On December 13, 1947, I was with my parents at the Loew’s Vendome to see the movie “It Had to be You.” After the feature ran, the footlights came on and Snooky Lanson (then just a local entertainer- this was before he went to the Hit Parade) suddenly appeared in front of the curtain (the traveler, not the asbestos mentioned above) and introduced actor/comedian Keenen Wynn. This had not been advertised and as far as I know had simply been hastily arranged when Wynn was in town and available.
Wynn did a comedy monologue and concluded with an old vaudeville bit called “Guzzler’s Gin,” which had been written by Fred Allen and made famous by Red Skelton. As I mentioned in my comment on the Princess, my dad just loved Vaudeville and he got a big kick out of this added and unexpected attraction. Taking a chance that Wynn would again appear after the next showing of the feature, we moved to the box seats nearest the stage on the right hand side as you face he stage. We hit the jackpot and Lanson and Wynn were again seen after the next show. Wynn was very funny.
Many years later in 1982 Keenen Wynn appeared as a guest on Dan Miller’s show “Miller and Company” and told Miller that this was his first time in Nashville. He had forgotten the 1950 visit and I never knew why he had been in town the first time. Surely not just so he could appear on the Loew’s stage.
Then some more years later, I ran into Smoky Larson at a funeral where he sang and I reminded him of the above event and he did remember it.
The night of June 22, 1950 I went with my parents to the Knickerbocker to see “Curtain Call at Cactus Creek” which starred Donald O'Connor. It had been announced that O'Connor would appear in person after the show.
As I mentioned before there was no stage at the Knickerbocker, simply a dais or platform formed by a series of semi-circular steps ascending to the tiny apex. Sure enough Donald O'Connor was introduced and entertained us briefly. He asked if there were any requests and my dad asked him to sing a song that he had sung in the movie we had just seen. O'Connor explained that he had learned that song just for the movie and didn’t even remember the words.
I later heard that the O'Connor family had played the Princess when Donald was a boy. I believe they had an acrobatic act of some kind.
Yes I very well remember Harvey’s and the licking I got for going to ride the new escalators when I had been told to come straight home from the old uptown Y.
Boy, would I like to have a piece of that Harveys (Kleeman’s) apple pie !!!
tisloews: I mentioned Russ McCown on my Vendome entry- you probably knew him. His father was high in Crescent and Russ was Sir Cecil Creep of TV fame. Russ and I had talked about spending our old age writing the Crescent story but alas Russ died pretty young. I still have a lot of Crescent notes and I’ll be posting some of them here. Years ago I rented a small apartment from Mr & Mrs Wm A McPherson, who had managed the Capitol on 2nd Ave and later the Bordeaux Drive- in. He told some great stories of Mr Tony and others of that era. I look forward to participating in this forum of old theaters.
Walgreens expanded into the former Fifth Avenue building, so it does occupy the old Fifth Avenue site as well as its own original site. If you go back in the alley behind this building (which I’ve always called “Arcade Alley”) you can still see what was the stage entrance to the theater in a very modified state. I photographed it not too many years ago.
The Fifth Avenue ran a lot of Republic cowboy pictures in “Trucolor,” a cheaper ripoff of Technicolor. After the theater closed, there was a pizza parlor in front and a wrestling or possibly boxing ring with bleacher seats in the back.
William Henry Wassmann (1870-1928) had operated the Crystal here as early as 1912. The beam in the Knickerbocker building referred to by a writer above said “Wassmann’s Theatre.” He opened the Knickerbocker March 16, 1916 and on September 8 of the same year sold both the Crystal and the Knickerbocker to Crescent Amesement Company.
I bet I am the only one reading these lines who saw a big name movie star appear at this theater. There was no stage, just a little round platform with encircling steps, if I make myself clear. If there is any interest I will give the name and date of this appearance.
The Knickerbocker had the first “electric eye” door opener I ever saw.
The old original Princess of my childhood played mostly double features, or I should say double “B” features. They had a booth in the lobby that for 35c would let you record your voice. I never saw one of these in another theater. The manager was Russ Parham.
