Right on Main Street in Edna, Texas, the 1950 Edna Theatre:
Showing posts with label retro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retro. Show all posts
July 14, 2011
December 31, 2010
July 19, 2010
"Mr. Lucky"
We interrupt current programming for a beautiful little slice of musical, retro heaven entitled:
This TV series, very loosely based on the movie by the same title, is about a suave gambler, Mr. Lucky (John Vivyan), his faithful sidekick, Andamo (Ross Martin), and various guest stars (such as Frank Gorshin) who undergo their adventures on Lucky's yacht, the Fortuna II (Fortuna I sank in episode 1). Anchored beyond L.A.'s twelve-mile limit, the yacht is a center of gambling, classy dining, and intrigue. Lucky and Andamo get themselves into all kinds of danger, but always manage to get themselves out by the time the closing credits roll. While the setting is creative, the magic of this series is created by Henry Mancini's fabulous musical score. The theme "Mr. Lucky" plays throughout, as does Mancini's "Chime Time" and other lovely numbers (e.g., "Blue Satin"). (From the IMDb entry for the TV show which ran from 1959 to 1960)
Mancini's smooth theme music for the show reached Number 21 in the US singles charts. He released two successful LP's based on the show, Mr. Lucky and Mr. Lucky Goes Latin. On the show, Mr. Lucky carried a pocket watch whose chimes played the first five notes of the Mr. Lucky theme music. See that at around 1:00:
May 12, 2010
"Samba de Orfeu"
This is band leader Ray Anthony doing a really nice version of a Luiz Bonfá (of Black Orpheus fame) tune entitled "Samba de Orfeu." Anthony's version was recorded in 1966 and was originally released on an album called Hit Songs to Remember. What I can't get over is how nice (crystal clear) it sounds, particularly the violins, which seem to lift the song any time they enter. Do you remember those "Calgon, take me away" commercials? Well, this is the musical equivalent for me:
November 14, 2009
July 16, 2009
Mattel's Football
I'm really enjoying a Gawker offshoot, Gizmodo '79, and I hope they keep it up beyond this "week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born." They just did a post about Mattel's Football, one of the "popular standalone handheld games of the late '70s." I spent sooo much time playing this game. It's amazing how mesmerizing those tiny red dots of light could be on that little screen. Those games are probably responsible for many people my age being able to pick up on current, similar technology with relative ease and irritation. But what a "trip" it is to think about these again!
July 14, 2009
The Apple Boutique
Info from:
The Apple Boutique started life in the 19th century as a four-story house. Over the years it evolved into an office and shops in the busy part of London at the corner of Baker Street and Paddington Street. During the 60's three Dutch designers had an initially successful fashion boutique called the Trend in Amsterdam. It was closed due to financial problems.
Apple Boutique designs. From left: Pattie (Boyd) Harrison, Cynthia Lennon (John's wife), and Maureen Starr (Ringo's wife); kneeling in front: Jennie Boyd (George's sister-in-law). I guess Jane Asher was busy? - pic sourceThe designers later met Simon Hayes and Barry Finch. Hayes became the business manager while Finch joined the three Dutch designers who became known as the "The Fool." Pattie Harrison was familiar with them and even wore some of their designs. How it all started is not clear, but in September 1967, The Beatles gave "the Fool" 100,000 pounds to design and stock the new Apple Boutique.
"The Fool" engaged several dozen art students to paint a huge psychedelic mural across the entire front and side of the store. Instant complaints from local merchants soon had them erasing the mural. "The Fool" also created the psychedelic designs for John's Rolls-Royce and a fireplace for George.
Pete Shotton managed the store with Pattie Harrison's sister Jennie. Invitations to the grand opening, on 5 December 1967, read "Come at 7.46. Fashion Show at 8.16." John and George were the only Beatles that attended. The only drink available that night was apple juice. The Apple Boutique turned out to be a financial disaster and was closed just 8 months later. On Tuesday morning, 30 July 1968, the staff was told they could give everything away. Paul's "beautiful place" was no more.
