My dad, George Lewis, played the piano bars there throughout the fifties and sixties. I was born in '55. I never realized what a hoppin' place it was

Gaslight Square rose up as a result of the February 1959 tornado that hit the area, I was living on Westminster place at the time, it sure was a grand time, I watched it rise, and watched it fall, an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. thanks for the post.

@elizabethkelley5260

5 жыл бұрын

I lived in a remnant of Gaslight in a beautiful old mansion owned by Fred Landesman,and filled with antiques. This was in the 70s during the resurgence of Euclid Ave. and Herb Carp's Balaban's. It was a great time. In the 70's there were parties every night in the fabulous mansions in the CWE. Gaslight Square was almost dead but O'Connell's was still flourishing with the arty alcoholics. The fancy dressed crowd of the 60's were now hippie leftovers wearing fringed vests and headbands and smoking foreign substances. I was there. thanks

This was one of the best times of my life. We started out on Friday night and wouldn't get home until Sunday afternoon. I was a "Go-Go" girl at the Butternut briefly. We would also head over to the Bluenote in Illinois. It was a very diverse cultural area and a real blast and a place to enjoy the entertaining. This dancing was just fantastic. So sad it is gone.

@QED_

3 жыл бұрын

@Sherry Porzelt: props.

@virginialpinon748

3 жыл бұрын

Oh. I remember. I used to frequent. Blue Flame. East side. 17th. Bdwy...Faust club. Bbqyed pig snoots in a cart outside. Nick's country club. And 1st place I ever saw Ike Turner. Whew. WeeHarlem in Brooklyn

@stevedennis937

2 жыл бұрын

I remember the Blue Note in E,St.Louis back in the day. Great music.

@jusatyro

Жыл бұрын

Gaslight square was no different than any public housing in every major city in the world, period. They all end up in the same way for the same reason.

In the early '60s I had just graduated from Mizzou and returned home to St. Louis to edit a suburban weekly. Two friends had apartments in a big Landesman-owned New Orleans-style building on the north side of Olive just west of Whittier. My weekends were spent there as a guest. I met so many incredible people, babysat for a showgirl at George Edick's Roaring '20s, enjoyed the excitement. Weekdays I'd come in for lunch at Carl's. 'Twas a beautiful dream, internationally famed. Still missed.

Very great piece on Gaslight Square. I'm sure someone can sum up what it was like. I have met some people who were lucky enough to experience it, most of them who are now in their late '60s. This includes Jeanne Trevor and one of her friends whom I also got to meet. I'm 34 and I didn't know too much about Gaslight Square until nearly 2 years ago when there were (and still are) two stl250 birthday cakes there. Now, it doesn't look like the place even existed. Even if you look at the Gaslight Theatre building. It is great that St. Louis continues to have hangout areas today, that are leaned toward people's interests. You got the Delmar Loop, the Grove, Cherokee and now Ballpark Village. I feel like Laclede's Landing is the Gaslight Square of my generation, as I continue to see it decay today. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows. Fun fact: Gregg Allman wrote a chapter about his performing days at Gaslight Square in his memoir. It's always interesting to find out who got their start at this once-magical place!

Really enjoyed this great piece of Saint Louis History .

My Mom worked at the Crystal Palace as a Cocktail Waitress in the late 50's to early 60's. I remember her talking about meeting Barbra Streisand, The Smothers Brothers, and Phillis Diller. I remember going to eat their then going to the theater section and seeing "The Boyfriend".

Thank you for getting this Music together for these next generations to enjoy :) QC

