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All in a days work

BY Brent Stewart, The Southern

Monday, August 27, 2007 7:02 AM CDT

Not many people can say that they've watched Bob Hope hit golf balls off the roof of a building, but it's all in a days work at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

This August marks 20 years that the venue has been the "place to play." A diverse group of artists have performed on its stage, including Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Merle Haggard, Nickleback, Three Doors Down, TOOL, Aerosmith, KISS, Guns N Roses, Alice Cooper, Dierks Bentley, Brad Paisley, Garth Brooks, Alabama, Brooks and Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Toby Keith, to name a few.

Construction of the Show Me Center came about through a unique partnership between Southeast Missouri State University and the City of Cape Girardeau.

SEMO's Redhawks basketball team had outgrown their former home, the Houck Fieldhouse at the same time the city was looking to build a convention center.

Both groups had the funds to build something, but combining their resources would make it possible to build a facility that best satisfied the needs of all involved.

"It just made sense," said David Ross, Director of the Show Me Center.

"There are a lot of good ideas that make sense, but there are very few of them that can get through the politics of actually seeing it come to fruition."

Work began in Oct., 1985. On Aug. 20, 1987 the doors opened to the public, which was immediately followed by the first concert, George Jones and Tanya Tucker, on Aug. 21.

Having been at the Center since the beginning, Ross and Greg Talbut, the Assistant Director have seen many changes in 20 years. This particularly applies to the volatile entertainment industry.

They've seen the regional promoters replaced by nationwide corporations like Live Nation. There have been innovations, such as computerized ticket buying and the advent of amphitheaters, which put more of a focus on summer concerts in larger venues.

"It changed the nature of how bands toured," Talbut said.

The many changes in the music industry has also affected how the Center books their artists.

"The record companies aren't developing artists the way they used to," Talbut said.

"As an act, you've either got to do something with that first shot you get for an album or if it's not huge they'll go on to the next one. So, you're not seeing the availability of the smaller acts as much."

In the early days, The Show Me Center was able to snag artists such as Alan Jackson and Randy Travis on their first solo tours.

With all of these variables, as well as changing fads and musical tastes, the Center has learned to roll with the punches.

"The game moves around," Ross said. "You just have to adapt to it as quickly as you can. The business is cylical. Sometimes we can hit that wave, sometimes not.

"When we first started, everything that we did was brand new. So we really had to build the model and kind of test it and see if it would work. Now we've done everything that you can do."

In 20 years, the Show Me Center has see a total of 5,601,305 pass through its doors at a total of 7,737 events. They have a full time staff of 13, with a pool of more than 200 temporary on-call workers to draw from.

The wide range of performers at the Center has provided a number of memories.

When Red Skelton came to town, he actually spent five days in the area to be able to take in the city and tailor his act to the local crowd.

Ross was able to convince comic legend, Bob Hope to re-enact a Texaco commercial he remembered as a kid, where Hope would hit golf balls off an oil derrick.

"I always thought 'what a waste of golf balls,'" Ross said.

Even though he was 84 at the time, Hope was a good sport. However, he required a masseuse to help him through the resulting leg cramps and limber up for the nights show.

The Center's first sell out was Tina Turner on Oct. 15, 1987. However, the official t-shirts from that tour had a different location listed.

"We actually stole the event from Carbondale," Ross said jokingly.

Ross credits much of the Show Me Center's continued success to it being a regional venue.

"If the success of this building is based on the university or the students alone it's going to fail," Ross said.

"If we're expecting the people of Cape to support it to its fullest it's going to fail. It has to be a facility for the people of Southern Illinois, Southern Missouri, Western Kentucky and going up north.

"We have to make it inviting for those folks and I think we've done that."

In other words, it's all in a day's work.

brent.stewart@thesouthern.com

351-5074