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| Ten Thousand Motels |
From Rolling Stones...to Broken Bones
Events center earned place in music history with shows spanning legendary to notorious
John Weeks, Staff Writer
sb.sun.com
SAN BERNARDINO - A riot that disrupted a weekend punk-rock concert at the National Orange Show Events Center left plenty of collateral damage. Not only were dozens of businesses damaged, but the concert venue itself was left with a nasty black eye.
It's not the first time.
The venue became legendary for its role in the British Invasion of the '60s. It was the site of the Rolling Stones' first American concert in 1964.
But the events center was hosting a different kind of British invasion last weekend, a punk show called British Invasion 2K6 featuring acts like the Broken Bones.
From the Rolling Stones to the Broken Bones, the history of the National Orange Show Events Center as a concert venue is an action-packed saga with high points and low points of all kinds.
The story actually begins almost 100 years ago. The events center started in 1911 as a farmers' fair, held under two tents pitched in downtown San Bernardino. Later, it established permanent quarters south of downtown. In time, it became the nation's most famous citrus exhibition, and big-name entertainment helped draw crowds each year.
Swing Auditorium was built in 1949 on the fair grounds to serve as the main entertainment venue. Many stars took their turn on the stage, including Jack Benny, George Burns and Louis Armstrong. Bob Hope was a regular, performing annually for 13 years as part of Armed Services Day.
In 1958, Sammy Davis Jr., who four years earlier had been treated at the then-San Bernardino Community Hospital for injuries sustained in a car crash, thanked the hospital with a star-studded benefit at the Swing. Judy Garland, Jerry Lewis, Tony Curtis, Danny Thomas and Shirley MacLaine were on the bill.
As the '50s gave way to the '60s, and the rock 'n' roll era gathered momentum, the Swing became one of the West Coast's preeminent rock palaces. The Rolling Stones began their first American tour with a performance at the Swing on the night of June 5, 1964. Local promoter Bob Lewis had tried to book the Beatles, unsuccessfully, but the New York booking agency with which he was negotiating offered the Stones as a consolation.
"I had never heard of the Rolling Stones, but my son thought they were cool, so I said OK,'' Lewis remembers.
Local radio ads for the concert promoted the Stones as the "Ugliest Band in England.'' The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department assigned its riot squad to help San Bernardino police and Orange Show security officers keep the peace.
A less-than-capacity crowd of 3,500 people turned out for the show, but they were loud and boisterous, rushing the stage on numerous occasions.
After the show, they swarmed a parking lot where the band's bus was parked.
A Sun reporter, in his next-day account of the concert, wrote: "It's a good thing the riot squad was there.''
The Stones concert was the beginning of an almost two-decade rock heyday at the Swing that would include concerts by the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, the Jackson Five and many others.
Crowd control always was a concern, and disturbances, usually minor, were common.
In August 1969, unruly fans threw rocks and bottles after Sly and the Family Stone failed to appear for a show at the Swing. One policeman was slightly injured, and six teens were arrested.
In November of that year, a show by Blood, Sweat and Tears was called off in advance by the promoter, who blamed poor ticket sales on racial unrest in the city.
Jimi Hendrix drew a turnaway crowd for a concert on June 20, 1970. Disappointed fans who couldn't get tickets became unruly. They began throwing objects and breaking glass, not only on the events center grounds but on neighboring streets. Police using tear gas quelled the disturbance. Eight businesses were damaged, and 12 minor injuries were reported.
At a San Bernardino City Council meeting later in the week, there was much discussion of local rock concerts and large crowds of unruly teens. Mayor Al Ballard said, "I wonder where these kids get the money.'' Police Chief Louis Fortuna answered, perhaps only partly in jest, "They don't wear shoes or get haircuts.''
Scuffles between fans and police also erupted at sold-out concerts by Santana in September 1970 and Canned Heat in January 1971.
On the flip side, there also were memorable concerts at the Swing in which crowd behavior was not part of the story. Elvis Presley did two sold-out shows there on Nov. 12-13, 1972. He stayed in San Bernardino for several days before the shows, renting the entire sixth floor of the east tower at the Hilton Hotel on Hospitality Lane. According to local legend, The King ordered countless room-service hamburgers during his stay and left a pair of boots behind when he departed.
Concerts also were held at venues other than the Swing, including Kaiser Dome and the Damus Building. In September 1975, some 15,000 fans crowded into the outdoor Orange Show Stadium, braving 100-degree heat for an afternoon rockfest starring Black Sabbath and Lynyrd Skynyrd. No arrests or injuries were reported.
In September 1980, the Orange Show Stadium filled again for what was billed as the San Berdoo Blowout, an all-day festival starring AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult and Molly Hatchet. Few problems were reported inside the venue, but police chased off several dozen freeloaders who attempted to save the $10 admission by climbing onto the roofs of nearby businesses.
On Sept. 11, 1981, an era ended when a private plane crashed into Swing Auditorium, damaging it beyond repair. Concerts that already had been scheduled were moved to a hastily refurbished Commercial Industrial Building, later renamed the Orange Pavilion. These dates included a Beatlemania performance on Sept. 25 and an Eddie Rabbitt concert on Oct. 5.
The destruction of the Swing, though, was a devastating loss, and the National Orange Show Events Center languished as a concert venue, especially as attention was diverted to nearby Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore. The mammoth US Festival rock shows of 1982 and 1983 established the hillside location as a viable site and led to construction of the giant Blockbuster Pavilion, now called Hyundai Pavilion.
The National Orange Show Events Center hosted a few marquee shows during the '80s and early '90s. The Highwaymen, featuring Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, performed at Orange Pavilion in 1991.
But it wasn't until the late '90s that the venue started to regain regular attention as a concert site, mostly because of a series of so-called "raves'' that were held there.
In 1997, a rave called Caffeine Nation, starring Less Than Jake, Guttermouth and the Descendants, ended early when police used tear gas to disperse unruly fans.
Prominent among the raves were the SmokeOut festivals that were staged four times between 1998 and 2003, featuring bands like Cypress Hill, Linkin Park and Pennywise. The shows drew crowds of 20,000 and more, and rowdy behavior and flagrant drug use made the shows unpopular with city leaders and business owners.
In advance of the final SmokeOut festival, in November 2003, the office of then-Mayor Judith Valles released a statement that said: "It's not something we look forward to. This hurts our image.''
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| Break The Spell |
So I guess when Hendrix played there in June 1970, it would have been one of his last concerts. He died a couple months later... |
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