Tag: Richard Vacca

Storyville Jazz Club at The Bradford Hotel and a Great Interview with George Wein

The Bradford Hotel was the last location for George Wein's fabled Storyville jazz club. Yesterday we told you about the history of the hotels that have occupied 275 Tremont Street in Boston. Today we'll tell you a bit about the musical legacy of this location.

Vintage drawing of the Bradford Hotel by Jack Frost.

Boasting the largest ballroom in New England, this Theatre District hotel always had music in the air.

Image from The Tichnor Brothers Collection, Boston Public Library

I have to believe that during the years when it was the Elks Hotel, there were a few informal sessions conducted within its walls.

In those days, you advertised which orchestra guests would find in your ballroom.

By 1960, George Wein had moved his Storyville jazz club to the Bradford Hotel for one last year of great jazz performances in Boston before dedicating his full-time attention to the Newport Jazz Festival that he had founded in 1954. The Duke Ellington Orchestra played an opening, one-week engagement on September 12, 1960.

To learn more about this club and George Wein's memories of jazz in Boston, I suggest you read this wonderful three-part interview over on JazzWax.com by Marc Myers.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Additional suggested reading on the topic would be The Boston Jazz Chronicles by Richard Vacca.

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Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Images as credited under each

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Hotel Fensgate: It Was a Steak, Lobster, and Jazz House
Back in the 1930s and 1940s, 534 Beacon Street was the Hotel Fensgate. This post card was created before the dreadful Storrow Drive took away the Fenway and Back Bay connections to the Charles River.

On this 1928 atlas page, the arrow points to the Hotel Fensgate. You can see links to both the Charles River and the Back Bay Fens before Storrow Drive and the Bowker Overpass. (There is a group, Friends of the Charlesgate, working to restore Charlesgate.)

Today, this address is the Charlesview Condominiums. Here's a photo of the building today. It was built in 1923 and E.B. Stratton was the architect. And, here's a map showing the overlay of the highway ramps.

This is an illustration of the same Beacon Street view from the hotel's stationery.

The Fensgate's menu proclaimed it was,"Boston's Famous Steak and Lobster House." (Click on the menu for a larger view.)

Menu items included:
- Large Broiled Live Lobster for $2.75
- Lobster Salad for $2.00
- Famous One Pound Sirloin Steak-Club Style for $2.95
- Planked Steak for two for $6.00
And, while those prices look very inexpensive today, it was known as an expensive place to dine.

And, Jazz Too!

In his book, The Boston Jazz Chronicles, author Richard Vacca wrote,

"The Fensgate already had a club, the Satire Room, once advertised as 'Boston’s most expensive and intimate rendezvous.' Liberace made his Boston debut at the Satire, as did Irwin Corey. George Frazier, in his Herald review of singer Elsie Houston in August 1942, noted the cost of an evening at the Satire Room: 'She is so good that you forget for the moment that the check will be a sum only slightly smaller than the national debt. That’s being pretty good.'"

In his book, Myself Among Others: A Life In Music, jazz impresario George Wein talks about his days at the Hotel Fensgate. He tells of finding this as a spot for his own group for a few weeks and that he eventually took the advice of the attorney for the hotel which was, "You know George, I think you should open your own club." Wein did, and the rest is jazz history.

In Boston, there are stories on every corner. Let us know if you find an interesting tidbit on some Boston corner that we should explore and share!

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a Holiday Gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
December 2, 2013
Hotel Fensgate: It Was a Steak, Lobster, and Jazz House
Back in the 1930s and 1940s, 534 Beacon Street was the Hotel Fensgate. This post card was created before the dreadful Storrow Drive took away the Fenway and Back Bay connections to the Charles River.

On this 1928 atlas page, the arrow points to the Hotel Fensgate. You can see links to both the Charles River and the Back Bay Fens before Storrow Drive and the Bowker Overpass. (There is a group, Friends of the Charlesgate, working to restore Charlesgate.)

Today, this address is the Charlesview Condominiums. Here's a photo of the building today. It was built in 1923 and E.B. Stratton was the architect. And, here's a map showing the overlay of the highway ramps.

This is an illustration of the same Beacon Street view from the hotel's stationery.

The Fensgate's menu proclaimed it was,"Boston's Famous Steak and Lobster House." (Click on the menu for a larger view.)

Menu items included:
- Large Broiled Live Lobster for $2.75
- Lobster Salad for $2.00
- Famous One Pound Sirloin Steak-Club Style for $2.95
- Planked Steak for two for $6.00
And, while those prices look very inexpensive today, it was known as an expensive place to dine.

And, Jazz Too!

In his book, The Boston Jazz Chronicles, author Richard Vacca wrote,

"The Fensgate already had a club, the Satire Room, once advertised as 'Boston’s most expensive and intimate rendezvous.' Liberace made his Boston debut at the Satire, as did Irwin Corey. George Frazier, in his Herald review of singer Elsie Houston in August 1942, noted the cost of an evening at the Satire Room: 'She is so good that you forget for the moment that the check will be a sum only slightly smaller than the national debt. That’s being pretty good.'"

In his book, Myself Among Others: A Life In Music, jazz impresario George Wein talks about his days at the Hotel Fensgate. He tells of finding this as a spot for his own group for a few weeks and that he eventually took the advice of the attorney for the hotel which was, "You know George, I think you should open your own club." Wein did, and the rest is jazz history.

In Boston, there are stories on every corner. Let us know if you find an interesting tidbit on some Boston corner that we should explore and share!

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a Holiday Gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
December 2, 2013
Hotel Fensgate: It Was a Steak, Lobster, and Jazz House
Back in the 1930s and 1940s, 534 Beacon Street was the Hotel Fensgate. This post card was created before the dreadful Storrow Drive took away the Fenway and Back Bay connections to the Charles River.

On this 1928 atlas page, the arrow points to the Hotel Fensgate. You can see links to both the Charles River and the Back Bay Fens before Storrow Drive and the Bowker Overpass. (There is a group, Friends of the Charlesgate, working to restore Charlesgate.)

Today, this address is the Charlesview Condominiums. Here's a photo of the building today. It was built in 1923 and E.B. Stratton was the architect. And, here's a map showing the overlay of the highway ramps.

This is an illustration of the same Beacon Street view from the hotel's stationery.

The Fensgate's menu proclaimed it was,"Boston's Famous Steak and Lobster House." (Click on the menu for a larger view.)

Menu items included:
- Large Broiled Live Lobster for $2.75
- Lobster Salad for $2.00
- Famous One Pound Sirloin Steak-Club Style for $2.95
- Planked Steak for two for $6.00
And, while those prices look very inexpensive today, it was known as an expensive place to dine.

And, Jazz Too!

In his book, The Boston Jazz Chronicles, author Richard Vacca wrote,

"The Fensgate already had a club, the Satire Room, once advertised as 'Boston’s most expensive and intimate rendezvous.' Liberace made his Boston debut at the Satire, as did Irwin Corey. George Frazier, in his Herald review of singer Elsie Houston in August 1942, noted the cost of an evening at the Satire Room: 'She is so good that you forget for the moment that the check will be a sum only slightly smaller than the national debt. That’s being pretty good.'"

In his book, Myself Among Others: A Life In Music, jazz impresario George Wein talks about his days at the Hotel Fensgate. He tells of finding this as a spot for his own group for a few weeks and that he eventually took the advice of the attorney for the hotel which was, "You know George, I think you should open your own club." Wein did, and the rest is jazz history.

In Boston, there are stories on every corner. Let us know if you find an interesting tidbit on some Boston corner that we should explore and share!

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a Holiday Gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
December 2, 2013