{"id":12688,"date":"2018-10-09T18:31:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T22:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=12688"},"modified":"2018-12-02T19:22:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T00:22:41","slug":"philadelphias-town-hall-where-bob-dylan-and-many-many-others-performed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2018\/10\/philadelphias-town-hall-where-bob-dylan-and-many-many-others-performed\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia’s Town Hall: Where Bob Dylan (and Many, Many Others) Performed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Town Hall (Scottish Rite Temple) 150 North Broad Street, September 1966 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As mentioned last time<\/a>, Bob Dylan will reopen the long-closed Metropolitan Opera House December 3rd, 55 years after his first Philadelphia appearance further down Broad Street. Where exactly did Dylan first perform in Philadelphia? Not the Academy of Music, which would be a logical guess (although Dylan did<\/em> perform there in February 1966).<\/p>\n

On October 25 1963\u2014after the release of\u00a0The Freewheelin\u2019 Bob Dylan,<\/em> after his duet with Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival, and after singing at the March on Washington\u2014Dylan made his Philadelphia debut at Town Hall, Broad and Race Streets. (Correction: According to Dan DeLuca, Dylan’s first “official gig” in the city, before an audience of about 45, was at the Ethical Society on Rittenhouse Square in May 1963.<\/em><\/a>\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Dylan almost didn\u2019t make it to Town Hall. \u201cRiding here in manager Al Grossman\u2019s Rolls,\u201d The Daily News<\/em>\u00a0reported after the concert, Dylan and Grossman \u201csuffered a flat tire and had to repair it\u201d on the roadside with the help of the owner\u2019s manual. The audience inside Philadelphia’s Town Hall waited patiently.<\/p>\n

What? You never heard of Philadelphia’s\u00a0<\/em>Town Hall? <\/em><\/p>\n

In a way, Town Hall\u2019s anonymity today shouldn\u2019t be a surprise. This \u201cominous, almost windowless\u201d structure opened in 1927 as \u201cThe Temple of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry, of the Northern Jurisdiction in the Valley of Philadelphia\u201d and was pulled down in the early 1980s. Only from the 1940s through the 1960s did producers and presenters program its gigantic auditorium with results that were at times impressive.<\/p>\n

Starting in the early 1940s, Town Hall became a reflection of popular culture. Some would attend the mass meeting sponsored by the Philadelphia Fundamentalists, hearing Hyman Jedidiah Appleman launch his evangelistic crusade. (“A Jew Preaches Christ!” read the newspaper advertisement.) They\u2019d endure Carle Knisley conducting Philadelphia\u2019s Piano Orchestra, \u201c22 girls at 12 Baldwin Grands.\u201d Railroad buffs lined up to see the \u201cNational Model Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Folks would come to hear William Z. Foster, the National Chairman of the Communist Party share their \u201cimportant statement of policy\u201d the presidential elections of 1944. They\u2019d return to view \u201cRussia’s First Post-War Musical Film \u2018Hello Moscow!\u2019\u201d and the “Rebirth of Stalingrad,” kicked up a notch with \u201cRussian Songs and Dances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Increasingly, the venue was used for performances: Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Mikado;” Vivian Della Chiesa and 70 male voices with the La Scala Opera Company Orchestra; the \u201cTrapp Family \u2018Musical Mother\u2019 Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp and her nine sons and daughters under the conductorship of the Family’s Priest, Franz Wasner;\u201d The Southernaires Vocal Ensemble; and Ruth Morris, the \u201cGreat Negro Soprano.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1944, drummer Gene Krupa and his new 30-piece band performed. Two years later, a presumably different audience came for a \u201cHayloft Hoedown and Barn Dance Show,\u201d that was broadcast \u201cCoast to Coast\u201d on ABC.<\/p>\n

In January 1950, a televised auction for March of Dimes offered “a new automobile from Frank Polumbo; gas hot water heaters, sets of tires, \u201cfour dozen autographed baseballs signed by members of the Athletics and Phillies, 12 footballs signed by each member of the Eagles championship squad; a refrigerator, a console TV set\u201d and much more. A year later, Philadelphians got a taste of African dance with \u00a0Pearl Primus, the Trinidad-born dancer and choreographer.<\/p>\n

