Happy Mardi Gras Day 2016

Happy Mardi Gras Day.
Click on the link below for lots of stuff on Mardi Gras including some live web cams.
 http://joeb-tallyho.blogspot.com/2012/02/virtual-mardi-gras-new-orleans-2012.html

Click on the words Mardi Gras in the Labels box below to see all my posts about Mardi Gras including some good videos and Mardi Gras music and pictures of old Mardi Gras doubloons.

All My Posts About Mardi Gras In New Orleans And Some Great New Orleans Mardi Gras Music

Click on the above picture to enlarge it.

Now that all of the football fans have left New Orleans after the most recent Super Bowl the city can get down to the serious business of celebrating this years Mardi Gras.
   Click on the link below to read all my posts about Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The first post you will see has a link to a live web cam at Jackson Square.  Give it 2 or 3 minutes to load all the posts.
http://joeb-tallyho.blogspot.com/search/label/Mardi%20Gras

And click on the link below to hear the best Mardi Gras music you will ever hear.
American Routes is a weekly radio show from New Orleans. A new show every week.

You can listen to 2 hours of great New Orleans music online on your computer. And see the complete playlist for hours one and two.
http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/784/from-home-page

Mardi Gras Music And Virtual Mardi Gras New Orleans 2012 Live Jackson Square Cam Bourbon St. Cam and Live Parade Cam From St. Charles Avenue

Click on the above photos to enlarge them.
Happy Mardi Gras. Let The Good Times Roll.
Live parade coverage on Mardi Gras Day on WDSU TV New Orleans. Click link below.
http://www.wdsu.com/video/17360129/detail.html

http://www.nola.com/jacksonsquarecam/

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/louisiana/neworleans/bourbonstreet/

Plus 2 hours of Mardi Gras music on American Routes. Listen online.
http://americanroutes.wwno.org/archives/show/731/from-home-page

Complete Mardi Gras Parade Schedule for 2012.
http://www.mardigras.com/index.ssf?schedule

Click on the Label Mardi Gras in the Labels box below to see many more posts about New Orleans and a nice collection of Mardi Gras doubloons.

The Mardi Gras Fountain And The Theme Song Of Mardi Gras IF EVER I CEASE TO LOVE

  This song is the theme song of Mardi Gras and is played at the King Rex Ball on Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans.

Professor Longhair Go To The Mardi Gras Music For Fat Tuesday In New Orleans

Below is a nice version showing the original 45 rpm record.

All About New Orleans And My Mardi Gras Memories Of New Orleans

http://joeb-tallyho.blogspot.com/2010/05/feb-20-1955-new-orleans-and-colgate.html
Click on the link above to read my Mardi Gras Memories. My first Mardi Gras in New Orleans was in 1955. Then I went again in 1959,1960,1961,1963,1964,1966,and one final time in 1980. By then I was Mardi Gras'd out.  So now instead of going to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans I like to remember and write about the ones I can remember from the past.

http://joeb-tallyho.blogspot.com/2009/12/bob-dylan-at-mardi-gras-new-orleans-feb.html
And click on the label Mardi Gras in the box below to see and read all my other posts about New Orleans and Mardi Gras.
   

Time For Mardi Gras In New Orleans Here Is Some Music From Americanroutes.org

Zulu Parade Mardi Gras In New Orleans Louisiana

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

http://americanroutes.publicradio.org/archives/show/679/from-home-page

Click on the above link to hear all the music online. And you can see a full playlist of hour one and hour two there also.

March 2nd, 2011 ~ Come stir the pot with American Routes as we bring you a sampling of great live music from our home state: Louisiana. First we'll stop by the soon to be legendary BlackPot Festival in Lafayette for some new flavors of Cajun and Creole tunes, as well as some old favorites by special guests. Then we'll walk through the streets of New Orleans with the Prince of Wales Social Aid and Pleasure Club during their annual second line parade.





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Kirbyville Texas Band On The Way To New Orleans To March In A Mardi Gras Parade In 1955 Note The Way The Girls Wore Their Blue Jeans With The Cuffs Rolled Up The Picture On The Steps Was Taken In Baton Rouge Louisiana At The State Capitol

Click and double click to enlarge the photos.

