[Dixielandjazz] Re; Goldenrod Revival

[G. William Oakley]

Dear Listmates:
The following was sent to me by Tommy Bartlett of the Salty Dogs.  For those
of you unaware the Goldenrod Showboat has recently been rescued from its St.
Charles, Missouri boneyard by a local businessman.  It is his intention to
refurbish the boat and to that end he has created a website for public
suggestions.  The site is:
http://www.goldenrodshowboat.org

The following post is from Tommy:

I played with Salty Dogs and other jazz bands for several decades of   "hot"
June Festivals...which also featured  other top bands in the world!

It was far more than a floating stage...it was our "home" for the week or
the weekend.  The St. Louis Ragtimers (Don Franz) can expand on that
theme...except that they were the "host" band..and we were the
out-of-towners who brought in the crowds from across the country..the world.
Turk Murphy, leader of the most popular jazz band of its time (50's thru the
80's..) hesitated to leave his San Franciso-based club..EXCEPT for the
annual St. Louis Ragtime Festival onboard the Goldenrod.  He repeatedly said
that it was the perfect setting for a jazz get-together.  We believe the
term or at least the modern-day concept of the "Jazz Festival", as it has
come to be known all over California and across the country, originated with
the  St. Louis Jazz Festival on board the Goldenrod Showboat...in the 70's
and 80's.

KEY contacts for "jazz ideas" for the Goldenrod Showboat should include...

Jim Cullum..leader of his world-reknown jazz band from San Antonio, TX... a
fixture on Nat'l Public Radio weekly..
         www.landing.com

G. W. Oakley...former SUPER festival promoter of the Goldenrod
festivities,jazz festivals in Colorado, Broadway Productions etc,
(Georgetown , Colo.)
        gwilliamoakley at earthlink.net

Lew Green, leader of Salty Dogs Jazz Band..with "contacts."
        lewhorn at aol.com

Leon Oakley, jazz trumpeter extraordinare, leader/memeber  of various hot
jazz groups with.."contacts."

None of this will sustain a "floating theatre" during the whole calendar
year.  However, it might infuse enough enthusiasm in the city fathers to
want to bend over backward ($) in keeping the Goldenrod Showboat as a jewel
of the riverfront in St. Louis...as a museum, restaurant, operetta
stage...and home of a unique annual floating jazz festival!!

Jazz Festivals won't be the main course-savior of the Goldenrod
Showboat..but it could be that "cherry, nessled in the whipped creme on the
dessert.."..you just gotta have~!!   Historical tourist attractions are an
illusion!  They're a recreated or preserved ambiance of what was.
Goldenrod is "REEKING" of  the AUTHENTIC!!

Get the jazz stages out of the staid hotel meeting rooms and back on the
REAL THING.. The  GOLDENROD SHOWBOAT!!
(Talk to the St. Louis Jazz Club..St. Louis phone book)...  ask for Jeff
Leopold.   Throw aformentioned names around.  If they get pissed with
me..I'll deal with it.   I think they'd be delighted.

Hey,  It worked once!! Why not again??!!


Yours truly,

Tom Bartlett,

just a long-time lover of that boat.

P.S.   What's it's Coast Guard status..as a  floating vehicle?

Could it be wet/dry docked "inland" somewhere?   (like ten feet inland?) As
a salesman, I used to dine/customer entertain  in a "Bayou Belle" restaurant
that was a former steamboat, dragged across the land to a shopping center
location in suburban St. Louis.  I don't think that's really the dignified
place for the Goldenrod!!

That lovely boat deserves much better!!

St. Louis did much with it's railroad heritage.  (Check out the
railroad/transp;ortation museum!!)    Why not have the Goldenrod be the
foundation of a Nat'l Steamboat /Showboat Museum?!!  Let's Go!!