The Wheel

 

In an effort to tie in with the release of Taylor Swift's new album, "Life of Showgirl" (unless you live in a cave, you may have heard about it), the Heinz History Center made a post on social media over the weekend about the establishment that you see pictured on the left, The Wheel Cafe, located on Forbes Street in downtown Pittsburgh between Smithfield and Wood Streets, and to tie it in with other types of "showgirls" from Pittsburgh's past.  

I'll get to that part a bit later, but seeing pictures of The Wheel brought back a lot of fond memories to The Grandstander.  I had first heard about the joint from my Dad, who lunched there often during his working career in the city. When I started going to Robert Morris College  in 1970, it was quite convenient to go there for lunch myself.  Sometimes I would meet my Dad there for lunch, and if memory serves me correctly, I courted a young RMC co-ed named Marilyn Moellenbrock there on many an occasion.  I also distinctly remember eating there with my Dad and my two brothers on the morning of December 23, 1972, and then hopping on a shuttle bus to Three Rivers Stadium  where we watched a little sporting event that came to be known as The Immaculate Reception Game.  When I came back to Pittsburgh in 1978 and worked in Gateway Center for Equitable Life, I had lunch there regularly (often times with that same now former RMC co-ed, who I had married in 1974) right up until the time The Wheel closed its doors in 1985.  I seem to recall that The Wheel tried to make a go of it at a new location on Smithfield Street, but it was just not the same, and it didn't last long.

The Wheel was a dark and somewhat dingy place, but it was clean, and it served really good lunch fare.  My favorite was "The Regular", a grilled ham and cheese sandwich served on a nice crusty roll.  It was a great place for business men and women (and college students) to stop for a quick sandwich and a beer (or soft drink) for lunch.  It was a place that had a distinct personality and character, and joints like that just aren't around anymore.

Now, as to the "showgirl" theme.  The Wheel opened in 1936 and it was located just a few doors down from the Casino Theater.  The Casino, which closed in 1965, was a burlesque house during a time when burlesque was respectable and striptease was considered an art form.  History  tells us that between and after shows at the Casino, the performers, including the, ahem, showgirls, would stop in at The Wheel for drinks and a meal.  The girls would leave autographed pictures at the place, like this one from the legendary Tempest Storm....

,,,and all of these pictures were hung above the bar.  Those old photos from the forties and fifties remained hanging above the bar in all of their faded and black and white glory right up until when the place closed down.

I was told by my father, a wise man in so many ways, that the name of the place came from the nickname for the circuit that the burlesque performers traveled as they practiced their art form, "The Peel Wheel".  I never had that confirmed, and a Google search today gives a different spin on the term "peel wheel" as it relates to burlesque, but I like my Dad's version, and I'm sticking to it.

Thanks to my friends at the Heinz History Center for stirring up some pretty cool memories for me.

My New Gig

When I retired in 2010, one of the very first things that I did was sign on as a volunteer at the Heinz History Center, and for much of the past five plus years I have served as docent at the History Center, mainly conducting tours for school children ranging in age from third grade to high school senior.  I enjoyed it immensely, but last winter I kind of reached my limit ("burn out" is way too strong a term) as a docent, so I took a step back for a few months.  Not wanting to disassociate myself entirely with this terrific Pittsburgh institution, I asked HHC Human Resources Director Renee Falbo and Volunteer Coordinator Ellen DeNinno what other volunteer opportunities might be available.

It was Ellen who came up with the idea of using me as a History Center Ambassador to speak to some groups in the area who might not have the time windows or the financial resources to request a visit from a full-fledged History Center Ambassador.  They asked me if I was willing to give that a try, and today was my first gig.  I spoke to the weekly luncheon meeting of the Greentree Rotary Club this afternoon, and I really had a blast.

Let's face it, I love being retired, but there was something nice today about putting on a sport coat and speaking to a group of twenty-five people about a topic that was interesting, fun, and something that I care about.  I was promoting the Heinz History Center, and face it, that's a lot more fun than talking to a group of employees about how their health insurance plan is going to change and cost them more money.

