Rho Sigma & Hot Springs

Red Shirts have long made the 36-mile journey up winding Highway 7 (an Arkansas scenic highway) to the "Sin City of the South" -- Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas. Red Shirt banquets and parties often took place at the posh Eastman and Arlington hotels, and Red Shirts frequented the racetrack, amusement centers and nightspots of the Spa City on many occasions. THE DEATH OF HARRY HARDAGE Hot Springs was also the site of the first tragedy to befall Rho Sigma. Charter member Harry Hardage of Arkadelphia, the first Red Shirt to die, was killed in a car accident on Central Avenue in May, 1935. The accident occurred near Oaklawn Park about 12:30 a.m. on a Saturday night. Hardage and two other men had borrowed Ouachita football coach Bill Waltons car so that they could attend a state high school band concert in the Spa City. Their car swerved to avoid an oncoming car and collided with a large truck which was parked too far into the street. Hardage was the only one killed. Ouachita dismissed classes on the day of his funeral, which featured Ouachita College president Dr.J. R. Grant as the main eulogist. Red Shirts acted as pall bearers. CHARTERING THE OUACHITA BUS Red Shirts of the 1940s sometimes chartered the Ouachita bus for road trips to the Springs, since most college students of the era did not own their own cars. The student-driven bus provided a safe way for the Shirts to let off steam. Ironically, the student bus driver on many of these trips was Paul Hogue, a member of Beta Beta and father of future Red Shirt Curtis Hogue. BEER RUNS AND BARS Red Shirts continued to frequent Hot Springs and its attractions throughout the gambling era of the 1950s and 1960s to the present day. Beer runs and road trips often began after the Monday evening meetings ended. Small bars on Central Avenue were often the targets of Red Shirt road trips, for example, Cleo's Tavern and The Hideaway Lounge. The Hide-a-Way, relocated further south on Highway 7 in the Eighties, remains a popular collegiate watering hole today. GAMBLING THE TREASURY One year, the financially-strapped Red Shirts concocted a scheme to make a quick buck by betting the remains of the Treasury -- a few hundred dollars -- on one race at Oaklawn Park. They studied the various handicap sheets and other information for several nights, then made the 36-mile trek to Hot Springs. All the money was put down on one horse -- who unfortunately lost. That year, the Spring Outing took place in lawn chairs on the bank of Lake DeGray. HOT SPRINGS ATTRACTIONS THROUGH THE YEARS The Belvedere Club, Hot Springs premier nightclub and illegal gambling den, formally opened Feb. 17, 1935, although it was a nationally-known gambling house for several years before then. It operated until 1947, when it became a private country club (and casino night club during the Races). In 1960 it was reopened as a club, but soon reverted to the country club role. Almost all of the major celebrities from the Twenties through the Fifties performed at The Belvedere, including such luminaries as Billy Holliday and Frank Sinatra. Other night clubs included the Southern Club and The Tower Club (opened 1941). Later night clubs of note included Old South (later The Palms) across from Oaklawn, The Vapors, and the Black Orchid Lounge (which was one of Arkansas first topless clubs in the early 1960s). There was even a hidden gambling den and speakeasy secreted beneath Central Avenue in an underground room adjoining the storm drains. Prohibition had been repealed in 1933, but 3.2 beer was all that was sold -- at least openly -- until 1935. Hot Springs was to the nation what Las Vegas is today -- although on a smaller scale. Major gangsters vacationed in Atlantic City, Miami ... or Hot Springs. Hot Springs was called Bubbles in gangster slang. Top gangsters Al Capone and Legs Diamond were frequent visitors. Capone stayed in Room 442 in the Arlington, while his Chicago rival Bugs Moran stayed at the nearby Majestic Hotel. Apparently, one hotel wasn't big enough to accomodate the two gangsters at the same time. Capone was rumored to own many of Hot Springs attractions, including the Southern Club and the Belvedere Club. The Hamilton House restaurant on Lake Hamilton reputedly was once owned by Capone, who may have used it to bootleg whiskey by boat. Owney (Killer) Madden, who ran the famous Cotton Club nightclub in Harlem, was told to take a permanent vacation to Hot Springs when a murder made him too hot to handle in New York. Gangsters, no matter how notorious, were allegedly safe from prosecution in Hot Springs as long as they committed no local crimes. Flamboyant mayor Leo McLaughlin ran a corrupt but efficient political machine that controlled the city. The White Front Cigar Store, located where the Ohio Club is today, was a noted bookie joint and gangster hangout under continuous surveillance by the FBI. Telephone lines connected the store with racetracks throughout the country. Cigar boxes were used to disguise winnings and the days take. An upstairs room provided a safe meeting place for visiting gangsters. The proprietors installed a bulletproof steel wall around it after driveby shooters attempted to rub out some of the guests with tommy guns. There were many plush casinos and brothels in Hot Springs during the gangster era. The area of Central Avenue and Bridge Street was the main hot spot of gambling and prostitution. Bridge Street was listed in Ripleys Believe It or Not as the Worlds Busiest Street for Its Size (its only 60 feet long). Maxine was one of Hot Springs most famous madams. Today the site of her brothel on Central Avenue is a coffee shop, restaurant