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July 23, 2007 Last Call The year was 1963. From Vietnam to the Kremlin to the Berlin Wall to Birmingham to Washington, D.C., the world was in the insufferable throes of governmental convulsion and historic change. That same year, what we now refer to as "the sixties" began. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton burned up the screen as the on and off camera saga of "Cleopatra" unfolded in headlines around the globe. Other movies that year included, Fellini's "8 1/2," Hitchcock's "The Birds," "Tom Jones" and "Curse of the Living Dead." On Broadway, the likes of "Oliver," "She Loves Me," "110 in the Shade" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" ruled. Beatlemania had begun (although the Fab Four wouldn't arrive here until February, 1964.) Andy Warhol was painting soup can labels on silk screen and calling it art. President Kennedy was assassinated. It was the age of Aquarius. Down in New York's pulsating Greenwich Village, another kind of history was unfolding with vigor. It had nothing at all to do with the state of politics or armies, the Berlin Wall, demonstrations, Liz Taylor's bedroom or Jackie's wardrobe. It had everything to do with art. The seeds of a thousand dreams had been planted. An orgy of riches was about to flower. At 55 Grove street, a dusty club called The Duplex, was alive and living well. A golden age of performances and future stars had begun in a dumpy club that looked like a basement. It really got started in 1948 when Bret Morrison, a.k.a: "The Shadow," on radio, rented the upstairs room so that his wife, Sylvia Syms, would have a place to sing. At the time, Syms was appearing with Mae West in a revival of "Diamond Lil" on Broadway. As the late Bob Harrington would point out years later writing in Back Stage, "That (club) launched what would become the most fertile breeding ground for new talent in the history of show business." He was arguably right. After all, what do Joan Rivers, Hal Holbrook, Richard Pryor, "Nunsense" and Barbra Streisand have in common? Add to that: Karen Akers, Liz Callaway, Dick Cavett, Nathan Lane, Nancy LaMott, Karen Mason, Sharon McNight, Sally Mayes, Joanne Worley and later, wunderkind Jason Robert Brown. They all lived at the same address. Well, sort of. You see, along with a plethora of familiar names from the sixties through the eighties, they're all strongly rooted to the much loved and weathered 55 Grove Street address, the location of Rose's Turn; which was the original location of that fabled watering hole known as The Duplex (which, under new ownership, has now relocated across the street.) There was magic in the air. Well folks, it's about to become a much needed real estate office. Ending months of speculation and denial, the owners of Rose's Turn closed its doors permanently on Sunday, July 22. It was sold for $3.5 million. It is the third Manhattan cabaret-piano bar to shut its doors in the last 6 months; Danny's and Helen's being the others. What is happening? Why is this village club different from all other clubs? For starters, it opened as a legend. It was a field of dreams - built on talent and a two-drink minimum. MORE - page 2  3  4  5  6  Back to NYC CABARET REVIEW Index Page Back to CABARET HOTLINE ONLINE Home Page

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