It was delightful to reminisce watching the video of Gaslight Square. Unfortunately, the most important creators of Gaslight Square were not mentioned. In the mid 1950'ies Gaslight Bar opened on the corner of Boyle & Olive in the Musical Arts Bldg owned by the Mutrux brothers, whose family were architects. The bartender was Jack O'Neal and he was very colorful and monitored who could come into the bar. It attracted intellectuals and I remember being there when the topic was "if we were in Paris what would we order for dinner?" Gaslight Bar was popular with St Louis Post Dispatch & Globe Democrat reporters with lively debates and discussions. Olive Street was a neighborhood of Antique dealers and the three prominent ones were largely responsible for creating Gaslight Square. Jimmy Massucci was an Antique picker and traveled the world buying and selling various things. While in Europe he bought a warehouse of chandeliers and sold them all over the country. Jay Landesman, also an Antique dealer made his bar/theatre "The Crystal Palace" themed from Massucci's chandeliers. The Crystal Palace was filled with antiques, wrought iron, paintings, bare brick walls and hosted a bevy of young singers, comedians, Phyllis Dillar, Barbra Striesand, Smothers Brothers, Lenn Bruce, etc., etc. Jimmy Massucci and his wife Marilyn built and ran four bars: The Exit; Cellar Door, Vanity Fair where he paneled the walls with the wooden telephone booth that SW Bell were replacing with Aluminum. Jimmy inserted Vanity Fair photos behind the beveled glass panes in the booths. The Golden Eagle where Singleton Palmer played Dixieland jazz was another Massucci creation. He had bought a load of wooden croquet balls which he put on spindles creating a New Orleans balcony. Jimmy Massucci was a creative entrepreneur and visionary dubbed the unofficial Mayor of Gaslight Square. In the early 1960's he left Gaslight Square when the first Go-Go bar opened as he predicted the area would go downhill.. He named Laclede's Landing and created the first bar Cafe Louie which he ran until he died. Frank Mutrux opened The Three Flountains an upscale fine dining restaurant where he would play his signature "Greensleeves" on his He named guitar. The unofficial King of Gaslight Square was Richard Draper a handsome silver haired wonderful man who had a PhD in chemistry, but became a dealer in Chinese Art. Drapers Antiques has couches and overstuffed chairs and was one of my favorite places to hang-out. As I remember Draper built the original O'Connell's Pub which turned out to be the last bar in Gaslight Square. Draper sold it to Jack Parker for One Dollar with the provision he could drink free, at the time his health was failing and he died soon after. At the time, Jack Parker was a young bartender, who Draper liked. Later he relocated to Kingshighway where it still flourishes, the second floor is an Antique store following in the tradition of his mentors. Another name that was not mentioned was Frank Moskus. Frank played the guitar and sang and was a colorful guy that everyone loved. When his Riverboat bar sunk he took over the Mutrux's Gaslight Bar. Frank's wife Jan Mahannah was a beautiful Belly Dancer and would perform nightly. Later when Gaslight Square was dying he opened Frank Moskus In Exile located in South St Louis and during the summer on the large patio they had amature Belly Dancing Contests.run by Jan while Frank played guitar. It t'was a Time to Remember, a brief period of 11 years that made a mark in St Louis history. Lora Roberts

@TaraBara27

9 жыл бұрын

Is there a way to find out what bar/establishment was 4200 Olive St?

@jasonvoigt

8 жыл бұрын

+Lora Roberts Great analysis; its always fun to read about the people behind the whole thing

@CBrown9758

5 жыл бұрын

Yes the 4200 was between Boyle and Whittier.

@CBrown9758

5 жыл бұрын

Go to the Historical building on Wash U campus and they totally guide u on this.

@sallyhenson1321

7 ай бұрын

We hung out at “The Exit” in the mid-60s. It wasn’t actually a bar, since there was no alcohol served there. Loved going upstairs and hanging out.

What a shame the way Gaslight Square went. It was a great place to party. Crime was the main reason for its demise.People coming down had to park on Westminster and McPherson and walk in the dark to the square. Robbery and rape became common and patrons of the night clubs began to dwindle.

1) It was in the middle of a high crime area 2) Parking was a nightmare and many had to park far away and were easy victims for young thugs. I remember when I was young that even though the Square still beckoned we had had personal scary experiences parking and leaving and avoided it.

@abcdef-kx2qt

3 жыл бұрын

tell blm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@terriallen120

2 жыл бұрын

Don't forget to tell very scary people🤔

This is gold!

would be great to bring it back!

I was there back in nov. of 1966 whole station in the army great times spent wk end there

@QED_

3 жыл бұрын

@Joe Canelo: props.

When I first started going to Gaslight Square, for $3, you could see Barbara Streisand open for the Smothers Brothers. Phyllis Diller, Billy Peek, Dakota Staton, Bobby Timmons, Jackie Leonard,Chuck Berry, and many more entertained there. Annie Reckenberg was a Go Go girl at Whisky and Pepe's, and my friend Audrey Mashak was Miss Gaslight Square one year. The Sixty's were the best times since the beginning of the World and we will never see anything like them again. What a great life I've had!!!

great video

The area contained the seeds of its own undoing. The atmosphere eventually attracted alcoholics, drug users, prostitutes, muggers, etc. By the late 1960s the area had gained a reputation for being unsafe and people stayed away.

Crime destroyed the area.

What was the name of the piece at 22:19

Let me guess Gas Light Square is located in North St.Louis as well.

@scribe570

Жыл бұрын

That makes no sense. It was located in the central west end as explained. ??