I am grateful to both Renee and Ellen for coming up with this idea, and I hope that I can do a lot more of these engagements in the months ahead.  If you are a part of a group that needs speakers for lunch or dinner meetings, let me know, and I can put you in touch with the right people at the History Center to get it lined up. 

Movie Thoughts..."Black Mass", "Psycho", "Casablanca" and the Price of Popcorn

Some movie thoughts and opinions....

Saw this movie this afternoon.

It is the story about Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger.  I love mob movies, and while this one is no "Goodfellas", and certainly no "Godfather", it's a pretty good one.  I was somewhat familiar with the Bulger story, but wasn't totally aware of the "deal with the devil" that the local Boston FBI office made with Bulger, nor was I aware of the prominence of Bulger's younger brother in Boston politics.  The best part of this movie is the performance of Johnny Depp.  There was a school of thought that Depp's career had descended into a series of parodies of his Capt. Jack Sparrow character, but not in this case.  He's dynamite as Whitey Bulger

One minor quibble.  I suppose that when you make a movie that takes place in Boston, everybody has to speak in over-exaggerated Boston accents (there were a few points where I wish there had been sub-titles).  It adds to the authenticity, I suppose, but sometimes it just seems so forced.

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Earlier in the week we had seen the TCM/Fathom Events presentation of Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" on the big screen at the Cinemark North Hills.

It was terrific experience to see this in such a setting, and it prompted my mind to wander in the following direction:  With a movie that has been parodied so many times, and is so ingrained in our culture, was there anyone in the theater that night who was seeing "Psycho" for the first time?  Similarly, is there anyone out there who is unfamiliar with what "Psycho" is about?  Could there possibly be anyone to whom viewing this movie would be a completely blank page, and if so, what would they think viewing it for the first time in 2015?  

After seeing this movie on Sunday, I went on line and searched for reviews of this movie that were given at the time of its 1960 release.  The Internet makes it possible to find such things, and they make for interesting reading with fifty-five years of hindsight.

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In conjunction with its current exhibit on World War II, the Heinz History Center is offering a "World War II Film Festival" this Saturday and Sunday in its Mueller Education Center this coming weekend.  I will be working as a Volunteer on Saturday afternoon when "Casablanca" will be shown.  Talk about being able to see a Classic on the Big Screen!

If you aren't doing anything this Saturday afternoon, think about stopping by.  Not sure what my volunteer role will be, but I just might be the guy to sell you a candy bar....or offer to procure a Letter of Transit for you!

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Finally, when I went to see "Black Mass" this afternoon, I thought I'd treat myself to a bag of popcorn.  A small bag.  Note that I said a SMALL bag.  The price was $6.05.  Putting aside the outrageous price for something that probably cost less than a dime for the theater to produce, I had to laugh at the cost of six dollars and FIVE cents.  As I said to the young kid at the cash register, they must just LOVE having to count out ninety-five cents in change all the time.  I mean, really, how was it determined that this commodity should cost $6.05?

It just struck me as odd.

New Exhibit at the Heinz History Center

Okay, this post is nothing more than a bold and unabashed commercial for one of my volunteer activities, the John Heinz History Center.  A new temporary exhibit will be opening this weekend and will run through Mother's Day.  The exhibit is called  "1968: The Year That Rocked America".  I had a chance to take a preview tour today, and it is a fantastic exhibit, one of the best I've seen since in the three plus years I have been at the History Center.  !968 was the year of my junior and senior years in high school, and so many of the events chronicled in this exhibit are vivid in my mind and important in my own personal history and memories.

Here are just a few of the people and events that are touched upon in this exhibit:

TET...Martin Luther King....Janis Joplin....Laugh-In....Viet Nam....My Lai....Eugene McCarthy.....Robert Kennedy....The White Album....Chicago Democratic Convention.....Richard Nixon....Apollo 8.

Trust me, I'm not even scratching the surface of all that is in this exhibit.

If you were alive in 1968 and can recall these events, you need to see this exhibit, and even if you were not and 1968 seems like ancient history to you, maybe especially if it seems like ancient history to you, you should really make it a point to visit this exhibit.

