Looking Back - Reminiscing with Jack Lebo
Atlantic City Historical Museum
Is A Great Way To Visit City’s Past
She was the last stop on a railroad to nowhere, the shortest distance between Philadelphia and the sea. In 1854, they named her Atlantic City and little did anyone know that someday this sandbar would be called “The World’s Playground.”
Long before the advent of casinos, there was a kinder and gentler Atlantic City. That city is gone now, but thanks to founders of the Atlantic City Historical Museum — Anthony J. Kutschera, Vicky Gold Levi and Florence Valore Miller — visitors may relive those glory days.
The museum preserves and showcases Atlantic City’s unique history in an entertaining and informative manner. The original concept was that of recreating a “turn of the century” hotel lobby. This has been expanded upon to include displays on theatres, night life, piers, the beach and boardwalk, as well as novel exhibits highlighting ethnic and cultural contributions, special events and world firsts.
In addition, the Museum also features Miss America memorabilia, vintage photos, and a continuously playing video presentation, “Boardwalk Ballyhoo.” The Historical Museum is committed to preserving the rich history of this one-of-a-kind seaside resort.
One of the museum’s newest exhibits is “Shore Deco: Atlantic City Design Between the Wars — 1919-1939,” is in the Al Gold Photography Gallery. The gallery is named in honor of the late Al Gold, father of founder Vicky Gold Levi. Gold was the chief photographer for Atlantic City from 1939 through 1964. According to Vicky, her father was the first photographer in the area to use a graphlex camera, one of the first portable cameras. This allowed him to be “Johnny on the Spot,” and he was everywhere.
Photographing the many celebrities who came to visit Atlantic City was an important function of Al’s job. His subjects included such prominent personalities as Irving Berlin, Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson and Marilyn Monroe.
The term Art Deco, which applies to an opulent design that was popular between the wars, was coined in the 1960s, but refers to an international exhibition of design held in Paris in 1925. The exhibit was dedicated to the display of modern decorative arts that was characterized by bold colors and geometric patterning and inspired by the machine age and the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in Egypt in 1922.
Many American designers visited the Paris fair and brought new design ideas back to America. In the 1930’s, an Americanized version of Art Deco was spread through Hollywood films whose luxurious interiors and cheerful story lines helped to lift the country’s spirit after the crash of 1929. Some of these films were shown on the Boardwalk and city movie theatres such as the Virginia, Warner, Hollywood and the Alan. The linear design was also reflected in Atlantic City’s hotels, restaurants and nightclubs like the Silver Room in the Blenheim, Kent’s Restaurant and the 500 and Nomad clubs. Most notably, deco representation could be found in the Convention Hall’s orchestral details, Steel Pier’s Marine Ballroom and theatres, and the vividly illustrated covers of the Boardwalk Illustrated News.
On view in the Museum’s exhibition are vintage photographs, menus, magazines, and Boardwalk fashions that capture the elegance and charm of Art Deco design that had so mesmerized Europe and the United States until it was replaced by the khaki green of World War II uniforms. The nostalgia for this particular motif continues to be admired and shows no sign of slowing down.
The Atlantic City Historical Museum is located on Garden Pier at New Jersey Avenue and the Boardwalk, diagonally across from Showboat Hotel Casino.
The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (except major holidays. It is wheel chair accessible, and admission and parking are free.
For information,readers can call (609) 347-5839 or vist the website: www.acmuseum.org.
*
The Elliot Lawrence Orchestra was launched in 1946 at a time when the big band business was beginning to fade away. It was a magnificent band, with innovative arrangements and a fresh approach that would have catapulted it to the top a few years before.
Elliot summarized his band’s early years this way: “It was the tail end of the Big Band Era, and I got about two years of “Band of the Year,” and Columbia Records signed us, a wonderful review in Metronome Magazine, the usual. We did pretty well for a couple years, and then the whole business fell away.”
Because the Lawrence Band existed at a time when singers were dominant, the public doesn’t recall it as readily as earlier bands. It was almost pre-ordained that Elliot Lawrence Broza would be in the entertainment business in one way on the other. His mom and dad were involved in Philadelphia’s Horn & Hardart Children’s Hour radio program. He recalled that the program used to go to local theatres, and when he was four years old, he wandered onto the stage to conduct the orchestra. That was the beginning of a long musical career.