A relatively obscure 1968 film called Hot Millions (yes, that is Bob Newhart) has a scene set in the Apple Boutique, providing a sense of what an average day might have been like:
June 24, 2009
The I Love Lucy theme
Desi Arnaz serenades Lucille Ball with the theme to I Love Lucy (by Harold Adamson and Eliot Daniel) on the season two, May 11, 1953, episode, "Lucy's Last Birthday":
And once again with lyrics, this time as a studio track:June 17, 2009
Veronica Lake, a.k.a., "sex zombie"
I didn't know much about Veronica Lake, but I have seen Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) and L.A. Confidential (1997), I am just generally into this sort of thing, so I was curious. It appears her life was a classic example of a beautiful, young starlet, chewed up and spit out by the Hollywood system (and life in general).
When she made it into the movies in 1939/1940, she was just eighteen years old. That seems awfully young to me for someone back in those days to be thrown to the wolves, but I suppose that's life. It happens voluntarily (eagerly) today, so you expect it now, but back then?? Her film career was essentially finished by the time she was thirty and had no doubt begun to lose her iconic allure. But nay, the story gets worse, the seas rougher.
After breaking her ankle in 1959, Lake was unable to continue working as an actress...she drifted between cheap hotels in Brooklyn and New York City and was arrested several times for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct.
A reporter found her working as a barmaid at the all women's Martha Washington Hotel in Manhattan. At first, Veronica claimed that she was a guest at the hotel and covering for a friend. Soon afterward, she admitted that she was employed at the bar. The reporter's widely distributed story led to some television and stage appearances. In 1966, she had a brief stint as a TV hostess in Baltimore, Maryland, along with a largely ignored film role in Footsteps in the Snow.
Her physical and mental health declined steadily and by the late 1960s Lake was in Hollywood, Florida, apparently immobilized by paranoia (which included claims she was being stalked by the FBI). Lake died of hepatitis and acute renal failure (complications of her alcoholism) near Burlington, Vermont. Her ashes were scattered off the Virgin Islands. In 2004, some of Lake's ashes were reportedly found in a New York antique store. (source)
So Hollywood had no use for her once she'd passed her prime, at least until Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, and only then in cartoon form. It's hard to get a bead on how she felt about things from these quotes, but perhaps they are somewhat illuminating:
"You could put all the talent I had into your left eye and still not suffer from impaired vision."
"I wasn't a sex symbol, I was a sex zombie."
"I've reached a point in my life where it's the little things that matter... I was always a rebel and probably could have got much farther had I changed my attitude. But when you think about it, I got pretty far without changing attitudes. I'm happier with that." (1970)
June 10, 2009
I'm bringing them back.
This impulse isn't new. It no doubt started that summer of 1981 as my teen years mercilessly began, in a movie theater, during any one of numerous viewings of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Come to think of it, this post could just as well have turned out to be about whips.
But anyone who has visited this blog more than a couple of times knows exactly from where this is coming. An excerpt from The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin':"No one in the family seems to know where they" [Sinatra's hats] "have gone. Said Eydie Gorme, in 1995: 'He recently told me he missed wearing those hats so much. He loved being able to take it off, give it to a hatcheck person, put it back on, tip it, push it down, push it up.'" (p. 115)
"It was only when his hair had grayed, in the seventies, that the hats disappeared. Privately, he took to golf caps and baseball caps. But if he wasn't wearing casual clothes, he wasn't wearing any hats at all. It was an acknowledgment, unconscious and barely noticed, that the world had changed, that jauntiness belonged to another time. No one else was wearing hats, either. And so he began missing them more than ever." (The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin', p. 117)
I've always assumed Elvis Presley was the beginning of the end for hats, followed next by John F. Kennedy. One popular theory with many who mourn the lost era of hats, is when Kennedy stopped wearing hats, so did the world. The final nail in the coffin of hat wearing as being fashionable had to have been the Beatles, specifically their first appearance on Ed Sullivan's show, February 1964. Whatever the case, Wal-Mart (of all places) is selling these hats (of a questionable quality) for $10 apiece. Seeing as they were displayed and had been possibly handled by other Wal-Mart customers, I was a little uncomfortable actually trying them on. But that's the point of this post - I bet nobody else had even touched them (other than the shelf stocker).