My father lived with the hope that someday vaudeville would return. For years my mother would meet him in town after he got off work on Friday and they’d grab a bite and then go to the Princess. The Princess still had some stage shows up until just before WW II, though by that time real vaudeville was about dead.
The last road show to play the Princess was the Leon Mandrake magic show, which played during Christmas week 1948. The house even got the old pit orchestra back together and old timers like my dad thought the great days were back. I saw this show several times but was not able to convince my parents that one of the Mandrake Magic Sets sold in the lobby would make a first-class Chritmas present for me.
There is mention above of the interior of the Vendome. I am probably among the few left who saw the lighted auditorium including the front curtain with the “Place de Vendome” painting. The curtain was not often lowered during the late years and the auditorium was usually seen in semi-darkness by the patrons.
My father I and went downtown in December 1951 to see the midnight magic/spook show of Wyman Baker, known as Dr. Silkini the Magician. This entertainment played theaters all over the country as an after-the-main-program attraction and was designed to frighten the kids and teenagers who crowded the theaters. First there was a Frankenstein movie and then came the stage show which featured among other grisly effects the cutting off of the head of a volunteer from the audience, the appearance of the Frankenstein Monster on stage, and a blackout during which luminous “ghosts” and other phenomena appeared in the darkness.
The movie part went fine but Loew’s was not accustomed to having stage attractions and the audience had to sit for a long time in the fully-lighted auditorium while the stage show was being set up. I remember looking up into the once-gilded dome and at the fancy boxes, in which I had sat a few times, and at the formerly magnificent front curtain. The curtain was eventually raised and we saw that the screen had been raised out of sight but that the backdrop for the magic show had not yet been hung or at least not yet lowered and we could see all the way to the back wall of the stage. Eventually all was in place and the magic/spook show began.
I told all this years later to Russ McCown, whom some of you may have known, and he was very surprised as he had the impression that the moving picture screen was permanently mounted in such a way that it could not be raised. During the remaining sixteen years that Loew’s operated in this building I do not believe they ever had another live stage show.
On December 13, 1947, I was with my parents at the Loew’s Vendome to see the movie “It Had to be You.” After the feature ran, the footlights came on and Snooky Lanson (then just a local entertainer- this was before he went to the Hit Parade) suddenly appeared in front of the curtain (the traveler, not the asbestos mentioned above) and introduced actor/comedian Keenen Wynn. This had not been advertised and as far as I know had simply been hastily arranged when Wynn was in town and available.
Wynn did a comedy monologue and concluded with an old vaudeville bit called “Guzzler’s Gin,” which had been written by Fred Allen and made famous by Red Skelton. As I mentioned in my comment on the Princess, my dad just loved Vaudeville and he got a big kick out of this added and unexpected attraction. Taking a chance that Wynn would again appear after the next showing of the feature, we moved to the box seats nearest the stage on the right hand side as you face he stage. We hit the jackpot and Lanson and Wynn were again seen after the next show. Wynn was very funny.
Many years later in 1982 Keenen Wynn appeared as a guest on Dan Miller’s show “Miller and Company” and told Miller that this was his first time in Nashville. He had forgotten the 1950 visit and I never knew why he had been in town the first time. Surely not just so he could appear on the Loew’s stage.
Then some more years later, I ran into Smoky Larson at a funeral where he sang and I reminded him of the above event and he did remember it.
The night of June 22, 1950 I went with my parents to the Knickerbocker to see “Curtain Call at Cactus Creek” which starred Donald O'Connor. It had been announced that O'Connor would appear in person after the show.
As I mentioned before there was no stage at the Knickerbocker, simply a dais or platform formed by a series of semi-circular steps ascending to the tiny apex. Sure enough Donald O'Connor was introduced and entertained us briefly. He asked if there were any requests and my dad asked him to sing a song that he had sung in the movie we had just seen. O'Connor explained that he had learned that song just for the movie and didn’t even remember the words.
I later heard that the O'Connor family had played the Princess when Donald was a boy. I believe they had an acrobatic act of some kind.
I’ll get this info on tomorrow.
Yes I very well remember Harvey’s and the licking I got for going to ride the new escalators when I had been told to come straight home from the old uptown Y.
