My Your Fathers Mustache Experience
When I was 20 I moved from KC MO. To NOLA to go to school at the University of NOLA.
I met my life long friend Dalton Diamond at St Charles Av. Baptist Church , he had just transfered to Tulane from Old MS. We ask out two student nurses that we had met at church and we headed for Bourbon St. We went into a new place that had just opened called Your Fathers Mustache. It was insane.
You could hear Your Fathers Mustache long before you got to the front door. The sound of the banjo band and people clapping and singing drew the attention of everyone and there was always a crowd of people in front of the Mustache. The doorman was a giant with a big full mustache, we walked into a room with the walls painted red and black with old photographs, and crazy signs hanging on the wall. The band was loud and banged out the sing along songs that everyone knew and sang along with. The waiters all over the place , yelling orders, clapping cheering and serving amazing amounts of cold beer and peanuts. You could eat the peanuts and throw the shells on the floor, but if you threw the peanuts at the band you could get thrown out by the giant at the door. Waiter could and did throw them at each other. The place was alive with energy and excitement the band got the crowd into a frenzy as it would finish with a medley that had both the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Dixie. We ordered 4 beers and peanuts but the waiter said we would be better off with a picture of beer ( mo beer for the dollar) . The bill came to $3.10 ( $2.75 for the beer and 35 cents for the peanuts.
Two weeks later my life long friend Roger Kinnaman came to visit me and we took the same student nurses out and went to Bourbon St. and went to Your Father's Mustache.
We loved the place, the energy and participation, it was fun and felt good. The next night Roger and I went to the Quarter with out dates and after seeing some of Bourbon St wound up back at the Mustache. That night we drank to excess and ate too many peanuts . We stayed till closing and some how made it back home but I'm not sure how. We made use of the trash cans on Bourbon and perhaps that helped.
Sunday night found us back in the Quarter for Rogers last night in New Orleans before returning to Kansas City. We didn't have much money left so we were just crusin the streets. At that time Bourbon St. was filled with traffic. It was of course one way, but parking was allowed or at least ignored and the right side of the street was filled with parked cars and the street itself was a constant line of cars as everyone drove down Bourbon St to look and the Strip Shows and hear the music.
As we approached the Mustache we saw the band out on the side walk taking a break;
“Here comes our two best customers” the leader of the band said.
To be recognized was great but to be called their best customers was really impressive to two 20 yr old Midwest boys. The band leader who's name was Joel ask us where were we from what we did, We told him from KC and going to school.
At that time I was selling stereos at Mason Blonce and taking courses at UNO. Roger was going to a school in southeastern Mo.
“We need waiters,' Band leader Joel told us. Come in Monday and talk to Jack Stillwell.
Wow! To get to work in a night club on Bourbon St. This was my lucky day.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Don't give up
I have just viewed this short video about some one that had to start all over at a advanced age. You can see this video at http://www.20milliondollarman.com/. It is a short video and the reason I find it interesting is that I can relate to it.
For 24 years I owned and operated a night club on Bourbon St. ( The Tricou House, 711 Bourbon St. ) then came a series of problem. The fire department wanted changes to the building that would cost over $400,000.00 and untill they were made demanded I keep a "fire watch" ( this was a off duty fireman that I had to pay $25.00 per hour for him to set in my upstairs room doing nothing when ever I opened my upstairs. The anual cost of this if I was to keep the same hours of operation was $105,000.00 per yr)
My manager was locked up for fraud in a Texas case and I found he had been lying and stealing from me for a six month period of time. The people that owned the building took this opertunity to start a second law suite againt me to break the lease and take away my business ( they had failed is a first attemp four yr eariler). I was forced into chapt. 11.
Then came Katrina.
I had been living in Waveland Ms. for over 23 years and my house was over a mile from the water. The house was completely covered in water and all my possessions were destroyed. I had a contract to buy the house and even though the owner had agreed to give me a third of the insurance money, when the insurance payed off she gave me nothing and since all of my paper work on the house was distroyed I had no nothing to prove I had ownership rights.
The owners of the Tricou House offered to give me some money if I would just walk away from the business and so I did.
I now live in a MEMA cottage in Bay St. Louis Ms , living on SS and trying to find the funds to finish my son's house which was also destroyed during Katrina.
The importain thing to remember is that everything that happens to us in this life we have created ourselves and all events and happening are for our spiritual growth. Since we create our own lives that means we can do with it as we will and so I am working on creating a new life and a new way to make money. I am 64 and ready to start anew. WFH
Ps. you can get your free copy of this book by following this link.http://www.20milliondollarman.com/
For 24 years I owned and operated a night club on Bourbon St. ( The Tricou House, 711 Bourbon St. ) then came a series of problem. The fire department wanted changes to the building that would cost over $400,000.00 and untill they were made demanded I keep a "fire watch" ( this was a off duty fireman that I had to pay $25.00 per hour for him to set in my upstairs room doing nothing when ever I opened my upstairs. The anual cost of this if I was to keep the same hours of operation was $105,000.00 per yr)
My manager was locked up for fraud in a Texas case and I found he had been lying and stealing from me for a six month period of time. The people that owned the building took this opertunity to start a second law suite againt me to break the lease and take away my business ( they had failed is a first attemp four yr eariler). I was forced into chapt. 11.
Then came Katrina.
I had been living in Waveland Ms. for over 23 years and my house was over a mile from the water. The house was completely covered in water and all my possessions were destroyed. I had a contract to buy the house and even though the owner had agreed to give me a third of the insurance money, when the insurance payed off she gave me nothing and since all of my paper work on the house was distroyed I had no nothing to prove I had ownership rights.
The owners of the Tricou House offered to give me some money if I would just walk away from the business and so I did.
I now live in a MEMA cottage in Bay St. Louis Ms , living on SS and trying to find the funds to finish my son's house which was also destroyed during Katrina.
The importain thing to remember is that everything that happens to us in this life we have created ourselves and all events and happening are for our spiritual growth. Since we create our own lives that means we can do with it as we will and so I am working on creating a new life and a new way to make money. I am 64 and ready to start anew. WFH
Ps. you can get your free copy of this book by following this link.http://www.20milliondollarman.com/
Monday, October 8, 2007
Change Comes To Bourbon St.