He not only performed on his parent’s radio show as a child, but was also conductor of the University of Pennsylvania award-winning football band, and from 1944 to 1946, led the house band for Philadelphia’s WCAU. Most studio bands are fairly bland, for their purpose in earlier radio was to fill un-sponsored time, or accompany other performers. Not so with the Lawrence-led WCAU band. It began to attract attention outside of the city, because of its unique sound and crisp arrangements, admired by musicians and the general public alike.
By 1946, Elliot decided to leave Philly, and take the band on the road, opening at the Cafe Rouge of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. The quality of the music made his band a big hit in New York, while radio coverage from a second engagement at the Meaowbrook in Cedar Grove, NJ created nationwide demand.
Columbia Records signed the band to a contract, also extending its popularity. Later, the band began to exhibit more swing with arrangements by Al Cohn, Johnny Mandel, and Gerry Mulligan, adding to the original sound fashioned by Elliot himself. The oboe and Fench horns were still there, but the band was starting to swing more.
The demise of the Lawrence Band came in 1954, after years of punishing one-nighters on the road. Elliot summed it up this way: “When I started out in the band business, I had seven or eight thousand dollars in the bank. When I got off the road, I owed about thirty-five thousand dollars.”
The band re-formed for special occasions every so often, but the glory days were over. Elliot went on to conduct the orchestras for the Tony Awards and the Kennedy Center Awards, as well as original cast albums for numerous Broadway shows. The Big Band Era was but a moment in time, and Elliot Lawrence’s moment was even shorter, but the quality exhibited by the Lawrence Band was recaptured and preserved on a recently released CD from the Audiophonic Rare Music Division. The Elliot Lawrence Orchestra is always a lavish treat to hear. Lawrence is currently involved in the music business in New York City.
(Thanks to “Big Band Jump” host Don Kennedy for his contribution to this report.)
*
During the 1940’s through the 60’s, just about every newspaper in America carried a gossip column reporting the activities of Broadway’s brightest stars. Of course, Walter Winchell was one of those columnists who seemed to scoop the others with informative items other writers hadn’t received yet. When Winchell died, the torch was passed on to a budding young writer named Earl Wilson.
Wilson began writing a night life column in 1942, telling his readers about celebrities and their role on New York’s Great White Way, Broadway. Soon the column was syndicated, and he developed a routine that he followed for 37 years, before he passed on in 1987. He wrote six columns a week. Titled, “It Happened Last Night,” the column became one of the most popular, appearing in more than 300 newspapers.
The year was 1959, when this scribe, as an Air Force Sergeant assigned to The Armed Forces Press, Radio & TV Service, in New York City, became acquainted with Earl Wilson, during a press conference welcoming Welch singer Tom Jones to America. Wilson soon became my hero and my mentor. My office was at 57th & Broadway and Earl turned out his columns atop The Ed Sullivan Theatre at 55th Street.
Earl invited me to drop in at any time, which I did, several times weekly. From these visits, I learned quite a bit about writing, checking out sources and many inside tips regarding the newspaper business. Earl told me: “It’s so hard to get the truth in this business because some people lie...Some columnists hurry a thing into print so they’ll have it wrong first.”
His column contained many sub-headings, such as “Today’s Bravos,” “Wish I’d Said That,” and “Earl’s Pearls,” always ending with his signer, “That’s Earl Brother!” He estimated that he had written 11,242 columns, conducted more than 25,000 interviews, and “wore out a dozen phones and five typewriters,” before he ended his 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily routine. Before his retirement, he had written several best-selling books including, “The Show Business Nobody Knows,” “I Am Gazing into My 8 Ball,” “Pike’s Peak or Bust,” “Let’Em Eat Cheesecake,” “Look Who’s Abroad Now,” and “Earl Wilson’s New York.”
Before I was transferred to Headquarters Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs to become editor of the Command’s Press Service, I asked Earl if he would be willing to contribute a page of jokes under the title of “Earl’s Pearls.” He was happy to fill the request, and Air Force troops stationed throughout the world received a page full of chuckles every week for years to come. The one goal he never altered in his years in the newspaper business was his love of the business. “I have no ambition,” he said, “All I want to be is a reporter.”
I’ll always be grateful to Mr. Wilson for his wit and wisdom, and to borrow his sign off signature, “That’s Earl Brother.”
Earl passed away January 16, 1987.
*
Looking Back appears each month. Do you have a memory you’d like to share? Drop a line to: Jack Lebo, Looking Back, 37 Locust Lane, Levittown, PA 19054, or call (215) 943-8870, email: jacklebo@verizon.net.
