Lost and Found

The recent news of an August 2011 theft of the decorative copper panels that graced Convention Hall’s retail bays left me dismayed. The city’s unique architecture has always been an important example of what attracts visitors to this part of the state, many of us with cameras. I photographed the fanciful ones that had been restored early on, and included one example in my 2005 book for Rutgers University Press, Asbury Park’s Glory Days: The Story of an American Resort.

The Historical Society is offering a $5,000 reward for any information that may help determine the whereabouts of these 30 rectangular panes whose estimated value is $100,000.  They had been removed as part of the on-going restoration work of the aging entertainment complex that went up on the Boardwalk 83 years ago.

Will we ever find out what happened to them? 

And, can even one still be found?

Only time will tell.

Finding anything of value takes time. Family genealogist Tom Scott of Rochester, NY, spent quite a number of years searching for the final whereabouts of his great uncle and Convention Hall’s first organist, G. Howard Scott. Tom had only hope left by the time he contacted me.

I wrote up his search for a Pike on the Park column in March and then I e-mailed people I thought might be able to help, including musician and owner of Clayton Press, Dave Rouszel, and  Beth Woolley, the graphic artist who owns Peaceable Kingdom Memorials in Neptune City.

You may recall that last year Dave published our popularAsbury Park: Where Music Lives anthology that included Gladstone Trott’s ode to ConHall’s theater organ. Dave put me in contact with someone who informed me that G. Howard also played the Grand Avenue Methodist Church organ.

Beth tracked down his bronze marker in the Masonic section of Monmouth Memorial Park in Neptune and took the accompanying photo. She also supplied Tom with leads for finding out more about his great uncle’s military service.

Many thanks to both of you. Your love of history coupled with your civic desire to make sure Asbury Park’s overlooked traditions aren’t lost forever make working with you an enjoyable avocation.

The other person who had only hope left was George Scott, G. Howard’s son and high school alum who years ago had moved to Florida. George also had a computer and, like many of us, occasionally plugged his family name into search engines to see what might come up.

When my Pike on the Park post showed up, he e-mailed me.

In the middle of all the hoopla that was the Garden State Film Festival, we talked. Quite a story there, so you can count on another installment And then I reunited him with his second cousin!

Here’s the latest update from Tom:
 “When I contacted you, I was hoping to find someone that may have some information on my great uncle G. Howard Scott. I never expected to actually be united with his son George. We have been working together, combining our resources to create a Wikipedia page to honor his father and his successful career. I also look forward to helping George create a website.”

In an era in which we are tempted to wring our hands in despair, I found myself cheered by this journey of lost and found and of the respectful collaboration that is preserving a piece of the city’s rich history.

Movies, Music and Memoirs: What's Your Story?

Home is where your story begins. Of course, how you define home is up to you. It’s your experience, after all. But if, like so many of us, your sense of belonging is tied to Asbury Park, then chances are good you’ve got stories to spare.

Most of mine are associated with a variety of coming-of-age experiences: first merry-go-round ride on the Casino carousel (meant I was tall enough to s-t-r-e-t-c-h for the brass ring); first drive on The Circuit with my newly printed license (the only advantage to being born in the summer), and first job out of college (at the Asbury Park Press when it was still in the Downtown).

Most of my stories are told in print. Some are told as podcasts, which is a great way to share an experience with folks who can’t attend a public reading. A few are found on what I like to call digital celluloid, but that I know is video. And, as last year’s musical heritage festival rolled out, many were told with and about music.

Beginning Thursday, I’m excited to be involved in all three forms this week, starting with the annual Garden State Film Festival. For a second year I'll teach during the educational component of this long-running Asbury Park tradition, thanks to Linda Krebs who directs the Shore Gifted & Talented Program. I’ll be asking middle-school students to tell a story using the city’s history, some of its more colorful characters, and, of course, its iconic architecture. This year we’ve got a new vantage point because the venue we’re using is McLoone’s Supper Club on the top of the 5th Avenue Pavilion!

But I’m not stopping there. I’m also bringing along singer and Nashville songwriter Kevin John Allen who will talk about how he made a music video of his thought-provoking song 99 Weeks. We’ll also show the students the pop-up video of Feels Like Today by Rascal Flatts which was shot entirely in Asbury Park. I’m hoping for a third video from Raritan Riviera raconteur Jon Caspi. We’ll see.

Next up is a Saturday morning rendez-vous with filmmakers and art house cinema czar and czarina Mike Sodano and Nancy Sabino of The ShowRoom. They’re working on a project and I’m reviewing my film lectures and all things Walter Reade for this one! I’ve promised to keep mum about the rest of this work-in-progress except to say it’s scheduled for a summer release.

Then there’s the appointment with budding media mogul Dan Peragrine of the Daniel A. Peragrine Entertainment Company. I’ve literally watched Daniel come of age on the Internet. We’re meeting up at the Stephen Crane House Museum on Fourth Avenue for a radio interview using Garage Band on Apple’s Mac. Pretty cool. As soon as I learn the url for when this audio turns into a podcast I’ll let you know.

The rest of that afternoon I’m spending with those who are using memoir to tell their stories. I’m pretty excited about the submissions I’ve received so far, including the request to blurb an anthology of recollections from those who have strolled the boards longer than any of us. 

Lots of storytelling going on in March.

What’s yours?

What Befell the City's First Municipal Organist?

We know who he was: George Howard Scott.

We know what he did: Was the first contracted musician to play the fabulous Kilgen theater organ installed in Convention Hall in 1931.

We also know G. Howard’s footprints evaporate sometime in the mid-1950s.

