Tales of... by Josh Alan Friedman

THE GREAT BLUESMAN TELLS IT STRAIGHT Doc Pomus no longer had to cater to the teenage rock ’n’ roll market. He wrote sophisticated songs for adults. In his final years, he mentored dozens of singers, discovered bands like Roomful of Blues and The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and wrote the best lyrics of his life. Episode Links Doc’s website (http://www.felderpomus.com/docpomus1.html) AKA Doc Pomus, the documentary (http://akadocpomus.com/the-film/) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/doc-pomus) (Music bed under " Highway 61 (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/josh-alan-band/44812713) " by Josh Alan Band) (https://blackcracker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Doc-Pomus.jpg) (https://blackcracker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Doc-Bitter-End-89.jpeg) Josh Alan Friedman, Josh’s mother Ginger, Doc, Larry “Ratso” Sloman, Peggy Bennett, at Bitter End after Josh’s show, 1989 (https://blackcracker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Screen-Shot-2019-03-13-at-4.29.35-AM.png) Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman at the Brill Building (https://blackcracker.fm/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Shirlee-Hauser.jpeg) Uncle Doc, courtesy of Shirlee Hauser

THE EARLY STIGMA OF ROCK 'N' ROLL After a dormant decade, the great songwriter Doc Pomus was back in business by the late 1970s. I became his sidekick, entrenched in Doc’s late-night rock ‘n’ roll whirl, where he held court like a Buddha. He was amazed that so many of his songs became iconic anthems in a genre once vilified as teenage junk. Episode Links (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oOG3vUkKUM) (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/blues-in-the-red/277637896) Song under Sinatra quote: "Fat Back," by Josh Alan Band (unreleased) Doc Pomus at the Pied Piper in New York, 1947 Late night at the Lone Star Cafe: Josh’s wife Peggy, Doc, (unidentified singing protege), Josh, 1982 French Elvis Lp. Mort Shuman became a pop star in France and thus received top billing here. Still from documentary, AKA Doc Pomus: Josh, Doc, (unidentified), Ahmet Ertegun

FROM PARADISE TO THE GUTTER The Great Pornographer went from Upper East Side family man/pornographer-next-door to Bowery bum. The First Amendment hero became destitute. But he never lost his appetite for pussy and pastrami. Episode Links I Goldstein: My Screwed Life, by Al Goldstein and Josh Alan Friedman (https://www.amazon.com/I-Goldstein-My-Screwed-Life/dp/1568583613) When Sex Was Dirty, by Josh Alan Friedman (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932595074/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i9) Al’s Pompano Beach mansion, with the 11-foot finger that welcomed boats on the intracoastal waterway Goldstein’s New York office Beach Blanket Hippos: Goldstein and Ron Jeremy on Al's beachfront Screw ’69, front row: Jim Buckley, Goldstein, and 18-year-old Steve Heller, who would next become The New York Times art director for 33 years John and Yoko’s Screw interview, 1969 Terry Southern in Screw #801. Cover: Julius Zimmerman Hitler's Worst Nightmare: Screw’s interview with surviving Third Reich architect, Albert Speer, with Goldstein as “Diddler on the Roof .” Cover: Curt Hoppe.

THE GREAT PORNOGRAPHER GETS SCREWED With the creation of Screw and Midnight Blue, Al Goldstein liberated sex from the shadows of shame and illegal obscenity. He had no idea what it would lead to today. But in his era, the sexual revolution was a cry for liberation and the laws against sex came tumbling down in his wake. Episode Links I Goldstein: My Screwed Life, by Al Goldstein and Josh Alan Friedman (https://www.amazon.com/I-Goldstein-My-Screwed-Life/dp/1568583613) When Sex Was Dirty, by Josh Alan Friedman (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932595074/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i9) Screw magazine, #1,024, "The Weird Sex Life of R. Crumb", illustrated by cartoonist R. Crumb Screw magazine, #735, "Is God Gay?", illustration of Al Goldstein as God by Curt Hoppe "Al Goldstein donned a fake prison outfit before his sentencing yesterday." New York Times, 2002 Goldstein with legendary Harlem congressman, Adam Clayton Powell, in late ‘60s. Al Goldstein’s bar mitzvah, 1949. In three years, he would wear the same undersized suit for his first hooker.