Is A Great Way To Visit City’s Past
She was the last stop on a railroad to nowhere, the shortest distance between Philadelphia and the sea. In 1854, they named her Atlantic City and little did anyone know that someday this sandbar would be called “The World’s Playground.”
Long before the advent of casinos, there was a kinder and gentler Atlantic City. That city is gone now, but thanks to founders of the Atlantic City Historical Museum — Anthony J. Kutschera, Vicky Gold Levi and Florence Valore Miller — visitors may relive those glory days.
The museum preserves and showcases Atlantic City’s unique history in an entertaining and informative manner. The original concept was that of recreating a “turn of the century” hotel lobby. This has been expanded upon to include displays on theatres, night life, piers, the beach and boardwalk, as well as novel exhibits highlighting ethnic and cultural contributions, special events and world firsts.
In addition, the Museum also features Miss America memorabilia, vintage photos, and a continuously playing video presentation, “Boardwalk Ballyhoo.” The Historical Museum is committed to preserving the rich history of this one-of-a-kind seaside resort.
One of the museum’s newest exhibits is “Shore Deco: Atlantic City Design Between the Wars — 1919-1939,” is in the Al Gold Photography Gallery. The gallery is named in honor of the late Al Gold, father of founder Vicky Gold Levi. Gold was the chief photographer for Atlantic City from 1939 through 1964. According to Vicky, her father was the first photographer in the area to use a graphlex camera, one of the first portable cameras. This allowed him to be “Johnny on the Spot,” and he was everywhere.
Photographing the many celebrities who came to visit Atlantic City was an important function of Al’s job. His subjects included such prominent personalities as Irving Berlin, Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson and Marilyn Monroe.
The term Art Deco, which applies to an opulent design that was popular between the wars, was coined in the 1960s, but refers to an international exhibition of design held in Paris in 1925. The exhibit was dedicated to the display of modern decorative arts that was characterized by bold colors and geometric patterning and inspired by the machine age and the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in Egypt in 1922.
Many American designers visited the Paris fair and brought new design ideas back to America. In the 1930’s, an Americanized version of Art Deco was spread through Hollywood films whose luxurious interiors and cheerful story lines helped to lift the country’s spirit after the crash of 1929. Some of these films were shown on the Boardwalk and city movie theatres such as the Virginia, Warner, Hollywood and the Alan. The linear design was also reflected in Atlantic City’s hotels, restaurants and nightclubs like the Silver Room in the Blenheim, Kent’s Restaurant and the 500 and Nomad clubs. Most notably, deco representation could be found in the Convention Hall’s orchestral details, Steel Pier’s Marine Ballroom and theatres, and the vividly illustrated covers of the Boardwalk Illustrated News.
On view in the Museum’s exhibition are vintage photographs, menus, magazines, and Boardwalk fashions that capture the elegance and charm of Art Deco design that had so mesmerized Europe and the United States until it was replaced by the khaki green of World War II uniforms. The nostalgia for this particular motif continues to be admired and shows no sign of slowing down.
The Atlantic City Historical Museum is located on Garden Pier at New Jersey Avenue and the Boardwalk, diagonally across from Showboat Hotel Casino.
The Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (except major holidays. It is wheel chair accessible, and admission and parking are free.
For information,readers can call (609) 347-5839 or vist the website: www.acmuseum.org.
*
The Elliot Lawrence Orchestra was launched in 1946 at a time when the big band business was beginning to fade away. It was a magnificent band, with innovative arrangements and a fresh approach that would have catapulted it to the top a few years before.
Elliot summarized his band’s early years this way: “It was the tail end of the Big Band Era, and I got about two years of “Band of the Year,” and Columbia Records signed us, a wonderful review in Metronome Magazine, the usual. We did pretty well for a couple years, and then the whole business fell away.”
Because the Lawrence Band existed at a time when singers were dominant, the public doesn’t recall it as readily as earlier bands. It was almost pre-ordained that Elliot Lawrence Broza would be in the entertainment business in one way on the other. His mom and dad were involved in Philadelphia’s Horn & Hardart Children’s Hour radio program. He recalled that the program used to go to local theatres, and when he was four years old, he wandered onto the stage to conduct the orchestra. That was the beginning of a long musical career.
