Citrus Park

It was that winter season also when Barbara Russell, activities director for Citrus Park, made us an offer to perform for New Year's Eve. We had already signed a deal to play for Highland Woods Country Club for the upcoming New Year's but she was interested in the following year at the turn of the century /millennium.  I remember being a little hesitant to accept the offer simply because Panco Entertainment Agency in Omaha was taking on a lot more of our booking schedule in 1998 and I thought it might be best to not engage that night.  In other words,  I felt it might cost us a whole December booking with a hotel or casino. It was a great offer never the less.

Having a discussion with Barbara about my concern,  she replied,  I think I can help you out a lot if you sign on. We did sign and what followed was a personal campaign by Barbara on our behalf. We supplied her with several sets of promotional material and she went to work. When meeting with the other activities directors at the regional meetings she pitched us to all of them.  It started paying off immediately.  I received calls from Indian Creek, Riverwoods Plantation, Siesta Bay, Lexington Country Club and several others, thanks to her efforts. In the final analysis, it was a good move for us and Citrus Park still remains one of our favorite venues.

Chuck Pane of Panco Entertainment Agency, put together a two week 10-night engagement for April at the Seminole Indian Casino in Immokalee Florida.  Ironically, having performed at the casino a couple of years earlier, this is where we first made contact with Chuck and his booking agency. It was at that time in 1996 that a major portion of the casino's entertainment schedule was given over to Panco Agency. We were just as happy to have the work nonetheless and having Chuck representing us was perfectly okay with us. We also signed on for a return engagement in June at two nights a week. As before with this casino, we played mostly background music,  the gaming being the main attraction. There is no dance floor and the audiences mainly consisted of people eating or resting after their losing or "more optimistically" winning at the games. All in all, not much fun for the band.

While we were in Mississippi we received several calls and lined up a variety of dances in the area. Debra Kramer food and beverage manager at The Port Of the Islands hotel, where we had performed New Year's Eve,  called and signed us for a Valentine's Ball working thru ABA agency in Naples. Again to be held at the hotel only this time we would be in the main ballroom. Much like our New Year's engagement, the acoustics were equally bad in the ballroom.  A large beautiful place with a big stage and a ceiling that seemed to never stop, we assembled a sizable amount of lighting and sound equipment for the dance. As a result of quite a bit of advertising in the newspaper and on the radio Port of the Islands had managed to sell out the evening. I believe the audience numbered 350 or more. A large ballroom with every seat filled. Wow! a great crowd. We were given a room again for the evening  with our deal. It went good in spite of the sound problems. 

Once again we were impressed with Debra Kramer's ability to stage an event, so naturally when she called  we were interested in talking with her. This time she had plans to hold a formal ball for the new organization "The Marco Island Film Society."  In anticipation of their upcoming debut of the Marco Island Film Festival in the fall of 1998,  the Society was planning a fund raiser and social ball on the night of the Academy Awards celebration in Hollywood.  We agreed to perform for this event, unsure until the last few weeks where it would be held.  It was finally decided that the venue would be the tarmac at the Marco Island Executive Airport. Sounds a little strange. But we have learned,  to never underestimate the girl's ability to throw a party.

Visit the Marco Island Film Festival

We arrived at the Marco Airport and found our way to the area where the evening's festivities were being setup. A large circus type of tent, inside the decor was that of an elegant ballroom including chandeliers. Crystal?  hard to tell from a distance but they looked like it. A huge TV screen was setup next to the stage where we would be, for the guests to watch the Hollywood event. We got our equipment setup and were instructed to play for the guests as they arrive and file into the ballroom. They had also assembled a group of folks to be the "paparazzi" just like the big stars have. The only difference is I think they hired this paparazzi. We all wonder what it would be like to be chased by the media and fans I reckon. 

While this was going on out front we were playing to an empty room. It was kind of funny, because the local news did a live feed covering the night and the newsman, Harry Horn with ABC7- TV, was standing in the ballroom, with us playing to a big empty room as his backdrop. Hmm. I would have recommended maybe using an alligator or a jet or even the "raging paparazzi" for his back drop had someone asked me.