THINGS CHANGE ON BOURBON ST.
“Anger is the hardest emotion to control. Greed is the illness that has no end.” Buddhist saying. Greed got to Bourbon St in the form of complaints and bad press. The new District Attorney Jim Garrison was told to clean up that mess down on Bourbon St. and in 1963 the clean up and raids started and places were shut down and padlocked. The city council passed new laws making “B-Drinking” illegal. Liquor license were made more difficult to obtain and the pinball and other gambling machines were outlawed. By the fall of 1964 when I first came to New Orleans, many places were still padlocked and actually had large heavy chains and big sturdy padlocks on the front doors or gate making it impossible for anyone to enter the business. ( some may have had back doors but The Mustache only had a fire exit that was hard to get too and get out off and impossible to get into from the outside.)
The morals of the day was changing, the birth control pill brought about the women’s liberation movement and broke the fear of pregnancy for the woman. The popular music of the time was also making a huge shift to “Folk Music” from Rock and Roll. The Kennedy Presidency had created a new patriotism the “New Frontier” wanted to play the music of the old frontier and “The Kingston Trio” and Joan Baez . TV had the “Hootin-nanny”, and the serendipity singers and everyone wanted to join the Peace Core and go save the world. “ Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”, JFK told us and we believed him, This was the “New Frontier” .
As the society changed the popularity of the strip shows begin to fade. Club owners looking to cut down on there overhead went more and more to playing 45’s (single song on each side vinyl or plastic record that rotated at 45 rpm ) for music for the dancer to strip by. With the crack down on B-drinking the small clubs were hard pressed to pay the girls, and folk music and piano bars, took over many of the small clubs that had featured strippers.
During this time Bourbon St. was very much a small community and a self aware entity. The lyrics to Bourbon St Parade says it all.
“Come Fly down or drive down to New Orleans.
That city is pretty, historic scenes .
“I’ll take you, Parade you,
Down Bourbon St.
You’ll see all the hot spots
You’ll met all the Big Shots,
Down on Bourbon St.
”
The Hot Spots and the Big shots were on Bourbon St and the strip took care of it own. Every one knew the people in the other clubs and after hours clubs and key clubs were always coming and going. The Dungeon still doesn’t open its doors until midnight but in the sixties it was a key club where you had to pay for a membership and buy a key were going to come into the club.
There were many small restaurants on the street that made their living from the people working on Bourbon St. The “Bun” in the 400 block of Bourbon St. the mainstay to the dancers, doormen and musicians of the French Quarter. The “Spot” in the 200 block of bourbon offered home cooked lunches and Jonny at Peoples Grocery took care of your shopping needs.
The famous “Papa Joes” jam session didn’t start until 4:00 Am because everyone had to get off of work. With no closing hours the jam would go until 9 or 10 in the morning when the place would close down. At the same time other clubs like Pat O’s would open their doors at 10:00 AM after closing at 6:00
This was the Bourbon St that I came into in the fall of 1964. I had graduated from high school in KC in 1962 and had gone to college for a yr and worked for another and had moved to New Orleans in the fall of “64” to attend UNO the following is a narrative of my first experiences and impressions of Bourbon St in the fall of 1964.
FALL OF ‘64 FIRST IMPRESSIONS
In the summer or ‘64 I had attended Southeast Mo. State in Springfield Mo. And was part of the :Summer Tent Theatre” program which still goes on today from what I understand. My brother was attending the Baptist Syminary in New Orleans and my mother was living with him. My father had died in Jan of ‘62 at the age of 86 ( he was 30yrs older than my mother) and I had pretty much been on my own since high school. My mother wanted me to come to New Orleans to live and since she had lived there long enough for me to claim residency and get into UNO at a cheap rate. She had sent me some money to travel to New Orleans ( I believe it was $20.00) and I had taken the 36 hr bus ride and had gotten enrolled in school that Sept.
“Lets drive down Bourbon St. so Fred can see what is like.” Lela told my brother John. Lela (my sister -in- law) my brother and mother and myself had been to church since it was Sunday night. I had been in New Orleans only about a week or so and this was my first time seeing Bourbon St.
As we got to Canal street and made the U-turn to get to Bourbon we joined a long line of cars waiting to drive down Bourbon St. The first block off canal, the 100 block was nothing. The stores from Canal filled this block and they were all closed on Sunday. Starting with the 200 block from Iberville on down was music, traffic and lots and lots of neon lights. As we slowly cruised down the street it was hard to take it all in, club after club with a scattering of restaurants and a few hotels filled the next five blocks. The right side of the street was bumper to bumper with parked cars. Bourbon St and all the streets of the French Quarter are one way since they are too narrow to allow two way traffic. With parked cars taking up the right side the line of cars slowly inched down with one lane and no chance of passing or going around anyone. The side walks were crowded with people and even on a Sunday it was difficult for all the people to stay on the sidewalk and not spill into the street. The traffic was so slow that there was little chance of someone getting hurt however.
Music didn’t fill the air it was blasted from the clubs. Speakers on the streets pushed the music into your face as you went down the street. This was one of the low points of music on the street. Pete Fountain was way down at 8OO Bourbon. Al Hirt was going strong at 501 Bourbon and Chris Owens was across the street in her club 500 Bourbon. The 500 Club was on the upriver, lake side of that intersection ( the 500 club address was something like 435 Bourbon but Nick Karno was too smart and too street wise to let the facts stand in the way of a good name) and the 500 club was at that time the top strip club on Bourbon St with a live band playing music for the strippers. The Bayou Club was the main folk music spot and there were a lot of small strip clubs and piano bars. Then there were the “Barkers”.
THE BARKERS
Bourbon St has created may “characters” the stripper, the musician, the tap dancer, the club owner, but of all the “Barker” is perhaps most colorful.
This time is the hay-day of the Barker and they dominated the street. Above it all, above the sound of loud speakers and the noise of crowd, above the noise from the never ending stream off traffic, above the music that flowed from the clubs; there was the sound of the Barkers.
