Memories is its name and its gift

Memories have been made there, with weddings, shows, comedy and concerts. Rolland Roebuck is ensuring more are being created now and will be long after he has left.

“The whole premise all along is I know how to put on a good evening here,” Roebuck said. “Here” is Memories Ballroom in the Town of Port Washington.

Roebuck, Memories’ owner, said his goal since he bought the venue 36 years ago has been that “when you leave from a show or a wedding, you are happy.”

Roebuck’s journey to the building, constructed 92 years ago as a log cabin ballroom for dancing, started, he said, when “I walked in here with a friend to have a beer” and noticed “they’ve got a stage.”

Roebuck, a native of Ohio, majored in theater at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and worked on river boats for three years. A job at the Kohler Co. brought him to Wisconsin.

“I’m an entertainer at heart,” he said.

Roebuck approached then co-owner Bobi Schultz and asked if they would consider adding theater.

Schultz and her husband David gave Roebuck a job at the venue in the midst of a major remodeling project. The old Weiler’s tamarack log cabin was buried within the walls of the newer facility. David tried to save everything he could, incorporating some of the old wood into the bar.

“When the Schultzes hired me full time I did things I never thought I’d do in my life. I was hanging drywall in a snowsuit. I’m not a carpenter-type person,” Roebuck said.

He empathized with what Schultz went through as he uncovered the old cabin.

“Nothing was done with a level or a square. I give him kudos. He had to get so creative,” Roebuck said.

Remodeling over the years has included taking the building from five levels to two.  Three years ago, a green room was added with a bathroom for actors and wedding parties to dress for events.

One constant has been the hardwood maple, 2,400-square-foot dance floor that rests on a flat bed of dirt.

“Dancers don’t get fatigued because the floor flexes,” Roebuck said.

The building looks like anything but a 400-capacity wedding venue and 200-capacity theater facility from the outside. Save for the tall sign, Memories appears to be a house.

Roebuck compares it to a pomegranate — normal looking on the outside but beautiful when cut open.

Memories Vice President Lisa Green said the “oohs and ahhs” start when people walk in.

The venue boasts a rich history. Acts that have performed there include Jerry Lee Lewis, Chubby Checker, Tommy James and the Shondells, Gary US Bonds and Mary Chapin Carpenter. The Milwaukee-based Rocket 88 band performed its final concert there in 2009.

Sonny Smith bought the venue from Leo Weiler in 1958, and Marty Zivko bought it in 1986, renaming it Port Zivko. The Schultzes bought it in 1990 and called it Port Danceland before changing its name to Memories in 1995.

As Weiler’s tavern back in the days when it was legal to drink beer in Wisconsin at age 18, the place was a popular, and sometimes controversial, teen bar that drew young revelers from as far as Milwaukee and Illinois.

Green often hears customers recalling stories. “One guy drove his motorcycle through those doors,” she said, pointing to an entrance to the ballroom.

Roebuck bought Memories with Lynn and Bob Klemm in 2003, and bought the couple out when they wanted to leave the business.

Roebuck put his own mark on Memories, adding chicken comedy and murder mysteries to the winter schedule when weddings were light.

Menus pair with the events. All-you-can-eat broasted chicken is offered during chicken comedy, and steak sandwiches — “take a steak in the crime” — during murder mysteries.

One of Roebuck’s specialties is dinner theater. He used to have to chase entertainment.

“Now, people are calling us,” he said. “To have them approach me, it’s not me. It’s Memories.”

Roebuck is careful about which shows he selects.

“I spend a lot of time in the office reading scripts,” he said.

Memories is not a production company. It holds its own auditions for actors from Green Bay to Racine.

Roebuck has a directors contact list, and he likes to give new directors and actors a chance.

“You come in here and you perform. It’s so unique and so special,” he said. “I’m nurturing their talent. That’s how I look at it.”

Some shows are instant favorites, like  “The Christmas Schooner” based on the sinking on Lake Michigan of the schooner Rouse Simmons while delivering Christmas trees to Chicago.”

“It’s a heartwarming tearjerker,” Roebuck said.

For others, Roebuck adds unique requirements for directors. He asked Larry Marcus to move the stage to the center of the room and do “Godspell” in the round, something he never tried. The musical ran right before Holy Week.

He maintains a standard of being a “clean, family wholesome place.”

“What I like to feel in my soul is people are willing to come to Memories whether they know the show or not,” he said.

The shows attract good talent. Roebuck said. “Every guy who plays basketball in high school and college doesn’t make the pros, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of talent not in the pros. No, it’s not Off-Broadway, but here’s an opportunity to use your craft.”

Green, who had been the food service director at St. John XXIII Catholic School in Port Washington and at Stepping Stones Children Center in Belgium, started at memories as a cook and is now in charge of the kitchen, where her five children work. It’s known for its broasted chicken, homemade Parmesan and garlic potato chips, homemade pizza and its Jell-O salads.

Green loves working with brides to make their day special in an atmosphere of “rustic elegance” with all the amenities. Memories offers all-inclusive wedding packages in a changing world.

“When I started wedding receptions were the family reunion,” Roebuck said.

Now, Green said, people are looking for quicker and smaller ceremonies.

Memories recently added corporate banquets and meetings to its repertoire, which also includes baby showers and banquets for nonprofits and other groups.

“We’re kind of versatile,” Green said.

The venue survived the pandemic with smaller tables, masks, taking people’s temperature and smaller audiences. They were closed for two months, per state requirement.

“In those two months we came up with at game plan for how we could produce some entertainment for people,” Roebuck said. “We’re still in recovery mode. People are finally confident getting out in groups.”

Roebuck is confident in the Memories’ legacy continuing for years to come with Green waiting in the wings. Just like he bought out the Klemms, “someday I hope she buys me out,” he said.

For more information, visit memoriesballroom.com.