

HOCKEY CHICAGO 1930 TV
It was the biggest organ the company ever made, with 3,663 pipes, 800-plus stops and a console that made an airplane cockpit look like a TV remote.
HOCKEY CHICAGO 1930 MOVIE
The Bartola Musical Instrument Company, manufacturer of theater pipe organs in the silent movie era, made a special Barton organ for the Stadium. Raucous Chicago Blackhawks fans weren’t the only thing to make noise in Chicago Stadium. Three reasons why Blackhawks fans believe you should go loud or go home:ġ. It was razed in 1995 and is now the site of the parking lot for United Center, an arena that was just as state-of-the-art when it opened as the old Stadium was in 1926. It was one of three NHL arenas to still have a smaller-than-regulation ice surface (along with Boston Garden and Buffalo Memorial Auditorium). The Stadium was an all-purpose arena which over the years hosted political conventions, concerts, boxing matches and even a football game one time - when Wrigley Field was iced over and the Bears had to move indoors! Last but not least, the Stadium was the home court for the Chicago Bulls.īy the mid-1990s, the Stadium was showing its age.


It had all the modern architectural and functional bells and whistles, including state-of-the-art ventilation with air conditioning. The old Chicago Stadium had a capacity of 16,600 seats, which made it the largest indoor sports venue in the world at the time, almost twice the size of Madison Square Garden. His funeral, however, took place at the Stadium - his last wish. Unfortunately, he died in a car accident a year later and never saw his beloved stadium in all its glory. Harmon was right … the Blackhawks were going to be big. Harmon completed Chicago Stadium for $9.5 million in 1929, with the Blackhawks playing their first game there in December of that year in front of more than 14,000 fans. When Frederic McLaughlin beat him to the punch, Harmon decided to do the next best thing - build the Blackhawks an arena. Chicago sports promoter Paddy Harmon believed hockey could be big in Chicago and wanted to buy an NHL team. The Old Chicago Stadium - HistoryĬhicago Stadium was built specifically for hockey and specifically for the Blackhawks, who joined the NHL as an expansion team in 1926. And over the years Chicago Blackhawks fans had plenty to be excited about. It may have been the loudest hockey arena in the history of the game - when Chicago fans got excited, you could probably hear them in outer space. The old Chicago Stadium - known throughout the Windy City as the “Madhouse on Madison” - was home to the Chicago Blackhawks from 1929 until it closed in 1994.
