Roseland Ballroom

Roseland opened during the onset of ballroom dancing's heyday--New Year's Eve 1919--before falling on hard times as a grand dime-a-dance hall during the Depression. In the flush '40s, the Ballroom became a big-band mecca, featuring as many as three orchestras on as many stages nightly. Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and the Dorsey Brothers made the Roseland the big-band swing foundation for the revolutionary 52nd Street bebop scene at smaller venues. Once rock and roll took over popular culture in the '50s, Roseland began a long decline, though it briefly attracted a new generation of dancers during the '70s disco inferno. —Kerry Burke (Source: Citysearch.com)