and art gallery named after her. Road houses sold booze and fun. One of the more famous was the White Tower Club (formerly the Tower Club) in Gulpha Gorge on Highway 5. The building continually housed a succession of nightspots and taverns until the Eighties. The famous Budweiser Clydesdales have long wintered at Oaklawn. It was not uncommon up until the 1950s to see a team of eight goats pulling a keg-shaped wagon full of beer or derelicts wearing sandwich boards advertising local bars or nightclubs. Hot Springs also rivaled Reno as a quickie divorce spot in the early Thirties. There have long been a variety of restaurants and hotels in the Spa City, among them the nationally-known barbecue joint, McClards, which has been continually operated by the same family since 1928. McClards began life as a motor court motel. One of the guests didnt have enough cash to pay his bill, and gave the McClards a recipe for what the guest called the best barbecue sauce in the world. The sauce, originally used to season goat meat, is still used today. McClards continues to be routinely included in the top five barbecue restaurants in the U.S. Major sporting events often took place in Hot Springs -- boxing matches, professional baseball, PGA tour golf tournaments, professional wrestling, speedboat racing, as well as horse racing. The early Arkansas State Fair took place in Hot Springs, and of course there is Oaklawn Park, one of the best-known and well-respected horsetracks in the nation. Legalized betting and thoroughbred racing began in earnest in 1935 (after a prohibition from 1919-34). Hot Springs -- not Florida -- was the original spring training site for professional baseball. Several pro teams wintered in the Spa City, playing on fields in Whittington Park and elsewhere. Hot Springs also had a minor league team of its own, the Hot Springs Bathers. Baseball notables such as Arkansas own Dizzy Dean and King of Swat Babe Ruth were often found in Hot Springs during the spring and summer. Much of Hot Springs had been destroyed in fires and floods around the turn of the century and in the early 1920s. In 1935 many of the buildings were relatively new. Highway 7 was much narrower and weaved around more than it does today. There were light globes on top of narrow bridges with high concrete railings over the lakes, casting a romantic glow over the lake at night. Electric trolley cars made trips from the race track to downtown well into the 1960s. The lakes were new: Lake Catherine was completed in 1924, Lake Hamilton in 1932. Lake Ouachita was not completed until 1947. Arkadelphias Lake DeGray is relatively new, having been constructed in 1973. The Princess Theater, built in 1910, burned Dec. 1935. It was rebuilt and renamed the Malco Theater soon after the fire. The Malco was purchased by the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in 1996, and is scheduled to be restored as the Princess. Hot Springs once boasted an opera house, four movie theatres, and at least four drive-in theatres. Many Red Shirt dinners and parties took place in either the Eastman or Arlington hotels. These enormous, spacious luxury hotels were among the finest in the country. The Arlington, which first opened in 1875, was rebuilt in 1893 but burned in 1923. It was rebuilt and re-opened Jan. 1, 1925. The Arlington, Hot Springs headquarters of notorious gangster Al Capone, remains one of Hot Springs landmark buildings. In Summer 1996 it was the scene of the successful 50th Anniversary of Rho Sigma celebration. The Eastman (Monarch of the Glen), which opened in Jan. 1890, was remodeled and redecorated in 1928 to compete with the Arlington. At one time the Eastman was considered the largest and most unique hotel in the United States. It was sold to a Mr. King in 1927, and renamed the Kingway Hotel in 1929. The Eastman name was restored in 1937. The hotel was sold to the Department of the Army Oct. 17, 1942 for use with the Army-Navy Hospital (later the Rehab Center). It was razed beginning Nov. 3, 1958 to make way for the downtown Hot Springs post office, which was completed in 1960. Some other attractions of the Thirties and Forties included: Happy Hollow Amusement Park (in operation until 1948), Fountain Lake Resort, Downtown Hot Springs with its grand nightclubs and hotels, Bath House Row, Oaklawn Park, Lakes Catherine and Hamilton, National Park Rifle Range (operating until 1962), and Hot Springs Ostrich Farm (in business until 1953). There was even a nudist colony off Highway 7 near the lakes. CELEBRITY VISITORS Noted visitors to Hot Springs in the early Thirties included giant heavyweight boxing champion Primo Carnero and legendary former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, Arkansas national radio stars Lum and Abner, comedian and commentator Will Rogers, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, demagogic U.S. senator and presidential hopeful Huey P. (Kingfish) Long of Louisiana, rival gangsters Al (Scarface or Snookie) Capone and Bugs Moran, gangsters Lucky Luciano and Owney (Killer) Madden, God Bless America singer Kate Smith, charismatic evangelist Aimie Semple McPherson, and baseballs greatest home-run king, George Herman (Babe) Ruth. President Harry S. Truman was a frequent visitor to the old Army-Navy Hospital (now Hot Springs Rehabilitation Center). Many of these celebrities -- and thousands more ordinary citizens -- came to Hot Springs to take the baths. The famous natural hot springs of Americas Spa are as pure and healthful as any in the world. The hot baths and therapeutic activities of Bath House Row were believed to cure or alleviate a variety of ills -- including syphillis and other venereal diseases.