Meeting a Legend

One of my favorite events to work as a volunteer at the Heinz History Center is the annual Sportsmanship Summit sponsored by the WPIAL.  Over 600 high school athletes from the WPIAL attend this event.  The main speakers at today's Summit were former Penn State coach Tom Bradley and basketball star Swin Cash, she of McKeesport High School, University of Connecticut, WNBA, and US Olympic fame.

One of my duties today, along with fellow docent Marti Donovan, was to meet Ms. Cash when she arrived and escort her to the room where the event was taking place.  We did that, and I have to say that she was a most gracious lady, very pleasant to talk with and quite charming.  She certainly didn't "big time" us, or the kids that she was there to address.  Her message to the student-athletes in attendance was a very good one.  

Very cool to meet and chat with a truly elite athlete and first class person.

The Greatest Generation Visits the Heinz History Center

Yesterday, I had the honor of being one of four docents at the Heinz History Center to conduct a tour for a group of World War II veterans, and I do not use the word "honor" lightly in this case.

This was an annual reunion gathering of a platoon of men that served in the infantry and marched through Europe under George Patton.  It is a reunion whose numbers get smaller each year.  Think about it.  If you were serving in WW II at the age of 18 in 1945, the year the war ended, you would be 85 years old today.  So, of the dozen or so men that arrived yesterday, many were in wheelchairs or using walkers, many were accompanied by their adult children, and some of those folks were older than my 61 years.  They came from all over the country, Iowa, Texas, Utah, California, but they were enjoying the hell out of their time together and their visit to Pittsburgh.  In touring the Heinz History Center and Sports Museum, they wanted to hear all about Pittsburgh's days as the "Smokey City" and the Immaculate Reception and the Western Pennsylvania's role in the Whiskey Rebellion and the Allegheny Arsenal explosion and the invention of the Ferris Wheel, and I could go on and on.

It was when we got to that section of the History Center that dealt with WW II that I turned the tables and asked them to talk to me.  Then I heard stories of marching through France and  Austria and Berchtesgaden and into Germany, and walking through the house that was Hitler's birthplace, and having a platoon of 100 German soldiers surrendering to you while you were holding a machine gun on them, of building pontoon bridges to cross the Ruhr River.  I asked them how old they were when this was happening to them.  19.  22. 18. .21. 25.  You get the idea.

I am seldom at a loss for words when I do these tours at the History Center, but I was yesterday.  I admit to getting choked up and barely being able to say "thank you" to all of them, words that seemed so inadequate in the circumstances.  This was a tour and a group of men that I will never forget.

God Bless them all.

To Absent Friends: Jack Twyman

Jack Twyman died on Wednesday of this week at the age of 78.  In an era of ESPN, 24 hour sports coverage, and endless highlight shows, guys like Jack Twyman are all but forgotten, and you have to be pretty much over 60 years old to have any memory of seeing Twyman play in a Hall of Fame NBA career that ran from 1955 through 1966, but his is a career - and a life - worth remembering.


A native of Pittsburgh, Twyman went to Central Catholic High School, and he is easily the greatest basketball player to come from Central.  An All-American at the University of Cincinnati, Twyman played with the Rochester / Cincinnati Royals in the NBA, and when he retired in 1966, he had scored over 15,800 points in his career.  In the 1959-60 season, not one, but two players averaged over 30 points per game for the first time in NBA history.  One of them was Wilt Chamberlain.  The other was Jack Twyman.


He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983.


However, for all of his many accomplishments on the court, Twyman should be most remembered as a humanitarian.  In the 1958 season, his Royals teammate, and fellow Pittsburgher, Maurice Stokes was seriously injured in a game, an injury that caused him permanent paralysis and lifelong brain damage.  Twyman had himself declared Stokes' legal guardian, and, as such, saw to his care until Stokes passed away in 1970.  After that, Twyman devoted much of his efforts to raising money for down-on-their-luck former NBA players.