What happened?

The query comes from his great-nephew, Tom Scott of Rochester, NY, who has done a yeoman’s job recreating the life of a man he grew up hearing about in stories.

“George’s step sister helped raise me,” he wrote in a recent e-mail. “She often spoke of our past relatives including ‘Howard’.  I knew from an early age that he played the organ in Asbury Park.“

Descending from grandparents who emigrated from Scotland and England, G. Howard and most of his extended family were musically inclined, most of them playing instruments of one kind or another.  “We always had a picture of Howard on the piano in our home as I do today.”

Trained in a technique attributed to Theodore Leschetizky (which, in turn, has a genealogy all its own going back to Beethoven), G. Howard rode the circuit of secular music, securing various church and choir jobs in the greater New York area prior to World War II.  

That this talented man from the farming community of Perry, NY, would wind up at the music capital of the Jersey Shore seemed predestined. Not only did Tom’s great-uncle give regular summertime concerts at Convention Hall, many of which were broadcast over WCAP, but he also performed in Walter Reade’s St. James Theatre on Cookman Avenue. With his second wife, Elizabeth, he also had a son here in 1932 who was named for him.

Then Tom, ever the determined genealogist, unearthed his military draft registration. In 1942 George was living with his then third wife, Helen M. Scott, at 1307 Fourth Ave., the heart of the city’s professional class.

In 1957 the 62-year-old George returned home to western New York State for his older brother’s funeral. And that’s when the trail runs cold. Except for an entry in a city directory that shows he and his wife had moved to a rear apartment on Fifth Avenue, west of Main Street.

What happened?

Looking for Love?

Photo by Jackie Fritsche via FlickrBefore match.com. Before pridedating. Before J-Date we roamed the world, looking for love. Our heart’s yearning took us to places like Paris, France, the South Seas, and even Winterset, Iowa, for the penultimate search in the “kissing” bridges of Madison County.

Asbury Park, though, has had a long tradition for setting hearts aflutter, and making permanent matches. Here are three of my favorites, all with women who were graduated from Asbury High:

1) Mogul-in-the-making, a young Laurence Tisch came to sell cars to Stein’s automobile dealership on Main Street and Fourth Avenue, and came away, instead, with marrying the owner’s daughter, Wilma. Tisch later would go on to become CEO of CBS and co-owner with his brother, Robert, in Loew’s cinemas. Billie, a graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY, became a philanthropist.

2) Budding New York news anchor Ernie Anastos hooked up with the daughter of St. George Greek Orthodox Church’s beloved prelate, Kelly Coutros. From interviews I’ve done, apparently many a gridiron player from Kelly’s high school days had secret crushes on the petite brunette. For a brief period, Anastos was an investor in the Berkeley-Carteret Hotel when Sam and Henry Vaccaro were seeking to revive the grande dame in the 1980s.

3) Finally needing a woman’s voice to increase the emotional range of the E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen turned to one of his back-up singers, Patti Scialfa. The rest is both music and personal history in one of the greatest matches to come out of the Jersey Shore scene.

Do you have love match made while strolling the Boardwalk? Or, brewed in a Downtown venue? Or, did you connect with your one-and-only at one of the many festivals making the city “the” go-to destination in New Jersey? Post a comment! We’d love to hear from you! Better yet, upload a photo, too!

Happy Valentine’s Day from Asbury Park!

How Kodak Played a Part in City's Heritage

Ever since the 1890s gear heads embraced the new portable technology of Kodak cameras and George Eastman’s adaptation of movie film for consumer use, Asbury Park’s attractiveness as a destination to photograph, and be photographed in, accelerated. 

In the first half of the 20th century, Frank H. Cole lead the field of professionals who operated in and around the city. His affiliation with the Rochester, NY, company gave him the edge, enabling him promote the Kodak brand as a means to promote his services, especially in postcards used for direct-mail campaigns. One hard-to-find promotional card shows Cole’s own Boardwalk location in the northeast corner of the of 2d Avenue Pavilion. The word “Kodak” was prominently displayed on the front of the building.

Cole’s 611 Bangs Avenue location is now home to a post-war, four-story brick building. In the real-estate heritage game many play because some locations seem to attract successive generations of like-minded businesses, this address was most recently home to Tom Gilmour III’s Bull Dog Clip Productions, a video and arts studio. Before that, Andy the Catalogue Kid, a collector and auctioneer of photographed ephemera , used this space for his headquarters. Currently, the Bangs Avenue Art Gallery occupies one bay.

After World War II, Joseph Carter, who had studios on both the West Side and East Side of Main Street, could lay claim to the Kodak crown. Today, his daughter, Madonna Carter Jackson, curates his extensive collection of negatives. Last summer she took the wraps of a second book of Asbury Park photos. No slouch when it comes to embracing new technology, Madonna has also figured out how to put photos from the Carter Collection on line for individual ordering: mylittleoffice.net

And that brings us back to the current crop of photographers, many who submitted work for consideration in a new show to open this First Saturday in February. The opening reception for “Phone-Ograph” starts at 6 p.m. in Gallery 13. And, yes, that title is exactly what it implies: photographic work shot with an portable phone’s camera. Last month, Gallery 13 moved upstairs in the former Woolworth Building at 658 Cookman Ave., to the spacious Suite 5.

If you’re planning to stroll First Saturday in the Downtown, this is a terrific opportunity to check out what the latest gear heads are producing are producing in miniature. I think of this work as portable postcards, the newest iteration of photographic history.

Tip of the hat to the Steve Albert Historical Archives.