Diamond Ballroom: From Country Swing to Heavy Metal

By Vernon L. Gowdy III

History of Diamond Ballroom spanning over 50 years featuring country swing artists from the 1960s to heavy metal in the late 80s. Everyone from Bob Wills, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Willie Nelson, Wanda Jackson, The Cramps, Pantera, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings,Peter Frampton, White Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch, Stone Temple Pilots and more has played there.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9780359049677

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Published by VGimages

2107 County Road 1242

Tuttle, Oklahoma 73089

Copyright @2018 VGimages

First Edition

All Rights Reserved

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-0-359-04967-7

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the express written permission of the publisher.

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Front cover photograph taken by Vernon L. Gowdy III.

Acknowledgements and Forward

Special thanks to Jeff Brownen, General Manager at the Diamond Ballroom, David Fitzgerald, Jamie Fitzgerald. Andrew Ivy and Leigh Shy of DCF Concerts, Jude Northcutt, Dean Northcutt, Tony Gourley, Glenn White, Max Baker, Rev Jones, Mike Joray, Jody Miller, Joe Settlemires, Wanda Jackson, Bryan White, Howard Pollack, Price Vernon, Russell Punto, Ann Puckett, Vivla Ray Hill, Marty Williams, Ron Brockway, John Humphrey, Robin Alvis, Greg Scott, Jesse Davis, Kent Harrison, Richard Sharp.

Over the years the Diamond has been used for many events. Everything from Ballroom Dancing, Concerts, Live TV and Radio Broadcasts, Pool Tournaments, Weddings, Church Services, Private Parties, Boxing Matches, Roller Derby Training Camp, Election Watch Parties, Quinceaneras, Indoor Batting Practice, Storm Shelter and even a Wake.

This book covers the beginning of the Diamond Ballroom in November 21, 1964 with personal recordings by Ralph Russell Sr. Interviews with family members, employees, friends, musicians, concert promoters and business acquaintances give insight to the rich history of the Diamond Ballroom throughout the past 50 plus years

One

The Beginnings of the Diamond Ballroom

Ralph Russell Sr. made recordings about his life on several cassette tapes around 1997. Ralph passed away on August 26, 1999. Part of the recordings discussed the Diamond Ballroom. Excerpts from these tapes were used for this chapter.

The Diamond Ballroom opened its doors November 24, 1964 with Perry Jones and the Diamondaires as the house band and the Diamond Ballroom boasted their wooden dance floor (150’ by 50’) as the largest in the Southwest. The man responsible for opening the doors to the Diamond Ballroom was Ralph Russell, Sr.

Ralph Waldo Russell, Sr. was born to J. C. Russell and Dr. Vivla Viola Pittman-Russell in Macomb, Oklahoma, March 23, 1921. His parents were educators. The first job he ever had while in was in high school was cutting broom corn (grass-like plants not true corn plants, the stalks were used to make brooms) in Charleston, Illinois. The area around Charleston, Illinois was known as broom corn country. Russell and the boys would ride their bicycles out to the farms to cut broom corn making a little over a $1 a day.

In the summer of 1939, he got a job as a curb hop at Gilt Edge Dairy. They sold ice cream and ice cream products that Russell would take to the customers that parked out in the parking lot. Russell made $6 a week and worked six days a week.

Russell married Doris Katherine Pratt on December 31, 1939 and soon got a job at Ice Dock in Oklahoma City, working behind an ice cream bar at an ice cream place, which also made ice. Russell made the grand total of $15 a week, working seven days a week, 11 hours a day, which was roughly about 10 cents an hour.

Russell got accepted in law school at the College of Law, University of Oklahoma and had his first child, Ralph Russell, Jr. Russell got a job at Douglas Aircraft which at the time were making C47s (cargo planes) for the war. An interesting side note was Russell had gone to see Johnson Murray for the job at Douglas Aircraft. Johnson Murray was going to night law school himself and later he would become governor of the state of Oklahoma. Russell worked a swing shift so that he could go to law school in the morning and part of the afternoon and work at the Douglas plant in the evening.

In the fall of 1943, which was Russell’s last semester at law school before he graduated, he was contacted by a friend of his stepfather’s, Dean Hurry, who told Russell to go see Jess Read at the state capitol in the insurance commission about a job. Russell hesitated at first but a couple weeks later with the insistence of Dean Hurry, Russell got on a bus (didn’t have a car back then) and went up to the state capitol and found out that the job was not a clerk job (Russell figured it was another clerk job, similar to the one he had at Douglas) but it was as assistant insurance commissioner. Russell was hired right on the spot, consequently went back to Douglas, resigned, and went to work as assistant insurance commissioner.

Russell went to work in the insurance department on January 6, 1944 and having receiving his law degree in 1943 he was admitted to the bar January 8, 1944. Russell knew absolutely nothing about the job. There was not any training in the job and he was only 22 years old. In fact, after about a week, a representative of the insurance company out of Iowa, came to the office and wanted to see the assistant. Russell said, Have a seat. He sat there, he did not say anything, and Russell did not say anything. Russell said, Can I help you? He said, I want to see the assistant. Russell said, I’m the assistant. He replied, You are? Russell replied, Yeah. He said, I just thought you were the office boy.

