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Fire destroys historic Coliseum Ballroom

BENLD - Hundreds paid homage Sunday to the Coliseum Ballroom, where history went up in flames Saturday night when the Route 66 landmark burned.

People drove by slowly, parked, took pictures and walked around the skeletal remains of a venue built in 1924 that hosted, among others, Ina Ray Hutton and her 17-piece all female orchestra, The Wayne King Orchestra and Artie Shaw in the 1930s; during the Big Band era Duke Ellington, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Lawrence Welk in the 1940s; Guy Lombardo, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry backed by Benld band The Torquays in the 1950s; Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley and Johnny Rivers in the 1960s; Bob Seger, Styx, Foghat and Head East in the 1970s; and, Heart, Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Mama's Pride in the 1980s.

Bands still played there from 7:30 to 9 p.m. every Saturday, just as Shadow of Doubt did when band members saw the fire Saturday night and asked everyone to exit, building manager Kelly Swanson of Litchfield said Sunday.

Arches of black steel spanned either side of the Coliseum Ballroom, which started out as the largest dance floor between Chicago and St. Louis but had become an antique mall approximately three years ago. Smoke still smoldered around noon Sunday at the rear of the 10,000-square-foot building where a stage had been. Swanson said the Benld fire marshal would be there Monday or Tuesday to determine the cause of the fire, suspected to be electrical in nature.

"We were open last night and had a band in there; we don't know what happened," Swanson said. "It was up in the ceiling as far as we know. It happened so fast."

Swanson said between 60 and 80 people were inside when a band member announced there was a fire and asked everyone to get out. Swanson said they hit the flames with a fire extinguisher but the fire still spread rapidly.

"We saw flames up there, they hollered for everyone to get out of there," he recalled. "Basically everyone got out and then the windows blew out. A few people got injured, some went to the hospital, but none stayed there."

Swanson and his wife, Marlana, had about 60 percent of the building's space for their resale business while 12 to 15 other vendors occupied the rest of the antique mall space, he said.

"I talked to (Swanson) and he said (the fire) already started as the band was playing," said Melanie Root, who was not there when the fire broke out but spoke to The Telegraph via cellular phone Sunday at the scene.

Farrah Fawcett – O'neal 'My Family And Tatum May « Fake Watches ...

Movie practiced Ryan O’Neal has put his reconciliation with estranged daughter Tatum at risk after blaming her for his longtime partner Farrah Fawcett’s decease in a fashionable TV interview.

O’Neal tells British newsman Piers Morgan he thinks the actress, who lost her combat with cancer two years antecedent (09), would still be alive if it wasn’t for his family’s long-standing feuds.

Appearing in a pre-taped incident of Piers Morgan Tonight, which aired on Monday night (20Jun11) on Cnn, O’Neal said, "I just think namely whether she had not met us, would she still be alive today… because nothing knows what occasions cancer, do they really?

"There was uproar during my catch on with Farrah, a lot of it caused along my kin – especially Tatum."

And when a stunned Morgan said, "It’s a harsh entity apt mention," the actor reacted, "Sorry Tatum, yet you probably understand also."

The interview aired fair a daytime afterward reality show Ryan & Tatum: The O’Neals debuted aboard Oprah Winfrey’s Own U.S. TV web. The sequence chronicles dad and daughter’s ventures by a reconciliation later a lengthy estrangement, which began while the player started dating Charlie’s Angels star Fawcett.

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