Bucktown Saga

Heir to the King

2006-05-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

One More Round at Brick's Pavilion
John Willard
Quad-City TimesPublication
March 28, 2006
Page: B1
James A. "Brick" Munro was an entertainment king-pin whose son never lacked cash to pursue his own fun.
The fatherly side of the "King of Bucktown" is revealed by his grandson, Richard Munro, of Seal Rock, Ore.
Richard provides more information about his colorful grandfather, the subject of our Jan. 24 column. It includes a tape recording of an interview in which Richard's father, the late James Munro, talks about the family's legacy in Bucktown, the notorious entertainment district that flourished on the east side of downtown Davenport in the early 20th century.
Here Brick Munro's Pavilion and Summer Garden thrived at the southwest corner of 2nd and Rock Island Street (Pershing Avenue), now the site of Bucktown Center for the Arts.
In the taped interview, James Munro said, thanks to his father, he always had "a pocket full of money" so that he and his friends could play punch board games. He speaks of his father's enterprises that included seven theaters, a livery stable, pool hall and the city's first motorized taxi service.
He also mentions that a young singing bartender named Al Jolson entertained at Brick's Pavilion before achieving fame as one of the biggest musical stars of the 20th century.
Despite its location in a bawdy Bucktown, with its gambling dens and brothels, Brick Munro did not tolerate prostitutes in his saloon and dance hall, his son said in the interview.
Brick Munro died in poverty at age 78 in 1940. Newspaper obituaries noted that he rarely turned down anyone who asked for money.
His son became an overhead crane operator and a labor union activist. His work with the United Auto Workers prompted the taped interview. Born in 1905, he died in 1982.
Richard Munro, 68, son of James Munroe and grandson of Brick Munro, graduated from Davenport (Central) High School in 1956 and from St. Ambrose College (University) in 1961. He retired in 1997 as a vice president with Nationwide Insurance.
He said his father and grandfather shared similar traits in that both never knew the value of a dollar and would help strangers.
"I am proud of the contributions my grandfather and father made to the Davenport community," he writes.
John Willard can be contacted at (563) 383-2314 or jwillard@qctimes.com.

Mischief Makers

2006-04-03T06:41:00.000-07:00

This is the place for random thoughts...right? Hm-m-m
This may not be so random as I have thought about it quite a bit.
Lights on...lights off. Doors locked...doors unlocked. Elevator on...elevator off. Radio off...radio on. Water running...I didn't touch it! Items found in remote places. Coins found dropped in certain areas. (They tell me that is an attention thing.) Now the baby cry mentioned before makes sense since we discovered that Brick lived here with his family for a while. I'm thinking...just maybe...what seems like mischief may be playing with things they didn't have in 'the day'... Well, not at our level anyway. More like toys. They were a happy bunch. That we know for sure. Any thoughts?

2006-04-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

Columbia Theater
406 W Third StDavenport IA
Demolished: 1967
Also Known As: Esquire
Originally a vaudeville house, the Columbia was extensively remodeled into a movie house in 1940. The building was demolished in 1967 to make way for a parking lot for the Kahl Building across the street, which houses the Capitol Theatre.

Sophie Admires Bix

2006-04-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

by Rolla Chalupa. Davenport.
While he was still in high school, Bix played in the orchestra at the Columbia Theater some nights and always on weekends. When Sophie Tucker ("last of the Red Hot Mamas") came to town she was always the star of the show - and what an elegant lady and good sport she was. Every time she's come out to take her bow, she'd point out Bix and introduce him as "the greatest trumpet player in the world" and he was just a high school kid. Whenever Sophie was on for the afternoon matinee, Bix would play hooky and always buy a box seat and sit there alone for the show. And as soon as she went off, Principal Marshall would march up to the box seat, take Bix by the ear and lead him back to school. It happened several times and always brought down the house. I'd heard about it and a couple of buddies and I played hooky to see it. Sure enough, Mr. Marshall took Bix by the ear. But he understood Bix and enjoyed the joke, and he was never punished.

