Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 2, 1995 TAG: 9509050059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CLEVELAND LENGTH: Medium
Hail, hail rock 'n' roll.
Rock royalty snipped the ribbon Friday on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to the thunderous cheers of a city that had to fight for the right to rock.
Jimi Hendrix's acid-tinged rendition of the ``Star Spangled Banner'' opened the ceremony. A flight of Marine Corps Harrier jets - appearing in the Cleveland National Air Show this weekend - screeched overhead.
``We did it! We did it! Tell the world, we did it!'' exulted Mayor Michael R. White.
The 1986 decision to put the hall in Cleveland was a controversial one, and there were plenty of naysayers in the nine-plus years it took to make the rock hall a reality.
``I remember all of the jokes. I remember all of the people saying, `I just don't know about Cleveland. I'm just not sure they're going to make it. I'm just not sure they have what it takes,''' White said. ``Well, today, we're telling the whole world, we've got what it takes.''
The hall, which includes memorabilia, interactive displays and theaters, doesn't open to the public until this morning. A benefit concert is scheduled tonight featuring such stars as Bruce Springsteen, Little Richard and Johnny Cash.
Although they couldn't get in, thousands swarmed Friday to the glass-and-steel structure along Lake Erie. Police could not immediately provide a crowd estimate, but people lined a parade route five deep and mobbed the streets leading to the hall.
Big names took part in the ceremonies. Little Richard, Yoko Ono and Martha Reeves, Rolling Stone Publisher Jann Wenner and Atlantic Records President Ahmet Ertegun cut the ribbon.
Ono, widow of Beatle John Lennon, blew kisses to the thousands of people swarming on the broad, concrete plaza outside the six-story, pyramid-shaped rock hall.
``Wow, what have you done?'' she shouted. ``You are changing the map of America! You are changing the map of the world!
``As a member of the rock 'n' roll family and community, I feel very happy that we now have our museum, a home,'' said Ono, who donated numerous articles of Lennon memorabilia. ``I think John would have loved this, too. He would have loved the fact that he's here and not in my closet anymore.''
Why Cleveland? It was local disc jockey Alan Freed who coined the phrase ``rock 'n' roll.'' He was also host of the first rock concert, which attracted more than 20,000 people to the 9,700-seat Cleveland Arena in 1952.
by CNB