[Dixielandjazz] Capones Reunion Dinner

[Robert Ringwald]

Capones DJML



Dear Listmates,



For some 16 1/2 years in the 60s and 70s I worked 5-nights a week at a very unique

place. It was called Capones Chicago Tea Room and Pizza joint.



While it was a pizza parlor during the hay-day of pizza parlors, it was very unusual.

It was not the type of place you would want to take your kids to, especially at night

when the music started.



We had two Air Force bases in the Sacramento area and a major California college. We drew an awful

lot of our customers from those places plus a lot of other customers.

Lots of people went through that place. 



We had a Jazz, comedy, Dixieland type band. Any gags we could come up with, our boss, Carlo Giordano, would go along with. In fact, sometimes he would think of them himself. 



One very successful gag we did was the following:



In the early to mid 60s when topless became all the rage in San Francisco, we decided to put on our own topless show.  



We advertised topless and had a overflowing crowd that night including the Sacramento County Sheriffs Dept. ready to close the club down.  



When it came time to have the topless, the band, including myself, came out with no shirts on. It was great! 



A couple weeks later we stopped taking our shirts off, but one band member, banjoist Roger Reitano began dressing in drag and doing a comedy topless. When Roger left to move to Alaska, he raced sled dogs, Art Terry joined the band on gut bucket and really developed the show. It would take him at least an hour to get dressed for the show. He had 3-fake boobs, a fir-lined jock strap from which he would pull things out o, and many other gags. It was the damnest thing you ever saw. 



That wasn’t the only gag. We put Roger Snell on the roof with a piano and he played for over 50 hours. 



Many more, too many to go into now. 



In 2009 I played at the great Jazz Festival

that our List mate in Hungary Tomas Ittzes puts on. I actually ran into a man there who had been to Capones. 



 In Elk Grove CA, just  south of Sacramento. We are looking for ex-employees of Capones and any dedicated ex-customers that would like to come to the dinner. 



If anyone is interested, please contact me off-list for details, times, menu cost, etc. 



Bob Ringwald

rsr at ringwald.com

www.ringwald.com

916/ 806-9551