June 5, 2009
Toots
Let me highly recommend a movie to the Sinatra peeps out there and fans of the American, cocktail lounge sub-culture of the 1940s through the early 1960s. Those who've not seen Toots (2006) should check it out. It is a documentary about New York restaurateur and bar owner, Bernard "Toots" Shor. This is the IMDb summary:
The '40s and '50s were a classic period in New York City nightlife, when the saloonkeeper was king and regular folks could drink with celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason. In this documentary, Kristi Jacobson profiles her grandfather, the king of kings: Toots Shor of the eponymous restaurant and saloon, which was once the place to be seen in Manhattan.Toots Shor (1903-1977) was Manhattan's premier saloonkeeper from 1940 to 1959. At 18, he went to New York from South Philly, becoming a speakeasy bouncer. In 1940, he opened his place at 51 51st St., the watering hole for sports heroes, actors, mobsters, cops, politicians, visiting dignitaries, and writers. Shor's daughter, Frank Gifford, Peter Duchin, former sports writers, and others comment throughout as the filmmaker mixes still photographs, archive footage, including an appearance on This Is Your Life, and an audio-tape interview from 1975 to present a portrait of New York during and after Prohibition and of a lovable, larger-than-life, uniquely New York public figure.
May 25, 2009
More vintage imagery
I just had to do another post about the Library of Congress and its set of favorites at Flickr from the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection.
This photograph was taken in July 1940 by Marion Post Wolcott, and it features Wigwam Village #2, in Cave City, Kentucky. It would appear the neon sign is still there. It reminds me a lot of the Tee Pee Motel, right outside of Wharton, which I photographed back in February 2007.
Another fine Marion Post Wolcott photograph, this one was taken in October 1939 of a "negro going in colored entrance of movie house on Saturday afternoon, Belzoni, Mississippi Delta, Mississippi." I include this one here for the most superficial of reasons, namely, it reminds me of some shots I've taken:
Pittsburg, March 2007
Mount Pleasant, also March 2007
May 18, 2009
Pulchritude of the past
Oh, I wish I'd known about this. Galveston Island’s "legendary Bathing Beauties Pageant" was resurrected on Saturday (5/16/09). History from Galveston Beach Revue (quote in green):
Dubbed the "Pageant of Pulchritude" by C.E. Barfield, the Galveston beauty contest began in the summer of 1920 and from then on marked the kick-off for tourist season each year. By 1928, the event (which had morphed into the "bathing girl revue") had become so popular, the Island's population was said to have tripled during the event weekend. These Island pageants are said to have been the beginning of what we know today as the Miss America Contest.Being a BOI (refers to those "Born on Island"), as they say, and having grown up on the Island, I am fascinated with its history. I love hearing especially about the era when it was a prototype for the kind of a town places like Las Vegas, Nevada, would eventually become. The Galveston I knew was so different from that, but you could still get a sense (more like a vibe) of what it had been like.
Had I known about this event's rebirth, I might have been able to get some excellent pictures, such as this one from The Galveston Daily News photographer Kevin Cox:
Dana Blue of Houston twirls her umbrella for the judges during the vintage-inspired swimwear competition of the Galveston Island Beach Revue on the beach at 33rd Street on Saturday afternoon. She won second place. (The Galveston Daily News)
April 6, 2009
The Balinese Room
A bit from the Wikipedia entry:The Balinese Room was a well-known nightclub in Galveston, Texas, built on a pier stretching 600 feet from the Galveston Seawall over the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. For decades a dance hall and illegal casino, the Balinese Room was remodeled and reopened in 2001 without the gambling.
Salvatore "Big Sam" Maceo with pianist Carmen Cavallaro and Galveston Mayor Herbie CartwrightOperated by Sicilian immigrant barbers-turned-bootleggers Sam and Rosario Maceo, the Balinese Room was an elite spot during the 1940s and 1950s, featuring entertainment by Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, George Burns, The Marx Brothers and other top acts of the day. Patrons of the private club included Howard Hughes, Sophie Tucker and wealthy oil barons from nearby Houston. In 1997, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The following historical data is largely paraphrased from information provided by the library of my childhood, a place I spent many hours, the Rosenberg Library:
Before it became known as the Balinese Room, it was the 21st Street fishing pier, the Original Mexican Restaurant, and the first of two Pleasure Piers. Salvatore (Sam) Maceo and his older brother Rosario (Rose) Maceo invested in the restaurant, Chop Suey, in 1923. In May of 1928, the former restaurant opened as Maceo's Grotto.