“SHOW TIME ON THE INSIDE’
“ BUY ONE DRINK SEE THE ENTIRE SHOW”
“CONTINUOUS SHOW ON THE INSIDE’
“ WORLD FAMOUS ACT”
“SHOW TIME”
The Barkers had a society of there own on Bourbon St. and a good Barker was in high demand. Many of course were drunks that lived from day to day on the money they made each night ( Barkers were often paid cash out of the till at the end of the night). Many of them worked the carnival or fair and circus, circuits in the summer when it was slow on the street and would work Bourbon St in the winter when the street was jumping.
The Barkers would work their door as a musician works his instrument or a machinist runs his lathe. The good ones would hold the door open enough to get the crowd stopped on the street.
RULE ONE ON BOURBON ST STOP THE CROWD AND MAKE THEM NOTICE YOU.
When that was done they would work the crowd with their lines about the act and what a good deal the club was offering and would find the individual or group most likely to come in and then shut the door and focus on their “mark” to get them in the door. Over and over the night long the Barker would ply his trade and fill the club.
Bourbon St. brings the crowds, the hard part is to get them in the door. If you go to Bourbon St tonight you will see the modern “Barker” these are club employees that work the street to get people inside. The Barkers were outlawed in the big clean up of Bourbon St in the 70’s . It was illegal to have employees outside of your business. This like most of the laws of this nature is pretty much ignored unless the powers that be want to give you a hard time for one reason on another. The present day doorman or “street person” as they are now called, are usually regular employees that take a turn to get people in. There is nothing like the Barkers today but while the Barker is gone the need to have some on the street getting people into your place is still a night to night reality of all Bourbon St operations.
The Barkers had a grape vine. Bourbon St in the sixties was pretty wild and the Barkers were a big part of the “muscle”. Most clubs did not have “bouncers” at that time but rather had a combination of Barkers and police contacts. With everyone knowing each other one Barker would help out the next. The grape vine worked like this; if a fight started at a club the Barker would tell the Barker next door that there was a fight before going to the fight. The next door Barker would in turn tell the Barker next to him about the fight and then would go help out and on down the street the word spread.
“ Fight at the Hotsi-totsy” down the street the word would go and Barkers from all over the street would converge on the Hotsi-totsy and the poor drunk businessman or college student didn’t stand a chance. The Barkers all knew each other so they would come in and ask no questions but just jump on the guys fighting that they didn’t know. Most of the fights took place on the street since the first thing the club owner wanted was to get it outside where his club would be damaged.
I of course knew none of this as I looked out the car window that Sunday night in ‘64. It just looked so wild and crazy and so much energy. I didn’t know about all these things and I didn’t know that I would be spending the most part of 40 years working on Bourbon St. but I did know this…. Bourbon St. was were the action was.
The next time I went to Bourbon St. was a few weeks later I had met my life long friend Dalton Diamond at the St Charles Av Baptist Church where my brother was Youth Minister and Lela was church sect. Dalton was from northern Ms. Dalton had seen a little more of the world than I had at that point but we were both pretty young and dumb, We had met two girls at church that were student nurses. Lynette was to become a friend for many years till we lost track of each other in Calf in ‘68. The four of us went to Bourbon St and as we were walking down the street the sound of Banjo’s stood out from the other music and we look in a club called “Your Fathers Mustache”, where the time of your life is right under your nose.
“Anger is the hardest emotion to control. Greed is the illness that has no end.” Buddhist saying. Greed got to Bourbon St in the form of complaints and bad press. The new District Attorney Jim Garrison was told to clean up that mess down on Bourbon St. and in 1963 the clean up and raids started and places were shut down and padlocked. The city council passed new laws making “B-Drinking” illegal. Liquor license were made more difficult to obtain and the pinball and other gambling machines were outlawed. By the fall of 1964 when I first came to New Orleans, many places were still padlocked and actually had large heavy chains and big sturdy padlocks on the front doors or gate making it impossible for anyone to enter the business. ( some may have had back doors but The Mustache only had a fire exit that was hard to get too and get out off and impossible to get into from the outside.)
The morals of the day was changing, the birth control pill brought about the women’s liberation movement and broke the fear of pregnancy for the woman. The popular music of the time was also making a huge shift to “Folk Music” from Rock and Roll. The Kennedy Presidency had created a new patriotism the “New Frontier” wanted to play the music of the old frontier and “The Kingston Trio” and Joan Baez . TV had the “Hootin-nanny”, and the serendipity singers and everyone wanted to join the Peace Core and go save the world. “ Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”, JFK told us and we believed him, This was the “New Frontier” .
As the society changed the popularity of the strip shows begin to fade. Club owners looking to cut down on there overhead went more and more to playing 45’s (single song on each side vinyl or plastic record that rotated at 45 rpm ) for music for the dancer to strip by. With the crack down on B-drinking the small clubs were hard pressed to pay the girls, and folk music and piano bars, took over many of the small clubs that had featured strippers.
During this time Bourbon St. was very much a small community and a self aware entity. The lyrics to Bourbon St Parade says it all.
“Come Fly down or drive down to New Orleans.
That city is pretty, historic scenes .
“I’ll take you, Parade you,
Down Bourbon St.
You’ll see all the hot spots
You’ll met all the Big Shots,
Down on Bourbon St.
”
The Hot Spots and the Big shots were on Bourbon St and the strip took care of it own. Every one knew the people in the other clubs and after hours clubs and key clubs were always coming and going. The Dungeon still doesn’t open its doors until midnight but in the sixties it was a key club where you had to pay for a membership and buy a key were going to come into the club.
There were many small restaurants on the street that made their living from the people working on Bourbon St. The “Bun” in the 400 block of Bourbon St. the mainstay to the dancers, doormen and musicians of the French Quarter. The “Spot” in the 200 block of bourbon offered home cooked lunches and Jonny at Peoples Grocery took care of your shopping needs.