@CJColvin

Жыл бұрын

@@scribe570 Oh ok, I looked on Google maps and yes you're right it is located in Central West End but they seemed to reworked that neighborhood though.

My Uncle Jimmy O'Donnell had the Black Horse and the Living Room that had phones on every table and you could call other tables to (discreetly?) pick up a date.

Saying it's blk crime without saying it's blk crime.

Is it still sitting empty

The description of the masses of all different people crowded throughout the streets of Gaslight Square reminds me of Haight Ashbury, which there are no streets or neighborhoods like that nowadays, which is very sad!!! I am surprised the Hippie n Freak element didn't take over the area like in the Haight!!! I hope it has been refurbished n repurposed in this day n age?!!

It was sure a fun place to go, and a person could go there weekend after weekend, and be extremely entertained by every kind of music. You could get sooo many types of food, too, from hot dogs and root beer to fine dining. One would always run into people you know, as well as big names in entertainment. It was certainly patronized by young people, couples and singles, and groups intent on hearing specific genres (Blues, Dixieland, Jazz) and entertainers Ike & Tina Turner, The Smothers Brothers, George Carlin). What happened? People met there, and enjoyed nights out together. Soon, they were having kids together (naturally), and with kids, they couldn't afford the time and money to go out all the time. Gaslight Square lost its critical mass of young folks with money, although it was an era of relative prosperity in America. That's just my 2¢ (plain)

@CJColvin

2 жыл бұрын

Also white flight is another factor as well.

Even though this bohemian culturist history is very interesting It all stemmed from the Landesman Idea I must say Coming from a black mans perspective I asked my father who just passed and I asked him about this area he and my young mother lived on Newstead not too far from the area at this time he told me that even though you could walk in as a black man in some of these establishments at this time He said that he did not feel welcomed as a patron if you were working at these establishments as a waiter ,busboy, cook ,valet,band member or entertaining they only delt with you for monetary reasons when you walked in it sound racist but I think you had to be there as a black man to feel it I believed my father then he told me that a few indviduals wanted and established go go clubs the latter years it was a big issue in the area a lot of black people started moving in that area and the white people were moving out at the later parts of this bottom line also but now gentrification has taken place in this area and they want this area back there are big indications of this right now .

@arkybaldknobber8062

7 жыл бұрын

The blacks got even with whitey when they did so many crimes in that area, the clubs shut down and turned the neighborhood over to pimps, hookers, and drug addicts. Are you feeling good?

@CBrown9758

5 жыл бұрын

Can u give a number address to this home along with what side of the street.Also, if it’s not too late please try and film they’re testimony because it’s very important to our history in St.Louis a blacks and post it to KZread, pleases.

Hello Cousin Jeanne (Willingham) Trevor. From your cousins Elaine & Jimmi Willingham!

Perhaps by the late 60's those who were looking for musical entertainment weren't looking for what they were featuring?

Clubs open and close - and jazz was not the genre of the late 60s - there were great clubs in the 70s and 80s…gone. Mississippi Nights…Carnegie’s et .al. The Landing was great music in the late 80s. Delmar was a great music club scene.

@scribe570

Жыл бұрын

But Gaslight Square is noteworthy because it rose so fast, in an almost fad-like way. Then after only a few years, it seemed to stop all at once. That is strange. The dissection of what went wrong has been endless with theories that this film covers. I was a witness to it. I would say that there wasn't a strong foundation. It came along so fast, there was no planning to grow slowly and soundly. So, you talk about "clubs open and close" it seemed like a chain reaction of closings from fear that the boom was over -- so it busted. This was not true of Beale Street, the French Quarter, Rush Street or Fillmore Street. Gaslight could have had that kind of legendary status by now.

You do not have my permission to take any pictures of me, at any time. If necessary. I will stop viewing you tube.

@scribe570

Жыл бұрын

If you are in a public place, such as on the street, no one needs your permission to take pictures. Was this the case?

Shame on ALL who run to St. Peters, or Whentzville! Let's stick with Saint Louis!

@markomara9256

5 жыл бұрын

It's called moving on up

@CJColvin

5 жыл бұрын

Its call the Urban Sprawl or White Flight.

@markomara9256

4 жыл бұрын

@@CJColvin is moving on up a bad thing?

@JohnSmith-dk7th

9 ай бұрын

Why? Stay there and get robbed or killed?

Aptly named lol

Just like Delmar. It was cool until the big money came in. Now its just kind of a lame plasticky tourist street populated by wealthy but uninteresting wash u students and curious county folk. All the cool kids have long since left Delmar