Despite a devastating fire that brought to an end the 90-year history of the Coliseum Ballroom in Benld, Jim Marcacci and Bruce Logsdon of Sound and Light Videography plan to complete the video documentary they were working on when the fire broke out last month. The partners showed a 14-minute preview of the documentary to members of the Benld Area Rotary Club on Tuesday during the club’s regular meeting at Toni’s Family Restaurant in Benld.

Marcacci, a former Gillespie High School Teacher, and Logsdon, a former Litchfield teacher now living in Springfield, were close to putting the finishing touches on the documentary when word reached them that the Coliseum was burning. Logsdon was out of state and Marcacci was recording a wedding in Springfield. Neither was able to get to the scene while the building was burning. Marcacci visited the site the next day to film the remains of the building and the procession of cars and people passing by the smoldering ruins.

“It looked like a funeral procession,” Marcacci said. Tracking down sources to interview, photos and snippets of film to produce the documentary, Logsdon said, was a difficult process. “If it was complicated before, it’s even more complicated now,” he said. “Fortunately we had shot about 80 percent of the interior footage we needed.”

But there are some aspects of the Coliseum’s interior that escaped the camera, only to be consumed by the flames. “Jim had found the infamous wall behind the stage,” he said. The wall bore the signatures of many of the performers who had played on the Coliseum Ballroom’s stage. “It was deteriorated, but it was still there.”

The pair also found shower stalls in the basement that were used by the ‘working girls’ to freshen up between customers. Marcacci said the two men have completed most of the interviews they need for the project, but are still hoping to land interviews with Bo Diddely, Fats Domino and Chuck BerryÐall of whom played at the Coliseum. Berry, who still performs occasionally in St. Louis has a reputation for demanding cash for interviews with him.

“If he wants $500, we’ll get it somehow,” Logsdon said. Originally planned as a celebration of the Coliseum’s storied past, the documentary is now taking on aspects of a memorium. Several years ago, Logsdon said, the two men decided to pursue the project when they were driving by the building on the way to Staunton one day. Logsdon was filming at the time, capturing a sequence during which the Coliseum looms into view as the car passes by. “I told Jim that if we’re going to do this, we need to get serious about and get it done, because someday it’s going to burn down,” Logsdon recalled.

The revamped version of the documentary now opens with the footage Logsdon shot a couple of years ago, and image dissolves into what remains of the Coliseum today. The pair also has obtained footage of the fire itself to use in the production. But the bulk of the film will be devoted to the Coliseum’s history and the performers who played their in its heydey. The 14-minute teaser Marcacci and Logsdon screened on Tuesday is available for viewing on YouTube.com.

After the fire, Marcacci said the number of “hits” on the YouTube video increased dramatically. Marcacci said watching the procession of cars and talking to people on Sunday after the fire “was a defining moment” for him that exemplified what the Coliseum meant to thousands of people throughout the Midwest.

Advertisement

Before the fire, Marcacci had made arrangements to interview an 81-year-old musician from Granite City who performed with three different bands that played the Coliseum between 1947 and 1957. The plan was to film the interview inside the Coliseum, but the fire dashed those plans.”I really felt sorry for him,” Marcacci said. “He wanted to see it one last time. The last time he was there was in 1957. He almost had tears in his eyes.”

The pair also found a taped interview with former owner Joyce Tarro, who was murdered in the 1970s. Portions for the interview will find their way into the finished film. Logsdon said the finished doumentary will differ from most documentary projects in that it is not about a person or an event. “It’s about a building,” he said. “It’s a building that is part of the collective memory.”

Despite the setback, Logsdon and Marcacci said they plan to finish the documentary before Christmas. They hope to produce about 2,000 copies, which will retail for about $25 each. The finished piece will run 60 to 90 minutes. Of course, initial plans to premier the film at the Coliseum have had to be scrapped. “Like everyone, we grieved when it burned,” Logsdon said. “It will never be rebuilt and it shouldn’t be. It was more than just a dance hall. I think she went out in a blaze of glory and thatÕs how it should be.”

Comments

comments