The Shamrock Hotel, conceived by oil magnate Glenn McCarthy, made its grand debut on St. Patrick’s Day in 1949. The glittering event quickly turned into a disaster, and would be remembered as one of the most chaotic broadcasts in history that left audiences puzzled.
The largest hotel in the United States at the time, the Shamrock was designed to be a dazzling experience of luxury, adorned with shamrock motifs and vibrant green accents…plus a gigantic swimming pool! The hotel’s opening night in Houston, Texas was highly publicized, which included appearances from more than 150 celebrities such as our gal Dottie Lamour, Judy Garland, Errol Flynn, Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers, Robert Preston, and more. It’s reported that guests paid a whopping $42 per dinner plate (that’s about $550 today)!
An estimated 50,000 onlookers were in attendance for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. At the start of the evening’s program, the event created a mob scene with thousands of guests rushing into the dining room area called the Emerald Room. With Pat O’Brien as the Master of Ceremonies, Dottie was scheduled to go live with Ed Garner and Van Heflin as her guests. In the midst of the chaos, Dottie went off script and attempted to ad-lib (and shout!), but the deafening sounds of the crowd were so overwhelming that the audiences at home couldn’t hear the show. Add in technical difficulties, crosstalk “ghost voices,” and the rumored use of profanity, the program was then, of course, cut short. Click here to listen to the broadcast.
“I hated it particularly for Glenn’s sake,” Dottie said. “He wanted everything to be so perfect for the opening. It wasn’t his fault. It was just one of those things when a crowd got out of control. In a way, it was a tribute to Glenn — so many people wanted to see what he had built for Houston.”
Despite the incident, Dottie returned for future appearances on the hotel’s radio broadcast “Saturdays at the Shamrock.”