Over a period of eleven years, he served as Insurance Company Examiner under three Insurance Commissioners, Jess Read, Donald Dickie and Joe Hunt. After resigning from the Insurance Commission, he practiced law including acting as attorney for the State Burial Board and lobbyist for the Oklahoma Funeral Director Association. During this period until 1964, he organized and acquired several investment and insurance corporations, including Labor Investment Corporation, Reliance Mutual Insurance Company, Reserve Life Insurance Company and Russell Investment Corporation.

In the early part of 1964, a man came to Russell’s office that had been recommended by another person that he had represented in a wheel-balancing device. He said he was kicked out of the Westerneer Ballroom. He said he wanted to build a ballroom. Russell got to talking to him and found out that he and two other guys were going to do this. They were going to put up some money themselves and go borrow some money and build a ballroom that everybody could be proud of in Oklahoma.

Russell found out later, that the man’s name was Perry Jones. According to Russell, Perry was kicked out of the Westerner for stealing money out of the cash register. It seems that his partner Bill at the Westerneer had a deal, where Bill handled the concessions and Perry handled the door. It was not enough for Perry, so he reached over and got his hand in the cash register. Anyway, he came to me. He didn’t come to me to form the ballroom; he came to me about seeing what he could do to keep that fellow that fired him from using his band and his band name, which was the Westerneer band, said Russell. Russell told Perry, Well, legally you’d have a hard time with something like that. That’s an act of vengeance; anyway you never gain anything with vengeance.

Russell said, I asked what he was going to do and he told me he and two other fellows were thinking about building this ballroom. Russell then added, Well, do you need a fourth person? Perry replied Yeah. Russell said, Well, I don’t mind joining in. I will furnish the legal services free and put in my share of the money. Do you think you can make any money at it? Perry added, Oh, yeah. I think we can some money at it."

Russell stated that he did not know Perry’s personality at that time. Russell added, This was a real ride, organizing this ballroom and all that went to it. It was a real ride, and it made Doris and I a lot of money doing it. I started with him in 1964; I put up my $10,000. No, I told him, I think I will have to borrow $10,000. I’ll go see if my bank will give me $10,000 to do this on. Perry said, All right. Russell added, The deal was we were supposed to raise $40,000 and then the bank would loan us the money to buy the land and build a ballroom on South Eastern. They had about seven acres out there. I raised my $10,000; I think I went to the bank and borrowed it, I am not sure. I did the legal work for them. They bought this land there on South Eastern. They started building it the end of July 1964 and the construction was completed around November. Actually November 21st was its first opening day.

Ralph said, It’s a good thing I didn’t know these people in the business. I probably never would have got into it. You get into a lot of things through ignorance that turns out all right.

In the creation of the ballroom, Ralph said There was Lem Slater who was from the construction business, a guy named George Shaffner who worked at Tinker Field, Perry Jones, a musician and a used car salesman, and Ralph Russell, a sometime attorney and entrepreneur.

So we raised the money, the $40,000 with at least $10,000 apiece. Each one owned a fourth. We borrowed I think $60,000, bought the land, built the building; 100 feet by 200 feet, 20,000 square feet, well really 21,000 square feet if you count the bathrooms and so forth, said Ralph. We built it. Perry was to run it and I was to do the legal work. The other guys didn’t have any particular job connection with it when we started in, Ralph said.

Ralph continued, "We operated this ballroom for ... let’s see, we opened November 21, 1964. By January or February the three of them got in a big fight. I was not involved in it. I was practicing law. It seemed that they were jealous of the fact that Perry would not give them any recognition as part owners. They went out there every Saturday night and I did not. I did not even go out. I did not know what was going on. They came to me complaining about him, that he was not taking care of the place and whatnot. Truth about it, what it was, he was not giving them recognition. I do not know why he did not. He should have. It is very easy. All you’ve got to do at the beginning of the day is say Lem and George are my partners, glad you’re here; then at the end of the evening you just say, Lem and George, I want you to come back. That is all he had to do to satisfy those guys. He would not do that.

Anyway, they came to complain. They wanted to kick him out. You see, each one of us owned a fourth, so the two of them had 50%; I had 25%. They could not kick him out without me. I said, You tell me who you got in his place. We can’t tell you right now. I said, Listen, I ain’t going to buy a pig in a poke. I ain’t going to vote him out. He is the only one that knows this business really, so why do that? The fact that I would not vote with them, made them believe that I was against them, which I was not. They forced me to be in league with Perry. I said, The only way to settle this deal is to have a buy or sell agreement. Buy or sell agreement is where one person has the right to buy. If he does not buy you out at that price within a given amount of time, you have a right to buy him out at the same price. You always let the person that sets the price give the other person the first choice. That way, you get a fair price. "

We set the price. We all had $10,000 in it. I had already seen an appraisal of the property, which was more than what we had put in it. The buyout price was set at $12,500 apiece. In other words, if they bought Perry and I out, it would cost them each $12,500. If we bought them out, it would had cost us $12,500 apiece. They automatically gave Perry and me 30 days to buy them out. If we did not buy them out in those 30 days, then they could buy us out at the end of those 30 days for $12,500 apiece. They set that price at $12,500 because they knew Perry was broke and they had heard that I borrowed my initial $10,000 to