Rendezvous Ballroom burned to the ground for the last time. The block long Rendezvous made its debut on March 24th, 1928 between Palm and Washington streets, bordered by a huge paved parking lot on the ocean front beach at Balboa, California. The 12,000-square-foot dance floor could easily accomodate over 1,500 couples with a 64 foot soda fountain on the ground floor along with dozens of couches and a smaller soda fountain above on the mezzanine and balcony surrounding the dance floor along with 50 more couches. When the $200,000 ballroom went up in flames on 27 January 1935, another even bigger and better Rendezvous was built on the site in less than 3 months - and because of the then depression economy, at a fraction of the cost of the first. By the late 1930s, the Rendezvous Ballroom became a major West Coast stop for the touring Big Bands with the performances of Harry James, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnete, Les Brown and more accompanied by the famous vocalists of the era regularly broadcast by radio nationwide. By 1938 the ballroom was dubbed the Queen of Swing by Look Magazine. In the early morning hours of 7 August 1966, the Rendezvous Ballroom burned to the ground and an apartment complex was later built at the location... I love Newport Beach!
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 17:00:38 +0000
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