Levon & the Hawks at Tony Marts

Dylan Goes Electric

NOTE: This book focuses on just the times of Dylan when he "went electric" in 1965, yet it doesn't mention Levon and the Hawks, Tony Marts or any of the deep background that is provided in Waiting on the Angels - The Long Cool Summer of '65 Revisited. 

Dylan Goes Electric – Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties by Elijah Wald (Dey St. Harper-Collins, 2015)

Elijah Wald:

“On the evening of July 25, 1965 Bob Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival backed by an electric band and roared into a blistering version of ‘Maggie’s Farm,’ followed by his new rock single, ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ The audience of committed folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet reacted with a mix of shock, booking, and scattered cheers. It was the shot heard round the world – Dylan’s declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation – and one of the defining moments in twentieth-century music.”

 “The first appearance after Newport was at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens (New York) on August 20, and Dylan played the first set alone and acoustic and then was joined by Robertson, Al Kooper on organ, Levon Helm on drums, and Harvey Brooks on bass.”

“Backstage, Dylan prepared the band, saying, ‘If they start yellin’ and booin’ don’t let it bother ya. Just keep playin’ the best ya know how.’”

DJ Murray the K introduced Dylan as part of a “new, swinging mood in the country – what’s happening, baby.”

“The first, solo set was universally cheered, and the crowd listened rapt through the new, ten-minute-long ‘Desolation Row,’ but when the band came on in the second half, angry fans booed, threw trash, and chanted, ‘We want Dylan,’ and one yelled ‘Scumbag!,’ provoking Dylan’s only retort of the evening, a restrained ‘Aw, come on now,’ which was approved with laughter and applause.”

“Forest Hills was a tennis stadium, and the crowd sounds like it is at a combination concert and sports event, there to listen but also the cheer its favorites and boo the opposing team. It was terrific theater, and while Dylan was upset by Newport, he was exhilarated by Forest Hills.”

“When Kooper and Brooks arrived at Grossman’s apartment for the post concert party, ‘Dylan bounded across the room and hugged both of us, ‘It was fantastic,’ he said, ‘a real carnival.’”

“Dylan had been getting bored with his solo concerts, going out every night, singing the same songs, seeing the same faces, getting the same reactions. In early 1965 he told a friend, ‘I ask myself: Would you come to see me tonight?’ and I’d have to truthfully say, ‘No, I wouldn’t come. I’d rather be doin’ something else.’”

“’Now, he said, ‘When I ask myself would I wanna come hear this tonight I gotta say I would. I dig it. You know? I really dig it. I don’t think about quitting anymore.’ He had always loved rock ‘ roll, and if some fans were disappointed, his true supporters were with him.”

“In hindsight,…Newport, in 1965 it made the news because it captured the tensions and conflicts of the moment, and for people who lived through that moment it only became more emblematic with the passage of time. That was the year of Vietnam, Watts, of the Free Speech Movement and the first acid tests, and the confrontation at Newport marked the end of the folk boom and the arrival of rock as a mature art form, the break of the New Left from the old, and the triumph of the counterculture. It as a handy, compelling symbol, recycled in myriad documentaries, and eventually became something of a cliché. But it continues to resonate because, if its details are emblematic of a particular moment, the central conflict was timeless. It was not the death of an old dream and the birth of a new, but the clash of two dreams, both very old and both very much still with us. They are the twin ideals of the modern era: the democratic, communitarian ideal of a society of equals working together for the common good and the romantic, libertarian ideal of the free individual, unburdened by the constraints of rules or custom.” 

The War at Home

Flashback - February 1965 - Fort Dix, New Jersey 

Evan Thomas – From - The War at Home

“For a brief period the new military equipment, and especially the introduction of helicopters in large numbers, appeared to be stemming the Vietcong tied.” 

“Like everyone else who read newspapers, I was reminded periodically of Vietnam…(But) the war did not really force itself upon me until February 7, 1965, when LBJ ordered the second bombing raid on North Vietnam following a Vietcong attack on American military barracks at Pleiku.”

“Two days earlier I had been inducted into the Army for National Guard training and had been transported to the snowy, windy, flatland of Fort Dix, New Jersey.”

“The lights went out at ten o’clock that night, but we all remained awake in the dark, covered by green army blankets, staring in the dim lights at the ceiling of army barracks, listening to transistor radios report the raids and half-believing (since anything seems possible in the army) that we would be on an early plane to South Vietnam.”

“The army, of course, made maximum use of the heightened situation during our eight weeks of basic training.”

“’This is important,’ Sergeants snapped. ‘What are you going to do if your M-14 jams in Veet-Nam?’”

“Since they jammed only too frequently on the Fort Dix firing ranges, we took this more or less seriously. We lay on the cold ground, looking at devastated areas where every living thing had long since been shot to pieces. The trunks of trees razed even twenty and thirty feet above the ground, the very ground itself literally poisoned by millions of copper jacketed bullets. A sergeant in a wooden tower shouted over a loud speaker system: ‘Ready on the right. Ready on the left. Firers, lock and load one fourteen round magazine and commence firing.’”