The Shimmy Queen

2006-04-02T08:28:00.000-07:00

From February 27 through March 2, 1921, Bee Palmer and Company played at Davenport, Iowa’s Columbia Theater. According to Esten Spurrier, he and a young Bix Beiderbecke, both budding cornetists, attended every single one of these shows and listened to the great music. The New Orleans men were among the top young jazz musicians, and Pecora and Roppolo were to become legendary.On March 3, 1921, before Bee and her band left Davenport for Peoria, she secretly married her pianist Al Siegel in a midnight ceremony at a judge’s office in the local Masonic Temple. On the marriage license application, Al gave his age as 24 and Bee gave hers as 23. She was actually 27. The Davenport Democrat and Leader reported that Bee “evidenced all the confusion and embarrassment of the unsophisticated school-girl bride and seemed extremely happy when the ceremony had ended.” The bride sported a large purple hat instead of the typical veil.
Bee introduced and is sometimes credited as a writer of one of the most popular "leavin'" songs ever written: Please Don't Talk about Me When I'm Gone In any case the Shimmy was immensely popular in the 1920's and served as the inspiration for the popular song If I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate (A. J. Piron, 1922). Bee was sometimes referred to as "the Shimee-She-Wabble Girl".
On First Looking into Bee Palmer's Shoulders
by Franklin P. Adams. With bows to Keats andKeith's
["The World's Most Famous Shoulders"]
Then I felt like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken,
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific--and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise--
Silent upon a peak in Darien."
MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of jazz,
And many goodly arms and shoulders seen
Quiver and Quake--if you know what I mean;
I've seen a lot, as everybody has.
Some plaudits got, while others got the razz.
But when I saw Bee Palmer, shimmy queen,
I shook--in sympathy--my troubled bean,
And said, "This is the utter razmatazz."
Then felt I like some patient with a pain
When a new surgeon swims into his ken,
Or like stout Brodie, when, with reeling brain,
He jumped into the river. There and then
I swayed and took the morning train
To Norwalk, Naugatuck, and Darien.

Brick's Place

2006-04-02T06:22:00.000-07:00

Brick's Heritage

2006-03-23T04:34:00.000-08:00

Data: Ancestry.com
James A. Munro: Genealogy
Born September 7, 1862
Died 1940
1908 Davenport City Directory
Res. 229 1/2 East 2nd Vice Pres. Family Theater Co. Saloon and Livery 305-311 East 3rd
Palace Hotel 111-115 Brady
Wife: Anna P - birth 1878
Children: George A - birth 1908
Ruth M - birth 1912
Evelyn - birth May 18, 1915

1880 Census
Parents: David - birth 1836 - Kate - birth 1840
Siblings: Margaret - birth 1865
Mary - birth 1869

More to come...we hope.

More Art Starts in Bucktown

2006-03-17T04:55:00.000-08:00

The Victor Animatograph Company and the Genesis of Non-Theatrical Film
By David H. Shepherd 1975
Alexander F. Victor
Motion Picture Pioneer
Born in Bollnas, Sweden June 20, 1878 .... Died March 30, 1961
Formed the Victor Animatograph Company April 1910-May 1956
216 1/2-218 1/2 East 3rd
submiting 86 patents most of which were accepted.
Invented stereotrope, animatograph,
Stereoptican, viopticon (thin but strong glass slides 2 1/4 x 2 3/4 in a press board frame).
More about Alexander F. Victor , inventions and a complete list of his patents.

