A belated Happy Halloween to all you ghouls out there in swing land! Halloween is my favorite holiday - maybe it’s the fond memory of sugar highs past or maybe it's because it's the only time of the year that scaring the hell out of people is expected, whatever the case I like the holiday enough that my wife and I were married on October 31st. This year we headed southwest to St. Louis for a Halloween ball at the storied Casa Loma ballroom. The original Casa Loma was built in 1927 and it wasn't received with much fanfare - in fact it nearly went bust until better management took the place over in '35. Maybe it just was bad luck. The market crashed in October of 1929 and there aren't too many two year old businesses that are ready to withstand a major financial collapse - thing is, when the Loma took off again the depression hadn't lifted so maybe it's just a case of the right hand being on the tiller.
The sad part is in 1940 the Casa Loma ballroom burned down - from the pictures the place was a total loss. I'm still looking for details on how and where the fire started but it apparently consumed a fair portion of downtown St. Louis since a local church also was destroyed and if I'm correct (from what we saw this weekend) that church is five or six blocks away from the ballroom itself. Luckily the ballroom was rebuilt but much of its 20's era glory was lost and the new façade is plain, unornamented brick with a small sign indicating what lies within. 
We arrived at the Sheraton St. Louis in the early afternoon and I have to recommend the rooms there. Doubtlessly the bed in our room was the best hotel bed I've ever slept in and that includes a stay at the DuPont in Maryland. I can't recommend the room service, though - at least not unless you're willing to sell a kidney. For a sandwich, fries, and a salad (no drinks) we were socked for over $40. Damn that stings! You'd think the food came out of a Middle Eastern well!If you travel to the Casa Loma I might remark that the neighborhood surrounding it is - interesting. Interesting in the same way that a visit to the East Bank is interesting. Don't stray from the beaten path, stay in the well-lit areas, oh and isn't it interesting that there are armed guards everywhere? We didn't linger to take in the street life, though - I can't say I want to hang out too long when I'm dressed as a pirate complete with bandana and eye patch. That's just asking for trouble, isn't it?
By seven thirty we were ensconced at our floor-side table and we'd changed into our swing shoes and damn did they get a workout. Sh-boom was the band, a pretty good '50's outfit who could use an equally decent soundman to keep their decibel level somewhere below that of the Concord. In fact that'd be my only complaint for the entire evening (and if you know me, you know I like to complain!) - they say if it's too loud you're too old but when the sound ceases to be music and starts to be some weird kind of distorted rattle to a beat, something ain't right!
Still we danced - and danced - and danced until we were dripping with sweat and beaten. The crowd was fantastic - alive and fun and so diverse. I love Indy and I treasure the opportunities I get to attend ballroom dances at the Indiana Roof - but damn do I wish there was a venue like the Loma here in town. Everything from college-age kids to hoochie-mamas to cross dressers with a liberal sprinkling of booze and rock-n-roll and you got one hot night. My favorite moments of the night were watching the cross dressers dance, seeing someone dressed as Sara Palin actually booed (hey, it's not fair if you're mocking a buffoon to get the ridicule they deserve!), and slow dancing with my lovely wife just so we could catch our breath for the next swing tune.
Oh, and apparently we dodged the camera man who took pictures of the evening. We must be like the bigfoot couple or something - there's little photographic evidence of our existence other than a blurry shot from a distance that might just be a pair of trees dressed as pirates. I'm not saying we don't exist, I'm just saying you couldn't prove it by this picture! Definitely give the whole deck a scan, though - some great pictures there! I'll do my darndest to get a slide show of our pictures posted too - I have to admit they're nowhere as good as the ones the Loma's photographer took...then again, he is a photographer!
We stumbled back to our room and finally hit the sheets sometime after one in the morning - then it was back to Indy in time for a very tired day of work today. But damn it was a good kind of tired!
No comments:
Post a Comment