The famous “Papa Joes” jam session didn’t start until 4:00 Am because everyone had to get off of work. With no closing hours the jam would go until 9 or 10 in the morning when the place would close down. At the same time other clubs like Pat O’s would open their doors at 10:00 AM after closing at 6:00
This was the Bourbon St that I came into in the fall of 1964. I had graduated from high school in KC in 1962 and had gone to college for a yr and worked for another and had moved to New Orleans in the fall of “64” to attend UNO the following is a narrative of my first experiences and impressions of Bourbon St in the fall of 1964.
FALL OF ‘64 FIRST IMPRESSIONS
In the summer or ‘64 I had attended Southeast Mo. State in Springfield Mo. And was part of the :Summer Tent Theatre” program which still goes on today from what I understand. My brother was attending the Baptist Syminary in New Orleans and my mother was living with him. My father had died in Jan of ‘62 at the age of 86 ( he was 30yrs older than my mother) and I had pretty much been on my own since high school. My mother wanted me to come to New Orleans to live and since she had lived there long enough for me to claim residency and get into UNO at a cheap rate. She had sent me some money to travel to New Orleans ( I believe it was $20.00) and I had taken the 36 hr bus ride and had gotten enrolled in school that Sept.
“Lets drive down Bourbon St. so Fred can see what is like.” Lela told my brother John. Lela (my sister -in- law) my brother and mother and myself had been to church since it was Sunday night. I had been in New Orleans only about a week or so and this was my first time seeing Bourbon St.
As we got to Canal street and made the U-turn to get to Bourbon we joined a long line of cars waiting to drive down Bourbon St. The first block off canal, the 100 block was nothing. The stores from Canal filled this block and they were all closed on Sunday. Starting with the 200 block from Iberville on down was music, traffic and lots and lots of neon lights. As we slowly cruised down the street it was hard to take it all in, club after club with a scattering of restaurants and a few hotels filled the next five blocks. The right side of the street was bumper to bumper with parked cars. Bourbon St and all the streets of the French Quarter are one way since they are too narrow to allow two way traffic. With parked cars taking up the right side the line of cars slowly inched down with one lane and no chance of passing or going around anyone. The side walks were crowded with people and even on a Sunday it was difficult for all the people to stay on the sidewalk and not spill into the street. The traffic was so slow that there was little chance of someone getting hurt however.
Music didn’t fill the air it was blasted from the clubs. Speakers on the streets pushed the music into your face as you went down the street. This was one of the low points of music on the street. Pete Fountain was way down at 8OO Bourbon. Al Hirt was going strong at 501 Bourbon and Chris Owens was across the street in her club 500 Bourbon. The 500 Club was on the upriver, lake side of that intersection ( the 500 club address was something like 435 Bourbon but Nick Karno was too smart and too street wise to let the facts stand in the way of a good name) and the 500 club was at that time the top strip club on Bourbon St with a live band playing music for the strippers. The Bayou Club was the main folk music spot and there were a lot of small strip clubs and piano bars. Then there were the “Barkers”.
THE BARKERS
Bourbon St has created may “characters” the stripper, the musician, the tap dancer, the club owner, but of all the “Barker” is perhaps most colorful.
This time is the hay-day of the Barker and they dominated the street. Above it all, above the sound of loud speakers and the noise of crowd, above the noise from the never ending stream off traffic, above the music that flowed from the clubs; there was the sound of the Barkers.
“SHOW TIME ON THE INSIDE’
“ BUY ONE DRINK SEE THE ENTIRE SHOW”
“CONTINUOUS SHOW ON THE INSIDE’
“ WORLD FAMOUS ACT”
“SHOW TIME”
The Barkers had a society of there own on Bourbon St. and a good Barker was in high demand. Many of course were drunks that lived from day to day on the money they made each night ( Barkers were often paid cash out of the till at the end of the night). Many of them worked the carnival or fair and circus, circuits in the summer when it was slow on the street and would work Bourbon St in the winter when the street was jumping.
The Barkers would work their door as a musician works his instrument or a machinist runs his lathe. The good ones would hold the door open enough to get the crowd stopped on the street.
RULE ONE ON BOURBON ST STOP THE CROWD AND MAKE THEM NOTICE YOU.
When that was done they would work the crowd with their lines about the act and what a good deal the club was offering and would find the individual or group most likely to come in and then shut the door and focus on their “mark” to get them in the door. Over and over the night long the Barker would ply his trade and fill the club.
Bourbon St. brings the crowds, the hard part is to get them in the door. If you go to Bourbon St tonight you will see the modern “Barker” these are club employees that work the street to get people inside. The Barkers were outlawed in the big clean up of Bourbon St in the 70’s . It was illegal to have employees outside of your business. This like most of the laws of this nature is pretty much ignored unless the powers that be want to give you a hard time for one reason on another. The present day doorman or “street person” as they are now called, are usually regular employees that take a turn to get people in. There is nothing like the Barkers today but while the Barker is gone the need to have some on the street getting people into your place is still a night to night reality of all Bourbon St operations.
The Barkers had a grape vine. Bourbon St in the sixties was pretty wild and the Barkers were a big part of the “muscle”. Most clubs did not have “bouncers” at that time but rather had a combination of Barkers and police contacts. With everyone knowing each other one Barker would help out the next. The grape vine worked like this; if a fight started at a club the Barker would tell the Barker next door that there was a fight before going to the fight. The next door Barker would in turn tell the Barker next to him about the fight and then would go help out and on down the street the word spread.
“ Fight at the Hotsi-totsy” down the street the word would go and Barkers from all over the street would converge on the Hotsi-totsy and the poor drunk businessman or college student didn’t stand a chance. The Barkers all knew each other so they would come in and ask no questions but just jump on the guys fighting that they didn’t know. Most of the fights took place on the street since the first thing the club owner wanted was to get it outside where his club would be damaged.
I of course knew none of this as I looked out the car window that Sunday night in ‘64. It just looked so wild and crazy and so much energy. I didn’t know about all these things and I didn’t know that I would be spending the most part of 40 years working on Bourbon St. but I did know this…. Bourbon St. was were the action was.