At the Louisiana State Capitol Building in Baton Rouge they gave us a tour and showed us where Huey P. Long was assassinated. You could still see the bullet holes in the marble walls.

More pictures below of the trip to New Orleans to march in the Mid City Mardi  Gras Parade on Feb.20, 1955.

Click to enlarge the above photo. It is in Jackson Square in New Orleans with The St. Louis Cathedral in the background and Kirbyville Band Members coming toward the camera.

The above picture is of Bruce Reed. He is sitting in the Kirbyville Texas school bus we rode on to New Orleans. It is parked near an A&G cafeteria where we ate lunch. You can see the A&G sign in the background. Click to enlarge the photos.

14 year old Joe B. in Jackson Square in front of the St. Louis Cathedral. Looks like I was finally beginning to grow. That uniform is too small for me. I grew about 12 inches in the next two years.

I took this picture on the way to New Orleans or on the way back to Kirbyville, Texas. It is most likely somewhere in Louisiana. When I started to take the picture from the window of the school bus he began to raise his arm.  He did not want his picture taken. At the time I was surprised. Now I wonder if he had something to hide.

The above picture and the two below are from the 1955 Mid City Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans. It was a Sunday afternoon. Feb. 20,1955.

Here is some  information on the history of the Mid-City Krewe in New Orleans.

http://www.kreweofmidcity.com/join_us/

The theme in 1955 was Candy. They even sprayed the floats to smell like the particular kind of candy represented.

Click on the label Kirbyville Texas in the box below to see more posts about Kirbyville Texas.

Mardi Gras Doubloons New Orleans

Click and double click to enlarge the photos of these Mardi Gras doubloons from New Orleans.

Mardi Gras 1964 New Orleans And Doubloons

King Rex Doubloon 1964

This gold colored King Rex doubloon shown above from the 1964 Mardi Gras is one I caught myself that year. I have kept it all these years as a souvenir of a memorable Mardi Gras. It is the reverse side of the Rex Doubloon shown above it.

Drag Queen at Mardi Gras 1964 on Bourbon Street outside of The Court Of Two Sisters

The Wizard Of Oz doubloon Mardi Gras 1964 New Orleans. King Rex Parade.

It takes a minute or so to get to the 1964 Mardi Gras material but it is well worth the wait. This was the only video of the 1964 Mardi Gras in New Orleans I was able to find.

Click on the label below to see and read more of my posts about the Mardi Gras New Orleans 1964.

Do You Know What It Means To Be Dead In New Orleans? Or Why I Don't Think I Will Ever Go Back To New Orleans The Big Easy Is Hazardous To Your Health

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/11/police_seek_public_assistance.html
New Orleans is now a crime ridden city. Dangerous to your health. The only way to protect yourself is to leave the Big Easy and don't go there anymore. Too many juveniles and others with guns and knives.
Most of the crime is late at night. But not all. The French Quarter used to be safe but not any more.
Roving bands of thugs are preying on tourists and locals alike. See the link below.
http://www.nola.com/crime/

And the links below are about Wendy Byrnes murder. She was a bartender at Aunt Tiki's Jewels Bar that I wrote about in the post below this one.
http://blog.nola.com/notesonneworleans/2009/01/wendy_byrne_memorial.html
More on Wendy Byrnes and her murder in the link below. Poor Wendy. She didn't get out of New Orleans in time. New Orleans has always been a violent city and a city full of crime. It is like Paris. A museum like city center for the rich and tourists and surrounded by extremely poor people in poor neighborhoods. As someone said if people don't have an income they are going to come for yours. Be warned New Orleans is not safe anymore. It is dangerous especially at night and even more so late at night.
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/wendy_byrnes_life_ended_as_a_n.html

Aunt Tiki's Jewels Bar New Orleans 1207 Decatur Street Formerly Known 40 Years Ago As Jewel's Tavern

http://www.yelp.com/biz/aunt-tikis-new-orleans
  This is what happened to Jewel's Tavern which I write about in the post below. 40 years later it is now called Aunt Tiki's Jewels Bar.
  If you read the comments in the link above it sounds much like the old place except it is now a dive bar instead of a seaman's bar.