In the mid 1950s, regulars saw the Don Cassack Chorus and Dancers, the Kings College Choir, a \u201cHoliday Parade of Stars\u201d with Frank Fontaine, Roger Williams, the \u201cpeppy and pert\u201d Eydie Gorme, and “Philadelphia’s own Al Martino.” The Sensations (also local) performed \u201cYes Sir, That\u2019s My Baby<\/a>.\u201d And in November, 1955, Ray Charles and his band performed sets before a backstage narcotics raid, thanks to the Philadelphia Police.<\/p>\n

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Detail of Town Hall (Scottish Rite Temple) 150 North Broad Street, September 1966 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the late 1950s, things revved up even more with the Miles Davis Quintet, John Coltrane, \u201cPhilly Joe\u201d Jones and \u201cCannonball\u201d Adderley.<\/p>\n

A distinct folk habit took root with a regular visitors in Pete Seeger, The New Lost City Ramblers, Cynthia Gooding, John Jacob Niles and others.<\/p>\n

In February, 1960, Hal Holbrook brought his long running one-man show, “Mark Twain Tonight” to Broad Street. Here it is from the 1967 version for television<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Audiences enjoyed the flamenco guitar of Carlos Montoya, the flamenco dance of Vicente Escudero in his \u201cfinal farewell tour.” They heard the jazz piano of the Ahmad Jamal Trio.<\/p>\n

In 1961, “America’s Most Controversial Comedian,” Lenny Bruce, brought his brand of reality-based satire. Here he is<\/a> on \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1962, Town Hall\u2019s audiences welcomed Joan Baez, The Greenbriar Boys, Theodore Bikel, Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt, Marle Travis and the Foggy Mountain Boys, Josh White, Peter, Paul and Mary Bill Cosby “Temple University’s star fullback.”<\/p>\n

Theodore Bikel returned the following year. So did the Weavers, The Greenbriar Boys, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. New faces, including The Johnson Boys, Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and, of course, Bob Dylan.<\/p>\n

In the remaining years of the \u201860s, Town Hall presented Nina Simone, Marion Williams, Judy Collins, The Blues Project, Woody’s Truck Stop, Lou Rawls, the “controversial folk-rock group” known as The Fugs, The Nazz and The Doors, where Jim Morrison<\/a> was said to perform in leather pants for the first time.<\/p>\n

In 1970, Town Hall presented Yussuf Lateef and his quintet, Mose Allison\u2019s Modern Jazz Quartet. In January of that year, Murray Weisberg, the general manager of Town Hall, died after a 20-year run. Things would never be the same again.<\/p>\n

Later that year, the seven-story landmark was sold back to its original owners, the Scottish Rite Masons. After that, all it took was a few mishandled performances to erode audience faith. When the Buddy Miles Band took the stage in April 1971, there were more ushers in the hall than audience. The Inquirer<\/em> reported \u201crumors that the rest rooms were locked\u201d and quoted Buddy Miles muttering \u201cThis is weird. This is (bleep) weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eleven mostly silent years passed before a headline asked readers who remembered Town Hall to wonder: \u201cWill Wrecker\u2019s Ball Be Final Lot of Scottish Rite Cathedral?\u201d In December 1982 a new owner filed a demolition permit. The plan? To put up a parking lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon’t it always seem to go,\u201d wrote Joni Mitchell, who performed instead in the 1970s at the Academy of Music, the Second Fret, the Main Point, \u201cyou don’t know what you’ve got \u2018til it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Sources: Advertisements in The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em> and The Philadelphia Daily News,<\/em> 1930s-1970s; Jerry Gaghan, \u201cRiding High,\u201d Philadelphia Daily News<\/em>, October 28, 1963; \u201cMasons Again Own Long-Lost Town Hall,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, September 2, 1970; Jack Lloyd, \u201c\u2019Buddy Miles\u2019 Band Sparkles-But the Audience is a Flop,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer,<\/em> April 24, 1971; Christopher Hepp, \u201cWill Wrecker\u2019s Ball Be Final Lot of Scottish Rite Cathedral?\u201d Philadelphia Daily News<\/em>, December, 14, 1982; \u00a0[Obituary] M. Weisberg, Theater Head, The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, January 3, 1970.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As mentioned last time, Bob Dylan will reopen the long-closed Metropolitan Opera House December 3rd, 55 years after his first Philadelphia appearance further down Broad Street. Where exactly did Dylan first perform in Philadelphia? Not the Academy of Music, which would be a logical guess (although Dylan did perform there in February 1966). On October […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}