Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-09-09

Louis Stauch Stayed, How
ever, and Sells Holdings
/ There for Half Million,
Story of His Success
BY WILLIS BROOKS HAWKINS
Copyright, 1929
/ NEW YORK-Forty-fiye years
ago a young man without bed
slept on the sand at Coney Island
In the morning he got a job at a lit
tie shack of a dance hall, where he
had nothing to do but serve as wait
err, bus boy, dishwasher, potato
peeler, chicken killer (real, not meta.
phoricaD, bartender, pianist and gen.
eral roustabout. Incidentally, he
cleaned sixty oil lamps every morn
ing and logged as many pals of wa
ter from a well a quarter Of mile
away. His wage was SIS q month
and the privilege Of sleeping on the
kitchen floor.
That same young man-still much
4
/ than sixty-four years are supposed
| to warrant-has just sold one Of his
pieces Of Coney Island property for
| 100000, and, as his intimates agree,
nobody knows how much more he is
worth. Yet this man said to me the
Other day: "In money matters I've
been a damned fool all my life. It
had been reasonably shrewd bust
ness man I might have been worth
any number of millions today"
His name is known wherever Co.
ney Island has been heard Of; and
that takes in a goodly part of the
earth's surface. An Australian sea
captain, living in Melbourne and sail
| ing in the South Sea Island trade,
recently resolved to take vacation
and show somewhat Of the world to
his wife.
Where would you like to go
first?" he asked her.
Lets go to Coney leland and see
Stauch's place that we've heard SO
much about" she answered.
They came, thew say, and they
danced together in one of the largest
and finest dancing pavilions in the
world, in the midst of famous res
for 5000 persons. This is the prop
erty that has just been sold for a
half million dollars, and good judges
say it is worth mucn more.
Louis Stauch was born in a loft
on Thirty-seventh street, between
Ninth and Tenth, avenues, in the
section of Manhattan known as
Helps Kitchen. The compulsory
education laws were not then wha..
they are now, SO Louis had little or
no schooling; but, with a natural apt
itude for music, he became skilfuI
pianist before he was twelve years
old.
Started in Business h
At sixteen he got a job playing
evenings in German stube on
Ninth avenue, between Thirty.fourth
and Thirty-fifth streets, receiving,
twenty-five cents, a sandwich and
glass Of beer for each nights work.
Soon he was lured to Brady's Dane.
ing academy, at, the corner Of Broad
way and Fifty-fourth street, by the
munificent offer of $1.50 night; and
a little later to the Dollhouse acad-
envy, Broadway and Houston street,
where he played mornings, after
moons and evenings at a wage that
might almost be diginified as a sal.
airy.
There. one day.. came Fate In, the
form of wealthy merchant whose
daughter was to be married that eve
ming at her home, in Bath Beach,
then far distant fashionable sub
urh. He offered the young pianist
So to play for the wedding dance,
and was to give him a bed for the
night, since there would be no way
to reach New York before morn
ing. But when the dance was over
1t was found that all available beds
must be given to belated guests. So.
Louis was sent out into the night,
miles from New York but not so
far from Coney Island.
Thus it came that he who was
destined to add so much to Coney's
fame and prosperity tranped to the
Seashore, slept an hour on the beach
AMI became SO closely identified with
"tho island" that in these forty-five
years he has set foot off it only four
times. OF these notable journeys
"abroad," two were to Brooklyn and
two to Manhattan.
Young Stuauh's first Job was at
Pau Bauer's place, on the site after
| ward occupied by Dreamland, but he
soon left there to take a similar job
at Walsh's dance hall on Surf ave.
nue., directly in front of the present
| Stauch pavilion, on the Bowery. At
| that time the ocean came to within
100 feet of Surf avenue. 1t is now
1000 feet away, and Stauch's build.
ing covers ESQ feet Of it, so generous
| has Neptune been in making land
for the boy who slept on his beach.
Two years later, when Stauch had
saved 1910 from his wages, he leased
| Welsh's place for two years at 500
a year, and set out to become a
rival Of Warren Lewis, one of the
| leading sporting men Of his time,
who had the most popular dance hall
on the island, employing ten pieces
| Of music, while Stauch had only an
old piano and himself to play it.
But Lewis band declined to play al.
| the time, so Stauch took advantage
| of the intervals and attracted many
Of Lewis patrons.
| UndersOld Competitor
BY underselling Lewis at his bar
and cigar counter he held so many
of these customers that before his
lease expired he was doing bigger
business than Lewis was-so big q
business, indeed, that he renewed his
| lease for ten years at $4,000 q. year.
Until then he had always slept on
| the premises, but with rising pros
| perity came desire for home apart.