WUSA 1970 The Movie Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward Based On The Novel HALL OF Mirrors By Robert Stone Includes Beautiful Scenes Inside and Outside of The Long Lost Jewel's Tavern In The French Quarter Of New Orleans.

WUSA The Movie From 1970 Starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Based on the novel HALL OF MIRRORS by Robert Stone who also wrote the screenplay for this movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066540/

This movie is hard to find. Robert Stone who wrote the book Hall Of Mirrors that WUSA is based on and wrote(or co wrote) the screenplay for this movie has stated he thinks it is a really terrible movie and he is embarrassed by it. And I guess it really is a bad movie of a great book. But the movie has a few things going for it. I found the whole movie on YouTube. The person has not allowed embedding so you have to click on this link. Below is part one of 9 parts on Youtube. But you can watch all nine parts to see the whole movie. Just look to the right hand column on the page for parts 2 through 9.  In part #2 at time 2:18 and 3:21 you can see the outside of Jewel's Tavern which was located on Decatur St. near Governor Nicholls in the French Quarter. In fact the scene inside appears to be the real inside of Jewel's Tavern. Jewel's Tavern was a famous seaman's bar in the French Quarter. It is now long gone. These are the only known pictures of Jewel's Tavern I have ever seen. But you have to watch the movie(part #2)to see Jewel's Tavern. No still pictures are available.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD9I6myGmv0&feature=related

Click on the Label Jewel's Tavern below to read another post of mine about New Orleans and the Mardi Gras of 1964 that mentions Jewel's Tavern and Bob Dylan. See Note#1 in that post.

New Orleans Radio 1959/60 WNOE

 Here is some information about James A. Noe the owner of the station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Noe
     In the book and movie Hall Of Mirrors by Robert Stone I am pretty sure the character Reinhardt gets a job as a DJ at a conservative radio station WUSA modeled on WNOE. The book is set in New Orleans around 1959 and James A. Noe did run for Governor with Earl Long that year.
   WNOE-FM is now a country station.
WNOE is now WLNO a Christian station.
Here is a clip from WUSA. Paul Newman plays Rheinhardt the DJ speaking to a rioting crowd at a political rally.

Mardi Gras In New Orleans 1960 With Dick And Vinnie

This whiskey was very cheap in price in 1960. I think in New Orleans I bought it for $2.99 a fifth.
   I went to New Orleans when I was a sophomore in college with 3 friends from my fraternity. Two of the guys were from New York. One of them knew how to make our money last. We went first thing to Schwegmann's Supermarket in New Orleans.
We bought cheese and french bread and bottles of chianti. I also bought a fifth of Ten High whiskey. The link below will tell you about this famous supermarket chain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Schwegmann
   We went to the Schwegmann's supermaket on old Gentilly Road mentioned in the link above. It truly was super. And the liquor department was enormous. And the prices were low. Liquor was sold in supermarkets in New Orleans. A new idea to me at the time. I had never seen that before.

This is a photo of the back patio of Pat O'Brien's in New Orleans.

   So off we went into the old French Quarter. And more or less straight to Pat O'Brien's bar.  In the back patio large football players were playing "king of the mountain" on top of the covered fountain. All chairs and tables had been removed and the fountain covered to protect it from damage from the large standing room only crowds. The big guys would throw each other off the covered fountain to see who could be the last man standing.
http://www.patobriens.com/patobriens/havefun/our_story.asp

  I remember also that year drinking whiskey sours in the front bar. It was once listed in Esquire magazine as one of the best bars in the country. Then they had nice soft leather chairs. All that is gone now. Pat O'Brien's is not what it once was. It has been sold to some corporation who has watered down the drinks and opened Pat O'Brien's in other cities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_O'Brien's_Bar
 
As the night wore on I had managed to drink all but one swallow of the Ten High Bourbon over a period of maybe 8 hours. But I was so drunk they hung me over a tree limb in the back patio. My friend Dick said" You can't finish that let me have it". I said no and finished it myself. That is the last thing I remember.

