Radisson Hotel
The Radisson Hotel was located at 35 So. 7th Street in Minneapolis.
The “Minneapolis Hotel Building,” as the building was called on the initial blueprints, was primarily financed by a woman named Edna Dickerson, who ran a school for court reporters in Chicago. She inherited a considerable amount of money and property in downtown Minneapolis from a distant relative, Albert Johnson. While in Minneapolis to collect her inheritance, Dickerson met George Dayton and other prominent Minneapolis business people, who convinced her to invest invest some of her inheritance in the construction of a grand hotel next to Dayton’s store. Dickerson contributed $1.5 million to the construction of what became the Radisson Hotel.
The name “Radisson” was suggested by N.H. Owen, a member of the Commercial Club. Pierre Esprit Radisson, had crisscrossed the Great Lakes area in the 17th Century. It was believed, at that time, that Radisson had been the first white man to explore Minnesota. His name was not widely known because his travels into the area took place before settlements had been established and much local history had been recorded. Owen believed that naming the hotel after “Minnesota’s forgotten explorer” would give Radisson some much deserved recognition.
Construction of the Radisson Hotel began in mid-1908. The architects were Long, Lamoreaux, and Long, and the general contractor was C. E Haglin, both Minneapolis firms. The consulting engineer was Charles L. Pillsbury. The hotel would be the tallest building in America built with reinforced concrete. Construction publications also heralded the first use of steel sheet pilings that gave the hotel extraordinary strength at its foundation. The Radisson was one of the first structures in the United States to use this new type of construction.
The 16-story hotel was originally scheduled to have 325 rooms. During construction, however, the room count was increased by 100 rooms, for a total of 425.
Interior design was by William Frederick Behrens of New York City, who chose French Renaissance for the decor as a tribute to the hotel’s namesake, Pierre Radisson. The first managing director was Charles J. Owen, a former assistant manager at the Astor and Knickerbocker Hotels in New York City.
Although the owners (Edna Dickerson, now married to Simon Kruse) had hoped to have the hotel open for the 1909 Minnesota State Fair, construction delays caused the opening to be moved to December 15, 1909. When it opened it was the second-tallest building in Minneapolis, next to City Hall.
Room rates at the Radisson in 1909 started at $1.50 for a room without a bathroom. For between $2.50 and $5 a guest could enjoy the hotel’s finest amenities, which included a bath. Accommodations for two cost an extra dollar.
Entering the hotel, guests were shaded by a canopy 50 feet long, with glass and ornamental iron that extended over three doorways separated by columns of marble and framed in monumental bronze. Once inside, they would find a ladies’ sitting room (the Adams Room) located just off the lobby; a billiard parlor and eight-chair barbershop were in the basement. A lobby cigar shop offered the finest cigars, confections, and sodas of the period. Humidors capable of storing a million cigars were installed in the shop. Maurice L. Rothschild operated a clothing store on the premises. Also off the lobby was the hotel’s own library.
THE RADISSON MARCH
The Radisson’s grand opening on December 15, 1909, was highlighted by a gala dinner for a thousand guests. All the banquet rooms were pressed into service for the elegant dinner, which cost $5 per person. The Radisson Orchestra thrilled the guests by playing “The Radisson March,” written by Franz Dicks and published in sheet-music form by Joseph E. Frank. It was dedicated to the hotel and managing director Charles Owen.
OWNERSHIP
- Simon and Edna (Dickerson) Kruse owned the hotel until Kruse lost it in 1934.
- The Philadelphia Fidelity Trust Company owned it during the Depression years of 1934 to 1941.
- Tom Moore was the owner from 1941 to 1960.
- Curt Carlson purchased 51 percent of the hotel in 1960, and the rest in 1962. Carlson owned it until it was redeveloped.
ROOMS AND MUSIC VENUES IN THE HOTEL
The Chateau Room, the original main dining room, was located off the main lobby. Seating about 250 guests, this elegant establishment featured decorations and furniture patterned after the dining rooms of the Chateau Blois of the Francois-premiere period.
Every evening diners in the Chateau Room were entertained by a quintet from the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.
The Viking Room/Cafe, originally located in the rear of the hotel, seated 100 diners. This room was finished in dark stained oak and featured a silver scale-model Viking ship created for the hotel by Edward Caldwell. (The ship later hung in the Radisson Lounge called the Viking Room.) The Cafe’s walls were graced by ten murals painted by renowned Scandinavian artist Arthur Wilberg. The murals depicted scenes from Sweden and Norway.
The Teco Inn opened in the hotel a few years after the hotel opened. The Teco Inn was one of the largest rathskeller-type dining rooms in the nation. It was furnished in richly-colored tiles depicting landscape scenes from around Minnesota and historic events bearing on the position of Minneapolis as the gateway to the great Northwest. An ad from the March 6, 1921, Minneapolis Morning Tribune promised a dinner dance every evening except Sundays.
The New Assembly Room “is recognized as the most popular and the largest cafe’s dancing space in the Northwest. The present attraction, ‘The Snappy Reubens Jazz Orchestra’ is THE Orchestra of the Season. Scheduled for March 15th next, the Famous ‘Silas Marimba Band.'” (March 6, 1921, Minneapolis Morning Tribune)
The Allee Pigalle was advertised in 1970 as the most intimate rendezvous in town. “Slip up the stairs and sip in seclusion on the balcony, or stay on the main and join bassos and sopranos at the Allee piano.”
Also in 1970 was the Lodge, complete with bearskins on the walls and an all-Minnesota menu. “Stay to dream over the music that starts at 9 pm; philosophize as the firelight casts a glow over the copper-topped bar, and the deer-head smiles down on you!” Piano by Delores Del Rae.
