Benld Silhouette
Dancing the Night Away
The Coliseum Ballroom
The Coliseum Ballroom on Route 66 was a hopping place on Saturday nights. Benld's ballroom boasted the biggest dance floor between Chicago and St. Louis. People gathered from throughout the region to dance to big bands such as Duke Ellington, Lawrence Welk, and Tommy Dorsey and rock to Ray Charles, Fats Domino, and the Everly Brothers.
Gamblers and Bootleggers
Benld, named after town founder Ben L. Dorsey, was a little Las Vegas when Dominic Tarro built the Coliseum in the 1920s. Miners gambled at taverns, and moonshine flowed from "Mine No. 5," a disguised still.
The Day the Music Died
After its musical heyday, an antique mall filled the Coliseum for several years. The Ballroom burned to the ground during a 2011 electrical fire.
The Coliseum Ballroom
The Coliseum Ballroom on Route 66 was a hopping place on Saturday nights. Benld's ballroom boasted the biggest dance floor between Chicago and St. Louis. People gathered from throughout the region to dance to big bands such as Duke Ellington, Lawrence Welk, and Tommy Dorsey and rock to Ray Charles, Fats Domino, and the Everly Brothers.
Gamblers and Bootleggers
Benld, named after town founder Ben L. Dorsey, was a little Las Vegas when Dominic Tarro built the Coliseum in the 1920s. Miners gambled at taverns, and moonshine flowed from "Mine No. 5," a disguised still.
The Day the Music Died
After its musical heyday, an antique mall filled the Coliseum for several years. The Ballroom burned to the ground during a 2011 electrical fire.