AN EDITOR’S EDITOR A legend among his peers at the old men’s adventure magazines, Mel Shestack made people believe the impossible. And anyone who fell for his “gentle cons” felt privileged afterward. Episode Links Weasels Ripped My Flesh (https://www.amazon.com/Weasels-Two-Fisted-Stories-Adventure-Magazines/dp/0988462109/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1547199869&sr=1-6&keywords=josh+alan+friedman) Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos (https://www.amazon.com/Even-Rhinos-Were-Nymphos-Nonfiction-ebook/dp/B07F32WX14/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1547199997&sr=1-1&keywords=Even+the+Rhinos+were+nymphos) It’s A Man’s World (https://www.amazon.com/Its-Mans-World-Adventure-Magazines/dp/0922915814/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1547200068&sr=1-12&keywords=josh+alan+friedman) True Action, one of the many magazines published each month by Magazine Management Mel Shestack presenting a fake mock-up cover to Bruce Jay Friedman at Bruce’s Magazine Management retirement in 1966. (photo: Jules Siegel) A Mel Shestack cartoon on a letter to Josh

A BASS PLAYER PREPARES Jack Bruce reinvented the bass guitar and wrote spectacular songs. Cream lasted a mere three years. But he remained a working musician first and disregarded the pretense of rock stardom. Episode Links Cream Box set (https://www.amazon.com/Those-Were-Days-Box-Set/dp/B000003TW3) Harmony Row (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/harmony-row-remastered/571505873) Songs For A Tailor (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/songs-for-a-tailor/14447762) Jack Bruce in mid-career Classically trained in cello

A COMPOSER PREPARES Cy Coleman wrote the scores to a dozen legendary Broadway musicals. But he was a jazz pianist first, and virtually invented the sophisticated culture of New York cocktail jazz in the 1950s. Episode Links The Best Is Yet To Come (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3wHcQOl4M) Witchcraft and Lenny (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxh02n0NNJg) You Fascinate Me So (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/you-fascinate-me-so/993275041)

WHEN ADVENTURE MAGAZINES BEGAT MOVIES My father hired Mario Puzo as associate editor at Magazine Management at 655 Madison Avenue in 1960. While working there, Puzo would write his great novel about Hell’s Kitchen, The Fortunate Pilgrim. And then at age 49, break out with the most successful novel in history—The Godfather. Episode Links The Fortunate Pilgrim (https://www.amazon.com/Fortunate-Pilgrim-Novel-Mario-Puzo/dp/0345476727) The Godfather Papers (https://www.amazon.com/Godfather-Papers-Mario-Puzo/dp/B007BJ6FXE) Weasels Ripped My Flesh! Two-Fisted Stories From Men’s Adventure Magazines (https://www.amazon.com/Weasels-Two-Fisted-Stories-Adventure-Magazines/dp/0988462109) Mario Puzo’s 1966 children's book, with a character named Josh. Mario Puzo and Bruce Jay Friedman at Bruce’s party leaving Magazine Management in 1966 1960 masthead for Male, Men, Man’s World and True Action magazines

A HUSTLER WITH EXQUISITE TASTE Joel Dorn was one of the last record producers standing from the old music biz. When the new industry pushed him out in the 1980s, he bounced back with the creation of CD box sets. “Don’t give me that ‘Hey, baby’ shit,” he said. “I invented it.” Episode Playlist Joel Dorn discography (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/joel-dorn-mn0000808435/credits) Don Mclean: Homeless Brother (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/homeless-brother/716395227) Joel Dorn standing behind one of our mentors, Doc Pomus One of Joel’s repackages on his own Label M

UGLY PEOPLE GOT NO REASON TO LIVE As a new, 22-year-old writer for The SoHo News in 1978, I was sent out to interview Lou Reed. He gave the nastiest interview of his life. Then demanded it be printed verbatim. Episode Playlist Lou Reed: Growing Up in Public (https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Public-Lou-Reed/dp/B00004TQSH) Transformer (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/transformer/976826793) Little Richard Lanham: On Your Radio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cumyeRuBEo) SoHo News, March 9-15, 1978 Lou Reed in front of his doorway. “You oughta fucking kiss the ground you’re walking on that I’m even talking to you." (photo: Anton Perich) The record that Reed thought was Frankie Lymon’s little brother