The next time I went to Bourbon St. was a few weeks later I had met my life long friend Dalton Diamond at the St Charles Av Baptist Church where my brother was Youth Minister and Lela was church sect. Dalton was from northern Ms. Dalton had seen a little more of the world than I had at that point but we were both pretty young and dumb, We had met two girls at church that were student nurses. Lynette was to become a friend for many years till we lost track of each other in Calf in ‘68. The four of us went to Bourbon St and as we were walking down the street the sound of Banjo’s stood out from the other music and we look in a club called “Your Fathers Mustache”, where the time of your life is right under your nose.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
50's & 60's
The fifties brought national attention and fame to New Orleans in general and especially Bourbon St. New Orleans had become a player in the Rock and Roll recording industry and the newly developed “TV” industry was producing “NOPD” and “Peter Gunn” and “Bourbon ST Is My Beat” all of which I watched as a kid growing up in Kansas City. The movie industry had, had presence in New Orleans for some time. Motion Picture Advertising a New York based company had established a production house in a old Jewish temple on Carrondelett St by “Lee’s Circle” and New Orleans was only behind N.Y. and L.A. in film and TV production. The Elvis Presley movie “King Creole” is a classic film of the time. There are many great Bourbon St. and French Quarter shots in this movie as well as what I consider to be one of the great lines of Am. Film when Elvis says….“I’ve cleaned every toilet on Bourbon St.”… and so have I Elvis, so have I
With all the glimmer, and glitz there was also a real down side. The French Quarter in general was really run down. The streets along the river front Decatur and North Peter were seedy and dangerous places to be late at night. Prostitution and street walking were common, and there were many ways to relive a tourist of his money. Gambling was controlled by the mafia and the power was so strong that New Orleans did not have gang warfare like other cities. There was just one gang and everyone belonged to it. I have always had respect for the job the NOPD does with Mardi Gras and the major events that New Orleans has but there has always been a darkness about the New Orleans police that only a city like New Orleans would create. The city of New Orleans has always been two-faced. This is how it should be and this is the reality. Now where is this more evident then with the NOPD. As I matured and learned about the ways of Bourbon St. I was told many stories and experienced my of these things myself. It was not unusual for the club owners to have police on their payroll and they would come in to get paid and get their envelope of cash on payday like every one else. I was told by one old time club owner how he was the fence for the police. That when they would arrest a drunk or some time just pick them up and roll them or accept bribes to not arrest them, then they would take the rings and watches, ect to this club owner and he would buy all the stuff.
Of course when there was a dispute between the customer and the club owner and the police was called in you know who would wind up getting their money and who would wind up going to jail.
With all the glimmer, and glitz there was also a real down side. The French Quarter in general was really run down. The streets along the river front Decatur and North Peter were seedy and dangerous places to be late at night. Prostitution and street walking were common, and there were many ways to relive a tourist of his money. Gambling was controlled by the mafia and the power was so strong that New Orleans did not have gang warfare like other cities. There was just one gang and everyone belonged to it. I have always had respect for the job the NOPD does with Mardi Gras and the major events that New Orleans has but there has always been a darkness about the New Orleans police that only a city like New Orleans would create. The city of New Orleans has always been two-faced. This is how it should be and this is the reality. Now where is this more evident then with the NOPD. As I matured and learned about the ways of Bourbon St. I was told many stories and experienced my of these things myself. It was not unusual for the club owners to have police on their payroll and they would come in to get paid and get their envelope of cash on payday like every one else. I was told by one old time club owner how he was the fence for the police. That when they would arrest a drunk or some time just pick them up and roll them or accept bribes to not arrest them, then they would take the rings and watches, ect to this club owner and he would buy all the stuff.
Of course when there was a dispute between the customer and the club owner and the police was called in you know who would wind up getting their money and who would wind up going to jail.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
BOURBON ST. 50's & 60's
Bourbon St 50’s and 60’s
At the end of the second world war Bourbon St. was in a golden period of time. The US was on top of the world we were feeding and financing and rebuilding the war torn areas of Europe and Asia and the money was flowing.
Cheap oil , new cars and good roads make travel easy and people came to New Orleans and Bourbon St. from all over the country. Foot ball was replacing baseball as our favorite sport and the Sugar Bowl became a major sporting event. The conservative life style of the fifties make Bourbon St the forbidden fruit. The wide open style of Bourbon St. was in contrast to the uptight morals of the time, and people from all over the country came to Bourbon St to let loose.
The strippers of the day had achieved “Star” status they were know though out the country and were treated as Celebrities. The music of New Orleans was played on radio’ everywhere. The jazz music of early days had given way to popular music of the time. Louie Prima, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain among others had become house hold names and a national following. Al Hirts “Java” toped the charts all over America. Then came Rock and Roll.
Many of the clubs used live music to back up the strippers. When I took over the “ Sho-Bar” in 1975 we found old flyers advertising Fats Domino and his band as the house band that provided music for the sho-girls to dance to. The electronic revolution had not really taken place in the country yet as far as the night club industry was concerned, and live music was still the main form of music. This was to all change with American Bandstand, the Record Hop and then the Disco taking over the industry but in the fifties the live music was still the king, and the strip clubs offered steady work for New Orleans musicians.
The fifties was the time when the recording industry flourished in New Orleans. The national attention that the Bourbon St. music was getting was put on “wax” by a variety of New Orleans recording studios the main one being “Cosmos Studio “. The Dixie Cups, Fats Domino, Frogman Henry, Frankie Ford, Irma Thomas and others hit the national charts with their New Orleans style Rock and Roll. As I grew up in the fifties in Kansas City I didn’t know anything about the night clubs in New York or La. Or Chicago but I did know the “Poppa Joes” was on Bourbon St in New Orleans.
At the end of the second world war Bourbon St. was in a golden period of time. The US was on top of the world we were feeding and financing and rebuilding the war torn areas of Europe and Asia and the money was flowing.
Cheap oil , new cars and good roads make travel easy and people came to New Orleans and Bourbon St. from all over the country. Foot ball was replacing baseball as our favorite sport and the Sugar Bowl became a major sporting event. The conservative life style of the fifties make Bourbon St the forbidden fruit. The wide open style of Bourbon St. was in contrast to the uptight morals of the time, and people from all over the country came to Bourbon St to let loose.
