CORALVILLE — Al Huntzinger of Iowa City flips through one window card after another, the names of rock ’n’ roll bands of the ’60s popping out like psychedelic peace symbols — The Buckinghams, American Breed, Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Mob (one of my favorites), The Zombies …

“One night,” Al says, “the night we had The Box Tops, there were 3,000 kids going on the blacktop from there to Dance-Mor in Swisher. That was the largest crowd we ever had. I think the Fabulous Flippers were there.”

Al, 73, is talking about The Library ballroom he and Ray Scheetz operated in Cou Falls about three miles south of Swisher from 1966 to 1970.

“What did parents think,” Al laughs, “when their kids told them they were going to the library?”

The parents probably knew.

And Iowa’s rock ’n’ roll fans know, too. That’s why The Library, located near the also long-gone Ranch Supper Club, is one of three ballrooms being inducted into this year’s Iowa Rock ’n’ Roll Music Association Hall of Fame at Arnolds Park.

The festivities Saturday and Sunday also will induct 11 bands, five solo performers, a disc jockey and a radio station. The big weekend concludes at 5 p.m. Sunday with the awards ceremony and a concert featuring most of the performers. (See http://iowarocknroll.com  for more details.)

Among the bands is The Rubber Band from the West Union area, which I wrote about last October. That was just before Doug Koempel and Larry Crandall, who now tour as The Memory Brothers, reconnected with former bandmates Tom Stahr and Dave Lantz for a concert at Nob Hill Ballroom north of Decorah.

The Rubber Band, which recorded “Five Foot Two” and “My Baby Left Me,” was the house band at Matter’s Ballroom in Decorah from 1966 to 1970.

Sadly, Matter’s burned in 2003, adding to the legacy of ballrooms that no longer exist, such as the original second-story Roof Garden (my hangout) on Lake Okoboji and The Library. This in a state that, at one time, had more ballrooms per capita than any other.

Al (in the hall of fame for two groups — Al’s Untouchables, and Al, Larry and the Untouchables) had made the rounds as a performer. He and Ray leased the former “The Red Carpet” nightclub in 1966 and moved in furnishings from the Armar Ballroom in Marion, which was being torn down for a strip mall. They even left chewed gum intact beneath the tables.

The Library became a hit with admission at $2, sometimes penny beer specials and some great names of the times. Then in 1970, as quickly as fame can abandon a one-hit wonder, it was over.

“We tried to give the kids a prime attraction every weekend,” Al says. “After four years, they shut us off like water.”

Ray, who died in 2006, changed the name to The Long Horn and booked country-western bands for a few years after that.

Apparently, kids no longer felt they had to tell their parents they were going to the library.

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