A DIVINE MADMANTiny Tim lived in his own bubble with angelic girls dancing in the clouds, while 1920’s Broadway lullabies played on harps. He became the biggest fad of 1968. But his lifelong dedication to early 20th-century music was without equal. Episode Playlist Prisoner of Love: A Tribute to Russ Columbo (https://www.amazon.com/Prisoner-Love-Tribute-Russ-Columbo/dp/B000005X2L) Girl: Tiny Tim with Brave Combo (https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Tiny-Tim-Brave-Combo/dp/B0000003L7) God Bless Tiny Tim (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/god-bless-tiny-tim/140786257) Read Josh's original article with Tiny Tim on the blog (https://blackcracker.fm/blog/lullaby-of-tiny-tim/) (https://blackcracker.fm/blog/lullaby-of-tiny-tim/)

  THE BRUTE PIMP OF WHITECHAPELThe 19th century life model for anti-Semitic caricatures was quite a guy. Except I made him up. And he now joins the cast of this season’s Dead Heroes. Episode Playlist The Worst, Bela's Funeral Dirge heard in this episode. (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-worst/205334531)

  PACHUCO BLUESFerguson avoids the Vietnam draft, plays Houston lesbian clubs with young Johnny Winter, and joins the Thunderbirds. Like an old wolf, Keith paces his communal porch in Austin. It was his last refuge. Recommended Playlist T-Bird Rhythm (https://www.amazon.com/T-Bird-Rhythm-Fabulous-Thunderbirds/dp/B000056B53/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_7) The TailGators (https://www.amazon.com/Mumbo-Jumbo-Tail-Gators/dp/B000000DKJ?keywords=the+tailgators&qid=1539191763&s=Music&sr=1-3&ref=sr_1_3) Second Winter (https://www.amazon.com/Second-Winter-Johnny/dp/B00064ADR0)

AUSTIN'S GREATEST FALLEN MUSIC HEROIn a town known for its fallen musical heroes, Fabulous Thunderbirds bassist Keith Ferguson was a tour de force. He submerged into semi-retirement on his rustic estate, a hangout for wounded animals, reptiles and old pachuchos. The music biz turned ugly, but Austin’s beautiful losers—as well as the heroin—remained pure. And Keith was Numero Uno. Recommended Playlist T-Bird Rhythm (https://www.amazon.com/T-Bird-Rhythm-Fabulous-Thunderbirds/dp/B000056B53/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_7) The TailGators (https://www.amazon.com/Mumbo-Jumbo-Tail-Gators/dp/B000000DKJ?keywords=the+tailgators&qid=1539191763&s=Music&sr=1-3&ref=sr_1_3) Big Guitars From Texas (https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/bigguitarsfromtexas)

  IS THAT ALL THERE IS?Writing songs with Jerry was, for me, like having a catch with Willie Mays or Joe DiMaggio—when they were old. But his genius was never far away. Cloistered in his exquisite home in Venice Beach, the awards for Leiber & Stoller’s achievements came in by the week. But only Mike Stoller showed up to receive them. Episode Playlist 50 Coastin’ Classics (https://www.amazon.com/50-Coastin-Classics-Coasters/dp/B0000032WB) Peggy Lee Sings Leiber & Stoller (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/peggy-lee-sings-leiber-stoller/id806305123) Josh Alan Band (“Strike A Match”) (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/josh-alan-band/44812713)

  THE IRVING BERLIN OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLLWe worked on a book in which he would tell off the world, to be called Kiss My Big Black Ass. It remained unfinished. But Jerry Leiber blew my mind. And he was one bitch of a chef.

  BUT ALMOST DOESN'T COUNTWhen Josh auditioned for Beatlemania in 1977, he was just one hopeful in the callbacks for George. Thousands of Beatle manqués descended from the hinterlands to audition for the Broadway show. There were only four parts, but no shortage of broken dreams.

Josh's dead heroes. Interviews, memories and short stories. First up, A 20-year-old Josh auditions for Beatlemania in 1977. Coming September 20.

  So long, SuckerOld Times Square was at the brink of extinction and my job was done. The finale of this series.

  OLD FLESH AGENTSIrv Charnoff and Jess Mack were the last remaining vaudeville/burlesque booking agents in 1984. They mourned the decline of wholesome American show-biz, as it devolved into pornography.