The strippers of the day had achieved “Star” status they were know though out the country and were treated as Celebrities. The music of New Orleans was played on radio’ everywhere. The jazz music of early days had given way to popular music of the time. Louie Prima, Al Hirt, Pete Fountain among others had become house hold names and a national following. Al Hirts “Java” toped the charts all over America. Then came Rock and Roll.
Many of the clubs used live music to back up the strippers. When I took over the “ Sho-Bar” in 1975 we found old flyers advertising Fats Domino and his band as the house band that provided music for the sho-girls to dance to. The electronic revolution had not really taken place in the country yet as far as the night club industry was concerned, and live music was still the main form of music. This was to all change with American Bandstand, the Record Hop and then the Disco taking over the industry but in the fifties the live music was still the king, and the strip clubs offered steady work for New Orleans musicians.
The fifties was the time when the recording industry flourished in New Orleans. The national attention that the Bourbon St. music was getting was put on “wax” by a variety of New Orleans recording studios the main one being “Cosmos Studio “. The Dixie Cups, Fats Domino, Frogman Henry, Frankie Ford, Irma Thomas and others hit the national charts with their New Orleans style Rock and Roll. As I grew up in the fifties in Kansas City I didn’t know anything about the night clubs in New York or La. Or Chicago but I did know the “Poppa Joes” was on Bourbon St in New Orleans.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
BOURBON ST. 30'S TO 50'S
Bourbon St, 30’s 40’s and 50’s
The Depression affected all of the world in the 30’s and certainly Bourbon St was no exception. With the coming of radio, and movies the power and money of the entertainment business became more centered in both New York and in California. This took many of the musicians and performers away from Bourbon St. The hard times also helped create the entertainment that was to dominate Bourbon St the “Stripper”.
The vaudeville shows of the past had turned to “Strippers” or exotic dancers when the movies began to eat into their audience. When liquor and beer became legal again and the musicians left, Bourbon St turned to strippers as the main attraction. The port and the steady stream of men who worked on the ships made this a popular form of entertainment for the men on shore leave. The dancers were backed in most cases by live music and this gave many young New Orleans musicians the work they needed to develop their skills.
The times were still hard for the club owners however and there was little development of Bourbon St until the second World War. WW II brought Bourbon St into a new golden era. The war itself was the factor that brought the country out of the Depression. With the creation of the shipyards and the shipping of equipment, men and supplies, the Port of New Orleans and the area began to boom. The thousands of service men that were being moved around brought Bourbon St a steady supply of single men with time on their hands and money in their pockets. The morals of the day made sex the forbidden fruit that the strippers thrived upon. This became the period that Bourbon St made it’s mark on the American society. From all over the nation men and women were shipped out of New Orleans and the stories and tales about the “wild street” began to find there way back to the cities and towns of America. Strippers began to be stars and become famous. The influx of people and money into Bourbon St created the opening of many new clubs and bars. The building on Bourbon St were all built as homes for families and were not designed for entertainment so many small or “hole in the wall” clubs developed. The larger places featured the name stars and the music while the small clubs catered to more of the “back room” entertainment. La. Politics has been know for a long time as the best government that money can buy and the health department, building inspectors and police all took their share of the profits and looked the other way. Business was great on Bourbon St and the times were good.
By the end of the war Bourbon St was established in the American culture as the place to go to have a good time. The lack of law enforcement let the street and French Quarter in general run wild. Much of the money that was made was re-invested back into new clubs and the “strip “ was born.
The Bourbon St strip was a five block section of the street where the clubs were just one after another. Bourbon St starts at Canal St which is and was the main street in the city of New Orleans. Unlike a lot of US cities New Orleans street are named one thing on the upriver side of Canal and another on the downriver side. Bourbon St is called Corondellet on the up river side, so Bourbon starts with at Canal and runs down river away from the central business district. The entertainment part of the street started in the two hundred block with the first block from Canal being taken by the retail business of Canal street. The 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 blocks of Bourbon these five blocks became the “Strip” Here is where all the action and entertainment took place. With its live and let live attitude and acceptance of drinking hard liquor as a way of life New Orleans became one of the few places in Am where drinking in public and indeed walking down a street or even driving with drinks were common place and attracted no attention from the police . During this area the “go cup” was introduced where the customer wanted to hit several spots and would ask for a “go cup” so they could take their drink from one club to another. There was not the party on the street during this time the Bourbon St was open to traffic and the doors to the clubs were for the most part kept closed. Barkers worked each door opening and closing them as they worked the crowds. The side walks were filled with the people spilling into the streets and bumping into cars. The cars came in a never ending stream as the tourist and locals cruised down Bourbon St to glimpse at the strippers on the stage. The conseritive values of the 50’s were fine for the club owners on Bourbon St . they were happy to supply the cheap thrills and adult entertainment that was not available in Maintown America. A booming port and oil money came into New Orleans and a lot of it flowed to Bourbon St. Everything was going well at the start of the 60’s when a number of things begin to happen that was to send Bourbon Street into a hard time .
The Depression affected all of the world in the 30’s and certainly Bourbon St was no exception. With the coming of radio, and movies the power and money of the entertainment business became more centered in both New York and in California. This took many of the musicians and performers away from Bourbon St. The hard times also helped create the entertainment that was to dominate Bourbon St the “Stripper”.
The vaudeville shows of the past had turned to “Strippers” or exotic dancers when the movies began to eat into their audience. When liquor and beer became legal again and the musicians left, Bourbon St turned to strippers as the main attraction. The port and the steady stream of men who worked on the ships made this a popular form of entertainment for the men on shore leave. The dancers were backed in most cases by live music and this gave many young New Orleans musicians the work they needed to develop their skills.