The Haberdashery
Capper and Capper, Ltd. was the first of perhaps several haberdasheries that occupied a prime location off the 7th Street lobby. Hubert W. White and Nicolas was the company just before the peanut bar opened in about March 1970. The Haberdashery (45 South 7th Street), like the Radisson Hotel, was owned by Curt Carlson. It was strictly a bar and the only reference to music found was a jukebox in 1980.
A second Haberdashery was opened in October 1973 at 1501 Washington Ave. in Cedar-Riverside in the Peterson Drugstore building. This location closed at the end of March 1983.
A third opened in the Radisson Hotel at 6th and Wabasha in St. Paul in September 1974. This one had a music venue, at least in 1977.
THE FLAME ROOM
The music venue that the Downtown Minneapolis Radisson Hotel is most famous for is, of course, the Flame Room. This restaurant was an institution in the Twin Cities and so many of us, our parents, and grandparents went there on special occasions for the special menu, celebrity performers, and the Golden Strings.
Flame Room I: 1925 – 1943
The first of its three Flame Room restaurants opened in 1925, originally on the mezzanine level. The Radisson also offered the so-called Radisson Roof for dancing during the summer months.
Early entertainment was provided by such bands as George Ganz and his Golden Gate Orchestra, Slatz Randall, and Craig Buie. From 1931 to 1937, Norvy Mulligan’s Orchestra played in the Flame Room and broadcast over KSTP in a program called “Dancing in the Twin Cities.”
Flame Room II: 1943 – 1957
In 1943 a new Flame Room restaurant opened. This one was just off the lobby, with an added entrance on Seventh Street. Patterned after a smart, small New York City nightclub, the new Flame Room drew the finest entertainers in the world and would eventually become as well-known as the Radisson Hotel itself. The Flame Room featured background music for its shows and dancing by Don McGrane and his Radisson Hotel Flame Room Orchestra. In addition, the finest acts in America were booked and the public responded by jamming the room nearly every night for both the early dinner and the late-night shows. Specially trained waiters served appreciative guests amidst dazzling arrays of flaming entrees. Among the most memorable Flame Room entertainers were Hildegarde and the late Carl Brisson, who played the Flame Room more often than any of the room’s other fabled stars. Comedian George Gobel got his start at the Flame Room. Other popular performers who thrilled crowds there included Peggy Lee (with Sev Olsen and His Band), Rowan and Martin, Tito Guizar, Nick Lucas, and Victor Borge. The dancing DeMarcos, Dorothy Shay, Joe F. Brown, Imogene Coca, Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, Burl Ives, Connie Haines, Abe Burrows, Liberace, and Phyllis Diller also made frequent Flame Room appearances.
In October 1952 the Flame offered $2,000 in “wonderful prizes” by naming the Flame’s “Mystery Husband.” Clues were given over Sev Widman’s WTCN radio show “Where’s Your Husband?” The same ad featured the DeMarcos, “America’s foremost dance team,” Don McGrane and His Orchestra, the Singing Embers, and Harry Blons’ Dixieland Orchestra.
Flame Room III
From 1957 to 1961 the hotel underwent a $7-million refurbishing program that would add 140 rooms and a brand-new and larger Flame Room. New owner Curt Carlson and the late impresario Al Sheehan (“The Aqua Follies Man”) brought the Golden Strings to the Flame Room in 1963. Carlson had seen a dazzling violin show in Mexico City in 1962. He asked Sheehan to put a similar act together, and the new ensemble, named the Golden Strings, opened in the Flame Room on February 16, 1963. The group – made up of eight violins, a bass violist, and two baby grand pianos – played the room until 1981, when the hotel closed. Performing before more than two-million people over more than 18 years. the Golden Strings was, according to Variety magazine, the longest running violin show in the world. (Carlson also put the first real “flame” in the room when he installed two giant, gold-plated, gas-powered torches that created brilliant colored flames during the Golden Strings shows.)
A 1960s promotional brochure called it the “only dinner show of its kind in 50 states,” although a July 1963 ad in the Twin Citian said that similar groups existed in Japan, Paris, Mexico City, New York, and Las Vegas. The ensemble played three shows nightly (except Sundays) with dancing after 10:30 pm with the Flame Room Orchestra. Just before the act opened Will Jones described the scene:
All kinds of special lights and equipment have been installed for the new show. Each violinist has his own spotlight and besides memorizing two different shows of 21 or 22 tunes each he has to know how and when to be planted under his spotlight, smiling. There are other spotlights for big sprays of roses hung on the walls, and there are candelabra that brighten and dim on cue. And come opening night, with luck, there are going to be long jets of flame leaping up on either side of the bandstand at dramatic moments… And what will the Golden Violins play? … Gypsy music, Irish music, Scandinavian music, any romantic tunes you’d expect to hear .. in an all-red, candlelit dining room, you’ll probably hear them all. .. Take your best girl and don’t let her get her wig near the flamethrowers.
DEMOLITON
The grand downtown Minneapolis Radisson Hotel closed on November 20, 1981. The structure was razed by implosion in about nine seconds on December 6, 1982.
Minneapolis Star and Tribune, December 6, 1982
A 360-room Radisson hotel was built in 1986 with the help of a Federal loan from HUD at 35 South 7th Street.
The new Radisson Plaza Hotel building was remodeled and rebranded as the Radisson Blu in 2014.
Radisson Blu
In 2021, it was rebranded again as the Royal Sonesta, a new chain.
Royal Sonesta