“When the stiff olive green silhouettes popped up behind the sand dunes and next to shattered tree stumps, it was not too hard to believe this was leading towards the dark and steaming jungles we imagined in Southeast Asia.”

“I was ‘against’ the war in an abstract way, but its impact on me personally was more confusing, it seemed possible the National Guard might be called up and that I might go. I’m not all together certain if I feared this would happen, or I wanted it to happen.” 

Down @ the Crossroads with Dylan, Robert Johnson & the Devil

Down @ the Crossroads w/ Dylan, Robert Johnson and the Devil

The day Bob Dylan signed his first Columbia recording contract in John Hammond, Sr.’s office Hammond gave Dylan a couple of albums of other Columbia artists including Robert Johnson’s “The King of the Delta Blues,”  who Dylan never heard of but blew him away.

The Mississippi Delta is the home and cradle of the blues as much as New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz, and in academic circles blues is considered a branch of jazz, and in fact followed the jazz trail when the musicians and prostitutes were kicked out of New Orleans in the closure of Storyville. The once-legal red light neighborhood where they lived was closed by the U.S. Army and Navy, though the righteous citizens of the city protested. “You can make it illegal but you can’t make it unpopular,” the New Orleans mayor said.

But just as Katrina did a century later, the civic crackdown on Storyville – in November 1917, spread the musicians and the music beyond the city limits, and most of the suddenly out-of-work musicians followed the riverboats upriver to St. Louis, Memphis and Chicago, and letting off the bluesmen in the delta where they took root.

Their contemporary offshoots include the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson, James Cotton, B.B. King, Levon Helm and Robert Johnson – the “King of the Delta Blues,” who died broke and friendless at 27 years, said to be poisoned by a jealous husband or lover, leaving behind only 20 some recorded songs and two photographs.

When John Hammond, Sr. and Allan Lomax tried to find him to record him he was already dead, but not forgotten.

Legend has it that Robert Johnson couldn’t play a lick when he first picked up a guitar as a young boy, and was the subject of jokes among the real musicians, until he left town for awhile and came back with a style that shocked and amazed everyone, sparking a the myth that he made a deal with the devil, selling his soul in exchange for the musical talent.

“Sweet Home Chicago” was one of the songs Johnson recorded in two sessions at Texas hotels, and his other songs were covered by many artists over the years, but his most famous song is “Crossroads Blues” that Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix and dozens of others have covered and made famous.

According to Dylan, Robert Johnson hit him like a “tranquilizer bullet.” 

Dylan later wrote in his autobiographical Chronicles, Volume 1: “I listened to it repeatedly, cut after cut, one song after another, sitting staring at the record player. Whenever I did, it felt like a ghost had come into the room; a fearsome apparition…masked the presence of more than twenty men….Johnson’s words made my nerves quiver like piano wires. They were so elemental in meaning and feeling and gave you so much of the inside picture…..There’s no guarantee that any of his lines either happened, were said, or even imagined…I copied Johnson’s words down on scraps of paper so I could more closely examine the lyrics and patterns and free associations that he used, the sparkling allegories, big-ass truths wrapped in the hard shell of nonsensical abstraction – themes that flew through the air with the greatest of ease. I didn’t have any of these dreams or thoughts but I was going to acquire them. I thought about Robert Johnson a lot, wondered who his audience could have been. It’s hard to imagine sharecroppers or plantation field hands at hop joints, relating songs like these. You have to wonder if Johnson was playing for an audience that only he could see, one off in the future.”

Dylan discounts “the fast moving story going around that he had sold his sold to the devil at a four way crossroads at midnight and that’s how he got to be so good. Well, I don’t know about that. The ones who  knew him told a different tale and that was that he had hung around some older blues players in rural parts of Mississippi, played harmonica, was rejected as a bothersome kid, that he went off and learned how to play guitar from a farmhand named Ike Zinnerman, a mysterious character not in any of the history books.”

“This makes more sense,” says Dylan, as “John Hammond had told me that he thought Johnson had read Walt Whitman. Maybe he did, but it doesn’t clear up everything…..I would see Johnson for myself in eight seconds worth of 8-millimeter film shot in Ruleville, Mississippi, on a brightly lit afternoon street by some Germans in the late 1930s, but slowing the eight seconds, you can see that it really is Robert Johnson, has to be – couldn’t be anyone else.”

“I wasn’t the only one who learned a thing or two from Robert Johnson’s compositions,” Dylan wrote, “Johnny Winter, the flamboyant Texas guitar player born a couple of years after me, rewrote Johnson’s song about the phonograph, turning it into a song about a television set. Robert Johnson would have loved that. Johnny by the way recorded a song of mine, ‘Highway 61 Revisited,’ which itself was influenced by Johnson’s writing. It’s a strange the way circles hook up with themselves. Robert Johnson’s code of language was nothing I’d heard before or since. To go with that, someplace along the line Suzie (Rotolo) had also introduced me to the poetry of French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud. That was a big deal too. I came across one of his letters called ‘Je est un autre,’ which translates into ‘I is someone else.’ When I read those words bells went off. It made perfect sense….I went right along with Johnson’s dark night of the soul…Everything was in transition and I was standing in the gateway. Soon I’d step in heavy loaded, fully alive and revved up. Not quite yet though.”