The times were still hard for the club owners however and there was little development of Bourbon St until the second World War. WW II brought Bourbon St into a new golden era. The war itself was the factor that brought the country out of the Depression. With the creation of the shipyards and the shipping of equipment, men and supplies, the Port of New Orleans and the area began to boom. The thousands of service men that were being moved around brought Bourbon St a steady supply of single men with time on their hands and money in their pockets. The morals of the day made sex the forbidden fruit that the strippers thrived upon. This became the period that Bourbon St made it’s mark on the American society. From all over the nation men and women were shipped out of New Orleans and the stories and tales about the “wild street” began to find there way back to the cities and towns of America. Strippers began to be stars and become famous. The influx of people and money into Bourbon St created the opening of many new clubs and bars. The building on Bourbon St were all built as homes for families and were not designed for entertainment so many small or “hole in the wall” clubs developed. The larger places featured the name stars and the music while the small clubs catered to more of the “back room” entertainment. La. Politics has been know for a long time as the best government that money can buy and the health department, building inspectors and police all took their share of the profits and looked the other way. Business was great on Bourbon St and the times were good.
By the end of the war Bourbon St was established in the American culture as the place to go to have a good time. The lack of law enforcement let the street and French Quarter in general run wild. Much of the money that was made was re-invested back into new clubs and the “strip “ was born.
The Bourbon St strip was a five block section of the street where the clubs were just one after another. Bourbon St starts at Canal St which is and was the main street in the city of New Orleans. Unlike a lot of US cities New Orleans street are named one thing on the upriver side of Canal and another on the downriver side. Bourbon St is called Corondellet on the up river side, so Bourbon starts with at Canal and runs down river away from the central business district. The entertainment part of the street started in the two hundred block with the first block from Canal being taken by the retail business of Canal street. The 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 blocks of Bourbon these five blocks became the “Strip” Here is where all the action and entertainment took place. With its live and let live attitude and acceptance of drinking hard liquor as a way of life New Orleans became one of the few places in Am where drinking in public and indeed walking down a street or even driving with drinks were common place and attracted no attention from the police . During this area the “go cup” was introduced where the customer wanted to hit several spots and would ask for a “go cup” so they could take their drink from one club to another. There was not the party on the street during this time the Bourbon St was open to traffic and the doors to the clubs were for the most part kept closed. Barkers worked each door opening and closing them as they worked the crowds. The side walks were filled with the people spilling into the streets and bumping into cars. The cars came in a never ending stream as the tourist and locals cruised down Bourbon St to glimpse at the strippers on the stage. The conseritive values of the 50’s were fine for the club owners on Bourbon St . they were happy to supply the cheap thrills and adult entertainment that was not available in Maintown America. A booming port and oil money came into New Orleans and a lot of it flowed to Bourbon St. Everything was going well at the start of the 60’s when a number of things begin to happen that was to send Bourbon Street into a hard time .
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
HURRICANES
FRED’S BLOG
Hurricanes continue to be a big part of my life and I guess they will as long as I live in the areas that I do. (Duh) If you have never been though a hurricane it will be hard to explain and understand exactly how a person is so affected by theses storms.
The hurricane has an affect on the people in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast as soon as it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Your attention is drawn from what you a doing to what is happening in the weather. The conversation on the street is “what’s happening with the storm. The weather channel is put on more and more TV’s. The focus of attention becomes what is going on with the storm.
As the storm approaches it becomes to dominate your life more and more. The regular activities of your life begin to be replaced by hurricane activities. The energy of the society begins to be spent on preparing for the storm. First the supplies that are needed are gathered. This can be as simple as a flashlight and as complicated as moving a army depending upon your specific situation. Since my house was just a few blocks from the water in Waveland Ms. And My business was on Bourbon St. in New Orleans it was time consuming and costly for me when each storm approached. During the season when there were several storms and warning of storms the drill would become routine and there would be supplies gathered from prior hurricanes that would be set to go.
As the hurricane approached closer and it started to sets its course and direction the preparations for the storm would replace all activity. Depending on the angle of approach the house or the club would be focused on. Often all things on the first floor of the house were moved to the second floor. ( this did no one any good during Katrina since the storm surge was 40 ft high.)
This has taken place over a three day period of time while the storm slowly moves across open water gaining strength each day.
When the eye of the storm is three hundred miles away you can begin to sense and feel the storm in the gulf. This is one of the hardest things to explain if you have not felt the feeling. The birds and animals feel it. Dogs and cats begin to tell you that something’s coming, and you understand because you are feeling the same thing they are feeling. The hurricane becomes more and more a living entity. It takes on a personality, it collects to itself not only the energy of the warm water that it its feeding on but it captures the energy of the creatures living in its path. As the barometric pressure drops lower and lower a sur-real almost movie like affect begins to be felt. It is like nothing is real that its just a big movie your in and your on a big move set where the special effects are kicking in.
My first real experience with a hurricane was in the fall of 1965 when “Betsy” hit New Orleans. As with Katrina but to a much smaller extent the problem was not so much the hurricane itself but New Orleans and the levies. For years after this storm there were charges that the lower parts of the city were allowed to be flooded to protect the more valuable properties. I have no idea if this is true but I do know that as early as this New Orleans knew there was a big problem with the levee system and that the city was at danger. This didn’t seem to prevent the levee board from wasting a lot of money on pet projects and 40 years later the results of there actions was seen in Katrina.
In 1965 my friend Roger and I had spent the summer in Cape Cod working for a night club called “Your Fathers Mustache” there was also a club in New Orleans and we were on our way back when we heard of the storm. We were returning to New Orleans from Cape Cod by way of Kansas City. We had grown up there and when your 21 and gas is only .30 cents a gallon a detour of a couple thousand miles doesn’t mean much. We were staying at a friends apartment when we heard that a hurricane had hit New Orleans. My Brother, Sister-in-law and Mother were all in New Orleans and there was no phone service or any way that I could ck to find out if they were ok so the day after the storm hit Roger and I headed to New Orleans. Everything was normal until we got into Mississippi and we began to see the effects of the storm.
Betsy was not a big hurricane as hurricanes go it was only category two yet the damage that was done extended into the north by several hundred miles. At first there was only a few trees down or broken, but as we moved south it became much worse. We stopped to get gas in Jackson Ms. We tried again to call, there were no cell phones but there was something that no longer exists today and they were called “pay phones” There were public phones where you could deposit coins ( later dollars) and make phone calls. Lines were still down and it would be weeks before the phone and power was back on for the area.
When we asked the people at the gas station what news they had of New Orleans their answer was that New Orleans was destroyed and didn’t exist and more.
