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Dancing in the Back Room at Joe DiGiacomo's Bar Excerpted from the July 29, 1997 interview of Simey (Francis Simonds, Jr.) by Vicki Haas . . . about a group of 18-20 friends who would swim two nights a week and dance 2 nights a week in the early 1950s. The whole gang had gone down to a place by the Burlington Station called Angelo's. There was a little club down there. It was the only club that would play Black music at that time. And George Shearing was playing. So we went through the evening with George Shearing and came out and we hear this wonderful music coming from across the street, from a vacant store across the street. So everybody went across the street to hear what it was and there was a place next to it called Joe DiGiacomo's Bar. It may still be there, on Tenth Street. Right across from the Burlington Station. So we went into the bar and it turns out the store ... the vacant storefront, he [Joe] let the people from the railroad use it. And these were all brakemen and engineers and that sort of thing. They would come in there to jam. I remember very distinctly Clare was kind of the one who got us into that place. They had an old broken down piano and they had a gut bucket. And then everybody else had to bring their own instruments. We went there for, I would say, four, maybe four years and just kind of took the place over on Friday and Saturday nights. In about '49, '50. In that area. Hazel Orth played the dirtiest piano I have ever heard in my life. And knew more obscene songs than any truck driver! [laughing] She would play the piano and every so often she'd have to reach down. The pedal would stick, you know. She was a very large, large, large woman. . . . And then there was a girl by the name of Elly Price that I was sort of going with too at that time. And Elly would play the gut bucket. And then some train men would come in, you know, and they'd join in. There was a hole in the floor at this place, close to one of the booths. Mr. DiGiacomo had put a piece of carpet over it. But you always sort of walked down hill and then you walked up hill to get to the booth. And in the bathroom, there's only one bath. Unisex bath. And it was very, very, very small. The door wouldn't work on it very well. So they cut out the profile of the toilet. The door would swing over the toilet seat [laughs] so if somebody was in there, you could even see a little bit of derriere and the legs and everything. It was really a lot fun. And then we would have costume parties. One of the big costume parties was a Halloween party. Your mother [Clare] came all in white. I I have no idea what the costume was. I don't remember. But sort of like the sugar plum fairy. With a lot of tulle, you know, and sequins and everything. A lot of the natives had come in from down there, which is kind of a low class Italian district. I mean, it's not ... you know, it's really walkers and, you know, people who do very rough work. They were sort of sitting around and everything. And they decided she [Clare] was the bride and Ron was the groom. They thought it was some kind of a wedding ceremony. [laughs] And, you know, they all wanted to come up and dance with her and she was very gracious. She would dance with them. They probably hadn't bathed in two weeks! And the whole thing was great fun. One year, we had a formal ... yes. It was a formal dinner
down there. We had it catered by the country club. And at that time, Joe had
an old mangy dog who lived in this room also. And we
left the place to go ... just as scurvy as it really was and everything and
we had a really lovely dinner there and then a dance. So the conga line goes through the Burlington Station and when it comes out, there are about forty sailors on one end of it. [laughs] And the train couldn't leave for a day or so, so the party just went on and on and on and that was it 'til the train left. That was a wonderful time. But Warren was the one who went out and got all the food for everybody, you know, in the ice and snow and everything. He just sort of treated the whole affair. That was a really stellar evening. |
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