Jolson, Blind Billy and Brick

2006-03-15T06:43:00.000-08:00

What tales the old brick streets of downtown Davenport could tell if the asphalt paving were stripped away.
One of the celebrated clubs of the early 1900s was Brick Munro's Pavilion at the south-west corner of Pershing Avenue and Second Street in Bucktown.
Munro, so the memories tell, ran a straight place_no girls, no gambling, just a saloon and good music.
The legend has been handed down so many times that there must be some truth in it.
Once Munro hired a young man by the name of Al Jolson as a singing waiter. In later, more prosperous years, Jolson returned to Davenport to star on the stage at the Burtis Opera House. At intermission, he called out to the audience:
"You paid three bucks to hear me tonight. A couple years ago, you could hear me for the price of a beer at Brick Munro's."
High-salaried performers from theaters around the Tri-Cities regularly would wind up the night singing or playing at Munro's. One of them was a piano player named Blind Billy, who appeared on many vaudeville stages across the nation and made much to-do about his claim that-though blind-that he could play any song called to him from the audience, without music of course.
Billy enjoyed the atmosphere of Munnro's and stayed for nearly a year.
The story goes that one day a bartender called to Munro:
"Hey, Brick, Billy wants to see you."
Munro yelled back: "He'll have a hard time seeing me, he's blind."
Customers in the place laughed , and that became a part of Blind Billy and Brick Munro's nightly routine.

Stroll Through Bucktown

2006-03-15T06:39:00.000-08:00

Let's go on a reconstructed walking tour of Bucktown in 1907. The area took in about six square blocks: from Front Street to East Third, and from Perry to the Arsenal Bridge annd the main line of the Rock Island Lines. From the vantage point of a westbound train or by foot, the area consisted of low-lying buildings, warehouses, small shops, tenement houses and saloons. The visitor could see hillside mansions beyond his line of vision and below the elevated tracks, some females might be posing in the windows or perhaps waving as the train slowed down, stopping first at the Burtis House at Perry and Fourth. Alighting from the train, our walk starts in a southern direction.
At the heart of the district was Brick Munro's dance hall.
At the peak of it's popularity,more than 1,000 people a night would stop in and have a beer while listening to the singing waiters on a small stage. This platform was used "by the professional vaudeville performers who would frequently do their turns on their turns on these slight stages ....As a result, many people who normally would not have felt free to visit the district....could rationalize that they were just going to watch the shows." The result was that Brick Munro's weekly receipts topped $2,500.
In reality, Brick's was a dancing pavilion and saloon. Floyd Dell...Davenport poet and socialist, described it from first hand experience. Herewith is his report:
A wire fence divides a row of seats and tables roofed by a trellis of vines from the dancing floor, with it's whitewashed pillars, wall and ceiling and in one corner bar.
The liquor was only part of the operation.
Tables and chairs range the sides of the room at which sit well dressed young men and girls. Over in the shade stands a special policeman , whose duty it is to see that the lads and lassies who have had too much and are getting loud leave before they have a chance to start a rough house. In the saloon the barkeep is doing a rushing business.
One possible legacy of the departed Bucktown was the introduction of syncopated music such as ragtime and jazz down by the riverfront. Many of the saloons had mechanical pianos which played for a nickle, but Brick's, the Standard and perhaps a few other places, had musicians who played. In my opinion, this could very well be the inspiration for the future coronet virtuoso, Bix Beiderbeck, who would have been a teenager when the district was disappearing. From the beginning, syncopated music was condemned as immoral and quite logically associated with with it's surroundings in bordellos down in New Orleans. As the black musicians slowly moved to Chicago, they probably stopped off in places like Davenport where the young Bix was stimulated into musical experiments. A contemporary opinion was that "jazz music is the indecent story syncopated and counterpointed. Like the improper anecdote, also, in its youth, it was listened to behind closed doors and drawn curtains, but like all vice, it grew bolder until it dared decent surroundings and there wass tolerated because of it's oddity." By 1917 the first black jazz musicians were playing in Chicago and Bix had decided that music would be his life.

