The Superdome began as a public referendum in 1966, and shines today as New Orleans gets ready to celebrate Super Bowl XLVII.
Built atop the bulldozed Back o' Town neighborhood, the Superdome is the site of ecstasy and tragedy, of countless celebrations and memories, historical agonies and post-K clichés. The Dome is a temple to our Saints and our city, and — love it or hate it — you can't ignore it.
Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:
The Superdome in New Orleans has hosted heavyweight fights, papal visits, and — after this weekend — seven Super Bowls, an NFL record. But no event looms larger in the dome's history than Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 storm that turned the stadium into a teeming shelter of last resort.
During the storm, reporters spared no hyperbole when describing scenes of human suffering. The Superdome, in particular, was described as a "hellhole" and "apocalyptic," and it was sort of true.
Deep inside the Convention Center, well away from the throngs of journalists that have descended on the city and behind a false wall protected by a security guard, is a group of tech-savvy people manning the Super Bowl Host Committee's social media command center.
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Quarterback Len Dawson in the Chiefs' locker room, Super Bowl I, 1967
Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Kansas City's Fletcher Smith, with the Green Bay Packers massed behind him, prior to the start of Super Bowl I, Los Angeles, 1967
Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Chiefs linebacker E. J. Holub, Super Bowl I, 1967
Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Packers head coach Vince Lombardi, Super Bowl I, 1967
Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Quarterback Len Dawson in the Chiefs' locker room, Super Bowl I, 1967
Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Jim Taylor, Super Bowl I, 1967. Packer lineman at left is the great Fuzzy Thurston
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Kansas City's injured Fred "The Hammer" Williamson is carried off the field.
Credit Bill Ray / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
The Packers' Herb Adderley and Kansas City's tight end Fred Arbanas head to the lockers after Green Bay's 35-10 victory in Super Bowl I, Los Angeles, 1967
It's hard to imagine a day when the Super Bowl wasn't a spectacle of all things over the top.
It's harder still to imagine that the first-ever Super Bowl really wasn't that super. It wasn't even called the Super Bowl. It was known as the First AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Played in Los Angeles in January 1967, the Green Bay Packers versus the Kansas City Chiefs, it remains the only Super Bowl that did not sell out. The most expensive ticket, according to the NFL, sold for a mere $12.
