To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. Acknowledgements “I’m always doing the things I can’t do. That’s how I get to do them.”–Pablo Picasso My inexplicable enthusiasm for all things “Aud” would have meant nothing had I not had people in my life who encouraged and assisted me when it came to this final tribute to her. Someone else had to find what I couldn’t find, to have what I didn’t have, and to know the vast amounts of information that I didn’t know when I started this. And then there’s my family, who simply make it possible for me to do all the things I can’t do, and seem at least amused by, if not proud of, my many attempts. With regard to AUDieu, there was nothing in my life last January that indicated I would ever get into The Aud again, let alone become the official photographer of her demolition and publish the results. Then, one day, Ed Hogle said to me, “I’m meeting someone down at The Aud tomorrow morning. Do you want to come?” and set this journey in motion. So I’d like to acknowledge and deeply thank the following, and hope that the end result of our efforts is something they find mildly entertaining and at least somewhat worthwhile: Ed Hogle, for getting me in; Mike Healy and everyone at DEMCO, for humoring me and keeping me safe; Nick Turano, who made me do it; Budd Bailey, who always makes me believe I can do these things and is my personal fact-checker; The Rev. Cathy Dempesy, who makes my left turns possible; Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society and Buffalo & Erie County Public Library for keeping everything; Dan DiLandro and Peggy Hatfield at Buffalo State College archives for finding all the fun stuff; Bob Smith for finding all of Robert L. Smith’s photos; Harry B. Scull, Jr. for his photos; Tim Warchocki for knowing everything about the Buffalo Bisons; Steve Mangione for scanning my favorite construction photo of The Aud, which no one else seems to be able to find; Valerie Priester for photos and for keeping the Sabres fan mailing list going; John Boutet for so generously sharing his collection and his time and his wife Robin for letting him keep everything; Dale Anderson for educating me about the concert world; Scott McManigle and the Sabres Alumni Association, who let us hang out with our heroes and who sold me the winning ticket once; Larry Owens for all the peanuts; the people who keep my life running day to day, especially the ones with medical degrees; Steve Jobs because my brain couldn’t have done this without those pretty little machines; and the people who told me their stories: Ken Bartholomew, Ross Brewitt, Donald Brown, Kevin Callahan, Jim Kralisz, Betty Krencik, Tiffany Krencik, Michael Moran, Michael Powers, Liz Savino, Paul Schmitt, Cliff Smith, Gary Steczewski, Donna Thielke, Carol Thielke, Mark Turner, and Paul Wieland–and very special thanks to Jerry Ruszala, whose memories of The Aud are so extensive that he could have had his very own chapter. They taught us in law school that we don’t need to know anything, we just need to know where to look it up. When it comes to memories of The Aud, Jerry is where I look it up. Special thanks go to Marti Gorman and Buffalo Heritage Unlimited for working so hard with me to put AUDieu together in short order and for letting me refer to The Aud in the feminine, because calling The Aud “it” just broke my heart a little.