  FREEING THE NIPPLE FROM SALES TAXAl Kronish, one of the Melody Burlesk’s owners, was the first CPA to do tax returns for porn stars. Under constant legal harassment from the city, he kept Times Square’s last bastion of old burlesque open and spread-eagled. (All photos by Don Demcsik for Tales of Times Square)

  TIMES SQUARE CLEANS UP FOR PORN REBORNNo sooner than the neighborhood rid itself of filth, pimps and whores came dancing back into the hearts of Broadway. Composer Cy Coleman and writer David Newman discuss their hit musical in 1997.

  A SAFE SPACE FOR SISTERS OF THE NIGHT.Girls from all over the country gravitated to NY to make more money in street prostitution than anywhere else. Missionary Arlene Carmen ran a mobile van that gave them a respite from the cops, the tricks and their pimps.  

  Caruso tipped her $5.Fanny Gold ran her family’s 42nd Street newsstand as an eight-year-old girl in 1915. Living in poverty one block away, she was enchanted by Times Square’s aristocratic era. And was mugged six times there as an old lady.  

  FROM CAGNEY TO KUNG FU.Martin Levine, president of Brandt Theaters, booked most of the movies across 42nd Street for 50 years. His office reflects the faded glamour of a once mighty theater empire now reduced to kung-fu, grindhouse and porn flicks.  

  INNOCENT VICTIMS OF ADVERSITY.That’s how Uncle Lou, a geologist turned chauffeur, saw many of the girls in Times Square, who affectionately called him Uncle. His scrapbook documents an era of burlesque queens and porn starlets, whom he remains loyal to decades after their careers ended.  

  COPPING A FEEL IN TIMES SQUARE.Show girls, moonlighting nurses, pickpockets and members of a fake marriage ring. Live Nude Girls 25¢ was the neon community catchphrase, and it was all about fast cash.

  THE CATHOLIC CHURCH VS. TIMES SQUARE.Three priests of Holy Cross Church witnessed the rise and fall of Times Square. Father Robert Rappleyea, pastor during the era of porn, saw the human condition reach bottom. He put up a bold front.

  THE TOAST OF BROADWAY.A lightweight contender in the 1920s, Manny Rosen worked in the kitchen of the Stage Delicatessen for 32 years—in charge of making toast. But he also wrote “King Heroin” for James Brown, after losing his daughter to heroin. He became the right-hand man of Bob Anthony, “Mr. Burlesk,” in the Melody Burlesk back office.

  LIVE NUDE GIRLS 25¢.Peep Shows were a phenomenon as common to Times Square as slot machines to Las Vegas. Live Nude Girls became the neon community catchphrase. We visit Roger K as he creates the technology in his private laboratory at Show World.

  WELCOME TO THE BOWELS OF 42ND STREET.It's 1983. Charles Rubinstein has run the penny arcade at 8th Avenue and 42nd Street since 1939. “This is the dumping grounds of 42nd Street. But I’m not a-scared of any individuals that tries to threaten me. You have to use that nightstick, and I say let ’em use it.”

  FROM HELLS ANGELS TO BURLESQUE.A Columbia Presbyterian nurse, then a drug counselor in the California prison system, Raven de la Croix busted loose as a burlesque star at the age of 32. She’d also spent eight years with the Hells Angels and starred in several Russ Meyer films. Here in the headliner’s dressing room of the Melody Burlesk, in 1982, the stripper prepares. Josh interviews Raven at Melody Burlesk, 1982

  WELCOME TO THE BACK OFFICE OF THE MELODY BURLESK.Frank Sinatra’s boyhood pal and first bodyguard, Bob Anthony, also became a big band singer. Tougher than Frank, but devoid of hit records, he went on to found the Melody Burlesk in Times Square. Like the Heimlich maneuver, you might assume a lap dance occurred somewhere through the millennia, but apparently not. They began at the Melody, as well as the first stage appearances of porn stars. Bob Anthony fought vice raids and roughnecks, running Times Square’s foremost burlesk theater.