He not only performed on his parent’s radio show as a child, but was also conductor of the University of Pennsylvania award-winning football band, and from 1944 to 1946, led the house band for Philadelphia’s WCAU. Most studio bands are fairly bland, for their purpose in earlier radio was to fill un-sponsored time, or accompany other performers. Not so with the Lawrence-led WCAU band. It began to attract attention outside of the city, because of its unique sound and crisp arrangements, admired by musicians and the general public alike.
By 1946, Elliot decided to leave Philly, and take the band on the road, opening at the Cafe Rouge of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. The quality of the music made his band a big hit in New York, while radio coverage from a second engagement at the Meaowbrook in Cedar Grove, NJ created nationwide demand.
Columbia Records signed the band to a contract, also extending its popularity. Later, the band began to exhibit more swing with arrangements by Al Cohn, Johnny Mandel, and Gerry Mulligan, adding to the original sound fashioned by Elliot himself. The oboe and Fench horns were still there, but the band was starting to swing more.
The demise of the Lawrence Band came in 1954, after years of punishing one-nighters on the road. Elliot summed it up this way: “When I started out in the band business, I had seven or eight thousand dollars in the bank. When I got off the road, I owed about thirty-five thousand dollars.”
The band re-formed for special occasions every so often, but the glory days were over. Elliot went on to conduct the orchestras for the Tony Awards and the Kennedy Center Awards, as well as original cast albums for numerous Broadway shows. The Big Band Era was but a moment in time, and Elliot Lawrence’s moment was even shorter, but the quality exhibited by the Lawrence Band was recaptured and preserved on a recently released CD from the Audiophonic Rare Music Division. The Elliot Lawrence Orchestra is always a lavish treat to hear. Lawrence is currently involved in the music business in New York City.
(Thanks to “Big Band Jump” host Don Kennedy for his contribution to this report.)
*
During the 1940’s through the 60’s, just about every newspaper in America carried a gossip column reporting the activities of Broadway’s brightest stars. Of course, Walter Winchell was one of those columnists who seemed to scoop the others with informative items other writers hadn’t received yet. When Winchell died, the torch was passed on to a budding young writer named Earl Wilson.
Wilson began writing a night life column in 1942, telling his readers about celebrities and their role on New York’s Great White Way, Broadway. Soon the column was syndicated, and he developed a routine that he followed for 37 years, before he passed on in 1987. He wrote six columns a week. Titled, “It Happened Last Night,” the column became one of the most popular, appearing in more than 300 newspapers.
The year was 1959, when this scribe, as an Air Force Sergeant assigned to The Armed Forces Press, Radio & TV Service, in New York City, became acquainted with Earl Wilson, during a press conference welcoming Welch singer Tom Jones to America. Wilson soon became my hero and my mentor. My office was at 57th & Broadway and Earl turned out his columns atop The Ed Sullivan Theatre at 55th Street.
Earl invited me to drop in at any time, which I did, several times weekly. From these visits, I learned quite a bit about writing, checking out sources and many inside tips regarding the newspaper business. Earl told me: “It’s so hard to get the truth in this business because some people lie...Some columnists hurry a thing into print so they’ll have it wrong first.”
His column contained many sub-headings, such as “Today’s Bravos,” “Wish I’d Said That,” and “Earl’s Pearls,” always ending with his signer, “That’s Earl Brother!” He estimated that he had written 11,242 columns, conducted more than 25,000 interviews, and “wore out a dozen phones and five typewriters,” before he ended his 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily routine. Before his retirement, he had written several best-selling books including, “The Show Business Nobody Knows,” “I Am Gazing into My 8 Ball,” “Pike’s Peak or Bust,” “Let’Em Eat Cheesecake,” “Look Who’s Abroad Now,” and “Earl Wilson’s New York.”
Before I was transferred to Headquarters Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs to become editor of the Command’s Press Service, I asked Earl if he would be willing to contribute a page of jokes under the title of “Earl’s Pearls.” He was happy to fill the request, and Air Force troops stationed throughout the world received a page full of chuckles every week for years to come. The one goal he never altered in his years in the newspaper business was his love of the business. “I have no ambition,” he said, “All I want to be is a reporter.”
I’ll always be grateful to Mr. Wilson for his wit and wisdom, and to borrow his sign off signature, “That’s Earl Brother.”
Earl passed away January 16, 1987.
*
Looking Back appears each month. Do you have a memory you’d like to share? Drop a line to: Jack Lebo, Looking Back, 37 Locust Lane, Levittown, PA 19054, or call (215) 943-8870, email: jacklebo@verizon.net.
