Shall we dance? Meet you at the Gayway

Walt Disney had it wrong when he did the Bambi movie. Bambi wasn’t going out into the field for fun, he was the sentinel fawn, the fawn that the herd has determined they will risk losing to protect the mature, breeding does and bucks.

Those sentinel fawns go out first to draw out the hunter. If no hunter exposes him/herself, then the barren, stomping doe comes out. She’s a lot smarter than Bambi and a lot more nervous and has eyes like a hawk. The rest of the does, yearlings and fawns drift out after her. Each time a new group starts to enter the area, every deer in the field snaps their head up and looks to see who is coming. When the young bucks start to show up, you know the mature ones aren’t too far behind; the last to enter, the last to accept the danger that a hunter could be lying in wait.

Mother nature is fascinating but also facetious. After three years of drought which had devastated our wild game birds and animals, she sent a deluge of rain just when the few that had survived the drought were nesting their eggs, dropping their fawns, hiding their kittens. May is the month of birth in Nebraska; last May’s rain devastated more than crop lands, homes, roads and bridges. Our nesting game birds are practically extinct in this area. The turkey, which remind me of dinosaurs, must have had a second hatch but the numbers are down more than 50% and we need to take note of the condition of our wildlife and correct the problem. This is not ‘climate change’. If you study history, you know that SW Nebraska weather can turn on a dime and drought is cyclic as are wet springs. Mother Nature can heal herself with a little help from her friends, us.

Now to dancing. From the beginning, dancing was a huge part of entertainment in SW Nebraska and a week or so ago I wrote about a dance hall downtown and then questioned my memory of what used to take place in the building that was razed for our new Bureau of Reclamation building on West 3rd Street. Vickie Malleck confirmed my memory and actually gave me a name to research: The Gayway!

The June 14, 1948, edition of the McCook Daily Gazette had this announcement: “New Ballroom to Have Eddy Howard June 24. Eddy Howard and his orchestra will be in McCook June 24 for the preview opening of the new Gay-way ballroom-café here, it was announced today by Manager Jim Corcoran. Howard’s orchestra, hailed as one of the foremost dance bands and entertainers in the music field will be the first to occupy the stage in McCook’s newest business enterprise.”

By July, Manager Corcoran was announcing a night for young people only: “Local Teen-Agers have Gayway Night. Doors of the Gayway ballroom café will be opened only to teen-agers and their parents Wednesday night, Manager Jim Corcoran reminded today. It will be the first teen-age night to be held there, he said, adding that the management expected to state such nights at regular intervals. Teen-agers will have the sole right to dance on the ballroom’s spacious floor. Nickelodeon will provide music. Scheduled to open to McCook’s youth at 8 p.m., the Gayway will remain open until 11 p.m.. Corcoran said there would be ‘plenty of ice cream, cake sandwiches and cold drink.’ The Corcoran brothers , owners of the new establishment, said they were staging the youth night to provide local youth with ‘good wholesome entertainment’.” McCook Daily Gazette, July 12, 1948.

The Gayway was also used by the Lion’s Club for activities but the Ladies Night sponsored by the same for October 19, 1948, had to be moved to the Keystone banquet room when the Gayway had no heating facilities for the occasion.

Many bands were headlined at the Gayway including Kenny Lee and his Romance in Rhythm Orchestra; Don Loflon’s Orchestra with Jess Gayer; Sammy Stevens and his Orchestra Bombshell of Rhythm; Jimmy Caton Orchestra; Les Brown’s Band of Renown. Vickie had remembered her parents talking about dancing to Lawrence Welk, as I do mine, but I only found advertisements for Lawrence’s band playing at the Memorial Auditorium, not the Gayway.

The Gayway last advertised band was in 1950, which may have been the last year of operation. The McCook Corporation (to be covered in another article) as their first venture to promote McCook, pushed to have the Bureau of Reclamation move their offices from the old P.O.W. camp in Indianola to the Gayway building in McCook. William F. Shaw, regional supply officer of the Denver office, and Richard Sweet of the housing and land act office of the Denver offices came to survey the existing building to see if it would serve to house the bureau and their warehouse needs on March 27, 1952. At least two bid lettings were made to find contractors to do the remodeling necessary and in March of 1953 the final selections were made and the rest is history.