And so it was when Hollywood came calling for the movie rights to the P. F. Kluge novel “Eddie & the Cruisers,” and the producers and script writers would eliminate a chapter, the one where the Cruisers drive their ’57 Chevy to Camden to visit Walt Whitman’s house, and in its place Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”  and “singing the body electric” is replaced by Arthur Rimbaud, who reportedly faked his own death  in order to live out his life anonymously, much like Eddie Wilson does in the follow up film.

Is Dylan pulling our leg with the Ike Zinnerman story, a farmhand teaching Robert Johnson how to play guitar instead of making a deal with the devil at the crossroads? After all, Dylan’s real name is Robert Zimmerman.

Supporting Dylan’s version, over the popular myths and legends, is the fact that the devil isn’t mentioned in the lyrics of Robert Johnson’s song “Crossroads Blues,” that makes no reference to a deal with the devil.

Cross Road Blues

I went to the crossroad

fell down on my knees

I went to the crossroad

fell down on my knees

Asked the Lord above "Have mercy, now

save poor Bob, if you please

Mmmmm, standing' at the crossroad

I tried to flag a ride

Standin' at the crossroad

I tried to flag a ride

Didn't nobody seem to know me

everybody pass me by

Mmm, the sun goin' down, boy

dark gon' catch me here

oooo ooee eeee

boy, dark gon' catch me here

I haven't got no lovin' sweet woman that

love and feel my care

You can run, you can run

tell my friend-boy Willie Brown

You can run, you can run

tell my friend-boy Willie Brown

Lord, that I'm standin' at the crossroad, babe

I believe I'm sinkin' down

According to the popular legend: “A crossroads or an intersection of rural roads is one of the few landmarks in the Mississippi Delta, a flat featureless plain between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers. It is part of the local iconography. A crossroads is also where cars are more likely to slow down or stop, thus presenting the best opportunity for a hitchhiker. In the simplest reading, Johnson describes his grief at being unable to catch a ride at an intersection before the sun sets. However, many see different levels of meaning and some have attached a supernatural significance to the song.”

Crossroads are also points where people, families, towns, cities and sometimes whole societies reach a point in time where life changing decisions must be made, directions are changed and new destinations are set.

And so it came to pass in the summer of 1965 when America’s national psych came to a crossroads that was a circle – the Somers Point, New Jersey circle that led to many directions, five different roads, each with its hazards and rewards.

Some people want to know why the summer of ’65 was the best tourist season the Jersey Shore has ever seen before or since. Families came, college kids made it cool, hippies thought it was hip, bikers put in an appearance, but as everyone who was there remembers, it was The Place to be at that time. Some say it was the weather, others say the economy was good while still others say it was written in the stars, and it was just the right alignment of people and planets to create the special things that occurred.

And so the summer of 1965 began down at the crossroads, down the shore, the South Jersey Shore, where the crossroads was a circle, the Somers Point Circle, and very close to where all the action would take place and from where, as the sun set on Labor Day, everyone would leave to go in their own way, for better or for worse, to reward or tragedy, their destiny was determined - a fait accompli – but it still had to play out, as it does in - 

Waiting on the Angels - The Long Cool Summer of '65 Revisited 

 http://waitingontheangels.blogspot.com/http://waitingontheangels.blogspot.com/http://waitingontheangels.blogspot.com/

Interview with the Author

A revised and updated version of Waiting on the Angels is at:   http://waitingontheangels.blogspot.com/

Iterview with Bill Kelly the Author of Waiting on the Angels – the Long Cool Summer of ’65 Revisited

Q: After writing non-fiction for decades and two history books, why did you suddenly decide to write a novel?

BK: Early in the summer I was looking for something light and easy to read, a fun book, and couldn’t find it, so when I complained about it someone suggested that I write the book I wanted to read, and I did, at least that’s what I tried to do. I always thought the events of that summer were really interesting and worth exploring in more detail. I always believed that the things that happen to real people are more interesting than anything you can make up, but sometimes fiction gets closer to the truth than any history text book can.

Q: So is it real? Did all of this really happen?

BK: Yes, it all happened – The Hell’s Angels did come to town and were kicked out of Ocean City, Harry Anglemeyer was murdered, the Air Force did lose two nuclear bombs off Cape May, Conway Twitty did go country and the Hawks backed Dylan when he went electric. And both Twitty and the Hawks played Tony Marts that summer, Tito Mambo did cause a riot, the Carroll Brothers were arrested for playing on the 14^th Street beach, and my version of those evens is as close to the truth as I can take it. What’s not to believe? And if anyone has a correction or a different story, especially if they were there, I want to hear from them and will add it to the proceedings. A lot of the people mentioned in the story are still alive - Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Bob Harbough, Stevie Nicks, Joe Walsh, Andrew and some of those who played in the bands, and they each have a piece of the puzzle. I'm starting to ear from some of them. Joe Walsh, who wrote the song "Class of 1965," has been sober for over 20 years, and is receiving Kennedy Honors this month at the Kennedy Center in Washington. 