TO HEAR IZZY GROVE IS TO UNDERSTAND DAMON RUNYON. UNNERSTAND?One of the last Guys & Dolls characters to survive into the porn era, Grove was a welterweight fighter known as The Ghetto Avenger in the 1920s. In 1983, he is being thrown out of his office. Hustling in Times Square for 60 years, he booked Lonely Hearts dances and pasted up fight posters for Madison Square Garden. He swears he’s “never been a shylock, a bookie, a tough guy.” But do you believe him?   [gallery link="file" size="large" ids="1567,1553,1561"]

PEE WEE MARQUETTE WAS THE CAUSTIC M.C. AT HISTORIC JAZZ CLUB, BIRDLAND, DURING THE '40S AND '50S.The short-tempered midget spent the last 25 years of his life as doorman-greeter for Hawaii Kai, a schlock tourist restaurant next door to the Winter Garden Theatre in Times Square. Come bend your ear to another voice of Lost New York. [gallery size="large" link="file" ids="1312,1311,1310"] TRANSCRIPTNARRATOR: This is Tales of Times Square: The Tapes. I’m Josh Alan. When I was a teenager in the 1970s, the mysteries of Times Square loomed large. 1,200 prostitutes raged across 8th Avenue from 34th to 50th Streets with a corridor of super-fly pimps in their Cadillacs, so many that the police department set up a cordoned-off walkway described by one sergeant as “two pimps wide.” There were dozens of clapboard massage parlors that sprung up week by week with homemade psychedelic signage. Criminality was out of control right outside the legitimate Broadway theaters. All of this mixed uneasily with the history of old Broadway whose Guys-and-Dolls senior denizens still survived in their old age amid this new squalor. Read More By the time I was 30 years old in 1986, I’d spent 10 years on old Broadway, culminating in the publication of the book, Tales of Times Square. But I forgot about the tapes, disintegrating cassettes from 35 years ago that I recorded during research for my book; an audio landscape of Times Square in the 1970s and ’80s where local people I’d spent years getting to know bared their souls. It’s 1982 and the hit musical, Cats, has just opened at the Winter Garden, but next door a short-tempered black midget paces at the doorway of Hawaii Kai like Napoleon. He’s been serving time here since 1960, greeting folks with his cane and pointing the way upstairs at the shlock tourist restaurant next to the Winter Garden. His domain resembles a tropical Hawaiian Disney Land exhibit with a coat check and restrooms. Business is terrible. If you grease his palm, he’ll sit you down by the mock waterfall and tell you his life story. PEE WEE MARQUETTE: Oh, what’s your name? JOSH ALAN FRIEDMAN: My name is Josh Friedman. PEE WEE MARQUETTE: Josh Friedman, this is Pee Wee. I’m Pee Wee, been on Broadway the last 50 years. JOSH ALAN FRIEDMAN: Fifty years? PEE WEE MARQUETTE: Yeah, almost 50 years. JOSH ALAN FRIEDMAN: What year did you first come here? PEE WEE MARQUETTE: 1943, 1943. Don’t come over here and bother me now. SPEAKER: I’m not going to bother you. PEE WEE MARQUETTE: This is my business. JOSH ALAN FRIEDMAN: And where you working – where were you working in 1943? PEE WEE MARQUETTE: Oh, well, let me see. (Inaudible 3:00). I was singing and dancing at that time. JOSH ALAN FRIEDMAN: Where was that? Which club? PEE WEE MARQUETTE: Well, after I got here. Let me tell you where I come from. I come up from Nashville, Tennessee. I was singing and dancing with the late Francis Craig, only white band down South who had a black man performing. The late Francis Craig, white band. And after he gave his band up during the war days (ph 3:29) and I came up to New York. Francis asked me to – he said, “Pee Wee, do you want to go back to Montgomery?” I said, “No, I don’t want to go back to Montgomery, Mr. Craig. I want to go to New York and we’ve already been up there. And I like it up there and I think I can do good.” So he gave me $100, a roundtrip ticket, and a letter of introduction. So in August 1943, I came up. I had met the great Billy Eckstine down in Nashville, the great singer. He gave me his address when I met him down there, and told me whenever I come to New York City I could stay with him until I got something to do. So I knew exactly where he lived and I got a cab, rode up to Harlem. NARRATOR: From the 1930s until the 1960s, 52nd Street had the most famous stretch of jazz clubs in New York, probably the world. Standing only 4’ 8”, Pee Wee still managed to...