Eli Wilson
Covington, LA - Thu Jun 28, 2007

I wanted to say thank you for your Celebrity Sports Center website! It's the closest I've come to being there in a long, long time. I really miss that place... I noticed that you don't have any stories yet about Celebrity. Mind if I share my memories with you? Feel free to use any or all of them on the stories page.

I have many fond memories of Celebrity. I misspent a large part of my youth there, first as a young boy with my sister and our parents, then on my own or with friends as a teenager. I remember literally trembling with excitement when our parents would tell us we were going there! My earliest memories include watching the slot car races down in the basement. Sadly, not too long after we started going there, they were taken out. But they put in pinball and arcade games, so it wasn't too much of a loss for me. Thankfully, they kept the cheesy old shooting gallery intact until the very end.

One night, while I was still very young, maybe 6 or 7, I remember there was a page on the overhead PA system, asking everyone to go outside. We all walked out and stood in the parking lot while the Glendale police and fire departments showed up. But it wasn't a fire- it was a bomb threat. Remember, this was in the early seventies...looking back, my guess is that it was a prank. Some bored high school kid probably thought it was funny...but it ruined my night at Celebrity!

I also remember the bar. When I was very young, I recall walking past it and being amazed at the huge barrels that made up the outside wall. But when I was a teenager, I poked my head in, looked around and saw what I thought was one of the coolest things ever behind the bar- a vending machine for BEER! I remember thinking "when I move out, I want one of those!". Of course, I never got one, but the idea seemed so cool at the time.

In my mind, I can still smell the ancient cigarette smoke that had become part of the charm of the place. The last time I was there was for the auction of all the stuff inside the building just before it was demolished. My friend Darrell and I went. He had worked there in the eighties, and he got a few signs from one of the arcades. I still miss Celebrity to this day.

Dean - Mon, 26 Jun 2006

Thanks for the page!
Robert - Tue, 11 Oct 2005

Your site was great - it brough back some good memories...i was actually only born in 1979 and remember some birthday parties there in the mid 80's, but I just wanted to say thanks for the page and the flashback.

John - Wed, 15 Dec 2004

I saw your post on Craigs List about Celebrity Sports Center and thought I would reply. I was just a patron in the fifties and sixties and I might have some pictures, but I will have to wait until I move to find them.

In those days Celebrity was owned by Walt Disney and at one time the Mouseketeers showed up there for a promo. I went to see them and may have some pictures. Though I lived in Denver at that time I now live within a few miles of Disneyland. Not by planing, just accidental.

As an aside, when that building was constructed sometime in the fifties, my dad was a steel man then and worked on the construction of that building.

~ Mark Nelson ~

Dan Jesse -

My one lasting memory is when my buddy and I were swimming one day - he pretty much stayed in the shallow end while I went to the deep end, primarily going off the slide face-first (I'm sure there's a 'going off the deep end' joke there, somewhere).

After awhile, I rejoined my friend in the 3' end of the pool, and climbed up the slide there. Without thinking, I closed my eyes and propelled myself face-first - right into the bottom of the pool. Had a

nifty Adolf Hitler "moustache" scab under my nose for a few days. I hurt my pride, too, lol. Pretty sure I didn't suffer any dain bramage, but there are those who would probably disagree.

Good luck with the website!
Regards, Gary Wingert-

I was one of those groups that came to the pool for a late night party and I can remember how great it was being able to run up the ramp time after time and use the slides and not wait in line. I also remember the life guards were far more lenient on what we could get away with at night.

Some of my coolest memories though happened right after Celebrity closed. A good friend of mine and me climbed the fence surrounding the place and got inside several times before they demolished it. Talk about the jackpot. We were able to go into all those doors and figure out all the intricate workings of the place that you employees knew all the time. One of the coolest things was we climbed on the roof one night and actually got inside the building by climbing in a huge air conditioning unit on the roof. While in there we did loot some mementos that would have gone down with the building.

One of the coolest things I got was a sign that I hate, grown to hate, over the years so I felt almost like I got some revenge. Some of you may recall that one of the best ways to beat the ski ball machines was to do a shot where you banked it off the side just before it launched into the points area. You could nail the 50 point slot time after time. I can remember going for hours playing the dime slots and getting tons of tickets. Well then one day we walked in and there hanging over the games was a sign that said “Sorry No Bank Shots”. We could not believe that they could do it. For a while they strictly enforced it! Anyway when we were crawling through one time before it closed I did grab that sign off the ceiling and still have it in my possession today. It reminds me every time I see it what a nerd I am and also just how much fun we had at Celebrity. - Steve Almquist -

In 1979 I was a host at Celebrity Sports Center in Glendale, Colorado as a short order cook and later as a bartender. One Saturday afternoon we were particularly busy. A large bowling tournament was in progress which meant there were a lot of extra people in the building.. It was quite crowded. Another host Hank and I were the cooks in the kitchen that afternoon and were preparing food orders furiously for the bowlers and everyone else in the house. Celebrity's burgers were cooked on an open-flame grill. The heavy volume of orders that day meant that a lot of grease collected in the grill's grease trap, and that hot grease suddenly caught fire. The whole grill area below cooking grates was in flames. Hank and I shut off the grill, grabbed a hand-held fire extinguisher and discharged the whole thing with little effect. After one or two other extinguishers were used with no results we evacuated the snack bar area. Management was already on the phone to the fire department and spreading the word to all our guests that the whole building had to be evacuated. Every guest left the building and began to hang out in the parking lot. I recall the firemen getting the fire out without much problem, sending water down the grill's hood ventilation shaft from above on the roof. After a few hours we were allowed back in the building and the bowling and swimming resumed but the snack bar was a soggy mess. Hank, others, and I spent the rest of the day cleaning it and we re-opend to guests the next day..

I don't recall the exact date or Hank's last name. I don't recall the name of the organization holding the tournament or if they were able to finish it. I worked there for about a year in 1979, had some great times and made some great friends.

- Chris McIntyre, Olney Maryland (e-mail avaiabile upon request)

Chris would like to know where these people are:

Debbie Delaney
Nancy MacDonald
Beth Dunn
Mary Jo White
Carol Casey
Pat McCaslin (food manager)
Bob Siclari
Roy ? (food manager)