What had happened I found out later. The place had gotten so full the police closed the front door and would not let more people in. Someone had gotten mad about that and shot or shot at someone. So the police arrested a large number of people and I was just carted off unconscious in the paddy wagon because I was passed out in the back patio by the tree.
   
In the morning I woke up in a tiled room that I at first thought to be the men's room in a bus station or hotel. I sat up. Some guy said "That kid doesn't even know where he is." You are right I thought. I looked around some more. It was a large room filled with men. Finally I saw some bars on a window and wised up. We were in jail. In the drunk tank as they called it then. In New Orleans at that time in 1960 if you were hauled off as a drunk they would take you to jail for 6 hours to sober up and then let you go. As it happened I was unconscious the whole time I was in jail.  Within a few minutes they called my name and and let me go. I had been in there sleeping from around midnight until 6 a.m.

 I walked back to where our car had been. It was gone. It was daybreak on a Sunday morning. I walked along Canal Street and found one of the guys from New York named Vinnie happily drinking at the Jungle Bar. He didn't seem to care that the other guys had left us in New Orleans and gone on back home.

   So Vinnie and I walked down Canal. He was tired and wanted to sleep. So he went over and went to sleep on the Simon Bolivar monument on Canal Street. I went to a nearby A&G cafeteria to eat some breakfast. There I met a guy from Indiana who had come down on a Greyhound bus and he and I sat and talked and I looked out the window.

    After a short while I saw a police car pull up to roust out Vinnie. They were waking him up when I got over there across Canal Street. They asked for our ID's and if we had any money. We had ID's but really no money left. They told us we had to leave town right away. We said  Ok. They left and we just went on back down in the French Quarter and resumed partying.

    Pat O'Brien's was really pleasant that Sunday. The weather was nice and many people were dressed in costumes. I remember a pretty girl dressed in a polka dot dress.
  Vinnie met a man who had sailed his sailboat around from San Francisco or so he said and he was buying us drinks.

   Late that evening we decided to go home. We hitch hiked out of New Orleans. It took some time.  We were stranded out in the middle of nowhere when a car full of students from our school stopped to pick us up. Inside was one of the campus beauty queens. She told us they had been to The Blue Room in the Roosevelt Hotel to see Frankie Laine.
    It was nice and warm in the car.  It was a pleasant surprise ending to a long day.

Pictures Of Two Famous Old New Orleans French Quarter Bars Now Gone La Casa De Los Marinos And The Seven Seas Or La Siete Mares

It is hard to find pictures of these places so I will put them on here. La Casa De Los Marinos was on the corner of Toulouse Street and Decatur Street. And The Seven Seas was on St. Phillip just off Decatur.

The above picture is the building that housed La Casa de Los Marinos back in the 1960s. It was right across the street from Jax Brewery on the corner of Toulouse St. and Decatur St. It is now a restaurant. Click to enlarge the photo.

Click and double click on the above photo to enlarge. The Seven Seas Bar is on the right hand side of the street. Photo by Eddie Hunter from 1965.

   In Mardi Gras of 1964 Bob Dylan was in both places among all the other bars in the French Quarter like Wanda's and Baby Green's. Click on the link below to read all about Bob Dylan at the 1964 Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
http://joeb-tallyho.blogspot.com/2009/12/bob-dylan-at-mardi-gras-new-orleans-feb.html
   Here is a link to an article about gone but not forgotten New Orleans watering holes of the past. Be sure and read the comments since they mention more places the author did not mention.
http://blog.nola.com/anguslind/2008/07/in_new_orleans_so_many_local_w.html

Central Grocery New Orleans,Louisiana And The Muffuletta Sandwich

Click on the above picture to enarge it.
This is the Italian Olive Salad which is a main ingredient in the Muffuletta Sandwich. You can buy these bottles of the olive salad at the Central Grocery in New Orleans,La.
Click on the pictures below to enlarge them.