Q: If it’s all true then why is it fiction?

BK: It’s fiction because even though most of the characters are real, I created two composite characters (the mayor’s daughters) who are based on real people known to me, I invented some conversational dialog, and a few of the events are chronology skewed, but for the most part, what is described actually happened, I just use novelized techniques to tell the story.

Q: You also supposedly utilized some new social science technology and techniques and applied them to historical fiction for the first time?

BK: Yes, supposedly I am the first to write an historical novel using three radical social science techniques at the same time – namely natural psychoactive additives to affect the mind’s ability to travel, as demonstrated by the CIA’s interrogation research; I also used a modern experimental isolation tank to control consciousness; and third I used Remote Viewing techniques developed by the Army at Fort Dietrich and used extensively during the first Gulf War, that allows one to focus on a specific place and time to figure out what’s going on there.

Q: Do you think it works and will it catch on?

A: It works all right, but just as some researchers base their knowledge entirely on what’s written down, while others base the story on what witnesses said, both have often been proven wrong so, who’s to say if my approach is right or wrong? It’s just a different approach, and I believe it’s closer to the truth than the traditional histories with the official imprimatur.

Q: So who killed Harry Anglemeyer?

BK: Everybody who lived ‘year round in Ocean City at that time knows, and you can figure it out by reading this book, all the clues are there. The question should be - why isn’t anyone investigating this easily solvable crime? And the answer to that is pretty clear too - if you read the story.

Q: What became of the lost nukes?

BK: They’re still lost, and out there at the bottom of the ocean a few hundred miles from Cape May, though the military isn’t even looking for them.

Q: What happened to the Hell’s Angels? One of their founders Sonny Barger is now living in the Southwest and telling school kids not to smoke tobacco.

BK: No one really knows why they didn’t come back on Labor Day after threatening to do so. Some say Conway Twitty talked to their leadership, fans of his, and some say he did a benefit concert for them at some point, so maybe he did talk them out of it.

Q: So what’s next? What are you going to apply your radical research techniques on next?

BK: I’m looking at 1969 – The Summer of Love Revisited, which is one that I was personally immersed in, so I know a lot more about it. And then there should be one for the ‘80s, the decade of destruction, when they destroyed Shriver’s Pavilion, Bay Shores, Tony Marts, the Dunes, the Strand Theater and anything that was worthwhile, but I think I’ll skip that one.

There's talk of rebuilding Shriver's Pavilion, and maybe this book will get people asking questions and maybe the authorities will attempt to solve the Anglemeyer murder case and the military may try to find the missing nukes, so something positive may come out of it, but I doubt it. 

Waiting on the Angels - The Long Cool Summer of '65 Revisited

http://waitingontheangels.blogspot.com/

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Appendx Three - Reader's Comments

Appendix Three - Comments and Critiques 

For those who are following this story, I have renamed it "Waiting on the Angles - the Long Cool Summer of '65 Revisited" and posted it with revisions and additions in order at: 