Artfully Creative Chef

2006-03-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

Scott Co, Iowa USGenWeb Project
Davenport Democrat,
July 20, 1924HOME EDITION

The Chef Extraordinary.
William Coulter was the man who made the old Burtis house famous all over the United States thru his cooking. In fact, so great was the improvement in the preparation of the food when he returned to the kitchen after an absence of a few months that The Democrat spoke glowingly on the following day, July 2, 1864. "The boarders at the Burtis house were highly gratified yesterday at the change of the order of affairs in the culinary department. There was such a sudden change in the style of cooking that an inquiry was at once instituted to ascertain the cause. The investigation resulted in bringing out the fact that the old time and popular Burtis cook-William Coulter-was back at his post again. Mr. Coulter is one of the best cooks in the country. He was with the Burtis house from its opening until last spring when he left for a while. He commands in the kitchen and the public will have the return of those splendid dinners such as he along knows how to place upon the table." Previous to coming to the Burtis, Mr. Coulter had made the LeClaire house noted for its cuisine. He had come to Davenport from Chicago in 1858 and previous to that time had been chef of the Collamore and Globe hotels of New York, the National at Washington and a number of leading Chicago hotels.

Brick Speaks

2006-02-21T07:28:00.000-08:00

Scott Co, Iowa USGenWeb Project
Davenport Democrat, July 20, 1924HOME EDITION

In addition to its saloons, "dumps" and sporting resorts, "Bucktown" contained a number of variety theaters. There was the Standard, the Bijou, and the Orpheon. They operated wine rooms and drinks were served throughout the performances. The "programs" as they were called oftentimes continued until the early hours of morning. At Brick's Pavilion the lights burned merrily and the "bear cat", the Cubanois glide," and other "classics" were in full swing from 8 o'clock at night until 7 o'clock in the morning. The whole east end after nightfall was one blaze of lights and the sounds of revelry, of discordant orchestras, mechanical pianos, broken-voiced sopranos, and shuffling feet floated upon the night air. For years, Brick Munro was known as the King of Bucktown. His famous pavilion, according to his own statement, oftentimes entertained as many as a thousand people on a single night. His weekly receipts it is said, never ran short of $2500 and generally exceeded this sum. To use his own words, his place was a gold mine.

