[Dixielandjazz] Re: North Beach memories Vanessi's restaurant & Gomans Gay 90's & Red Garter

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

Wow  Art:

As I was replying to John I was sitting her trying to remember the name 
of Frank Gassis from Vanessi's  I used to eat there three or four time 
a week and always loved him, he was fabulous.   As was the Calf's Liver 
Steak soaked in mile and grilled over the open flames then smothered in 
onions, sop good it would melt in your mouth and  make you slap your 
next door neighbor's mama.  :))

And yes I am pretty sure the player at Goman's was Johnny Cappola, 
although Frank Snow may have played there as well both were pretty 
popular in the city in those days, Billy Catalano Jr. was playing with 
my band around that time and had been married to my female vocalist 
named Arlene, they had his first son.   Lost track of her and her 
family several years ago.  As I recall she was a Gorgeous Italian and 
great pipes and lungs too,  but the ladies in her family lived long and 
did not age prettily unfortunately and she did marry a much younger man 
the second marriage Dennis Larson who was also quite handsome and a 
good organist.   They were still together about ten years ago as I 
recall.   Don't know if they are still in the Bay area or not.

By the way what ever became of Sam Zagami  ??  if you know.  Is he 
still with us?
Cheers,

Tom Wiggins

-----Original Message-----
From: Artwoo
To: O Arkas; TCASHWIGG; DWSI; dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
Sent: Sat, 22 Oct 2005  1:42:34 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Subject: North Beach memories Vanessi's restaurant & Gomans Gay 90's & 
Red Garter

      Hi: John's post about the El Greco reminded me of my favorite 
North Beach restaurant (now gone) Vanessis's.
  
  Anyone remember Frank Gassis (sp?) who played the cymbalon at 
Vanessi's?
  
  He was a musical genius and played the cymbalon with taste and fervor. 
I can still picture his hammering out beautiful music such as The Fifth 
Man theme and Smoke gets in your eyes.
  
  Another favorite spot, also long gone, was "Goman's Gay 90's" which 
was a recreation of the Barbary Coast. They featured a vaudeville style 
show with various acts and Ray Goman as the comic emcee. They had a 
house band reminiscent of the Pepsi Cola Disneyland Golden Horseshoe 
review. As I recall, the Gay 90's band had a super trumpet 
player...does anyone remember his name? Was it Frank Snow or Johnny 
Cappola?
  
  Also not to be forgotten is the Red Garter! Those cats were 
powerhouses!
  Sorry to ramble, but North Beach was important to me in my wilder 
days. I even saw the shows at Finocchios and the President Follies!
 AW