http://waitingontheangels.blogspot.com/

Comments: Bob Brock said... B4 you all came along about 1958/9 Tito came from Waterloo Iowa with his band the Upsetters….He left that group somewhere 1959/60 and took on a band called the Cyclones from Mass. booked by the Circle Artists Agency N.Y., a mutli faceted group consisting on Brian Souza on B3/Lead Guitar, Frank Perry on Bass Guitar, Bob Brock TenorSax/Lead Guitar and Paul Nunes Drums. The band traveled the road circuit doing club dates, amusement parks and the likes across the country. If you knew Tito then you know what I am saying he was a crazy ahead of our times pre Beatles and Hippies. With HIS long hair he did look like Jesus! He would use his hair to crash on the drummers cymbals in some of his antics, not much of a singer he did play keyboard and trumpet sometimes, but he did have a showman style that people came to see. For all I know I might be the last survivor of our band lost track over 40 years ago. Martin Palmer: My God I remember the day Tito dressed as Jesus and told everybody he would walk on water this certain day behind Bay Shores where there was many was a long walkway over pilings but at high tide it was covered by water so Tito proceeds 2 the back behind Bay Shores dressed as Jesus on the high tide followed by a few hundred fans watching this event and walks on this walkway covered by water. His fans went crazy! Screaming and clapping for what seemed like hours but really five or ten minutes. Tito walked to the end and back giving the fasod he truly was walking on water. My band also played all those Jersey Shore clubs - Bay Shores, Dunes ‘Till Dawn, Tony Marts, Gables in Margate, the Old Tavern, many clubs in AC. Oh the good old days! Johnny Caswell I worked opposite at Bay Shores. He was the headliner there for many years as was Ray Sharp and the Soul Set and many others I played with. I remember Tito Mambo at Bay Shores on the weekends before the season even started in 1965. We worked at the College Grill and were asked to come down on the weekends before Memorial Day. Seems to me Tito was playing that early in the season. You could hear the music way out in the parking lot and over the bay. Very crazy guy. And what a way to start the summer.....  Linda said...  I saw Tito Mambo at the Venus De Milo when I was 16 in 1964. He did that skit with the guy in the coffin. If my memory is correct he and 'Do the Bird'. I worked with Tito in Boston in 1966. I was his B3 player. Never a dull moment with Tito. The band was called "Tito Mambo and the Voodoo Men". At one time he suggested to me that he wanted to call the band "Mambo's Muffins". Ron Santosucci    Ron Santosucci said...  I have been told that Tito died in Florida some years ago. As nutty as he was, I miss him, although Tito could be "set off" like a firecracker, I always got along with him, and saw myself as " the peacemaker" between him and the other band members. Ron Santosucci  While Tito Mambo was a little before my time, he was described as one of the most eccentric performers to ever play the Point by everyone who saw him. The legendary Vince Rennich, former Bay Shores bartender, said that Tito Mambo was one of the first hippies and actually before his time, dressed with long hair and looked like Jesus Christ. He even did a Jesus Chris act by trying to walk on water once, and also was carried into the bar in a coffin and rose from the dead.  At the end of one summer he bought, at discount, one of the convertibles used to ride Miss Americas down the Atlantic City Boardwalk Saul Selitetring:  I love reading these posts on the Somers Point Clubs. I was the sax player for Tito Mambo & the Messiahs of Soul. We worked in the mid 60's at both Bayshores & the Dunes. As with the other posters here, I remember those times as some of the best. Great life for a young guy. Played every night/after hours/wknd afternoon sessions. Weight trained with bouncer Guy Borelli from Bay Shores, slept on the beach, ate lunch at the College Grill, & worked. Our band consisted of Tito/Vocals, BJ Stone/B3, Dick Sequino/Guitar, Paul Nunes/Drums, & Diz Lee & Saul Shocket/Tenor Saxes. This group was loaded with talent & it was an honor to work with them, especially Diz.  Saul Selitetrng If anyone out there remembers any of these names, please feel free to email me @ saulselitetrng@aol.com  Buy Saul's Book "You're Saul? I Thought You'd Be Bigger" via Amazon (Outskirts Press, April 2015) Saul Sackett here. Tito lives! Well, not actually, but it does seem his legend lives on. Tito's real name, as I remember him telling me, is Tito Mambo DeLaCruz. He was originally from Cuba. I've looked but have been unable to find an obit. Somewhere there must be info on his death. I've recently published a book that details some really crazy Tit stuff from my experiences with the band as we travelled around the East Coast, spending the Summer of "65" at Bayshores and the Dunes. Lynch Mobs, marriages to women in each town we travelled, Hells Angels, Fired and on the street because of Tito's arrest, NJ State Troopers and more...The last time I saw Tito was years later as a contestant on Chuck Barris's GONG SHOW. He still owed me money from Sept 1965-Wildwood, when he was arrested, withdrew the band's weeks pay, then jumped bail and disappeared. I, along with others writing to this site, would not change anything about my experiences with Tito (Athesus) and the Messiahs of Soul. The money that he owed us, well, I wrote that off as my "tuition" money. If you're interested, I have a great photo of Tito & the Messiahs of Soul, circa 1965. I'd also be willing to send Ken said...  I remember Tito at the pic 1965 when he sang the novelty song "Malasadas." I've tried to find someone who remembers that song without luck thus far. Do any of you remember that song?  Jim Glover writes: It’stough hard work gigin' in bars on the Road. When they started backing Dylan they became stars. My old friend, Phyllis Schwartz, sent me Levon Helm's book, Wheels on Fire, which tells about how tough it is to stay on top. I am glad I am too old for the life on the road in smoky bars, just an old softy now. Jim Dwyer: Billy, Don't you remember that there was a false rumor that Tito stabbed me. He& I were great friends but he was crazy as a loon. KeepSmiling. Peace Out, Jim Dwyer aka The 100% IrishRagnCajun. Billy Hancock said. I worked with Tito Mambo as early as 1964. He fronted a club called Tito Safari in Newport, RI. Can’t remember all of the band member’s names. I played bass and did a small amount of vocals. Mike was on guitar, a fellow by the name of Mark on Hammond organ, Ronnie on tenor sax and I believe the drummers name was Ray. At that time he called the band Tito Mambo and The Disciples. Tito was a wild and crazy guy alright. One night I was on stage with him when he clubbed a sailor over the head with an electro voice microphone. He really opened up the top of the guys head. He used to line beer bottles on the wall of the rooming house where I stayed and blast them off of my dresser with his pistol. When he wanted to, he could be very entertaining. Does anybody out there know what actually happened to Tito? I lost track of him when I left the band. Billy Hancock  Fairhaven Pete said...  This is crazy ! Just thought I'd look up this guys name on Google and here I am. Lived in the Fairhaven--New Bedford, MA area all my life and I remember this guy. It was around 1963-4, I can't remember, but I and four underaged girls (including myself) snuck in a place called the Piccadilly Lounge on Union street in New Bedford. I will never forget this guy, Long, long hair and a huge comb he had in his back pocket. These girls I was with went crazy. When we walked in the place, there was no door man or bouncer, it was just solid smoke, cigarette smoke, you could hardly see in front of you. We walked to the back where we found an empty booth and got some beers. We listened to this new kind of music, and watched this crazy guy perform. He was really ahead of his time. I also worked at a place called Fairhaven Mills, in the paint and wallpaper department, my High School job, with a real nice woman who told me she was his mother. My God, 50 years ago. I wish I……

Characters Persona - What Became of?