Exit Ladies of Bucktown

2006-02-21T07:05:00.000-08:00

Scott Co, Iowa USGenWeb Project
Davenport Democrat, July 20, 1924HOME EDITION

DRASTIC MOVING DAY HERE IN WAKE OF COSSON LAW
Cleanup "Moving Day" Sad One for Denizens of the Old Underworld.
When the tap of the law was heard on the doors of Davenport's notorious vice resorts of the East End, back in 1909, "respectable citizens' who had boasted that they were eager to give the fallen girl a chance changed color, threw their vaunted altruism to the winds, and barred their homes to the refugees. Mayor G.W. Scott did not wait for Cosson's red-light law, passed by the legislature to become effective on July 4, 1909. The reformers were threatening him, and one evening in June he gave orders to the night police to close every resort in the city. Like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, the order struck the vice element. That night eighty women and fifty men were turned out into the street. For years the city of Davenport had tacitly countenanced gambling and prostitution. a monthly fine was exacted and the women were segregated. This plan was adopted by each succeeding administration and brought to the coffers of the city approximately $20,000 annually.
A Sad Spectacle. One of the saddest spectacles ever witnessed in the city of Davenport was the exodus of the women from the redlight district. Coming as it did without warning, it found the keepers and inmates of these resorts unprepared to move. Thrown out into the streets destitute, homeless and in many cases without sufficient clothing, they were a sight to enlist the sympathy of the hardest hearted citizen who witnessed it. Many of the girls had known no other home for years. When they fell from grace they were ostracized by their family and friends. Therefore, in their hour of trouble they had no one to call upon for assistance. There were no good Samaritans to receive them. The oft-repeated assertion of the moral element of the city that there was no necessity for these girls to remain in the redlight district, that all could secure honorable employment should they so desire, and that the philanthropically inclined people of the city were not only willing but eager to lend them a helping hand while sounding well in theory, did not work out in reality when put to a practical test by the new state of affairs.
"Cleanup" Too Hurried. The general sentiment, or at least the sentiment of the majority of the citizens of Davenport was that the denizens of the redlight district should have been given sufficient time in which to find other employment and new homes, to adopt themselves to a different mode of living, before being turned adrift in a cold and unsympathetic world. That it was no easy task for these girls to secure honest employment after leading the lives they did, was well illustrated in the case of Laura Stoner, an inmate of Mabel Rink's resort at Second and Rock Island streets. The Stoner girl was what is know as one of the better class of girls in the east end, if a classification of them is possible. In other words, she came of a good family, was neat in appearance, and had been an inmate but a short time. Previous to her life of shame, she was employed at one of the Davenport hospitals. Her mother was dead.
Minister Backs Down. When the edict to move out was served on her, she knew not where to go. She had repented of her life of shame, and was desirous of a better life. She therefore decided to endeavor to secure employment in some household. She heard the pastor of one of the fashionable churches of the hill district was in need of a servant. She applied to him and was engaged. She then secured an expressman to move her belongings to what she supposed was her new home. She called at the pastor's residence ready to go to work. He asked her for her references and she told him that she had none. She further admitted to him that she had come from the east end, that she was desirous of leading a better life. He told her that he could not keep her, and that she would have to find employment elsewhere. When the expressman reached the pastors' residence with the girl's belongings he was told not to take them from the wagon. With no alternative left, the expressman hauled the effects to a downtown livery stable, where they remained all day. The experience of the Stoner girl was similar to that of many others. Wherever they applied for work or for lodgings, they were denied them.
A Feast for Shylocks. Many of the girls, when forced out of the resorts, did not possess street clothes. They appeared on the street in the frail gowns worn by them inside, and were to be observed scurrying all over the east end endeavoring to borrow some suitable clothes. Unscrupulous money lenders who feasted on the ill-gotten earnings of the keepers and inmates were very conspicuous in the district, some of them as a last resort settling their loans by taking the personal of the Shylocks demanded the last pound of flesh and the last drop of blood. He charged the women exorbitant rates of interest and became rich on his nefarious methods of doing business with them. Many of the women, when the moving order reached them, crossed the river to Rock Island in the hope of locating there. But the gates of that city were locked to them. The entire police force of that city was on the lookout for them and as fast as they detected them marched them back to Davenport. Not one, as far as is known, was allowed to stay in that city. one girl, with an oil stove under one arm and all the clothing she possessed in the world tied in a bundle under the other arm, headed for Rock Island expecting to make her home with a friend there. She walked across the government bridge and had reached Second avenue when she encountered a policeman who marched her to the bridge and sent her back to Davenport. The second-hand dealers also feasted on the misfortune of the women. They camped in the district, buying the furniture and other belongings at their own price. One dealer bought out the entire contents of four houses for the paltry sum of $150. It is stated that the total furnishings of these four houses had when new cost not less than $2,500. These were but a few of the many sad features of moving day in the red-light district. There were hundreds of others, equally as pathetic, that would record several volumes if published in full.

Men With Painted Vests

2006-02-21T06:49:00.000-08:00

Scott Co, Iowa USGenWeb Project
Davenport Democrat, July 20, 1924HOME EDITION

Men With Painted Vests. Are they forgotten, those Mississippi river gamblers with their "painted vests", their calm, calculating eyes, their gentleness which was predominated at times by gunplay when marked cards, other than their own, entered the game. Frequent lodgers they were in the old Burtis House, LeClaire House, Worden House, and the New Pennsylvania House. Gay fellows, who always stopped at Davenport's best hotels. They're gone, of course, with the hotels, an undying memory the only thing that remains.

What About The Shoes?

2006-02-21T05:46:00.000-08:00

trish the dish said...
I have never seen "them" or even heard their voices, but I know they are there. Do I live a simple life and desire excitement from experiences from the "other side"...Hardly!! All you have to be is open to them, not seeking them, just open, you will feel them. I do in fact KNOW they all wear high heels..of course they do. That is what I hear of them

MaMa forgot to mention the clicking heels on 2nd floor witnessed by Trish the Dish.

