Adventures of a Haunted House, The Pink Flamingos Band Blog

The Big O in 91...

The Adventures of a Haunted Hotel

As the title implies this is about a haunted hotel we stayed at in the early 90’s, but it also was a key component to the develop of The Pink Flamingos in the beginning.

Do you believe in ghosts, haunted houses, and apparitions or are you the skeptic that doesn’t believe in things like that? If you had stayed at the Wagon Wheel Lodge once located in the small town of Rockton, IL (Population 2100) it would probably have made you a believer.

What started out as a seven stool hamburger stand and gas station in 1936 turned into a nine acre resort built from railroad timbers and telephone poles and became a vacation spot for the rich and famous (seeing the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope, Ronald Reagan, and a few gangsters) to hob knob during the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s was then a dilapidated run-down hotel. In its heyday it had an ice skating rink, basketball court, bowling alley, airfield, and golf course. A family owned the property at the time and were putting every last dollar into trying to renovate it and make it a happening vacation spot once again.

We showed up their doorstep one fall afternoon. At the time most of our gigs were on the East Coast and we couldn’t afford to drive our bus back to New Mexico after each gig, so we needed a place to stay in between.

They agreed to let us perform on the weekends at their “theatre” in trade for rooms. This was not your typical theatre. This was the original site of the movie theatre that was at some point converted into a small performance space….which was to say basically a multi-level room with two ramps that went down to the wooden dance floor and stage. The stage was just plywood and two by fours, nailed together, and painted black.

At this time we weren’t just The Pink Flamingos. We were actually called Ceasar Valentino and The Pink Flamingos. We had met Ceasar a year before in Albuquerque and decided to team up and go on the road together.

Ceasar was an accomplished singer, dancer, and musician and was the headliner for our show.

Sometimes we would have a week or two where we didn’t have any gigs and would use this time to rehearse and develop what would be the signature routines and songs of The Pink Flamingos. In fact, this was where we created our “Whatever Lola Wants” routine.

As you can imagine in a town with a population of 2100 we were the most exciting event happening on the weekends and the locals would come flocking in to catch our show. We had quite a following.

I almost felt like a celebrity. I could walk down Main Street and go into almost any establishment….grocery store, hardware store, library, nickel and dime and they would know I was with “The Pinks”.

We did our own marketing and since we were on the road all the time had to market while we were traveling. The Blackhawk Room became our base of operations. We’d do our phone calls and assemble our VHS tapes and brochures to mail out to our prospective clients. Yes, this was back in the day when VHS tapes were high tech.

It wasn’t all work and no play. We did have time for a little R&R and one of our many pastimes was playing basketball on the weed infested court that had basket hoops with nets hanging haphazardly from the rims.

I discovered for the first time that The Pinks were very aggressive basketball players. Imagine a game with no rules, some pushing, shoving, and lots of shouting….

We rarely went out to eat and made all of our food in our rooms. We had one room with a Kitchenette where we ate most of our meals. This was my room which ended up being a quarter of a mile from the lobby. Normally being so far away wouldn’t have been a big deal except in a haunted hotel the less time you have to spend in the hallways the better. The floorboards creaked with every step. The hallways were dimly lit and the 1960’s carpet smelled of mildew. I was frequently spooked and would tear down the halls like a bat out of hell just to get to where I was going…even in the broad daylight. It felt like the Shining without Jack Nicholson.

There are stories of sightings of a bellhop who mysteriously disappeared and of a man who hung himself.

The Wagon Wheel caught fire three times and in 2004 by court order was finally demolished.

We stayed here on and off for months at a time. In it’s own way it became our home away from home.

Wagon Wheel Lodge in its better days.

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"The Official Band of The Inc 500!"- Inc Magazine

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"The Official Band of The Inc 500!"- Inc Magazine

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