Georgia State University - Rampway Yearbook (Atlanta, GA)

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Alumni Hall Continued ........................ and the slamming of doors as Georgia State staff and students fill the newly added parking spaces. X On the ground floor of the auditorium, Atlanta's fashionable society, dressed in evening finery, sat listening to Robert Mann's or Henry Sopkin's Symphony or the Metropolitan Opera. The ground floor now houses the Labor Movement Archives and the University Employment Office. This area opens onto a patio today, once the arena for the ice shows and circus or the seating for stage shows. Modern changes have necessitat- ed the removal of the arena which seated over 5,000, but there is today a small theatre with a 200 seating capacity, on the first floor. This is the Speech and Drama Division of the Communications Department which serves students for hands-on stage experience in the performing arts. The remaining room is used for support areas, classrooms, dressing rooms and storage. Yesterdays Taft Hall, named for President Taft, is now named Veteran's Hall in honor of those who served in all wars and in memory of those who did not return from them. Students from GSU are thus remembered. The University welcomes visitors to the campus on the first floor center of new Alumni Hall. From that center, campus tours, information and referrals are made. On the second floor, student placement needs are filled. The latest in electronic services for career placement and temporary employment is available in the Placement Center including both in-house and outside employment. The offices of Development, Alumni and Publications are found together on the third floor. The Alumni office keeps track of all students who have attended the University. This office provides recognition and honor for those students who excel. The Develop- ment Office promotes the University image and raises money for faculty supplements and other worthy functions. The Publications Department provides the printed materials that make us known throughout the region, the nation and abroad. At first, the academic functions of new Alumni Hall sound mundane and dry in comparison to glorious productions by famed artists. But the building is serving for many important functions as an education facility. Foundations for the future are being molded in the Child Development Center. lt is no longer possible to watch a circus elephant balance with one foot on a ball on the first floor, but since February 1983, the Depart- ment of Early Childhood Education has been performing equally polished feats with the day-care center there. ln fact, it has become a model for the nation. This center provides one of the best programs in the South. ln its own field, it rivals the programs of the Municipal Auditorium. Besides quality child care, the center offers especially designed facilities, expert planning for child care facilities and programs and speakers on issues concerning child care, as well as an opportunity for parent involvement, instruction, teacher training, research and development. Happy studentsf parents receive double benefits in education and security for themselves and their children. P7 2-1 n I l Q 46253, ehjlqll, Wg T -Ki TJ ., , ' E -Q I 7.. rj g, .ig-Teri' 5. is Qf , I , -N-P t WN- 95 Lt. .4 -., eff 1' ta sri: Q, S . I 5 ,I 8fStudent Life L .. Heaven Bound i 1 5 -Ji

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A Symbol 0f The Past Becomes Newest Addition by Barbara Ferrill ' ew Alumni Hall, the most recent addition to Georgia State's skyline, is a symbol of both past history and modern progress in Atlanta's community. Today, this historic building serves as a communication bridge within the Georgia State University community. Previously, as the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium, it was the communication bridge linking Atlanta and the whole of Georgia with the performing arts and entertainment attractions of the nation and the world as well as sports and political activities. Since the early l900's, it was the site of Atlanta's most prestigious events ranging from the Metropolitan Opera to Georgia Championship Wrestling. Events as diverse as Confederate Memorial Day Celebrations, appearances by Presi- dent William Howard Taft and Governor Eugene Talmadge, performances by Enrico Caruso and Lily Pons, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, political conventions, industrial shows, the gospel pageant, Heaven Bound, and the return fight of Mohammed Ali to the ring were staged in the large facility. School children were sent by bus to the auditorium four times a year to hear Henry Sopkin and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. As late as the early seventies, the Municipal Auditorium was still the setting for graduation ceremo' nies for the Atlanta Public Schools. Entertainment presented at the auditorium ranged from formal to informal. The Shrine Circus and Barnum and Bailey Circus performed yearly as did the skaters of Holiday on lce. There was something for everybody. ln those days, Gorgeous George and Man Mountain Dean ruled the ring to the sound of cheers and boos from the crowd. Today, new carpet muffles the sound of feet, new wall coverings muffle the sound of voices and the new occupants' unawareness of the building's past perplexes the minds of those who remember the excitement of the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium events, the memory of sights, sounds and smells from grease paint and high tones to sweat and grunts. Although the sights and sounds in new Alumni Hall are different, they appeal to the senses in their own way. Today, one hears the happy squeals of laughter from children in the Child Development Center instead of the eloquent modulations of President Taft or the dulcet tones of Enrico Caruso. ln the place where gospel singers banked the stage with their voices reverberating to the rafters, one may hear the rumble of car mufflers ljThe old Municipal Auditorium is GSl.l'S new Alumni Hall. 2fGovernor Eugene Talmadge giving stirring political speech from auditorium stage. 3flnterior photograph of auditorium in l9l9. fGeorgia Archives reprintsj 'nu I 3

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Dorothy Alexander Mohammed Ali Ov- ,-YJ xl x Y X he ' we ,rg ' -n 4? .LJ X sl fi! Y ijt 1fF'V?5.kL-- - - ' ' Y 7 .t6,, lfChorus of Heaven Bound , a religious musical drama performed annually at Big Bethel Church on Auburn Avenue. The first performance was in the Municipal Auditorium in 1934. 2fThe Devil repents, 3fDorothy Alexander, founder of the Atlanta Ballet in solo to spoken verse, A Strand of Black Elusive Seaweed , 1929, 4fMr. Furlowe as the devil in Heav' en Bound . 5fThe devil stalks innocence, and 6fDe- liverance from Heaven Bound. 7jFormer Senator LeRoy .Johnson with Mohammed Ali's boxing glove. The Ali fight with Quarry marked his return to the ring and the championship. Student Lifef9