The Laughing Ladies

2006-02-14T06:17:00.000-08:00

It's a quiet time, at least for Brick's Ladies. There's an empty round table for the ladies to sit and just be themselves somewhere on the first floor toward the front of the building. Chatting, gossiping & laughing, like real ladies do. I can't hear, exactly, what they are saying. like it is in another room, but they are definitely happy. I've heard them off and on now for months. There isn't anyone from this time in the building...I've looked. They stop when I get closer as if they sense a stranger approaching. There was a moment when the sound of their clicking heels was heard by another on the 2nd floor. Again....just the sound and sense of their presence. Somehow, are they letting us know that the bawdy, turn of the century, movie, image isn't true. They are ladies that have no where else to be and trying to make a living. Sinless??...probably not... each one is there for a different reason. I don't know what that is.
I've now seen 2 of them in the 2nd floor hall. Not ghosts vaporizing through the halls...no wo-o wo-o-o. Images of them on a surveillance monitor for over 3 hrs. Yes, I first thought it to be shadows playing tricks but they were plainer than that. I could identify them in a lineup if I had to. They weren't moving. One (the plain Jane type...very plain!) was standing facing me (the camera)...staring and the other (a pretty little dark haired girl) was sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. Neither looked very happy at the moment. They were dressed in common, long, plain dresses of the day. The post in the hall that they were next to was not visible during this time. The next day they were gone....the post was, clearly, visible. Yes, I did go to the hall outside my door during their visit (several times) and, yes, there was nothing there. It was as though their presence was locked in a time warp or something. They never try to approach me. As I've mentioned before, I'm not sure they know we are here.
There is also a small baby cry at times...maybe one had a child?... and the most recent, is a man's bold chuckle standing next to me. That one really took me off guard! Other's were around for the baby cry (heard by another), the chuckle and the sighting. But only one seems to be aware at a time. I'm new to this sort of thing. It doesn't disturb me nor do I feel threatened....just curious. Like friends I want to know better.
This building has a calm, positive energy. I want to know more. Any insights...theories?

Dancin' at Brick's Pavilion

2006-02-14T06:07:00.000-08:00

Dancing at Brick’s Pavilion
By John Willard, QC Times, Jan. 24, 2006

His notorious nightclub could pack in a thousand revelers during a single evening.
James A. "Brick" Munro also had a charitable side. He gave freely to the destitute and downtrodden.
He cut a colorful swath early in the 20th century as the owner of Brick Munro’s Pavilion and Summer Garden. Located at the southwest corner of 2nd and Rock Island streets (today Pershing Avenue), "Brick’s Pavilion" was among the largest and best known of the pleasure palaces that dotted Bucktown.
Generally lying within the area east of Perry Street to the Government Bridge and from the Mississippi River to 3rd Street, Bucktown was widely known for its brothels, gambling dens and drinking establishments until reformed-minded officials and a 1916 statewide prohibition ended its evil ways.
Munro’s tavern and dance hall thrived through most of the first decade of the 20th century, according to city directories, until the site gave way to other uses ranging from warehousing to clothing and furniture retailing. The land currently is occupied by the Bucktown Center for the Arts, home of the Midwest Writing Center and other users. (See "Write On" on this page.)
Let’s take a closer look at Munro and his legacy.
Born on Sept. 7, 1862 to Katherine and David Munro, he attended Davenport public schools and spent his entire life in Davenport. By the turn of the 20th century, he was known as "the king of Bucktown."
"At Brick’s pavilion, the lights burned merrily and the ‘bear cat,’ the ‘Cubanola glide’ and other ‘classics’ were in full swing from 8 o’clock at night until 7 o’clock in the morning," the Davenport Democrat and Leader once reported. The book "Them was the Good Old Days" mentions that "Brick Munro originated the cabaret at his ‘Pavilion,’ and it spread over the country like wildfire."
Munro became a wealthy man, whose holdings also included the Palace Hotel at 111-115 Brady St., but he died in comparative poverty. On the occasion of his death at age 78 on Oct. 27, 1940, newspapers noted his benevolence.
"At the height of his career, Mr. Munro never turned down anyone who asked him for money. Anyone with a hard luck story could obtain cash from him, and he loaned thousands of dollars to comparative strangers, most of which was never repaid," the Davenport Daily Times reported.
The Democrat wrote: "In his days of prosperity Mr. Munro was looked upon as the good Samaritan of the east side. The poor he helped ran well into the hundreds and not a few persons who died penniless were given decent burials at his expense."
John Willard can be contacted at (563) 383-2314 or jwillard@qctimes.com.