I conducted a tour today at the Heinz History Center for a group of fifth grade boys from Butler County.  Large pictures of both Twyman and Stokes hang on the wall in the basketball portion of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the History Center.  I gathered the kids around and told them the story of Jack Twyman and Maurice Stokes.  I'm not sure how well the story resonated with nine 11 and 12 year old boys, but one of the adult chaperons with the group said, "That was doing God's work".  Indeed.


RIP Jack Twyman.

The Kids from James Madison University

Did an interesting tour today at the Heinz History Center.

A bus from James Madison University in Virginia arrived with a group of 40 high school age kids. The purpose was to get kids who might not be considering college to change their minds about pursuing a higher education. They were in Cleveland yesterday and Pittsburgh today - they were headed for Kennywood after they left the HHC - before heading back to Virginia tomorrow.

All of the kids were African-American, so that was the emphasis of the tour (Pittsburgh Courier, jazz in the Hill District, Negro Leagues etc). When looking over some of the baseball stuff in the sports museum, one of the kids asked me if we had any stuff from Andrew McCutchen. When another kid asked who that was, the first kid replied "that good dude from the Pirates with the dreads."

I also found it interesting that these kids from Virginia knew more about Franco Harris and the Immaculate Reception than I find many similar aged kids from Pittsburgh know. More than a few of them were also familiar with Roberto Clemente and his story. (On the other hand, very few of them knew the story of Jesse Owens. Can't win 'em all, I suppose.)

I really enjoy doing a tour with people who are NOT from Pittsburgh. You get a whole different perspective. And of course, a middle aged white guy like me really got a different perspective from this group of kids today. It was good experience.

Selected Short Subjects

Selected Short Subjects for a Monday Morning....

Glad to see that the Pitt Panthers secured a #1 Seed for the NCAA Tournament, if for no other reason than to avoid listening the three days of angst and despair if they had gotten a lower seed.

Did you miss Billy Packer on the Selection Show? How fun would it have been listening to him bitching about 11 Big East teams in the field and only 3 ACC teams (and one in a play-in game at that) in the Tourney?

For what it is worth, I have a Final Four of North Carolina, Duke, Notre Dame. and Pitt.

*****
I watched little of the golf tournament from Doral yesterday afternoon. Very good event with Nick Watney edging Dustin Johnson for the title. Good stuff, and it seems that a new wave of young golfers are starting to come to the fore on the PGA Tour. Tiger Woods did manage a Top Ten finish in this event, but through the first 2 and 1/2 months of the season, he and Phil Mickelson are appearing to be just two other guys out there. Of course, I don't expect that Tiger and Phil will no longer be relevant, but it's looking like their days of domination may be over.

What might have been even more disconcerting was seeing Aussie Adam Scott, once hailed as a Young Lion on the Tour, using a long putter. I hate those things.

*****
You want to see an example of abject greed? Read the statement that Art Rooney II released after the NFL labor talks broke down last Friday. It reinforces my long-held belief that no one surpasses sports team owners when it comes to greed.

This morning I'm reading the PG story of the Gerry Dulac's interview with Rooney over the weekend. Halfway through I asked myself "why am I reading this?" Just let me know when it's over.

I am guessing that not one regular season game will be missed when all is said and done.

*****

My newest addition to my DVD collection is a box set "Definitive Edition" if the old "Twilight Zone" TV series. All 156 half-hour episodes with Rod Serling and done in glorious black & white. In the last week or so, I have watched about 10 episodes, and, for the most part, the stories and the production holds up very well after 50 years. A couple of them have been clinkers, but a few are very good. "The After Hours" with Anne Francis was good, as was "The Eye of the Beholder" which starred a pre-Beverly Hillbillies Donna Douglas. And as it did 48 years ago, "Terror at 20,000 Feet", starring a very young William Shatner, can still scare the bejeezus out of you!

*****
For the second year in a row, I volunteered this past Saturday at the Heinz History Center for National History Day, and got to view the history projects and presentations of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders from throughout the region. If you worry about the direction kids are headed in these days, your mind can be put at rest when you experience something like this. These kids are amazing.