Remember The Arcadia Skating Ring/Ballroom?

[uncle]

Do you remember The Arcadia Skating Rink on Woodward?


My parent use to go there back in the 1940s. My second sister and I use to “live” up in there. Besides skating, there were shows there. As a young teen, I attended the Christmas Teenage Dance on Christmas day in 1961.


They had Mary Wells there in 1966. Great show.


But we just skated and had fun until the beginning of 1962. That’s when the gangs started “hanging” around. It got so bad that my sister and I stopped going to the Arcadia. How about you.

Did you use to skate at the Arcadia?

[Former_Detroiter]

I remember the Arcadia and the Graystone Ballroom, however, I was not allowed to go to either one of them.

[EastsideAl]

I was never much for roller skating [[more of an ice skating/hockey playing kind of kid), but I did skate at Arcadia with school friends several times. This was in the late '60s just before the place closed for good, so there were no shows and no more ballroom use, just skating in a beautiful but clearly decaying structure. The 'gang' element was there to be sure, but we were always with a sizable group and people rarely messed with us, so mostly it was just fun and horsing around and trying [[unsuccessfully) to meet girls.

I love the billing on that Christmas show poster you posted. The headliners are 2 relatively minor acts. Ty Hunter, who was one of the Master Voices and hung around Motown on and off over the years and also recorded for Chess. And the Royal Jokers who had a few scattered local do-wop hits for Detroit's Fortune Records, but reportedly had a fun stage show. But then there are a couple of superstars-to-be in Ike and Tina and the Temptations [[who would have just started using that name and were still 2 years away from having David Ruffin in the group). Then, rather incongruously, the great bluesman John Lee Hooker. And way down the list, The Drifters, who would've had several hits to their names at that time [[I wonder though if these were the "new" Drifters, who were still hit-making in the early '60s, or the "original" Drifters who were still drifting around performing then?). And finally, the gloriously rough soul of early Motowner Henry Lumpkin. Sounds like a fun time, to be sure.

[uncle]

It was the New Drifters [[The old Crowns) who were singing. The “Original Drifters” were too busy trying to keep guys in the group starting in 1959. They never could “jell” with a set sound and the songs they released bear that point out.