Burtis Opera House

2006-02-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

BURTIS OPERA HOUSEFINEST HOTEL IN THE WEST DURING CIVIL WAR DAYS WAS THE BURTIS HOUSE AT FIFTH AND IOWA STREETSOpened December 25, 1867. The Burtis Opera House is a fine structure with a seating capacity of 1600.Sopranos...Symphony...Salty....Burtis had it all Truly, Davenport was built on the arts. Before there were paved streets and running water to homes in the city, there were opera houses with 40 foot domed ceilings where Chicago operatic troupes traveled on horseback to perform. The most famous of these was the Burtis Opera House.
Burtis Opera House5th and Iowa Streets

Burtis House 1867 starred greats such as
Lillian Russel, Edwin Booth, Sara Bernhardt, Maurice Barrymore, Otis Skinner, Madame Modjeska, Della Fox
Destroyed in a fire April 26, 1921 it was restored to only about 1/3 it's original structure.

February 8, 1907Southeastern Iowa lumbermen met in Davenport and attended Eva Tanguay performance at Burtis Opera House.Eva Tanguay (born August 1, 1879 in Marbleton, Québec, Canada died January 11, 1947 in Hollywood, California, United States) was a singer and entertainer known as "the girl who made vaudeville famous."Eva TanguayEva Tanguay's family moved from Quebec's Eastern Townships to the United States when she was a child where she developed an interest in the performing arts, making her first appearance on stage at the age of eight. With her parents assistance, she pursued a show business career, working her way through a variety of amateur contests that eventually landed her a spot with a comedy troupe before making her vaudeville debut in New York city in 1904.Although she possessed only an average voice, the enthusiasm with which the robust Eva Tanguay performed her raunchy songs soon made her an audience favorite. She went on to have one of the most long-lasting vaudeville careers and eventually commanded one of the highest salaries of any performer of the day. After seeing her perform, English poet and sexual revolutionary Aleister Crowley called Tanguay America's equivalent to Europe's music hall greats, Marie Lloyd of England and Yvette Guilbert of France.Eva Tanguay is remembered for brassy self-confident songs that symbolized the emancipated woman such as "Its All Been Done Before But Not the Way I Do It." In showbiz circles, she was nicknamed the "I Don’t Care Girl," after her most famous song, "I Don’t Care What Happens to Me."Tanguay sang on a few gramophone records for Nordskog Records. In addition to her singing career, she also starred in two film comedies that, despite the limitations of silent film, used the screen to capture her lusty stage vitality to its fullest. The first, titled Energetic Eva was made in 1916 and the following year she starred opposite Tom Moore in The Wild Girl.Eva Tanguay retired from show business in the 1930s and died in 1947 in Hollywood where she was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.In 1953 Mitzi Gaynor portrayed Eva Tanguay in a fictionalized version of her life in the Hollywood motion picture, The I Don't Care Girl.January 9, 1907
Florizel Reuter and Arthur Newstead gave concert at Burtis opera house.Musical Prodigies: Florizel von Reuter (1890-1985) ViolinistAlthough he was an American boy, he primarily performed as a prodigy in Europe. Florizel was born Florizel Reuter on January 21, 1890 in Davenport, Iowa. His father was a musician and minor composer named Jacob Reuter. His first professional concert was in La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland in about 1900.Arthur Newstead PianistArthur Newstead was born in London August 4, 1881 and studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music under Oscar Beringer and later with Harold Bauer. Months after his graduation from the Royal Academy, his distinction, earned from many masterful concert performances, promoted him to Professor of that institution at the young age of 21 years. After two years, Newstead was forced to resign his position due to numerous public engagements following his tremendous success at an orchestral concert in which he played three concertos by Beethoven, Liszt, and Saint Saëns. Arthur Newstead died in his home in New York City on April 1, 1952.
In 1856, the German Strasser Union Marching Band of Davenport was formed. When the Tri City Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1916, it was the twelfth in the nation but having drawn two-thirds of it's membership from the Strasser Marching Band, it is debated by many as the oldest music organization in the country to have formed a symphonic orchestra.The first concert took place on May 29, 1916, at the Burtis Opera House, Davenport, under the baton of Ludwig Becker, a German-born concert violinist. If the arithmetic doesn't add up, that's because they decided that concert would be the first and last of the 1915-16 season.1877
There was a small audience for the Emma Abbott concert in the Burtis Opera House, Davenport, last night. Whenever Davenport theaters have a crowd, Rock Island and Moline people must provide it, and the people of those cities heard her in Moline the night before.Emma Abbott (December 9, 1850 – January 5, 1891), American opera singer, was born in Chicago, Illinois and studied in Milan and Paris. She had a fine soprano voice, and appeared first in opera in London under Colonel Mapleson's direction at Covent Garden, also singing at important concerts. She organized an opera company known by her name, and toured extensively in the United States, where she enjoyed considerable reputation. In 1873 she married E. J. Wethereil. She died at Salt Lake City.