As we moved south the damage was extensive. Hundreds of acres of trees were flat. Pine trees are Ms biggest crop and the southern pine grown straight and tall. Phone poles are made using these trees and to see thousands of them down was a experience. These trees all lay pointing to the north like one way signs , and we were going in the wrong direction. Our progress was slowed time and again while road crews cleared the roads and we had to work our way though one lane of traffic. The destruction became greater and gas became hard to find.
When we got to New Orleans we found that some areas including where my family was, was still flooded and we couldn’t get to them. The club was located in the French Quarter on Bourbon St. and had not flooded since this was the highest ground. There was still no power and no water. I reached my family several days latter to find everyone was ok. They lived on the second floor and the people who lived downstairs had stayed with them and moved a lot of there things upstairs and as life would have it the roof got damaged and the rain came into the apt and destroyed a lot of their stuff. The flood did not get into their appt. but the area was so flooded that they could not go anywhere for five days after the storm.
With in a few weeks everything was back to normal and the finger pointing had started. Me, I was twenty-one going to college and working on Bourbon St and had no time to be concerned about hurricanes and in fact did not have to worry about one again until Aug. of 1969 . For more agout hurricanes visit my websites www.unclefredsweb.com
Hurricanes continue to be a big part of my life and I guess they will as long as I live in the areas that I do. (Duh) If you have never been though a hurricane it will be hard to explain and understand exactly how a person is so affected by theses storms.
The hurricane has an affect on the people in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast as soon as it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Your attention is drawn from what you a doing to what is happening in the weather. The conversation on the street is “what’s happening with the storm. The weather channel is put on more and more TV’s. The focus of attention becomes what is going on with the storm.
As the storm approaches it becomes to dominate your life more and more. The regular activities of your life begin to be replaced by hurricane activities. The energy of the society begins to be spent on preparing for the storm. First the supplies that are needed are gathered. This can be as simple as a flashlight and as complicated as moving a army depending upon your specific situation. Since my house was just a few blocks from the water in Waveland Ms. And My business was on Bourbon St. in New Orleans it was time consuming and costly for me when each storm approached. During the season when there were several storms and warning of storms the drill would become routine and there would be supplies gathered from prior hurricanes that would be set to go.
As the hurricane approached closer and it started to sets its course and direction the preparations for the storm would replace all activity. Depending on the angle of approach the house or the club would be focused on. Often all things on the first floor of the house were moved to the second floor. ( this did no one any good during Katrina since the storm surge was 40 ft high.)
This has taken place over a three day period of time while the storm slowly moves across open water gaining strength each day.
When the eye of the storm is three hundred miles away you can begin to sense and feel the storm in the gulf. This is one of the hardest things to explain if you have not felt the feeling. The birds and animals feel it. Dogs and cats begin to tell you that something’s coming, and you understand because you are feeling the same thing they are feeling. The hurricane becomes more and more a living entity. It takes on a personality, it collects to itself not only the energy of the warm water that it its feeding on but it captures the energy of the creatures living in its path. As the barometric pressure drops lower and lower a sur-real almost movie like affect begins to be felt. It is like nothing is real that its just a big movie your in and your on a big move set where the special effects are kicking in.
My first real experience with a hurricane was in the fall of 1965 when “Betsy” hit New Orleans. As with Katrina but to a much smaller extent the problem was not so much the hurricane itself but New Orleans and the levies. For years after this storm there were charges that the lower parts of the city were allowed to be flooded to protect the more valuable properties. I have no idea if this is true but I do know that as early as this New Orleans knew there was a big problem with the levee system and that the city was at danger. This didn’t seem to prevent the levee board from wasting a lot of money on pet projects and 40 years later the results of there actions was seen in Katrina.
In 1965 my friend Roger and I had spent the summer in Cape Cod working for a night club called “Your Fathers Mustache” there was also a club in New Orleans and we were on our way back when we heard of the storm. We were returning to New Orleans from Cape Cod by way of Kansas City. We had grown up there and when your 21 and gas is only .30 cents a gallon a detour of a couple thousand miles doesn’t mean much. We were staying at a friends apartment when we heard that a hurricane had hit New Orleans. My Brother, Sister-in-law and Mother were all in New Orleans and there was no phone service or any way that I could ck to find out if they were ok so the day after the storm hit Roger and I headed to New Orleans. Everything was normal until we got into Mississippi and we began to see the effects of the storm.
Betsy was not a big hurricane as hurricanes go it was only category two yet the damage that was done extended into the north by several hundred miles. At first there was only a few trees down or broken, but as we moved south it became much worse. We stopped to get gas in Jackson Ms. We tried again to call, there were no cell phones but there was something that no longer exists today and they were called “pay phones” There were public phones where you could deposit coins ( later dollars) and make phone calls. Lines were still down and it would be weeks before the phone and power was back on for the area.
When we asked the people at the gas station what news they had of New Orleans their answer was that New Orleans was destroyed and didn’t exist and more.
As we moved south the damage was extensive. Hundreds of acres of trees were flat. Pine trees are Ms biggest crop and the southern pine grown straight and tall. Phone poles are made using these trees and to see thousands of them down was a experience. These trees all lay pointing to the north like one way signs , and we were going in the wrong direction. Our progress was slowed time and again while road crews cleared the roads and we had to work our way though one lane of traffic. The destruction became greater and gas became hard to find.
When we got to New Orleans we found that some areas including where my family was, was still flooded and we couldn’t get to them. The club was located in the French Quarter on Bourbon St. and had not flooded since this was the highest ground. There was still no power and no water. I reached my family several days latter to find everyone was ok. They lived on the second floor and the people who lived downstairs had stayed with them and moved a lot of there things upstairs and as life would have it the roof got damaged and the rain came into the apt and destroyed a lot of their stuff. The flood did not get into their appt. but the area was so flooded that they could not go anywhere for five days after the storm.
With in a few weeks everything was back to normal and the finger pointing had started. Me, I was twenty-one going to college and working on Bourbon St and had no time to be concerned about hurricanes and in fact did not have to worry about one again until Aug. of 1969 . For more agout hurricanes visit my websites www.unclefredsweb.com
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