Greenwich Village - What was it like?

Subject: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Cuddles
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 09:39 AM

...back then?

Who do you remember and are they still around, still singing?

Just wondering....

Cuddles :-)

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Beer
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 09:41 AM

Your on a roll this morning Cuddles.
This thread should prove interesting.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Big Mick
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 09:43 AM

You may be in luck. We have had this conversation before, and folks like Jean Ritchie, Frank Hamilton, Sandy Paton, Art Thieme and Jerry Rassmussen all chimed in with some fantastic stuff. Stay tuned.....

Mick

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Cuddles
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 09:44 AM

Ooh good..I'll look forward to hearing all about everyone then!

:-)

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Amos
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 10:25 AM

The streets were dirty and the communications were slow. Writing was done on typewriters and for fast conection, you picked up a Bakelite phoneset with a rotary dial and started sharpening your index finger in the little holes. People carried phone numbers in their heads, back then, the way geeks carry URLs and email addies around in their heads now. The weather was pretty much as it is now. The VIllage was cold in winter and hot in summer; it was stunning in spring and nostalgic in the fall.

Coffee was a dime. In ripoff joints, perhaps a quarter. A thick china mug, and the coffee was usually awful. Cigarettes were a quarter a pack, or maybe 35 cents. They were very popular, and were used everywhere -- there was no sxuch thing as a no-smoking area, except perhaps in hospitals.

FOr starters, you should look up the Washington Square Memories thread which can be found here and the "60's in Greenwich Village & Berkeley " thread which can be found here.

A

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Amos
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 10:26 AM

Oh--and all the people our age were a LOT younger.



A

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 10:33 AM

Amos et al-

We certainly were a LOT younger then but some of us have never grown up!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Peace
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 10:34 AM

GROW UP? No way!

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 11:23 AM

The streets were full of tourists from Brooklyn and Queens, who would point to each other and murmur," Oooh..there's a bohemian!"

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Amos
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 12:18 PM

ANyway, Cuddlesm,, read the two threads I linked to and you will hear more than you asked for about them thar times.


A

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Cuddles
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 01:41 PM

".....FOr starters, you should look up the Washington Square Memories thread which can be found here and the "60's in Greenwich Village & Berkeley " thread which can be found here."


Thank you Art, I've just finished reading the first link, the Washington Square Memories one...some wonderful memories on there!
(and not one cross word either)

I have this image of a WSM Myspace page, filled with stories and photos that would be seen by thousands of people...and no doubt I'll have one about Greenwich & Berkley in a short while too, after I've read that thread. :-)

Art, you write beautifully by the way, in pictures, as does Jean..

Thank you. xx

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Cuddles
Date: 06 Feb 08 - 02:00 PM

Amos!

LOOK what I've found! :0)

Greenwich Village Sunday 1960 on Youtube

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Peace
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 12:57 PM

That isn't the Square I recall, but then I seldom saw it in daylight.

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Amos
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 01:47 PM

Awesome. Brings back great memories. THanks very much.


A

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 04:52 PM

Sad to say, I never made it back there until years later. I did see a lot of San Francisco's North Beach, Seattle area clubs, a number of L.A. clubs such as the Ash Grove, etc. But, from all who were there, and from the sheer artistic output, nothing seems, quite, to touch it. The Clancy Brothers first came together as a singing group there. Tom Paxton and a host of others who still perform came to prominence there. Groups were formed from duos and singles, from Peter, Paul and Mary to more obscure folks like Art & Paul (Podell & Potash). I am certain to hear from other quarters, but it must have been quite a convergence of time, place and free-flowing creative juices (undoubtedly abetted by some free-flowing other stuff) -something very special indeed.

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Francy
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 06:33 PM

I was a broiler cook at the Brass Rail in times Square is 1961....Would hang out at Washington Square on Sundays with my old Kay guitar......What a blast.........Also Boston was exciting in a smaller way.....with the Club 47 and Storyville(I saw Ed McCurdy there in 1961)////Wow! ehat great memories....Frank of Toledo

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 06:40 PM

I got to The Village in 1974 on my way home from Bermuda - There was till a 'Sort' of folk scene , but NOT what it had been - But still a lot of Open Mike evenings !

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 06:43 PM

The narrator of that old "Village Sunday" feature on You Tube, Jean Shepherd, was a wonderful radio personality in the New York media market back in the 60s.

He was on the air for an hour every weeknight, telling stories of his childhood and youth in Hammond, Indiana. Some of his tales referred to Army boot camp, when he was presumably in this late teens or early twenties, but none of his broadcast anecdotes referred to later life.

I don't believe folks outside the NYC area got to listen to him on the radio in his heyday, but many people worldwide were introduced to his work and his world in the film "A Christmas Story," which was a moderate hit when it came out (in the 1980s?), but which has become a huge cult favorite on cable TV in more recent years. You know, the story about "Ralphie" (the character representing Jean SHepherd as a kid) and his quest for a Red Ryder Air Rifle as a Christmas present. ("You'll shoot your eye out!")

Jean Shepherd published a couple of books wherein his radio monologues were presented as collected short stories, one of which ~ In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash ~ served as the basis for the "{Christmas Story" screenplay.

Also, Mr. Shepherd himself served as the voice-over narrator for the movie, which provided a nice nostalgia trip for those few of us who listened religously to his radio program. His is a pretty distinctive voice, and fans of the movie will probably recognize it when listening to "Village Sunday."

For those really interested, a web-based outfit called "Earth Station 1" will sell you thousands of hours of Jean Shepherd radio shows in MP3 format; they claim that it's the complete archive of a daily program that ran for many years. My cousin, a rabid fan, forwarded me a link several years ago, but I never followed through because the price was a little too high for me.

I'm still on Earth Station's email list and get interesting stuff from them all the time, even though I've never actually bought anything. The guy who collects the audio recordings and markets them has worked with Ken Burns to provide soundtrack footage for those great documetanties.

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Joybell
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 08:17 PM

From True-Love -- Hildebrand:
1959 He remembers first meeting the Clancy Brothers there. Gerde's Folk City. Few places to perform then. He was told the West Coast was the place for a performer. Perry Ledderman was amazing everyone with his finger-picking - not performing -- just hanging around. Erik Darling backing up a female singer in a tiny hall without a stage.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: MissouriMud
Date: 12 Feb 08 - 09:38 AM

The main scene there was when I was still in my early to mid teens, so I wsnt a real participan, but I would get in from the burbs and hang out from time to time. Just spending a few hours in the area could be pretty cool and instructive for a wide eyed 16 year old: Buffy Sainte-Marie at the Gaslight; seeing Dylan among other faces in the crowd. Busking with strangers in Washington Square til the police chased us away. We'd blow our $2.17 "earnings" on a bottle of Thuderbird that one of the group was old enough to buy, and pass the bottle around til it was gone. Then we'd start all over in a different corner of the square until I had to catch the last train back home.

Subject: RE: Greenwich Village - What was it like?
From: Amos
Date: 12 Feb 08 - 11:12 AM

Yeah--thank Gawd for the NEw York, New Haven and Hartford, eh? Without it, Fairfield County never would have caught on!!



A