Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-07-30
~ After Dark 4
News and Comment of the Night Clubs
Trade o. A. Patent
By Joy Cormody

place up at Connecticut avenue and
Q street &: An old house, converted,
with a big room and some little ones
Quite chubby, without being night
chubby =. The swank spot Of the
town, in way But the nom
swank went too, and were welcome
. All the visiting theater people
dropped around F.. Most often, it
seemed Burgess Meredith He
used TO order sandwiches In the
tone actors use to recite Hamlet's
soliliquies an amusing fellow :.
Probably always will be :. 1t was
the time society girls were going in
for night club singing, and night
clun singers were going into society
one of the former was girl
named Austine Macdonald, better
known as "Bootsie" she's even
prettier now, and has another career
so, come to think of 1t has Pete
Macias, now playing at the Lounge
Riviera, who doesn't mind reminisc-
ing about the Heigh-Ho days, even
if he would not want them back.
X X
Long before there was radio
program calleds Stump-us, Barnee
of the Shoreham and the habitues
of the Calvert street hostel, used to
play that game. =. And for keeps.
. ;. Both the habitues and Barnee
were convinced they knew all the
music. One afternoon he offered
to play 20 out of any IS show tunes
going back just this side of Lillian
Russell and Diamond Jim Brady.
. He played 10, which is A-plus
in any ones conservatory Of music.
Maybe with a little taking.
but what do you do when you whistle
passing cemeteries?
X 4
The Cartons Carlton room, which
has had many names, was once
called the Sharzad. 1t used to
take nameless bands and make them
into name bands. >. The manage
ment. which was principally Frank
Swadley now of the Washington
Hotel, always seemed to know when
such band was coming. Once,
Mr.. S. was more excited than usual.
He spoke of pianist who was some
thing. A small Italian chap
from Brooklyn, a "pernt" of land
East of Manhattan. He would
be popular with that style of his,
Mr.. Swadley promised. Turned
out that he was right . Carmen
was the pianist's name.
Sandy Williams, Dick Kuhn,
Eddie Condor also played there. :.
Fellows who went on to become big,
as they say, in the business. 1t
was in the Carlton, where the col
lege set always met at Christmas
holidays, that We heard a sentence
we never shall forget. Have
you got q car you can get?" a coed
asked her escort. Wonder how
she made out in English.
No band that ever came to Wash
ington excelled the popularity of
Sonny Kendis' outfit, an early in
of the Raleigh's Pail Mall
room. E. Kendis, piano man and
brilliant at it, had a 10-year con-
tract with the Stork Club at the
time butshe was allowed a sab
batical couple of months every year.
He spent two of them at the
Raleigh. playing luncheon engage
ment as well as after dark. :.
Shortly before, there was a singer
at the Pail Mall who also was quite
a hit. A tall one, he was, who
looked something like Robert Taylor
and had the same effect, on a local
scale. The phone rang the other
day and the voice said it was that
Of Bill Owen. . We asked il he
still was singing . .aHe isn't. :.
He's = big shot now in a ceramics
company. . Pottery, that Is. !
As a career, he thinks it has more
security. But don't let that dis
you, If you have a voice
and not ceramic to your name
Another memorable occupant
Of the Raleigh's bandstand was
Mario di Polo. His guitar, his
name, his wife from Caracas, and
the fact that he had played there
made every one think he was a
South American. =. He was born
in st. Louis, Mo, which shows what
an association Of ideas will do for
night club customers. Back in
the days of There's Small HOTEL
Eddie Whitesell used to play it a