St. Louis gallery evokes Gaslight Square glory (STLtoday)
Here is an article by Joe Holleman about the Gaslight Square Gallery at Joe’s Cafe that was featured in the St. Louis Post Dispatch:
No place in the history of STL nightlife shines brighter than Gaslight Square, a midtown entertainment district with a national rep in the 1960s as one of the places to be.
A bit of that magic is brought back by a gallery featuring paintings by legendary tavern owner/entertainer Frank Moskus and photographs from barrier-breaking shooter Thelma Blumberg.
The Gaslight Gallery, at 6010 Kingsbury Avenue, will be open every Thursday through October, from 6 to 9 p.m.
Several Square-connected folks helped bring about the art nook: Bill Christman, a former Square devotee and owner of the gallery and the next-door Joe’s Cafe; Joe Moskus and Jan Mahannah, the son and wife, respectively, of Moskus; and Jack Parker, then-and-now owner of O’Connell’s Pub.
Frank Moskus’ oil paintings of STL street scenes are, like the artist was, vibrant and engaging, while Blumberg’s black-and-white shots taken at lone-gone but not forgotten hot spots like the Crystal Palace, Montileone’s and the Laughing Buddha have a stark tenderness.
Especially entertaining are the captions to Blumberg’s photos, which were written by Parker. (The day Parker moved out of the neighborhood, late 1972, is considered the official “death” of Gaslight Square.) Parker’s dryly-humorous observations help capture the Bohemia bounce that made the neighborhood famous.
Christman said Gaslight Square in the 1960s “was mentioned in the same breath with the French Quarter, Greenwich Village and North Beach” in San Francisco as the cool places to be back in that day. Future superstars such as the Smothers Brothers, Phyllis Diller, Barbra Streisand, George Carlin and Woody Allen all played in clubs there before they became household names.
“And a lot of the musicians played on a jazz circuit that ran between those places,” Christman said. “It was special.”
Source: STLtoday.com
Thank you Joe, for showing interest in gaslight square. It was beautiful back then.. you are the man!!!!!