When I was a student at Youngstown State in the 1970’s, I spent a lot of time at the Kilcawley Student Center. And like many college students, I liked music and went to concerts both on campus and at other venues. Little did I realize that where Kilcawley stood was the site of one of Youngstown’s and northeast Ohio’s most storied concert and dance venues, the (Nu) Elms Ballroom.

It all began in 1921 when a dance instructor, Raymond Bott built an 8,000 square foot dance ballroom on Elm Street between Spring and Arlington. It originally was built to showcase the Bott Academy, a dance academy that his family had operated since 1894. They held classes for men, women and children and hosted Tuesday and Saturday assembly dances. Bott developed a national reputation as president of the Dancing Masters of America in New York City and sold off the school in 1929 to Frank Stadler.

Stadler had built the Yankee Lake Ballroom as well as the Southern Park dance pavilion, near present-day Southern Park Mall. He reopened the building as the Elms Ballroom at the end of 1929. Ballroom dancing had caught on big time, and even in the Depression, ballroom dancing was big in Youngstown with dances at nearby Yankee Lake and Craig’s Beach, as well as Idora Ballroom, Krakusy Hall, Stambaugh Auditorium, the Cascade Room at the Pick-Ohio among the many. In 1932, Stadler turned the Elms over to L.A. “Tony” Cavalier, who also ran the Idora Ballroom and the old H.K. Wick Mansion on Logan. Under his management, it became the Nu-Elms. Working with promoter Clarence King, they hosted such famous bands as the Harlem Play Girls, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, the Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald, and Nat King Cole.

The 1940’s brought Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Billy Eckstine, the Andrews Sisters and Vaughn Monroe, who 3,000 people came to see. The ballroom was remodeled and had a grand re-opening in 1949, once again as the Elms Ballroom. Parking was expanded. But Big Band music was fading, although there is a great recording of Stan Kenton in one of his many performances at the Elms Ballroom on December 2, 1952.

The 1950’s brought “rock ‘n roll,” a term coined by Alan Freed, a Cleveland disc jockey who had worked for a time at WKBN. Clarence King turned to recruiting these acts, bringing in Chuck Berry, Bill Doggett, Bo Diddley, Ike and Tina Turner, the Drifters, Fats Domino, and James Brown and his Famous Flames, who appeared numerous times in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. During one of these appearances, Jerry Poindexter, a ten year old from Youngstown sneaked into the back door at the Elms, as Brown practiced. He remembers:

“I saw three tour buses pull into town and I followed them on my bicycle to Elms Ballroom,” said Poindexter, as he reminisced about his childhood in the 1960s. “I missed my curfew that night and got my butt whupped. I didn’t care, because I got to see James Brown.”

Years later, in 1978, as a keyboard player he joined James Brown’s band, playing for them for another 26 years–and it began at a practice at the Elms!

Between the national acts, The Elms hosted local “sock hops” with disk jockeys like Dick Biondi, Johnny Kay, and Boots Bell from WHOT. Local bands were also popular, including Mike Roncone, the Del-Rays, and the Human Beingz, whose big national hit was “Nobody But Me.” The Del-Rays were the big thing on the local scene in the early 1960’s, consisting of Danny Carbon, keyboards, Nick Timcisko, bass player, Johnny Stanko, lead vocals and guitar; Joe “Mouse” Kalaman, saxophone; and Bruce Dill, drums. They were from Campbell and Struthers. They were regulars at the Elms.

But the Elms Ballroom’s days were numbered. What was then Youngstown University was growing and the area around the Elms was acquired for expansion plans. The building was razed in 1965, making way for that Kilcawley Center where I spent so much time. I only knew of the Elms from friends of my parents. It sounds like it was an incredible music and dance venue.

Sean T. Posey has written extensively about the Elms Ballroom in his Lost Youngstown, one of my sources for this article. He produced a great video capturing the history of the place with images and an interview with Mike Roncone.

I’d love to hear from you if you have memories of the Elms Ballroom! What was it like and who did you hear there?

To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!