertainment. Is professional
basketball real? If you want to make it real, you make the baskets 12 feet high instead of
10. But audiences want to see the wild dunks and the acrobatic play."
Said Martin: "We realize that there is a hardcore (wrestling) fan out there who likes to
see chairs broken and grudge matches, and we’ll give them that. Our guys are in great
shape to do this. When you see a guy go through a table, that table is real. When you
see a wrestler jump from the top of the ropes to a concrete floor, that floor is real.
"But you’re not going to see any ultraviolent things with us. We don’t go for foul
language, and there’s no room for racial overtones or gang violence."
And while you’re not likely to see a free autograph session at a WWF show, the stars of
NWC sign autographs before the matches and during intermission. For a fee (usually
$10), fans also can get a Polaroid picture with their favorite wrestler.
Some of the wrestlers from Saturday’s card will be at Florin Mall today and Saturday to
meet fans and sign autographs, too. They’ll be there from 6 to 9 tonight and from 11
a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
"We’re going back to the old school just like we remember it," Martin said. "We want to
give kids good memories. Everything’s not about money these days.
Opposition Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Sunday, March 4, 1962
Roy Shire & Louie Miller Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Wednesday, March 28, 1962
Roy Shire & Louie Miller Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Wednesday, April 11, 1962
Roy Shire & Louie Miller Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Wednesday, May 2, 1962
Roy Shire & Louie Miller Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Wednesday, May 23, 1962
Roy Shire & Louie Miller Wrestling Ad Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Wednesday, June 20, 1962
Wrestling Matches Results Sacramento Union Newspaper Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
Thursday, January 18, 1962
THE LOVE AFFAIR IS FAR FROM OVER FOR
THE MEMORIAL'S MAKER
(Sacramento Bee, February 17, 1986)
By Dixie Reid
EARL BARNETT probably has a stronger
sentimental stake in what happens to
Sacramento Memorial Auditorium than
anyone else in town. He designed it more
than 60 years ago.The other day, Barnett
toddled up to a fat column outside the place
and embraced it. 'They tell me it's dangerous.
Oooh,' he said playfully, 'it might fall on me.'
Then he stepped back and studied the
facade.
'After seeing the ruins in Rome, this looks
pretty substantial.'
The City Council will decide Tuesday whether
to close the landmark, which was placed on
the National Register of Historic Places in
1978. The city recently lost its insurance
coverage for the structure. Some of the
complaints are that the ceiling isn't
reinforced, there's no sprinkler system and
access for the handicapped is insufficient.
The way Barnett figures things, the city
should have been taking care of the old
building and updating it all along. Now he's
worried that it might be torn down.
'I sure wouldn't want to see that happen.'
Earl Barnett is 83 years old. He's a little stiff,
he says, because he fell while dancing the
other night. He speaks softly, clicking his
tongue as he talks. His hair and beard are
salt-white, giving him the appearance of a
gentle Papa Hemingway. And in his Greek
sailor's cap, he looks the part of the seaman
he was during three steamer journeys around
the world.
It was on one of those trips long, long ago,
Barnett recalls, that he hugged another
column, in Turkey. He so admired the
architecture there, which is strongly
reminiscent of the Byzantine Empire, that he
incorporated it into plans for Sacramento's
memorial to its war dead.
He entered college at the University of
California, but before getting a degree he took
a design job with Charlie Hemmings'
architectural firm in Sacramento. One of
Barnett's colleagues was a designer named
Charles Dean. And when Dean and his
brother, James, opened a firm in 1922, they
invited young Barnett along.
'Charlie Dean was my tutor. He showed me
how to watercolor. But I didn't want to desert
Mr. Hemmings, so I stayed with him until he
died, which was about a year later,' Barnett
says.
However, just as Barnett was about to move
over, Charlie Dean got sick. It was polio that
kept Barnett's mentor bedridden for months
and ultimately crippled him.
'He was so glad I was going to work for him,'
Barnett says, 'because he had this big
building to do, and he couldn't do it.'
The appearance of the auditorium was up to
him, Barnett says, although he was working
with another Dean company architect.
'I always like Byzantine - the flamboyance, the
color. Howard Hazen, he died long ago, he
was a very good designer. He liked
Byzantine, too. So let's just say it was a
meeting of the minds.'
Designing a public place in the early 1920s
was a simpler task than it is now, Barnett
says. The young men were given
specifications for seating capacity and stage
area and then were free to work their whims.
Now, he says, architects are harnessed with
too many regulations, too many committees.
After the Memorial Auditorium, at 16th and J
streets, opened in 1926, Earl Barnett was one
of its devoted patrons.
'I can't think how many times I've been up
and down these steps,' he says, smiling. 'I
came here for Governor 3 Rolph's inaugural
ball (in 1931), with all those politicians having
their grand march around the floor. And I saw
Mary Garden (an American opera star) here
on her farewell tour.
'And one time during the Second World War,
there was a famous pianist who was to play
here. I was about two blocks away, and there
were people telling us to park our cars and
turn off the lights. An air raid had just been
sounded. Well, that poor man tried to carry
on. But people were coming in late and
banging chairs, and he really got irritated.
And a curtain was blowing behind him. So he
kept trying to play and hold back the curtain.
Then somebody suddenly turned on the
spotlight over him, and that startled him. I
don't remember his name, but he sure wasn't
very happy that night.'
During the last six decades, Barnett has
heard a few complaints about the auditorium.
For instance, people have told him they
couldn't see over the folks sitting in front of
them.
'That was the first building to have a floor on
an elevator,' Barnett says. 'It could slope.
Charlie Dean got a patent on it. But the floor
didn't go down far enough.'
And sometimes the ventilation system didn't
work too well. He remembers that the clouds
of cigarette smoke that built up in the lobby
during intermission would waft into the
theater by the second act.
But the most fuss has been that the place is
inadequate as an arena for performances.
'It wasn't designed to be a theater,' Barnett
says. 'It was designed for automobile shows -
and there were pretty unattractive cars back
then - and for Pure Food shows, which were
when electric refrigerators were just coming
out and people were wanting to modernize
their kitchens. Companies would set up little
kitchens, to show people how they could
look. And the junior college always had its
Night in Vienna Ball there; it was a real fancy
affair. The auditorium was the only theater we
had for a long time.'
When the Community Center Theater opened
in 1974, it became the city's primary site for
the performing arts. So the old auditorium,
with its 4,550 chairs, has remained the place
to go to see wrestling, Roller Derby, boxing,
rock concerts and ice shows.
Earl Barnett hasn't attended any event at the
auditorium for a while, and he misses his
architectural work. His last project, he says,
was 10 years ago when he designed a
clubhouse in Rancho Murieta. These days, he
works mostly in the curio shop of a studio
behind his house. There he makes and
displays weavings, tapestries and ornamental
masks.
Barnett beams as he gazes at the massive
auditorium. The doors are locked, so he can't
get inside. But as he slowly walks around it,
he points out its four balconies, which, he
says, were common to any place built in 'the
grand manner.' Then he grumbles about the
drab doors spreading across the
auditorium's front; the originals were painted
an antique blue.
'Still, though, it's a beautiful building,' he
says. 'I sure wouldn't want anything to
happen to it.'
At ringside a crowd of fans,
always highly diverse,
anxiously awaits the start of
the wrestling matches at the
KTXL Channel 40 TV station
in Sacramento, California
c.1971