The structure was damaged by a storm in 1932. It was remodeled with Oriental décor and a new 200 foot pier, and reopened as the Sui Jen Café. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the decor was modified. 
On January 17th, 1942, the Maceos opened the Balinese Room. The interior had been remodeled in a South Seas motif, and the pier was again expanded, this time to 600 feet. Its private back room was equipped with the most modern gaming equipment, and long before Vegas attracted the big names, the Maceos lured high rollers to "Play on Galveston Island." Keep in mind this was before there even was a "Vegas Strip."
When this photograph was taken in April 1947, Sinatra was in Texas to perform at Houston's Shamrock Hotel at a benefit for victims of the Texas City Disaster. At the invitation of Sam Maceo, the singer made a visit to Galveston and the Balinese. Seated from left to right are, Anthony Fertitta, Jimmy Van Heusen, Frankie, and Sam Maceo.
In its heyday, the Balinese Room drew crowds from all over the country. The showroom featured stars such as Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington, and Jayne Mansfield among others. There is a story that the Balinese Room's bartender invented a new drink for singer Peggy Lee in 1948. He supposedly named it after the Spanish version of her name, Margarita.
That bartender's name was Santos Cruz. He later went on to become the night bartender at the Old Galveston Club (now a parking lot) in 1983. This is where my group of friends and I met him. We simply called him "Santos." He was a great guy and a very nice man to us. Of course, this perception was helped along by the fact he didn't hassle us too much for things like, say, oh, driver's licenses to insure we were of drinking age (which we weren't). Had I known way back then he had served Frank Sinatra drinks and invented the Margarita for Peggy Lee, I would have been waaay more reverential. He waited on us at the bar as if we were Sinatra, instead of what we were, i.e., the privileged, snot-nosed, wise-ass kids of Galveston's upper-middle class. R.I.P., Santos. We loved ya!
The Balinese Room was raided on 64 consecutive nights during the 1950s – without one charge ever made. When Texas Rangers would raid the establishment, a buzzer would sound in the back room, all gambling devices would disappear into secret floor and wall compartments, and tables would instantly be set with linens and silver. By the time the Rangers would reach the end of the pier, guests would stand and the band would strike up "The Eyes of Texas." On May 30, 1957, Sheriff Paul Hopkins raided the Balinese Room. With two undercover detectives already inside the casino, he demanded entrance. The charges stuck, and the gaming devices were confiscated and destroyed. This marked the end of the Maceos and the illegal gaming era in Galveston.
And so the Balinese sat, largely empty and unused, until a local attorney reopened it in late 2001, early 2002. Much of the original structure and decor had been either modified or destroyed over the years, but the South Seas interior decor of the large ballroom survived and was restored to match its 1940s appearance. The hallway of the long pier was lined with autographed photos of past performers and other memorabilia.
A bit more from the Wikipedia entry:
As Hurricane Ike approached Galveston on Friday, September 12, 2008, the storm surge raised the water level to a point where waves were occasionally topping the Galveston Seawall, sending water and debris onto Seawall Boulevard.
Later that night and early Saturday morning, Hurricane Ike barreled ashore, with the eye of the storm tracking into Galveston Bay. Although the pier was higher than the seawall, Ike's storm surge, waves and wind were more than the seventy-nine year old pier could handle. The Balinese Room, after having survived hurricanes Carla, Alicia, and numerous smaller storms, was completely destroyed. Only plywood, rubble, metal and the club's famed red door were left after the hurricane passed through.
not so long ago,
there on a crowded island
in the Gulf of Mexico.
It didn't take too much money,
man, but it sure was nice.
You could dance all night if you felt all right,
drinking whiskey and throwing dice.
And everybody knows
it was hard to leave.
And everybody knows
it was down at the Balinese.
-lyrics to "Balinese," from Z.Z. Top's album Fandango! (1975)
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