• The new Hollywood Ballroom will be open to the public Labor Day weekend of this year , if all goes according to plan, said Jerry Gladis. Gladis and his brother Jeff, began work on the ballroom, located on main street, this week.
Last November the brothers purchased the former Hollywood Theatre building.
The brick building housed racqetball courts before closing four years ago. The new 50x100 foot ballroom will feature four levels, said Gladis.
“You’ll enter at the second level where there will be a ticket booth and coat check, the main bar, and restrooms. On the first fioor will be a band stage, large dance fioor, and seating area,” said Gladis. “Eleven feet above the dance fioor, there will be a 12 foot mezzanine-like a balcony, supported by beams, ovcriooking the dance fioor- along three walls. On the mezzanine will be tables. The fourth floor will be a bar area and some storage space.”
“We’re looking to have the place roughly done by July 15. The electrical work should be done by then. After that we’ll be doing some finishing work. There will be a wood railing along the mezzanine — that will be a big project,” said Gladis.
Gladis will be applying for a 3-2 set-up license for the balhoom. He said tentative figures show total seating capacity at about 600.
“I think we’ll be able to seat 300 on the mezzanine and dance floor. We’re hoping to get private bookings for weddings, reunions, and receptions. We’ll probably be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Eventually, we’d like to draw people from a 60- 70-mile radius,” said Gladis.
• Last week’s answer: A dramatic armed robbery took place at Currie’s bank in 1976.
“Name that Year” is designed to put your knowledge of Tracy and its newsmakers of the past to the test. Each week, we will publish a news item that ran in a past edition — maybe it was a major event, or a story about a Tracy resident — it’s up to you to determine in what year that particular news item hit the pages of the paper:
