In theory, the spirit of vaudeville, complete with floor shows featuring chorus lines, emcees, dancing monkeys, magicians, emcees and hypnotists, might seem an exciting concept.
But by the late 50s nightclubs were clearly on the decline and their acts were underwhelming.
In September 1958 you could hop in in the tail-fin, drive downtown and leave your keys with doorman for free valet parking and sit and listen to falsetto-ish Arthur Lee Simpkins and funny violin guy Baron Buika at the Bellevue Casino. See them below. They weren't that great.
But then again you could also just catch a movie: Frank Sinatra, Carey Grant or Jerry Lewis all had films playing. Why not just plunk a couple of bucks on that? .
Or you could simply stay home and watch Playhouse 90 and not pay a cent. (Heck if you want local? The CBC was airing a drama production starring Cafe St. Michel doorman and future-Hollywood star Percy Rodrigues.)
Chances are your postwar prosperity had you in a suburban home with a modern kitchen. You've got those boomer babies running around needing attention. You have your TV dinner, kids get a Pop Tart treat. So are you going to camp out on that new couch in front of the TV or hitting the town?
The El Mo on Closse across from the Forum offered up Kathryn Grayson, a torch singer from the mid-west. By now she was in her mid-30s by now and her film career was behind her. Would you pay to see this?
Also on St. Cat was the Yeomen, a fok music group with lots and lots of banjos. They were playing the Venus de Milo Room, across from Simpson's. Politically progressive though they may have been, they music grated.
Radio deejays were still under enormous pressure to play old fashioned tunes, even though kids wanted rock'n'roll.
Music industry executives pushed acts like Perry Como and Andy Williams but kids wanted Chuck Berry, Elvis and Eddie Cochran. The emerging boomers were culturally oppressed by the big overlords foisting sleepy music on them at all times, which explains some of the cultural explosions of the 60s. Check out these Montreal radio top 10 charts below. Even the three French radio DJs were pushing this same dreck. That music, below, just blows.
Nightclubs were slow to pick up on the demand for a new sound. Norm Silver would be the first to aim at the rock crowd at the Esquire Show Bar on lower Stanley.
Pop Tarts: 1964. They're younger than you!
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty easy to knock the 1950s at this late date for all the corny music we heard back then in Montreal. It would be just as easy to knock the fact that many of us wore bell bottoms or leisure suits at one time and how awful a lot of disco was. Early Beatles tunes though catchy didn't have very deep lyrics.
ReplyDeleteThe 50s were conservative times in both Canada and the US. Republican Eisenhower was the US prez for most of the decade, Lawrence Welk was on TV and most Canadians watched Ed Sullivan on Sunday nights.
Rock and roll didn't take off until Elvis in 1956. Up until then crooners like Sinatra, Perry Como, Peggy Lee,Patty Page, Johnny Ray, and Nat King Cole ruled radio in the early 50s. The big band music of WW2 and the 40s was still hanging on. Big bands were expensive to operate so they were downsized.
Back then there were only 2 kinds of dancing young people were interested in, the waltz for getting up close and the jitterbug for mayhem.
Older people like Mitch Miller controlled the major record companies and hated rock and roll. TV comedian Steve Allen mocked the new music.
Yes music on the radio was mixed in the latter part of the 50s in Montreal and other places. There were the older crooners, some country crossover songs, some instrumentals tunes. and some pretty corny stuff from people like Frankie Avalon and Fabian. Most of the best rock back then came from black groups who were getting ripped off by white managers and white record company owners.
Still, if you grew up in the 50s in Montreal, you were probably touched by Canadian orchestra leader Percy Faith's "A Summer Place" from 1960.
TV had a lot to do with the death of big nightclubs. You could sit on your ass at home and watch plate twirlers or see the next rock and roll star. Friday night school dances were only about rock and roll.
It is easy to be critical of a time now long ago. All I know is that from about 1956 until about 1976 we were fed a steady diet of new songs and new music and radio was a lot of fun to listen to.
The people who controlled the entertainment industry were always behind in the times. Young people have always been prone to shit disturbing. The powers that be gave us Beach Blanket Bingo with a gang of motorcycle comedians and nobody ever got laid or even seemed interested in getting laid.
There were some catchy rock and roll tunes in the early days but the music didn't really come of age until the mid 60s. It always takes a while to progress.