Characters Persona – What Became of? – (In the order of their appearance)

William Warren – Retired Ocean City Police Department

Ralph Sonny Barger – Founder of the Hell’s Angels, currently lives in Southwest USA and is an anti-tobacco smoking advocate

Tom Waldman – Retired Ocean City Travel Agent and Mayor, RIP.

Hunter S. Thompson – Committed suicide in Woody Creek, Colorado.

William Shakespeare – Wrote The Tempest based on the story of Capt. Somers’ shipwreck on Bermuda.

Capt. Somers – Admiral of the Jamestown settlement fleet. Rebuilt a new ship from the wreckage of the old and returned to the Jamestown.

John Somers – Quaker from Whiteladies England, established Somers Plantation that became Somers Point, New Jersey

Harry Anglemeyer – Ocean City Fudge merchant, murdered at the Dunes nightclub, Labor Day, 1964.

D. Allen Stretch – Ocean City Realtor and City Commissioner, Public Safety Director.

John McLain – Building contractor and owner of the historic Gen. Wayne Inn in Pennsylvania, co-owner of Bay Shores nightclub in Somers Point, NJ.

John McCann, Sr. – North Philadelphia prohibition beer baron, co-owner of Bay Shores, father of John McCann, Jr.

John McCann, Jr. – Manager of the Dunes nightclub in Egg Harbor Township, site of the Anglemeyer murder, later Mayor of Somers Point, commuted for council meetings by private plane from Pittsburgh, Pa. where he was a resident when he and his family disappeared, fleeing federal drug charges for importing tons of cocaine through Panama. Arrested at Canadian border, pleaded guilty to get wife off, sentenced to life imprisonment, wife married his lawyer, he testified before Kerry Committee, testimony that is still classified today but implicates the CIA in cocaine drug trafficking and with Manuel Noriega, dictator of Panama. McCann died of a cancer in federal prison.

LBJ – President of the United States, nominated at the 1964 Democratic Convention in Atlantic City.

Richard J. Hughes – Governor of the State of New Jersey, authorized the alert of the N.J. National Guard in response to biker threat to Ocean City. RIP

Bob Harbough – Owner of Bob’s Grill. Still there.

Mrs. Shriver Schilling – Daughter of candy store founder, owner of the Ocean City boardwalk theaters and much of the retail space from 7^th to 10^th Streets.

Mr. Charles Schilling – Husband of Mrs. Shriver, managed her business affairs.

Joe Del – Owner of Del’s Grill on the Boardwalk between 9^th and 10^th Streets

Roger Monroe – Owner of bookstore, became real estate agent and developer. Still living.

John B. Kelly, Sr. – Founder of Kelly Construction. RIP

Lake Brothers – Founders of Ocean City. Originally from Pleasantville.

Skyliters – Played Tony Marts – included Jimi Hendrix and Felix Cavalari of Rascals

Joey Dee – Leader of the Starliters – with hit song “Peppermint Twist”

Dion DeMucci  – Hit songs including “Runaround Sue” and "Abraham, Martin and John."

Little Stevie Wonder – Played Under 21 Club. Still Performing

Bill Haley – Leader of the Comets – Hit songs include “Rock Around the Clock,” “Shake Rattle and Roll”

Conway Twitty – Rock and Roll star who “went country” after playing Tony Marts

Anthony Marotta – Mr. Tony Mart – Owner of Tony Marts Café in Somers Point, N.J.

Len Carey – Leader of the Krackerjacks – First house band at Tony Marts

Col. Harold Kutlets – Toronto booking agent and promoter.

Female Beatles – All girls band that played Tony Marts.

Ted Schall – Gossip columnist and ad salesman for Press of Atlantic City Entertainment Section

Doobie Duberson – Tony Marts bartender.Retired to Hawaii.

Elwood Kirkman – Owner of the Flanders Hotel, Seaview Country Club, Boardwalk Bank, Chelsea Title Company and motels along the Black Horse and White Horse Pikes

H. Hap Farley – Kirkman’s Georgetown Law School roommate, succeeded Nucky Johnson as political boss of Atlantic City. Responsible for construction of Atlantic City Expressway and the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

Stumpy Orman – Underworld Boss of Atlantic City.

Angelo Bruno – Underworld Boss of Philadelphia and South Jersey

Mr. Oschlager – Manager of the Shriver chain of boardwalk theaters

Marlon Brando – Star of the Wild One movie.

James Coburn – Bad guy star of Wild One movie.

Roger Evoy – Photo – Friend of Carmen Maratta.

Kate Waldman – Composite character based on a number of persons known to the author

Chris Waldman – Composite character based on a number of persons known to the author

Mike Pedicin, Sr. – Still playing sax on occasion

Mike Pedicin, Jr. – Star jazz saxman

Charlie Gracie – Still playing today

Pete Carroll – Quit music to become a tractor trailer truck driver

Johnny Caswell – Became a music producer in California.

