Life With Fred & Lucy, Part 13: Palumbo

                                                                    

During the 1940’s and 1950’s, South Philadelphia was very important for promoting pop music. New York had nothing over us as far as show business went. Hell no! Not with all the talented performers who appeared weekly at the nightclub called Palumbo. Located near to the Italian Market on 9^th Street, the building owned by Antonio Palumbo since 1884, served as a boarding house for Italian workers, but later the street level eventually under the guidance of Antonio's son, Frank Palumbo, became a nightclub, restaurant and banquet hall, which featured acts like Benny Goodman, Patti Page, Frank Sinatra, Louis Prima, Louis Armstrong, the Clooney sisters, the Mills brothers, Mario Lanza; the names too numerous to list here. When my Uncle Pat was alive, my father and mother went out every Saturday night for dinner and a show.

                                                                         

 
             Uncle Pat seated in my parent's kitchen. Fred preparing ham for the grocery store.

 

Uncle Pat was my father’s best friend from childhood. He was married, but I never met his wife; only the girlfriend who would join my parents for the night out. Strange the things a kid will remember years later.

Once in a while, my parents along with Pat and his lady would buy tickets for a special show that we children were allowed to attend. My father knew we would enjoy the Three Stooges. Maybe it was because we four kids always acted like the stooges.

We four kids were in our glory. We got to dress up in our Sunday only clothing and we were allowed to order whatever we wanted from the menu. When Moe, Larry and Curly came out on the stage, we went crazy. I mean we watched these guys on Television and here they were right in front of our table.            

If we weren’t bad enough for our parents before the show, we were the weeks following the show…I mean they were our idols and you know kids! We had to imitate them. I forget exactly which prank it was that landed all four of us in permanent time out. It may have been us gluing the bathroom door shut, or my brother Michael hiding in the washing machine and screaming out “Boo!” when my mother went to load the clothes, or maybe the last straw was when the four of us were playing war in the house, with fresh eggs. Yeah…I think it was that one.

We weren’t allowed to watch the Stooges for a few weeks, but we didn’t care. We got to see our heroes live. I need my South Philly friends to tell me if they ever went to Palumbo's and did they see any acts? If so, who?

An Interview with the Master of Dorian's Parlor

                                                                      

As promised dear readers, I asked the busy Gil Cnaan, the man responsible for Dorian’s Parlor if I could do an interview and he graciously agreed. So with great fanfare, let us begin our journey.

                                                                                                       

My granddaughter, Allie, first introduced me to the wonderful world of Steampunk about a year ago and ever since that first night, I’ve been hooked.

                                                   
              Could you give my readers a little background history on what is Steampunk?

Steampunk started back in the 1980s, although others will argue it's even older, as a revival of Victorian Science Fiction ideas.  It first got its name as a satire of the genre cyberpunk, a dystopian subgenre of science fiction.  In the early 2000s, it took off as a musical, clothing, and film genre, thanks mostly to the advent of instant communications of the internet.

                                                            
                                     

How did you become involved with Steampunk and how hard was it to get the event started in Philadelphia?

 I worked at Jeff Mach's Wicked Winter Renaissance Faire for a number of years.  Eventually, I was told one year that we were going to have a "Steampunk room".  At the time, I had no idea what Steampunk was, but I made it happen nonetheless.  Upon seeing the room, I realized that this was an aesthetic I had already been rather fond of, but had not had the words to properly describe until that point.  From there, we launched a monthly event in Piscataway, New Jersey, called Clockwork, that I helped DJ.  We also launched the Steampunk World's Fair.  After a few months, I decided that I wanted a monthly event in Philadelphia, and after some hunting around, found the right people to start it with, the right venue to work with, and made a go of it.

                                                 

What is involved with getting the acts and venders together for the night’s event?

 The first step is actually negotiating a date that works for both the hotel and for our technical crew and sponsors, Circuit Six.  Once we've found our date, then the work divides among three people.  I go through a rather lengthy document I keep of potential acts, and I begin to reach out to acts that I would like to work with.  Simultaneously, Evelyn Kriete reaches out to designers that she knows to see who will be doing the fashion show.  While we are both occupied on this end, Pretty Kitty handles our vending now, so she will e-mail everyone on our current list of vendors and potential vendors to tell them what the date of the next event is, and as people message back, she attempts to make sure that we are balancing our vendors, so that we don't have too much of any one type of vendor.  On the performer end, we usually try to have one "A list" musical act, one opening musical act, and one miscellaneous, non-musical act.  Long term, we'd like to see more fire shows happening at each event, as they are a fun draw and get people outside.

                                                                                                                      

What are your future goals for this amazing event?

 Long term, we are hoping to increase our attendance, as increased attendance means that we can bring in more amazing acts from further away.  I'd love to bring over the Diablo Swing Orchestra from Sweden, as an example, or bring Sunday Driver over from England.  We are also looking into acquiring our own venue, so that we can control better the timing of all of our events.  We know which building we want, so we are attempting to quietly raise the capital to do so.

                                                         

Is there anything else that you would like my readers to know about Dorian’s Parlor?

I would want folks to know that everyone is welcome.  We do not have a strict dress code, but we do enjoy being one of the few events in Philadelphia that occupies the space between regular club nights and black tie affairs. 

                                                                                                                        

Thank you so much Gil, for sharing this with my readers and I did want to mention that although my fellow ghost hunters and I are “Baby Boomers” we were welcomed with open arms.

                                                           
I’m wishing you the best in obtaining your own site and for all my facebook and twitter friends who live near to Philadelphia, check facebook for the next scheduled event and make plans to visit Dorian’s. You’ll be happy you did.

My next blog will be on where to find some great Steampunk clothing or how to throw an outfit together from items you find at thrift stores.

                                                            
Have a great week and don’t forget to check on the next episode of Lilith’s Escape at this blog site on Friday morning.