In a message dated 1/22/03 4:01:18 AM Eastern Standard Time,
Mark Sullivan writes:
<<
Richard, are you saying you weren't familiar with
Atlanta's gutter at
that time, either?
Speaking of Atlanta, is Fred Willard working on a new
book? His other
two were great.
>>
You know, one man's gutter is another man's garden. In point
of fact, I doubt that any spot in 1970s Atlanta would equal
the crack house gutters available today there and in any
other US metro area.
Ralph Dennis often referred to the Clairmont Lounge by name,
or more often, without naming it but identifying it for an
Atlanta native like myself. This was a bar behind and beneath
the Clairmont Hotel on Ponce de Leon Avenue. That's probably
as close to the gutter as Ralph got and I will say that when
I went there if someone had asked me, I might not have called
it the gutter but would have said you could see the gutter
from the bar at the Clairmont Lounge. I only went there
because a friend worked there...well, it's too long a story.
The Blue Lantern Lounge was another spot on Ponce where Blind
Willie McTell wandered from car to car serenading lovers. He
couldn't go inside because he was not white. He didn't miss
much as the drinkers liked to heave empties twirling over
their shoulders at or near a trash can. Across the street was
a joint, I forget the name, in the basement of the Georgian
Terrace Hotel which ended its days with the baseball pitcher
Denny McLain (last 30 game winner) playing and singing at the
piano bar. Shudder. He couldn't sing or play nearly as well
as he pitched. And to think this was the hotel Clark Gable
stayed at for the premier of "Gone With The Wind." Denny
ended up in the pen on rackateering charges, got out and went
back and is now scheduled for release in 2004.
At that time (the 70s) there would have been shot houses on
Boulevard (Black) and in Cabbage Town (White) that would have
been rougher than the Clairmont but I doubt Ralph made it to
either. I didn't, although the first time someone pulled a
gun on me in anger was in Cabbage Town, a community of
shotgun houses near the Fulton Cotton Mills.
But all that is gentrified now. The Cotton Mills are gone and
I wouldn't be surprised if the shotgun houses were now going
for prices well into six figures. Certainly old Ponce is
spucing up. I have never met Fred Willard but know and admire
his work but his street is getting more gentrified every
day.
I took my youngest daughter to Moe and Joe's last month as
she is moving to Atlanta after she graduates from the
University of Virginia. It hasn't changed since 1947 but it
is the rarity. By the way, it is about two doors down from
George's on North Highland Avenue where the wake was held for
Ralph Dennis back in 1988.
And we are all flopping on the decade of the 50s month
leaving room for me to ramble like this. I am trying to
finish a Gil Brewer and a Stephen Marlowe but can't quite
seem to get to them.
Richard Moore
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