Had the opportunity to see Bo Diddley at the Esquire show bar at the ripe old age of 17 on a Sunday night for his first set. My circle of friends from the south shore in those days would always be on the cruze on Wednsday nights to see where we would spend our Friday and Saturday nights. There were all sorts of hot spots around the shore and trips to Montreal we not always on the schedule.
ReplyDeleteirorbster......coinkidink?.....I may have been at the Esquire Show Bar at the same age on the same night as you. Bo Diddley had a square guitar. Also saw Junior Walker at The Esquire. The bands played on a stage above and in back of the bar. Almost everyone in the joint was black. Also remember the All American around the corner. I had a few zits and looked like I was 13 years old. Back then a number of places would let teenagers in as long as they could pay the cover charge.
ReplyDeleteElvis Presley's emergence naturally created a slew of editorial criticism and resistance which took a long time to disperse--a situation which would change after he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, which was then THE major variety TV program that routinely introduced new acts to young and old viewers alike.
ReplyDeleteFor a Presley TV timeline, see:
http://www.elvispresleymusic.com.au/pictures/1956_september_9_ed_sullivan_show.html
http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis_presleys_national_tv_appearances_in_the_1950s.shtml
Elvis made no secret of "refurbishing" songs previously recorded and/or written by black artists to whom the credit and requisite royalties were duly given.
But even the curmudgeonly presenter Ed Sullivan could spot a potential new wave of entertainment when he saw it and in most instances eagerly embraced up-and-coming rock bands and singers thus elevating them to national and international attention. The list is long and Sullivan's title as "starmaker" is well-deserved.
See: http://www.edsullivan.com/all-artists/
Of course, the power of television and radio in the 1950s and 1960s influenced what music teenagers spent their money on and because nightclub acts were aimed at an adult audience anyway due to the clubs' 18-and-over age entry restrictions and liquor laws, these small-audience venues hung onto what remained of corny acts which included jugglers, second-rate comedians, derivative jazz groups, and crooning soloists whose days were numbered, Montreal being a backwater in any event.
Another phenomenon not often mentioned was the slow emergence of rock and pop soundtracks on TV shows. Even the hip series Peter Gunn (1958-61) utilized Henry Mancini's jazzy music and Route 66 (1960-64), about two young guys driving a Corvette across the U.S (and even twice into Canada), and working their way at odd jobs while seeking adventure, had a jazz theme--albeit a memorable, catchy tune by the influential Nelson Riddle.
See: http://www.nelsonriddlemusic.com/nr_bio.htm
It wasn't until the smash hit series The Man From U.N.C.L.E (1964-68) that composer Jerry Goldsmith's theme and background music introduced a fresh and catchy pop angle.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Goldsmith
Incidentally, I am compelled to mention that the recent 2015 film release The Man From U.N.C.L.E. cannot in any way be favourably compared to the 1964-68 TV series and the film has been roundly and rightly criticized.
I suggest you watch that excellent TV series instead and dig the music.
See: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/08/betrayed-bothered-and-bewildered-by-the-man-from-uncle
Saw them all at the Esquire...Ben E Kng,Otis Redding,Sam and Dave,Jr Walker and the all stars,Bo Diddley....anybody else who was a popular R and B performer....I was quite fortunate in that a lady who worked for my Dad sold the admission tickets and I got them before all the performances........man was I a Big Shot
ReplyDeleteI remember the top DJ in the early sixties was Dave Boxer on I think ckgm radio. He is now retired and living here in Vancouver. Everybody listened to his show back then. I also remembered the "grand Spectacle" in a lot of lesser known nightclubs and especially the female impersonators at The Beaver night club on Bleury and St. Catherine. My friends and I used to love bringing people who didn't know about the entertainers and we would get some "Gorgeous gal" back to our table for a drink (ginger ale instead of champagne I think) and he/she would flirt with the unknowing rube. Good times for sure!
ReplyDeleteWe were all underage but we always seemed to get past the doorman with the most ridiculous ID on us. You had to be 21 then to drink legally and we also used to go to The Saxony hotel in Rouses Point in New York state where you could drink at 18.
I also remember some clubs lost their liquor liscenses and sold Near Beer. Too funny
I think we may have made a discovery on this item. I have always appreciated the intelligent comments of Urban Legend. Always informative and most interesting. I have wondered what this person did for a living to be so knowledgeable about almost any subject. The person’s (male/female) ?? comments to-day lead me to believe that Urban Legend is, or was, very connected with the music world. Maybe a musician, or radio or TV commentator or reporter on things connected with the musical world? Maybe a producer? Music teacher? Director?
ReplyDeleteWho knows.