Boy, would I like to have a piece of that Harveys (Kleeman’s) apple pie !!!
tisloews: I mentioned Russ McCown on my Vendome entry- you probably knew him. His father was high in Crescent and Russ was Sir Cecil Creep of TV fame. Russ and I had talked about spending our old age writing the Crescent story but alas Russ died pretty young. I still have a lot of Crescent notes and I’ll be posting some of them here. Years ago I rented a small apartment from Mr & Mrs Wm A McPherson, who had managed the Capitol on 2nd Ave and later the Bordeaux Drive- in. He told some great stories of Mr Tony and others of that era. I look forward to participating in this forum of old theaters.
Walgreens expanded into the former Fifth Avenue building, so it does occupy the old Fifth Avenue site as well as its own original site. If you go back in the alley behind this building (which I’ve always called “Arcade Alley”) you can still see what was the stage entrance to the theater in a very modified state. I photographed it not too many years ago.
The Fifth Avenue ran a lot of Republic cowboy pictures in “Trucolor,” a cheaper ripoff of Technicolor. After the theater closed, there was a pizza parlor in front and a wrestling or possibly boxing ring with bleacher seats in the back.
William Henry Wassmann (1870-1928) had operated the Crystal here as early as 1912. The beam in the Knickerbocker building referred to by a writer above said “Wassmann’s Theatre.” He opened the Knickerbocker March 16, 1916 and on September 8 of the same year sold both the Crystal and the Knickerbocker to Crescent Amesement Company.
I bet I am the only one reading these lines who saw a big name movie star appear at this theater. There was no stage, just a little round platform with encircling steps, if I make myself clear. If there is any interest I will give the name and date of this appearance.
The Knickerbocker had the first “electric eye” door opener I ever saw.
The old original Princess of my childhood played mostly double features, or I should say double “B” features. They had a booth in the lobby that for 35c would let you record your voice. I never saw one of these in another theater. The manager was Russ Parham.
My father lived with the hope that someday vaudeville would return. For years my mother would meet him in town after he got off work on Friday and they’d grab a bite and then go to the Princess. The Princess still had some stage shows up until just before WW II, though by that time real vaudeville was about dead.
The last road show to play the Princess was the Leon Mandrake magic show, which played during Christmas week 1948. The house even got the old pit orchestra back together and old timers like my dad thought the great days were back. I saw this show several times but was not able to convince my parents that one of the Mandrake Magic Sets sold in the lobby would make a first-class Chritmas present for me.
Here’s the link to a piece I wrote for Mike Slate’s newsletter a little over ten years ago. It includes the Vendome and other theaters of 1900.
http://pages.prodigy.net/nhn.slate/nh00031.html
There is mention above of the interior of the Vendome. I am probably among the few left who saw the lighted auditorium including the front curtain with the “Place de Vendome” painting. The curtain was not often lowered during the late years and the auditorium was usually seen in semi-darkness by the patrons.
My father I and went downtown in December 1951 to see the midnight magic/spook show of Wyman Baker, known as Dr. Silkini the Magician. This entertainment played theaters all over the country as an after-the-main-program attraction and was designed to frighten the kids and teenagers who crowded the theaters. First there was a Frankenstein movie and then came the stage show which featured among other grisly effects the cutting off of the head of a volunteer from the audience, the appearance of the Frankenstein Monster on stage, and a blackout during which luminous “ghosts” and other phenomena appeared in the darkness.
The movie part went fine but Loew’s was not accustomed to having stage attractions and the audience had to sit for a long time in the fully-lighted auditorium while the stage show was being set up. I remember looking up into the once-gilded dome and at the fancy boxes, in which I had sat a few times, and at the formerly magnificent front curtain. The curtain was eventually raised and we saw that the screen had been raised out of sight but that the backdrop for the magic show had not yet been hung or at least not yet lowered and we could see all the way to the back wall of the stage. Eventually all was in place and the magic/spook show began.
I told all this years later to Russ McCown, whom some of you may have known, and he was very surprised as he had the impression that the moving picture screen was permanently mounted in such a way that it could not be raised. During the remaining sixteen years that Loew’s operated in this building I do not believe they ever had another live stage show.