http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Sandwiches/Muffuletta.htm
Central Grocery
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Restaurant Information
Established 1906
Current owner(s) Salvatore T. Tusa
Food type Italian, Greek, French, Spanish, and Creole table delicacies
Street address 923 Decatur Street
City French Quarter of New Orleans
State Louisiana
Country United States
Coordinates 29°57′32″N 90°03′39″W / 29.958792°N 90.060969°W / 29.958792; -90.060969

"Central Grocery is a small, old-fashioned Italian-American grocery store with a sandwich counter located at 923 Decatur Street, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was founded in 1906 by Salvatore Lupo, a Sicilian immigrant. He operated it until 1946 when he retired and his son-in-law, Frank Tusa took over the operation. Today it is owned by Salvatore T. Tusa, Salvatore's grandson and two cousins. The store was one of many family owned, neighborhood grocery stores during the early 20th century, when the French Quarter was still predominantly a residential area. Though tourists are more common in Central now, it has retained much of its old world market feel.

It is famous as the home of the New Orleans muffuletta sandwich invented by Salvatore Lupo[1], to feed the Sicilian truck farmers who sold their produce at the Farmer's Market on Decatur Street in the French Quarter.[2] The Muffuletta was only locally known until the late 1960s. Now, it has international fame. The Central sells not only the sandwiches as take-out or eat-in, but also the ingredients of the muffuletta—including olive salad by the jar—for people who want to make the sandwich at home. Because of the muffuletta, they were featured on the PBS special Sandwiches That You Will Like and "The Today Show" [five best sandwiches series].

Central Grocery also sells Italian, Greek, French, Spanish, and Creole table delicacies. They also carry less mainstream selections, such as chocolate covered grasshoppers and bumble bees in soy sauce, which are perennially displayed in the store front windows. Marie Lupo Tusa, Salvatore's daughter is author of the cookbook, "Marie's Melting Pot" which has hundreds of Sicilian, French and Creole style recipes."

We used to go to this place often in 1965 and 1966. Back in 1965 a Muffuletta Sandwich cost $2.50 and was so large that cut in four pieces it would feed 4 people. Now I think it cost about $12.00. Still it is the same sandwich and will feed two people with enough left over for another meal. Left in the paper wrapper the olive oil will soak in the bread and I think it actually tastes better the next day. Central Grocery is located on Decatur Street across from the old French Market. Their olive salad which is used in the sandwich is terrific. And it is worth buying a bottle or two to take home.

Storyville in New Orleans Photos of E.J. Bellocq And Jazz And Al Rose, Bill Russell And Larry Borenstein

Click on the link below to read about the book STORYVILLE,NEW ORLEANS by Al Rose.
http://www.amazon.com/Storyville-New-Orleans-Authentic-Illustrated/dp/0817344039#noop


Video above is Sweet Emma Barrett performing at Preservation Hall. She was also known as Sweet Emma The Bell Gal. If you watch the video you will see why.





Here is a link to a good article about 3 important men who kept Jazz Alive in New Orleans. Al Rose who wrote about Storyville and Larry Borenstein who started Preservation Hall in 1961. Somebody had to do it and he did. When Borenstein died he owned about half of the French Quarter. In 1965-1966 I used to see him sitting in his art gallery on Bourbon Street. He had found an artist who painted large canvases of Jazz musicians. The tourists loved them and bought them like the were French donuts or beignets.
Larry Borenstein is also the guy who found the glass negatives of E.J. Bellocq the famous photographer of Storyville. Borenstein sold them to Lee Friedlander who had them published in book form. The pictures also appear in Al Roses' book STORYVILLE published by The University of Alabama Press. The pictures inspired the movie PRETTY BABY starring Brooke Shields.
Here is some information on E.J. Bellocq.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._J._Bellocq
And here is the article on Al Rose and Bill Russell and Larry Borenstein.
http://www.rexrose.com/alrose.htm
You can see many more of the photographs of E.J. Bellocq here:
http://www.masters-of-photography.com/B/bellocq/bellocq.html
Click on all the pictures to enlarge them.