Curious Taunton: Roseland Ballroom was a hot spot for big bands during its heyday

If, in fact, it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing, the Taunton of the 1930s and '40s meant a whole lot of things, because there was plenty of swing.

At one time, Taunton’s Roseland Ballroom was the big band destination of the SouthCoast, and arguably one of the most popular in New England.

From opening night in 1924, the crowds that packed the ballroom were ready to dance, and those dancers got to cut a rug to music by some of the biggest names to ever grace the stage, like Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and the First Lady of Song herself, Ella Fitzgerald.

Roseland has had many lives over the years. When new highways diverted more and more traffic around rather than through the city, and the bands weren’t coming around as often, Roseland reinvented itself, under the stalwart guidance of Rose Simone, drawing in locals for bowling nights and various other kinds of entertainment.

Today, it’s the site of a newer (comparatively speaking) Taunton gathering spot, Hong Kong City. And the storied ballroom is still being put to good use as the Happy Health Center, an adult day center.

If the walls in that ballroom could talk, or sing, rather, they’d be echoing with the classic, swooning sounds that used to bring people from miles around.

In this installment of Curious Taunton, let’s go back in time to explore what the big band era of the Roseland Ballroom was like.

Roseland’s beginnings: ‘All roads will lead in the direction of Taunton’

The original Roseland was built in 1924, “incorporating sections of a livestock barn on the site,” according to papers from the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

Financed by “local speculator” John J. Nichols, Roseland cost a quarter of a million dollars to build and had its grand opening on May 28, 1924, amid tons of local fanfare and glowing previews written up in the Taunton Daily Gazette, praising everything from the decor to the ventilation system.

Today, we’d say the hype was real.

On May 26, 1924, two days before the big event, the Gazette wrote, “All roads will lead in the direction of Taunton on that night and it is expected that the largest crowd ever to attend a social function in this city will be in attendance.”

Roseland’s opening more than delivered on that promise.

At the time, the parking lot could fit more than 200 vehicles, and the ballroom held more than 3,000 people, according to the Gazette.

A flier for Roseland’s “May Ball” grand opening also promised the ballroom would have its own orchestra: “25 pieces — Every man a soloist.” The orchestra included Taunton musicians, and the Gazette’s review of the grand openingsaid that the orchestra sounded as if its musicians had all been playing together for years.

The “May Ball,” which had a $10 entrance fee, went into the early morning hours and the ballroom was as packed as promised, with thousands of people turning out for the ball.

The following day, the Gazette said that the “new dance pavilion surpasses all expectations.”

That auspicious kick-off was just the beginning of many successful dances to come.

Roseland during the Big Band era

Rose Simone began running Roseland in the late 1920s. She’d be at the helm until her death in 1991. None of the Gazette articles written before the ballroom’s 1924 opening mention Simone, so the Rose/Roseland connection could be a happy coincidence.

The May 28, 1924, evening edition of the Gazette described the ballroom before its big debut: “The main ballroom is also picturesquely embellished, thousands of artificial roses forming the featuring decoration and exemplifying the appropriateness of the pavilion being called Roseland.”

It was just the right setting for the big-name acts that Simone would go on to book.

Her husband, Mike, who later fought in the Army during WWII, was by her side through all of it, working as the manager for 50 years until his death in 1977.

His obituary said, “Together they made Roseland one of the top dancing spots in New England during the era of the Big Bands, and the top musicians of that day knew him as a friend.”

Indeed, it was those friendships that helped Rose Simone book the biggest bands of the day.

She was good friends with Jimmy Dorsey, and, according to a Sept. 19, 1994, Gazette story by Jack Conway, “Mr. Dorsey was a big fan of Mrs. Simone’s homemade chicken soup and she often made it for him when he came to Taunton to play.”

Over the years, Roseland hosted legendary acts like Benny Goodman (May 5, 1938), Tommy Dorsey (Feb. 7, 1939), Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller (Feb. 14, 1939), Louis Armstrong (Nov. 11, 1942), Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Guy Lombardo, Harry James, Artie Shaw, Lionel Hampton, and Ella Fitzgerald. (Concert dates were provided by Old Colony History Museum Curator of Collections Bronson Michaud.)

If you were lucky enough to be at Roseland on Valentine’s Day 1939, you got to sway under those dreamy decorations to the sweet sounds of Glenn Miller.

In the 1930s and 40s, “roadsters jammed the parking lot and taffeta- and tuxedo-clad dancers spun around the dance floor,” Amy Newbury wrote for the Gazette on Sept. 14, 1998.

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During the Great Depression, you could enjoy an escapist evening of dancing for 25 cents.

Roseland’s popularity stayed strong, even during other lean times, like during WWII.

According to “A History of Taunton Massachusetts” by Dr. William Hanna, Benny Goodman performed at Roseland in 1942, during national gasoline rationing, when driving for pleasure had been outlawed. The house was packed anyway, with people coming from all over to see the performance.

Big bands move on and Roseland rebuilds

On Christmas Eve 1947, Roseland burned, when “a bird’s nest, soaked by a raging December blizzard, short-circuited the building’s neon sign,” according to the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

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Simone rebuilt, and added a bowling alley to boot.

Though the era of big bands came to pass, Roseland remained.

Even after Simone’s death in 1991, occasional ballroom events took place at the storied hall. For a time it was a nightclub, the Matrix, and then eventually it became Hong Kong City, enjoying a new life as a popular local restaurant.

Roseland memories remain

The nights of swinging orchestras might be a thing of Roseland’s past, but there will always be the memories of those storied times.

The Sept. 13, 1998 edition of the Gazette featured one reader’s memory, an M.J.F. of Taunton:

“I remember when I was a young fella coming home from CCC, we would go there and dance to the big bands of Jimmy Dorsey and such. One memory is when I was dancing with a young lady — this was a contest, they would tap you on the shoulder to tell you to leave the floor — we were next to last to leave and we were tapped. We were told that we were tapped so the older couple (they were quite elderly) could win. I had wonderful times at Roseland.”

Taunton Daily Gazette/Herald News copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached at kfontes@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.

This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Curious Taunton Big bands once packed historic Roseland Ballroom