EVANSVILLE — As the push to renovate the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Coliseum in Downtown Evansville continues, it's hard not to look back on events that filled the seats in years past.

The Coliseum has been home to wrestling matches, circuses, stage productions, dances and concerts. Proponents of the revitalization hope to see a few of those again, such as the stage productions.

In the meantime, here are some of the famous faces to come through the doors.

Ray Charles

On Nov. 14, 1961, Ray Charles was arrested in Indianapolis on a narcotics charge after police allegedly found a cold cream jar of marijuana, empty gel capsules with heroin residue and a hypodermic syringe in his hotel room.

He got out on $1,000 bond. And that evening, he played to around 800 people at the Evansville Coliseum. According to a report in the Evansville Press, he and his two managers had said they would start for Evansville immediately after he was released.

Charles, who was topping the carts at that time with “Hit the Road Jack,” took stage around 10 p.m. — but only after winning some money in a dressing room craps game.

“Charles, as he waited around in the dressing room under the Coliseum stage, kept moving in a constant rhythm, though no one else heard the music,” the Press reported the next day. “He shuffled from one foot to the other, his arms, whole body kept a beat with added loud drumming on the wall to mark a crescendo.”

The singer reportedly told reporters he would “deny everything” when asked about the charges from the incident earlier in the day.

“And you can quote me,” he said.

The next morning, he returned to Indianapolis for a court date.

Randy Savage

Gruff, yet soft-spoken.

That’s how Evansville Courier Sunday staff reporter Chris Bates described "Macho Man" Randy Savage in a piece recapping wrestling at the Coliseum in 1984.

Crowd-favorite Savage was rushed by numerous autograph seekers, Bates wrote, and he took the time to talk.

“I wrestle for myself and do the best I can,” Savage said. “I try to please myself and not worry about anything else. Some of the fans like me and others, well, they don’t like me.”

Savage recounted to Bates that he’d been attacked, even knifed, by fans. He pointed to a scar on his forearm.

“Macho Man” was in town for a tag-team match, paired with Handsome Jimmy Valiant, to take on the Dirty White Boys. They closed out the night with thrown chairs, chains and lots of blood.

Katharine Hepburn

In town in 1941 to perform "The Philadelphia Story" for one night only, Katharine Hepburn showed allegiance with picketers and gave high school journalists the slip.

Hepburn was set to take the Coliseum stage Jan. 20, and had booked a room at the Hotel McCurdy until that time. That was until she spoke with George Van Horn, publisher of the Labor Forum.

Sixty hotel employees had quit and formed a picket line outside the McCurdy that morning after two members of the kitchen staff had been fired due to union activities.

The Evansville Courier reported that after talking to Van Horn, Hepburn agreed to leave the hotel. The movie star, who was sympathetic toward unions thanks to being a member of the Screen Actors Guild, ended up staying at the Vendome instead.

Meanwhile, students from Bosse, Memorial and Reitz had spent the day searching the downtown area for Hepburn, hoping for the chance to interview her. The movie star continued to slip past them, literally.

The students had posted themselves at various Coliseum exits, but Hepburn got out. On foot, the reporters chased her car back to the Vendome. Standing outside of the side entrance, Hepburn agreed to answer one question.

"How did you happen to begin your dramatic career?" they asked, according to the Evansville Courier.

"Oh dear," sighed the actress. "That was so long ago I can't remember."

William "Billy" Sunday

William Ashley "Billy" Sunday was a well-known Major League Baseball player. But when he stood on the Evansville Coliseum stage in 1930, it was as an even better-known evangelist.

The 66-year-old reverend captivated crowds twice daily for six weeks, only taking Mondays off for rest.

The local newspapers seemingly covered every sermon throughout Sunday's six-week stay, documenting his laments on women, liquor, college, evolution and money.

Thousands attended each of his sermons aside from a day with frigid temperatures that were reported to have kept the number down to hundreds.

For a Jan. 17 Evansville Journal article, Sunday was asked what he thought of Evansville and its spiritual need.

Like all other cities in the United States, it was "money drunk and too self opiniated," Rev. Sunday told the reporter.

In a sermon the evening of Feb. 22, Sunday told nearly 3,000 people not to lose their mansion in heaven. He said when he arrived in the afterlife he would see the signs and would be told if the people of Evansville who did not come to his sermons were still bound for heaven.

"Evansville would be a pretty good place if a lot of people would either die or get converted," he said.

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson opened the Evansville Musicians' Club's 1940-1941 artist series to a crowd of over 3,000 people, shattering records for the program.

The concert had to be delayed by 25 minutes to allow season ticket holders to get to their seats before letting in residents who wanted to buy single ticket admission. A row of seats was even added to the orchestra pit, according to the Evansville Press.

Anderson wowed the crowd with mix of works from Handel to spirituals. Known as a contralto, the lowest of the female singing types, the Press coverage noted her lower and higher registers sounded best. But that was nothing compared to the softer notes.

"The softer tones were so projected that they carried to persons farthest away in the balcony," the story read.

The Evansville performance came a little over a year after Anderson dealt with racism from the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington D.C.

The Black singer was denied use of the Washington Constitution Hall. That caught the attention of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who at the time was a member of the DAR. She ended up resigning because of this incident, according to news reports from the time.

Later that year, Anderson would end up singing to a crowd of around 75,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

There she may not have had the opportunity to sign autographs in a timely manner. But later, in Evansville, hundreds rushed backstage to speak with Anderson and have their programs signed.

She did so, according to the Press, in "bold, firm letters."

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Hepburn, Randy Savage: 5 interesting guests of the Evansville Coliseum