Robert Ridarelli – Became Bobby Rydel, popular singer still performing.

Tido Mambo – Disappeared, reported killed in knife fight

Duncan – Retired founder of Yesterdays Bar and Restaurant, Columbia, South Carolina.

Buddy Tweill – Retired to run Florida beach concession, died of cancer.

Malcolm – Married Ruby Falls, became NYC police officer, retired

Levon Helm – Continued with The Band in backing Dylan and as The Band after the Last Waltz, played 

Loretta Lynn’s father opposite Sissy Space in Coal Miner’s Daughter, and later as Vietnam era veteran in Sniper. Overcame throat cancer to play and sing again and released award winning solo LP Dirt Farmer, performed as the headliner at Borgata casino in Atlantic City and performed regularly in his barn studio in Woodstock, NY before he died of cancer.

The Hawks

Robbie Robertson – Did soundtrack for Carney movie and released solo LPs including Storyville about the New Orleans neighborhood that was gutted by authorities.

Rick Danko – Continued to perform with The Band after the Last Waltz, and performed as a solo act and duo with others and with his own band as he did at the Good Old Days picnic before he passed away.

Richard Manuel – Committed suicide in Florida motel bathroom while on tour with The Band. 

Garth Hudson – Backs many people as a studio musician, and lives in Woodstock, NY

Bob Dylan – Continuing the Unending Tour

Albert Grossman – Died in 198

Mary Martin – Fell off the face of the earth. Probably returned to her home in Canada or got married, so last name is no longer married.

John Hammond, Jr. – Opened for Muddy Waters and the Nighthawks at Emerald City (Formerly Latin Casino) in early 1980s. Still performs solo today.

John Hammond, Sr. - After signing Billy Holiday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to Columbia, and calling Dylan’s attention to Robert Johnson, passed away in  

Andrew Carnaglia – Still alive, retired in Somers Point.

Carmen Marotta – Continues to promote live music in Somers Point, Ocean City and Atlantic City. Now has own radio program.

Grace Kelly – Princess Grace of Monaco died in a car crash two weeks after missing her family’s Labor Day beach party for the first time in her lifetime.

Chris Mathews – Former Chatterbox cook and singing waiter at Your Father’s Mustache is now a popular TV newsman and celebrity.

Donald Goldstein – Former Chatterbox cook is now University of Pittsburgh historian and author of a number of best selling books on Pearl Harbor including “At Dawn We Slept.”

John B. Kelly – Philadelphia bricklayer and Olympic oarsman died in 196?

Mick Jagger – Leader of the Rolling Stones still performs

Keith Richards – Lead guitarist with the Rolling Stones still performs

David Brenner – KYWTV3 producer and director of many award winning TV documentaries including The Long Cool Summer, became a standup comic and comedian and popular Johnny Carson Tonight Show guest and guest host.

Tom Snyder – Became popular late night TV talk show host.

Jack Murray – Bay Shores manager is believed to have retired to Florida.

Vince Rennich – Worked as Gregory’s bartender for over 25 years and retired before passing away.  

Frank Sinatra – Couldn’t get a job as a singing waiter at Long Comforts because he couldn’t sing loud enough, became leader of the Rat Pack and performed regularly at Skinny D’Amato’s 500 Club in Atlantic City.

LBJ  - President of the United States, succeeded murdered President JFK, and was denominated at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City at Convention (now Boardwalk) Hall a week before the Beatles performed there.

Charles Carney – Somers Point bartender last worked for Andrew Carneglia as the daytime bartender at the Anchorage Tavern.  

Bill Sailor – Still a member of the Tight End Club and laying carpets.

John Hunt – RIP.

Timmy Hunt – Disappeared, where abouts unknown

Gary Duffy – Worked at old Anchorage bartender until it was sold, committed hari kari.

Wayne Kline – May still be living in an assisted living facility.

Michael Shurman – Retired newsman.

Mrs. Smith of Smith’s Pier – RIP 

-          Johnny Mayer – Sold Mayers, restored Ernie’s marina (Point Pub), retired to Florida.

William Morrow – Former policeman and youth sports advocate has Municipal Beach named after him.

Gary Shenfeld – Retired to Florida

.

Sam McDowell – the Old Salt - Retired to Islands, now living in Carmel California.

Dick Richards Bochelli - Still playing drums at 90 years old with his new band, a power trio -  Ready’s Rockers.

Joey Ambose – Original Comets sax man.

Marshall Lytle – Original Comets standup bass player RIP

Glenn Ford – Star of Blackboard Jungle – passed away, son still alive.

Dick Clark – RIP

Ed Sulivan – RIP

Donald Freed – Cleveland radio DJ who coined the term “Rock and Roll” while interviewing Bill Haley about “Shake, Rattle and Roll.”

Dave Herman – Began Album Oriented Rock AOR at WMMR FM radio at Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia before moving on to New York City. RIP.

Lynda Van Devanter – Became Vietnam nurse, wrote book “Home Before Morning,” and died of Agent Orange induced cancer.

