Myriad Grand Opening in November of 1972

[MikeOKC]

November of 1972. The big Myriad entertainment shebang that was the public opening of the Myriad was a big deal. Does anybody still have their gold tickets?

[FRISKY]

I have a press packet from the event.

[Thunder]

I clicked here expecting to see pictures. :-(

[skyrick]

I saw Neil Young there, that was the first performance after the opening, I believe. Or am I thinking of Lloyd Noble?

[gen70]

I saw Merle Haggard there around that time.

[corpsman]

I saw Neil Young there, that was the first performance after the opening, I believe. Or am I thinking of Lloyd Noble?

Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt were there. I don't remember which song it was and I no longer have the album, but one of the songs on After The Goldrush was recorded at that concert. Whole bunch of whacked out fools thought how wonderful it was they put in urinals with a handy foot flush near the floor!!!!!!!!!! Remember how mad Linda got at the mixer board operator?

[papaOU]

I saw Merle Haggard there around that time.

The only band I saw there was Men at Work. Went to the All College when it was a real tournament. Red Earth once. After that they got money hungry (my opinion) and cast aside the regular guy (people).

[papaOU]

The Myriad sets over the the lot (2 W. California) where my grandmother worked as far back as I can remember. Place set directly west of the Santa Fe station.

[okatty]

Happy March Madness Day! Saw this historic clip this morning, and it will be played numerous times over the next few weeks. Happened at the Myriad, and I won’t ever forget being there!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y5OCPaPxQdM

[Irishman23]

I believe TEN YEARS AFTER was the first concert in the Myriad and at intermission they announced Neil Young would be coming.

[Urbanized]

[Laramie]

I remember the opening of the Myriad Convention Center. Della Reese was the celebrity with her distinct voice was invited to sing at that memorable opening event.

My mother knew Della Reese when she lived in Chicago. My brother and I took her to the Myriad's grand opening. Mother had lost her first born son 1970 - (Vietnam) just two years earlier, she was scarred from the day the Army knocked on the door to deliver the awful news of his demise--never saw her shed a tear.

This was memorable for mom, who witnessed the great Della Reese who she saw in many of the black Chicago night clubs. Mother shared with us her times in Chicago meeting many celebs like Nat King Cole, B.B. King and Billie Holiday.

We took mother to the ground level floor to get an autograph from Della Reese. Mom invited her to our home, Della had to decline because of her rigid schedule.

The beautiful red chairs that surrounded this oval shaped arena brought a glimmer of hope that Oklahoma City would experience a boom in convention business. What killed the Myriad was a lack of quality downtown hotels.

The opening of the new arena was to insure we would keep the National Finals Rodeo in OKC which our city had promoted from its original Fairgrounds Arena home when the NFR moved here from Dallas. The arena opened with 13,399 permanent seats--it was one of the CHL's largest arenas and it hosted the All College Basketball Tournament which started out at the Municipal Auditorium and was later moved to the Fairground Arena.