Stumblin' Along 7/14 '24
Summer Girls
Summer Girls
- Latin Quarter
- YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader.
Stumblin’ Alongs are about history, but very rarely while I’ve been doing this writing bit with Week to Week Notes has there been a time where in real-time I can say wow that’s a current event that will be taught in textbooks. Yesterday’s assassination attempt on former President Trump feels like one of those “Where were you” moments. Yesterday afternoon I was watching the Yanks smoke the Orioles and I was getting ready to go to Kennedy’s 30th surprise party when I got a Twitter alert “Trump has been shot.” I told my mom to turn on the news and then hopped in McDonagh’s car with Faller and Glover to attend the party. Obviously, that was the topic of conversation every 5 minutes for the rest of the night. Fun time at the party, but wild to process.
I’m selfishly only including this part of the intro, in case I ever go back and read this someday. It’ll probably be all over the news so, anyway, the majority of the rest of this Note was written beforehand.
Today’s tune is one last summer of 1999 hit called LFO’s Summer Girls.
I vaguely remember this being a massive hit peaking at #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100. I must’ve heard it on Radio Disney.
New Kids On The Block was one of the original boy bands. The chorus is catchy and it comes back again so we’ll revisit the rest below.
There is zero connection between hip-hop, marmalade jam, and all-purpose household cleaners. At least Larry Bird did wear #33.
Calling William Shakespeare “Billy” and then double downing by calling yourself Willy Whistle is brazen. Ending the next 2 lines with crazy and mad, they were cooking here.
Michael J. Fox played Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties in the 80s.
Abercrombie & Fitch was established in New York City in 1892, but it took them a century to start focusing their sales on teenagers. They were hot in the streets in 1999. #A&F4Lyfe
LFO’s Rich Cronin said, “I would have definitely taken out the line about Chinese food if I had known that would happen.” The band didn’t foresee the song’s success.
I love Chinese food every once in a while, nothing like house lo mein, it’ll fill you up.
I haven’t thought about Pez candy in a while. They should really think about bringing that back, never see it in many convenience stores anymore.
I’m at a loss for words that straight out of left field they have to bring up this girl’s dad leaving for a pack of cigarettes and then to follow that up with this Paul Revere line is truly absurd.
Must’ve been a typo with the lyrics, I’m back on board with the fun dip reference.
The pogo stick line reminded me of moonshoes and socker boppers.
No clue what The Color Purple and Dorothy’s ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz have to do with each other. Both won awards though.
The only thing this song was missing was a Kevin Bacon reference, glad they fit it in.
Bizzare tune but still catchy 25 years later.
On to some Stumblin’ Along History…
Quite a few Sundays ago, somehow in my drunken stupor, I Stumbled Along to The City Reliquary in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The museum filled with cool New York City history is open on Saturdays and Sundays from Noon to 6 PM. For a $10 visit, you can see a ton of cool relics from The City. This week's Stumblin’ Along on Week to Week Notes features another piece about the Latin Quarter.
The Latin Quarter was opened in 1942 by Lou Walters and E.M. Loew. It was the premier NYC club on 48th Street at Broadway next to Times Square. In the words of the club partners, “The Latin Quarter lives up to its name. Call it what you will a cafe, cabaret, or a theater restaurant. It is a dream of nights that are carefree and full of beauty.” The name also stems from the Latin Quarter of Paris, established by Napoleon in 1802. Over in Paris, the Latin Quarter was known for bars and lounges. Walters and Loew aspired to bring that same energy to New York City’s Times Square.
Lou Walters grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He started as an office boy before turning into a nightclub aficionado. His family emigrated from England to America when he was a child. His first job was working for a vaudeville booker. Vaudevilles were essentially French farce plays that were a bit edgy. They included acrobats, magicians, comedians, trained animals, jugglers, singers, and fine-looking lady dancers. Almost like a form of circus. Lou Walters learned a ton about show business through vaudeville and decided to find his niche with cabaret entertainment.
E.M. Loew was also an immigrant who grew up in Massachusetts. His native country was Austria. Loew’s expertise as an entrepreneur was owning and operating theatrical/cinema venues. Lou Walters met Loew while they were in Boston and Walters soon began booking talents for Loew. Their first Latin Quarter was established in Boston in the late 1930s. Walters put down his whole savings and on the opening night in Boston had just $0.63 to his name. It became a huge success in Boston first before they started branching out to Miami in 1940, and Times Square in April of 1942, during the middle of World War II.
By November of 1949, the Latin Quarter was so popular that Life Magazine decided to publish an article on the nightclub. LIFE stated Latin Quarters was full of “pretty girls who display as much flesh and as little covering as the law allows.” The magazine we now see in the dentist's waiting room was pretty scandalized for its day, showing dancers from behind-the-scenes backstage, where they were wearing even less than what they would on stage. This drew quite a bit of a stir, as one could imagine in 1949, but they also included a good chunk about Frank Libuse.
Frank Libuse was a comic who would pretend to be a waiter at the Latin Quarter. In between the beautiful summer girls on stage sets, Libuse would go around each table causing a raucous. He was all for the banter. Libuse would go around shooting water at patrons, moving plants in the middle of the crowded seating area so that the leaves would brush up against the patrons, and then performing on the piano with some satirical songs. The whole song and dance. Among the many celebrities that would attend the Latin Quarter during this time were the likes of Frank Sinatra and Milton Berle. That said, the person I was most surprised to hear attended the Latin Quarter was Barbra Walters, the much-acclaimed American broadcast journalist.
Barbra Walters was the daughter of Lou Walters. She fondly remembered going to the Latin Quarter as a teen and even aspired to be one of the showgirls before becoming a lifelong news anchor. Being the daughter of NYC nightclub owner, Barbra Walters said of growing up, “When I think about it, it seems very strange. But at the time I was a kid, a little girl. What did I know?”
