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Remember When: Municipal Auditorium

Remember When: Municipal Auditorium (Added: December 02, 2009)

Each Tuesday on News 3 Nightwatch you will be shown a Remember When photo that will hopefully trigger memories from our viewers (more)

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By Phil Scoggins
Published: December 02, 2009

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This week's Remember When picture from the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer archives is of the old Columbus Municipal Auditorium. Standing in front of it is the late Hubert Stubbs, the auditorium manager and former director of parks and recreation. One of our viewers who saw the picture was Jim Hill who happens to be Mr. Stubbs' former son-in-law. He took me to Mr. Stubbs' home place in Columbus where his wife shared a scrapbook with a lot of historical information about the auditorium. The scrapbook included an article from the Ledger-Enquirer from September 6, 1957. It announced the grand opening of the auditorium and included an article about the first event to be held there...an ice show. The auditorium hosted an array of events over its 38 years such as rodeos, the circus, graduations, and so many more. Jim recalls the annual high school Christmas basketball tournament and how impressive it was to play in such a big facility.
Wednesday nights at the auditorium meant one thing...wrestling. One of the highest profile fans in the area was Miss Lillian Carter, President Carter's mother. Hill remembers, "Mr. Stubbs used to talk about how even after Jimmy became president she would insist on coming up there and watching the wrestling matches and how hard it was with security issues."
Concerts were a big draw at the auditorium. Viewers wrote in about attending concerts by Sonny & Cher, Roy Orbison, The Beach Boys, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Doobie Brothers, Lynnard Skynnard, Seals and Croft, Aretha Franklin, Blood Sweat and Tears, The Platters, Three Dog Night,
The Jackson Five, Ray Charles, KISS, and Barry White just to name a few.
Jim's photo album includes pictures from the 70's when Willie Nelson came to the auditorium. "Weylon Jennings was with him. Leon Russell was playing the keyboards that night. Weylon told the story about how he survived the plane crash when he was part of the Buddy Holley group," Hill recalls.
The auditorium was demolished in March of 1995 to make way for the new Civic Center that sits just behind the old auditorium's footprint.