The Aragon Ballroom is the name of two historic ballrooms. One, now defunct, was located at Lick Pier in Venice Beach, California. The other, still in operation, is located in Chicago, Illinois. A ballroom is a large room inside a building, the designated puprose of which is holding dances (balls). ... ... Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Official website: http://egov. ...

Venice Beach

The Aragon was best known as the hall where Lawrence Welk and his big band, the "Champagne Music Makers," parlayed a scheduled six-week engagement in the late 1940s into a ten-year stint and a legendary television show. Welk's orchestra played to crowds numbering as high as 7,000. Local station KTLA began broadcasting a weekly show live from the Aragon featuring Welk's big band. The show evolved into The Lawrence Welk Show, broadcast each Saturday night on ABC and later in syndication for more than three decades. Lawrence Welk during a taping of The Lawrence Welk Show Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was a musician, accordion player, bandleader, and television impressario. ... A big band is a large musical ensemble that plays jazz music. ... // Events and trends World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... This redirect page is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... The Lawrence Welk Show was a musical variety show hosted by former big band leader Lawrence Welk. ... The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is a television and radio network in the United States. ... In the television industry (as in radio), syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast programs to multiple stations, without going through a broadcast network. ...

The opening date of the Venice Beach Aragon is unclear, and may be lost to the ages. The Welk show left the Aragon for a television studio in Hollywood in the mid-1950s, and the hall went into decline. It was demolished sometime in the 1960s. A television studio is an installation in which television or video productions take place, either for live television, for recording live on tape, or for the acquisition of raw footage for postproduction. ... Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue... // Events and trends This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in 1959. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ...

Chicago

Chicago's Aragon Ballroom, located on West Lawrence Avenue approximately five miles (8 km) north of downtown, was built in 1926. Designed to resemble a Spanish village and named for a province of Spain, the Aragon was extravagantly appointed. The hall was an immediate success, and remained a popular Chicago attraction through the 1940s. The Aragon's proximity to Chicago's "el" trains helped people flock to the hall, and crowds often exceeded 18,000 guests over the six open nights each week. Powerhouse radio station WGN broadcast an hour-long program from the hall each night. A mile is a unit of distance (or, in physics terminology, length) currently defined as 5,280 feet, 1,760 yards, or 63,360 inches. ... KM, Km, or km may stand for: Khmer language (ISO 639 alpha-2, km) Kilometre Kinemantra Meditation Knowledge management KM programming language KM Culture, Korean Movie Maker. ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about political regions. ... Subway redirects here; for the restaurant named Subway, see Subway (restaurant). ... WGN is the callsign of two broadcast stations in Chicago, Illinois, both owned by the Tribune company. ...

The Aragon hosted nearly all of the top names of the big band era. Among the best known names were Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Xavier Cugat, Glenn Miller, Lawrence Welk, Guy Lombardo, Dick Jurgens, Harry James, Kay Kyser, Benny Goodman, Sammy Kaye, Artie Shaw, and many others. A big band is a large musical ensemble that plays jazz music. ... The neutrality of this article or section may be compromised by weasel words. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. ... Tommy Dorsey (November 19, 1905–November 26, 1956) was a jazz trombonist in the Big Band era. ... Xavier Cugat (January 1, 1900 - October 27, 1990) was a Catalan-Cuban bandleader who many consider to have had more to do with the infusion of Latin music into United States popular music than any other musician. ... Major Glenn Miller Glenn Miller (March 1, 1904–probably December 15, 1944) started life as Alton Glenn Miller in Clarinda, Iowa. ... Lawrence Welk during a taping of The Lawrence Welk Show Lawrence Welk (March 11, 1903 – May 17, 1992) was a musician, accordion player, bandleader, and television impressario. ... Guy Lombardo, photographed by William P. Gottlieb, 1947 Gaetano Alberto Guy Lombardo (June 19, 1902 – November 5, 1977) was a Canadian bandleader and violinist. ... ... Kay Kyser (June 18, 1905, Rocky Mount, North Carolina - July 24, 1985) was a famous bandleader and one of the first to become a radio celebrity. ... Benny Goodman, born Benjamin David Goodman, (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was a famous Jazz musician, known as King of Swing, Patriarch of the Clarinet, The Professor, and Swings Senior Statesman. // Childhood and early years Goodman was born in Chicago, the son of poor Jewish immigrants who lived... ÁSammy Kaye (born Samuel Zarnocay, Jr. ... Artie Shaw Arthur Arshawsky (May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004), better known as Artie Shaw, was an accomplished jazz clarinetist, composer, bandleader, and writer. ...

A fire at an adjacent cocktail lounge in 1958 forced the Aragon to close for several months. After the reopening, crowds declined significantly. Regular dancing ended in 1964. A succession of new owners used the Aragon as a roller skating rink, a boxing venue, and a discothèque, among other uses, plus occasional efforts to revive it as a traditional ballroom. During the the 1970s, the Aragon has home to so-called "monster rock" shows, which were marathons of rock and roll acts often lasting six hours or more. Top acts included the Grateful Dead, The Byrds, B. B. King, Jethro Tull and others of that era. Those shows also brought problems with illegal drugs and the attendant crowd control issues, and the Aragon gained a rough reputation. It has been suggested that flame be merged into this article or section. ... Categories: Stub ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ... Inline roller skater on a slalom course Roller skating is travelling on smooth terrain with roller skates. ... Professional boxing bout featuring Ricardo Dominguez (left) vs. ... A discothèque is an entertainment venue or club with recorded music, played by Discaires (Disk jockeys), rather than an on-stage band. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... Modern day marathon runners The marathon is a long-distance road running event of 42. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... The Grateful Dead was an American psychedelia-influenced rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. ... THE BYRDS The Byrds (formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964) was an American rock group. ... Riley B. King aka B. B. King (born September 16, 1925) is an extremely well known American blues guitarist and songwriter. ... Jethro Tull can refer to: Jethro Tull (agriculturist), inventor of the seed drill Jethro Tull (band), progressive rock band This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Retail selling Street selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events...

In 1973, Latin promoters Willy Miranda and Jose Palomar became owners of the Aragon. The two men had promoted Hispanic dances and concerts in Chicago for years, and moved their productions to the Aragon with the purchase. They soon teamed up with rock promoters Arny Granat and Jerry Mickelson, who used the hall for their rock concerts. 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1973 calendar). ... It has been suggested that Hispano be merged into this article or section. ...

Today, under the name Aragon Entertainment Center, the hall hosts a variety of Spanish-language shows as well as English language rock concerts. Recent rock acts include the Black Eyed Peas and Slayer. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Black Eyed Peas are an American hip-hop (musical styles crossover rap/hip hop and alternative rap/hip hop) group from Los Angeles, California, who have enjoyed international pop success. ... Slayer is an American Thrash metal band, founded in Huntington Park, California (not Huntington Beach as has often been reported) in 1981 by Tom Araya (bass guitar, vocals), Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman (guitars) and Dave Lombardo (drums). ...

External links

• Aragon Entertainment Center (Chicago) official web site