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Amica Mutual Pavilion marks 50th anniversary of Providence Civic Center's opening


Ozzy Osbourne fans at the Providence Civic Center in 1982. (WJAR)
Ozzy Osbourne fans at the Providence Civic Center in 1982. (WJAR)
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The operators of Amica Mutual Pavilion are marking the arena's 50th anniversary Tuesday.

Though the first event at the then-named Providence Civic Center was on Nov. 3, 1972 -- it was a Rhode Island Reds hockey game -- the official grand opening came on Jan. 17, 1973.

"This building is designed to serve everybody," said Mayor Joseph Doorley, who pushed for the civic center's construction.

The arena has hosted more than 7,000 events and welcomed more than 38 million guests over those five decades.

"The Amica Mutual Pavilion (AMP) will take part in celebrating its long history through a variety of acknowledgements throughout the coming months. The kickoff to our celebration will be our 'AMP Gives 50' campaign which will launch in January and be a weekly initiative of acts of kindness to support our community," a release said.

The celebration includes a 50th anniversary logo, which evokes the arena's original logo.

Originally called the Providence Civic Center, it was known as the Dunkin' Donuts Center for 21 years, until it was renamed Amica Mutual Pavilion -- or The AMP, for short -- last year.

It is the home arena for the Providence College Friars men's basketball team and the Providence Bruins AHL hockey team.

The Boston Pops have made the most appearances of any artist at the civic center, with 27. Aerosmith, the Grateful Dead and Trans Siberian Orchestra have played the arena 19 times each.

The Providence Civic Center's history includes some controversy.

Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci canceled the Who's planned concert in December 1979 when he learned 11 people were crushed to death at a Who concert in Cincinnati earlier that month.

"If we can't control the crowd, we're not going to have the groups here," Cianci said.

The group came back more than 30 years later and said they would honor the 1979 tickets.

The civic center considered canceling an Ozzy Osbourne concert in 1982 after the rocker bit the head off a bat in Des Moines. The concert went on in Providence, without incident.

One of the scariest moments at the arena came in 2014, when an apparatus holding eight aerialists with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus broke and fell 15 feet to the floor. The women, who were hanging by their hair, suffered serious injuries.

One of the Ringling Bros. touring companies held its final performances in Providence in 2017 before the curtain came down on "The Greatest Show on Earth" forever. (Although there has been talk of a revival.)

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