The story
The Diamond Ballroom opened on November 21, 1964, advertised as The Largest Dance Floor in the Southwest. Attorney Ralph Russell, Sr. and local business partners built it to give local and touring country-swing bands a place to play. It was first called the Diamond Entertainment Center, and its design copied 1940s and 1950s ranch dances, with a farmhouse facade and a stage made to look like a patio porch.
Perry Jones and His Diamondairs were the house band for about ten years. Russell bought out his partners in 1974 and ran it as a family business. In the mid-1980s his son Ralph Russell, Jr. took over, added weeknight hours and began booking rock and metal alongside country. The page lists Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and Wanda Jackson from the early decades, and Pantera, Slayer, Megadeth and Alice In Chains from the rock years.
What's There Now
It still books concerts and private events.
Everything that was here
- 1964–present · still open
Diamond BallroomMusic Venue
A farmhouse-fronted dance hall with a 50-by-150-foot maple floor, opened in 1964 for country-swing bands and later booked Pantera and Slayer.
See the map in 1965 →
Did you know?
Nearby history
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Oklahoma City Union Depot (Union Station)
Santa Fe Depot
Prairie Surf Studios
Hotel Lawrence
Biltmore Hotel
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