Guess who did the first show at the Des Moines Civic Center.

October 6, 2018

Congratulations to Des Moines Performing Arts in celebrating their 40^th season of entertaining us in central Iowa! The Civic Center building itself actually came along in 1979.  The KRNT Theater had closed and a bond issue to build a new theater narrowly failed. So a group of area business leaders joined forces and raised over $9 million in less than 90 days for the cause. The rest is history and in June of 1979 the Des Moines Civic Center hosted its first performance. 

That brings up the question, who did the first show at the Civic Center when it was built in 1979? It’s a trick question. Kinda.  I DID!

 I was doing a midday show on KRNT Radio at the time, and knowing that the theater was going to be a spectacular part of our community, I asked if I could do my show from there. They said yes, and I did that 4 hour show before anyone ever hit the stage. And my listeners were admitted in to see the place!

 The other day I had Jeff Chelsvig, the head man at DMPA, on the air with me and we had fun talking about it.  He’s been there a long time, but I remember when he started!