Any suggestions?
Note to Urban Legend.....the legal drinking age in Montreal in the 50s and 60s was 20 years old. It was changed to 18 years of age in 1972.
ReplyDeleteFor excellent and comprehensive articles outlining Montreal's fascinating nightclub history, highlighting the famous and lesser-known performers who have visited our city, some of whom even adopted Montreal as their home, see the Gazette for June 3, 1978:
ReplyDelete"The Age of Superlili", and "The City That Never Closed", etc.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19780603&id=JQowAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZqQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6105,997673&hl=en
Subsequent pages describe the influential emergence of radio, television, and rock and roll acts in Montreal.
Norm Silver, Harry Ship, Phil Maurice, smart guys all but their points of view have become the boilerplate for all historical interpretations.
ReplyDeleteNightclub brass deny responsibility allowing entertainment to get stale, as the new generations didn't want to pay to watch greasy emcees making dumb wisecracks between lame shows.
The gambling craze? Sure Drapeau fought the barbottes, but hell, maybe a bigger factor was that interest declined. People became more educated and realized that gambling is for rubes. Gambling cash fueled nightclubs.
Go go dancers became the big thing in clubs around 1968 and discos (dance clubs with recorded music) kept on growing
Some clubs like the Casa Loma held onto the past with their big shows with emcees, comedians, musicians, singers, novelty acts, into the 70s but there really was no point.
It took generations before the concept of government-controlled gambling became palatable in Canada.
ReplyDeleteFederal, provincial, and municipal governments routinely cracked down on organized crime-controlled gaming and lotteries.
I believe that even the internationally-popular Irish Sweepstakes were banned in Quebec and elsewhere for a long time, or at least sporadically tolerated.
Surpringly, it was Mayor Jean Drapeau who introduced his "voluntax" lottery back in 1969-70 but inevitably this was replaced by Loto-Quebec.
Opposition to and the death of Prohibition in the U.S. and of similar "dry laws" in certain parts of Canada were followed by the general acceptance of lotteries Canada-wide and later of casino gambling as well.
Nightclubbing was too upper class for me once I became of age to drink. I then had a car, and mobility and would not be caught dead in 'classy' joints.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my career of boozing spanned 25 years, mostly in slummier Tavernes, bars and such, some of the latter still with sawdust on the floor, knives on the belt, and guns in the trucks outside to settle real or imagined insults.
Back then, Some Tavernes put a Oyster in the glass for some reason and bragged outside in Neon about 'Verres Sterilize' within.
Flying bottles and ashtrays were the norm, backs to the wall.
One bar's urinals were the TRUE source of the Mighty Columbia River, their water coming in from the Kootenay side of town.
( Sad to say, the only bar killing I was aware of in being a client was in Montreal at Robbie Burns Taverne on CSL across from Adalbert where I used to watch steam engines pulling up from LaSalle/Highland North Jct. from Farnham or the Canal Bank or LaSalle Spur back in the Fifties. )
Real trouble, wrecked vehicles ( not always my fault ), the loss of my Driver's license, and almost my job annulled the boozing and got rid of the handguns as part of the 'Keep my Job' bargain.
Years ago in a Galaxy far too near.
Suicide Awareness day 2day. Have to go to the Rally.
Thank You.
Nice. Why the sawdust on the floor?
ReplyDeleteI vaguely recall that pub on Robbie Burns, now gone.
http://ow.ly/S60Kr
June 3 1971 “issuance of a Quebec Liquor Board license for operation of a new tavern on a site between the Canadian Pcific tracks and Cote St. Luc, on Robert Burns avenue, has set off a furor in Montreal's west end. Protests by community organizations to the Quebec Liquor Board have met with the bland rejoinder that when the application was advertised, no one came forward to protest, and the licence was granted. Opponents claim there was only one publication; but, apparently, no one interested in opposing the claim noticed it.
This isnt' he first time such a protest wave has erupted in the wets end, but taverns and on-premises licences have gradually eroded what was once an almost completely dry area.
What was the tavern killing? There was one reported there in 1986 but then they retracted and said it was another restaurant on the same street.
Sunday 1986
Margaret Dagenais, 51, was found Sunday night after a fatal stabbing at the Robert Burns bar on....In fact it was at the Cuisine Robert Burns on the Montreal section of Robbie Burns street
Well.... I thought the killing at the RBT was in the late Seventies, but, the victim WAS a woman in her Forties or Fifties, found downstairs, where there was a sort of nightclubish after hours establishment and another set of washrooms in that location. A real pit, in more ways than one. There was poor lighting, and side areas used for storage with lots of shadows.