2006-02-13T09:54:00.000-08:00

Scott County Historic Preservation Society
Karen Anderson
Bucktown Scholar
The eastern end of downtown Davenport, historically known as Bucktown, was infamous at the turn of the century for it's speakeasies, dance halls and German music pavilions, home to a documented forty-two brothels in a two block area.
The reputation of Bucktown traveled across the country and garnered national media headlines as the ";wickedest city in America.";Bucktown was also notorious, however, for it's culture. The strong German heritage of the community formed the identity of Bucktown and it's infusion of the arts into the everyday. Art and music, for the common man, was central to the German way of life.In 1856, the German Strasser Union ;Marching Band of Davenport was formed. When the Tri City Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1916, it was the twelfth in the nation but having drawn two-thirds of it's membership from the Strasser Marching Band, it is debated by many as the oldest music organization in the country to have formed a symphonic orchestra.
Truly, Davenport was built on the arts. Before there were paved streets and running water to homes in the city, there were opera houses with 40 foot domed ceilings where Chicago operatic troupes traveled on horseback to perform. The most famous of these was the Burtis Opera House, which still stands on the north side of the Bucktown District.
Davenport was home to the nation's first municipal art gallery formed in 1925 by German, Charles Ficke, the foundation of the Davenport Museum of Art and the new Figge Art Museum opening downtown, August 2005.In Bucktown, the music of the people was played by the era's finest musicians, including Louis Armstrong and the legendary Bix Beiderbeke.
This renovated structure, known as Bucktown Center for the Arts, was the heart of the music and life of Bucktown, known as 'Brick' Monroe's Summer Garden and Dancing Pavilion, or by many as Brick's Dime-A-Dance Saloon

Bucktown Souls

2006-02-13T09:15:00.000-08:00

These characters from the past...who were/are they? Seems like regular folks just trying to make a living and having a great time of it! Are they still there? Can you feel them....can you hear them... have you seen them? I have...that's the wonderous part but I don't know why I'm there. They don't seem to know that I am. Am I touching the past or are they touching the future? Is it physical or metaphysical? It's a peaceful place. Not restless souls as far as I can tell. Do I need to call Shirley McLain just to understand...or do I need to understand?