Barbara – Lynda’s friend

Gigi – Lynda’s friend

J.J. – Lynda’s boyfriend from Tuckahoe, in Upper Township, New Jersey disappeared.

Jim Croce – Became popular singer and songwriter, died in small plane crash on take off while on tour.

Leroy Brown – Jim Croce’s Army drill instructor reportedly returned to the Southside of Chicago

P.F. Kludge – aka Frank Ridgeway, “Wordman,” now teaches creative writing at Kenyon College, Ohio...

Walt Whitman – Died in Camden, NJ, buried at Farleigh Cemetery, Camden.

Patti Smith – Still visits Whitman’s grave on occasion, performs regularly

Dr. Marcia Smith – Ocean City’s first women doctor passed away in nursing home.

Chris Montagna – Passed away of natural causes

Mrs. Parker Miller – Passed away of natural causes

Mrs. Somers – Sold her home at 819 Wesley to the Kellys, continued working at Copper Kettle Fudge, Passed away of natural causes.

Gary U.S. Bonds – Still performing today. Career resurrected by Bruce Springsteen.

Judge Ed Helfant – Murdered by the mob while eating dinner with his wife in a booth at the Flamingo Lounge and Motel on Atlantic Avenue in Atlantic City after agreeing to turn state’s evidence and testify against the Scarfo mob.

Lynn Bader – Became Chief of Police in Somers Point before retiring to Florida. 

Billy Bader – Left the Somers Point PD and became a Cape May computer guy

Bill Hamilton – Retired teacher

Nucky Johnson – Served time in Federal Prison for tax evasion 1940-1944, turned reigns of power over to his protégé H. Hap Farley and retired.

Albert Brothers – Continued to host Saturday night jams at their cabin until one of them died and the other got too old to continue, so their friends chipped in and built Alberts Music Hall on donated land off route 9 in Waretown where the bluegrass players and pickers jam every Saturday night.

Sonny McCullough – Former Tony Marts bartender now Mayor of Egg Harbor Township.

Richard Dick Squires – Former Tony Marts bartender and doorman became Atlantic County Executive and Republican Party leader for many years, now retired.

Buck the Bartender – Married and moved to Margate and disappeared.

Dutch Schultz – Arthur Fledgeheimer – Former Anchorage Tavern patron, left wallet and possibly safe at the bar, was killed shortly thereafter while eating in North Jersey.

Daniel Antolini – Former Daniel’s owner, sold restaurant and retired, though he often assists Donny in the kitchen at the world famous and historic New Anchorage Tavern.

Bobby Chic – Retired.

Dan Davis – Suffered a stroke while retired in Ocean City and passed away.

Dan’s Crazy Wife - Disappeared

Joe Walsh – Went to Kent State, Ohio, formed the James Gang, sold out three consecutive shows at Shea Stadium, joined the Eagles and has been sober for 20 years.

Stephanie Stevie Nicks – Continued waitressing until she joined Fleetwood Mac, returned to Ocean City to visit her mother who lived in 9^th Street Watsons condo built at the location of the old Watson’s restaurant.

Fred Prinz – Still selling balloons on the Ocean City boardwalk

John Hall – Joined Darrell Oats to form Hall and Oats. Has popular music TV show filmed at his house with guest bands.

Darrell Oats – Still performing, often at Atlantic City casinos.

Todd Rundgren – Still performing, often at Atlantic City casinos.

Bob Scholkopf – Runs the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine, NJ with wife Sheila Dean.

Joel Fogel – Still riding his motorcycle, competing in athletic competitions, operating Water Watch International and has a book coming out soon.

John B. “Kell” Kelly – Olympic and Henley rowing champion, died of heart attack while jogging on East 

River Drive, now Kelly Drive, along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, where there is a statue of him rowing near Boat Row.

Ronnie Hawkins – Retired, though still talking.

Ian Fleming – Co-wrote Thunderball with Kevin McCarthy, and invented SPECTRE – the Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence Terrorism and Revenge, that is after the two nukes at the bottom of the sea.

Mitch Ryder – Sill performing

John Lennon – Murdered at the Dakota Hotel lobby in New York City

Harland Holland – Convinced Conway Twitty to “go country” RIP.

Loretta Lynn – Still performing

Mrs. Croce (Jim’s aunt, Pat’s mom) – Still lives in Ocean City

Mrs. Rundgrin – Still lives in Ocean City

Mrs. Waldman – RIP

Pittsburgh Paul – Still living and writing poetry in Pittsburgh

Jiggs - RIP

Prince Rainier – RIP, making son Albert Prince of Monaco.

Lizanne Kelly – RIP in Florida

Don Levine – RIP

John Lehman – Became Secretary of Navy under President Reagan, member of the 9/11 Commission

Mike the Mechanic – Still fixing motorcycles

Philly Steve – Relocated to Southwest, still riding.

Barbecue Jim Dewey Campbell – Lives in Media, Pa and Ocean City

Mrs. Campbell (his aunt-owner of the Chatterbox) – Sold Chatterbox retired RIP

Greg Gregory – Owner of Gregorys Bar and Restaurant

Bill Brumage – Retired Pennsylvania teacher