ReplyDeletePerfect place to lay in wait for someone. A drunk is usually invulnerable in his/her own mind 'til they get run over by a train in the Point or along the Old Port, or fall thru the ice in the L. Canal by the Turning Basin near Mill.
After Bar hours? the real boozers moved downstairs and really poured it back from 'Quarts' of Dow, Cinquante, Molson etc. to slake the pangs of reality and blur the truth. Most of my memories of RBT downstairs are all fogged out, the whole objective, in ways, of going there.
Young, stupid, sad, lonely and with money.
The place got worse in the Nineties and more grotty as economics and clientele changed. Drugs and the whole black lite 'ambience' was the way to go, and gambling machines.
Haven't been there in ten years. A real decline.
Many of the old true denizens of Tavernes who drank draft while putting in time living alone and lonely til their time came had passed on. Their time had come. They and their wooly Trench Coats.
On the lunch hour the parking lot out back looked like a satellite branch of Poste Canada, Hydro Quebec and other services by the trucks parked. Even the Bell, at times. Meals were GOOD in Tavernes.
Of course, for many, the meal came in brown bottles, lots of them.
The upstairs was a true Taverne done up in tacky white tile with sad pastel green paint above.and the Men's Room ( Hommes ) at the rear by the back door, facing the tracks, and the Patricia Building beyond.
Just lovely, reeking of voidings, front and rear, pipes dripping in humid weather as one contemplated his personal assets, or lack thereof, or the wild growth lining the CPR.
( When The Pope visited one year, and travelled by train, much of the greenery was cut down for security, improving or unimproving the view. )
Set the concrete of the back steps were the brass initials 'R B T', one of them missing, about eight inches high, evidence of their being possibly still there??
( There was a sort of Steinberg's 'Device' in the floor of the lobby of that store on the NE corner of Somerled and Walkley where the Tramways wyed. A marvel of childhood.)
ReplyDeleteIt was a stabbing of a woman, as said. I did not know, until you mentioned it, that it may have been somewhere else?
RB St was a very short road, and to the North of the RBT, separated by a dungeon-like moat down steps was a small mall on the East corner of CSL about where the slope began to the underpass on the CPR. When it opened. c. 1965?? there was a slot car racing track in one of the business and local racers could bring their own cars and use the tracks for a fee. A fire a few years later burned a portion of the mall.
While the underpass was being constructed, R B St was used as a temporary level crossing over the CPR to Connaught.
In other bars sawdust was used on wooden floors to absorb spilled beer, barf, snow and slush, expectorations from chewing tobacco cuds ( I Chewed for a while ) cigarette butts from spilled ashtrays when a table was upset in angst or anger and blood from misunderstandings and lustful substances from courting couples, same or opposite gender before getting a room.
In a true sawdust bar way out in the bush, in a coal mine or sawmill town far from the police detachment, a same-gender couple would be beaten or killed for their choice, adding to the sawdust detritus of life and death.
Those cute Terrycloth? form-fitting elastic table top covers came into use in the early Seventies?, the tables just bare Formica or whatever it was, prior.
I cannot prove it. Most others are now gone, or pouting from 'Wet Brain' ( Google it, its easier to spell ) but the killing WAS downstairs at the RBT AFAIK.
Could be wrong.
RBT was definitely NOT a Luxe Place in the Nightclub class. The only singers usually pissed. Me Too!
Had a drink once at the Monkland Taverne corner of Old Orchard in the Seventies. There was another bar on the NE corner of Elmhurst and Upper Lachine across from Elmhurst Dairy that I was never in.
Wish I could go back and stand with my Father at the foot of McGill, going down by streetcar in auto-free srtreets, and watch liners and tugs and canallers locking thru with the M&SC travelling to and fro for the South Shore, St. Lambert, and beyond across the wonder of the the Victoria Bridge.
A lifetime ago.
Thank You for letting me maunder.
About the murder at the Robbie Burns Bar - I wrongly said it had closed but it's still open. Someone wrote me this: "I read in your article here that the Robbie Burns Bar near Cote St Luc was closed. It is in fact still open. The murder happened at their downstairs bar. Margaret, who I worked with at Smitty's. Such a nice lady. Was chased to the back of the bar, with no way out was attacked. I had been there earlier that night. I don't know if they ever found the person responsible. This one was a huge shocker for me.'
ReplyDelete