Remembering Rich Hazelwood, owner of Phoenix's historic concert venue Celebrity Theatre

Rich Hazelwood, owner of the historic Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, died the morning of Monday, March 1 after battling leukemia. He was 74.

Saying they were "devastated to share the news," the Hazelwood family issued a statement.

"Rich Hazelwood cared deeply about his family, his Celebrity Theatre staff (which he considered family), everyone associated with Celebrity Theatre, and all the Valley supporters who attended concerts and events," it read.

"He was very proud of the venue and what it means to the community."

Since Hazelwood bought the venue in 2002, the Celebrity hosted performances by such artists as Diana Ross, Duran Duran, Motorhead and Willie Nelson, as well as several years of Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding concerts.

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His daughter, Heidi Hazelwood, will lead Celebrity Theatre through this time of mourning with the assistance of Danny Zelisko, an Arizona concert promoter who's been booking shows there since the 1970s. "I've been in business with my dad since I could walk," Heidi Hazelwood says.

"I don't want people to think Celebrity is over," she told The Arizona Republic. "I have a lot of support. We're hoping to make Celebrity bigger and better every year and we want it to stay a family environment. That was really important to my dad."

He went from paperboy to concert venue owner

When Zelisko left Live Nation in 2011 and started booking shows on his own again under the Danny Zelisko Presents name, the Celebrity became his go-to venue.

Zelisko saw his first concert in Phoenix on the Celebrity's rotating stage as a 17-year-old kid in the '70s. He doesn't think the Celebrity had ever done as well as it did under Hazelwood. 

"These past 10 years have been the best 10 years I've had in that theater," Zelisko says. "And I started calling up to book shows in that place in 1974. I've gotta tip my hat to him. He gave it a good run."

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To Zelisko, the Celebrity won't be the same without Hazelwood coming onstage with his dogs.

"They ran the place," he recalls, with a laugh.

For Hazelwood, the Celebrity was more than an important part of Phoenix music history.

"The theater is very special to me," Hazelwood told The Republic in May 2020. "I watched it being built on my paper route and thought, 'One day I’m going to own that.'"

The childhood dream came true in 2002 when Hazelwood bought the Celebrity, a theater in the round on the southwestern corner of 32nd and Fillmore streets.

"He always told the story about how one day he was gonna own the Celebrity Theatre," Zelisko says.

"And he did. That alone is quite an accomplishment. Anybody that can be a young kid that has no reason to say they can do that, other than sheer willpower, is my kinda person"

The history of the Celebrity Theatre

In 2013, Phoenix City Council voted to approve historical designation for the venue, which opened in 1964 as the Phoenix Star Theatre with a performance the musical “South Pacific.”

Initially known for bringing Broadway plays to Phoenix, the venue was renamed the Celebrity Theatre in the early 1970s to reflect its growing reputation as a concert venue.

In 2017, the venue was inducted to the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.

Hazelwood gave a colorful acceptance speech from the Celebrity's stage, featuring plenty of humorous highlights, including "My first love in life is not music; I think it's Jack Daniels" and a joke about going to high school in Phoenix as "the best five years of my life." He signed off with, "Come back often; I need the money."

Two years after that induction, the Celebrity was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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A mission to 'preserve the legend of the Celebrity'

"My hope is to keep that up and preserve the legend of the Celebrity for many years to come," Hazelwood told The Republic in 2020.

Hazelwood and his wife Judy also owned Hazelwoods First Place Sports Grill, which closed in 2016 after 16 years of serving cheesesteaks, cheeseburgers and chicken wings to sports fans at Indian School Road and 36th Street in Arcadia.

The family also has a deli called Hazelwoods on the Bay in San Diego.

Long before he purchased the Celebrity, the self-described "serial entrepreneur" founded Hazelwood Enterprises in 1976, launching Hazelwood Gift Shops and other successful business ventures. Hazelwood Enterprises sold 71 of his 73 gift shops across nine states to a British retailer for $19 million in the year 2000. 

That gave Hazelwood plenty of money to invest in renovating the Celebrity. Through the years, he spent more than $1 million on the venue, recovering chairs, painting surfaces and adding video screens.

Hazelwood took great pride in his role as the paperboy who grew up to own the historic venue.

"He liked coming onstage," Zelisko says. 

"He used that private box upstairs for every show. Had a lot of good times with a lot of friends over the years. ... He loved meeting the artists and letting them know that he was that guy. And you deserve to be noticed when you're that guy."

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Heidi Hazelwood says her father was "bigger than life" — even as a child. 

"He just wanted to be noticed," she says. "He wanted all the things he was deprived of when he was little."

She remembers her dad as a man who loved wheeling and dealing, but also as a lifelong music fan.

"It was the excitement of taking the risk and putting the sweat into making something work," she says. "And if it didn't work, picking up the pieces and doing something completely different. It didn't matter what happened today or yesterday, he just woke up and and trudged forward." 

She remembers music blaring during her parents' weekend dance parties at home.

"He wanted to be a singer so badly. But he was a dancing machine. The Doors The Rolling Stones. When I was really little, Perry Como was his end all, be all."

A U.S. Army veteran, Hazelwood was honored as the Arizona Retail Entrepreneur of the Year and received a Phoenix Rising Star award. He was also known for giving back to the community, with tenures as Chairman of the Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau and Chairman of the Boys Ranch.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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