Click to visit the ABC-7 Web site

The evening turned out to be a fabulous night. Hosted by local celebrities Mr. and Mrs. Don Farmer. Great people who made our job much easier. We played between speeches, presentations, auctions, and the Academy Awards show. Kind of schizophrenic all in all to get the folks all dancing  and them tell them to sit down now and listen to a speech or watch TV. But  it still turned out good. You might know the Farmers from their local radio shows or the Farmer Files column in the Marco Newspaper. An interesting note is that a few weeks into our engagement with the Stardancer cruise ship in 1994, Don had written a tidbit about us in one of his columns titled "Gambling on the High Seas.  The Farmer's are best know for their work with CNN in the 1980's.

Well Debra Kramer had done it again! As a memento she presented us with a pair of commemorative crystal champagne glasses with the Marco Island Film Festival logo on it. We are happy to look back and remember that we participated in the early days of this now annual event.

 

Sometime in February we sealed up a month long deal with Chuck again. This time to perform four nights a week at the Holiday Inn Oceanside on Hutchinson Island. This is a beautiful hotel on the Atlantic Coast in a town called Stuart, Florida. Our engagement was scheduled for May. Wednesday through  Saturday in the lounge. This was very useful to us, being that our season is usually over here in South Florida by mid-April. It is always nice to get a steady deal for the month of May.

Our winter season found us steadily working. I continued my marketing efforts as well. We had a debut performance with The Glades Country Club in Naples on St Patrick's Day. This led to future engagements with the well known golf community in coming years. We also signed a deal with Panco to perform a two week 10-night engagement in the Louisville, Kentucky Metro area for August. We were glad for agent Chuck Pane's role that winter. He filled in a lot of our calendar for sure. 

An unfortunate thing did occur in mid April. We received a call from Chuck. It seems that the Holiday Inn Oceanside had a fire. The electrical fire had forced a complete closing of business operations until the place could be rewired totally encompassing the month that we were to be there. We were pretty upset at losing the gig. It was too late for us to rebook the month locally. We were back and forth on the phone a couple of times with Chuck and talked about driving far away if necessary to work. It turned out that Chuck came up with a great solution. He rearranged things with Gallagher's Night Club at the Holiday Inn South in Lakeland, Florida. He was able to put us in for a three week engagement at 5-nights a week in May.  It turned out to be a nice situation and we were given a room for the duration at the hotel. We commuted back to Naples on our days off.  It is important to note that Chuck Pane is without a doubt one of the finest agents we have ever dealt with. This was just another example of his commitment toward the artist's and performers that he represents. 

Summer and Fall was typically slow other than our dates with the agency we had a few dances with the American legion 303. Throughout all of this time we were both still working for Blue-Eyed Bear in Naples. The fact that we were able to leave quite a bit was in a large part due to a sizable drop in sales accounts. Blue-Eyed Bear was still optimistic of their future in the apparel business and set about opening of  a retail store in the Virgin Islands.

  

Holiday Inn Lakeview Lounge and Restaurant

In August we made our journey to Louisville to fulfill our commitment with Lakeview Holiday Inn. Actually located in Clarksville, Indiana a large hotel than catered to a lot of business folks and various large conventions throughout the year. Located across the bridge from downtown Louisville on the Ohio River, the lounge is affectionately referred to as the Lakeview Lounge by the locals. It was a wonderful experience for us. The people of that area are among the nicest folks we have ever encountered. They have that southern hospitality approach that is common in Kentucky and Tennessee. We met the night manager Daryl on the night we arrived and was setting up in the lounge. He seemed like an old friend, which he indeed became soon.

The following night we met most of the staff of the lounge, again extremely nice folks. Becky was manager of the lounge at that time and we became friends with her and all of the cocktail waitresses immediately. After the night was over Becky would take us out and show us the night life in downtown Louisville. And also invite us over to her house. They all just treated us as if we were lifelong friends. It was a most unusual experience for us. Not to criticize Florida, but strangers are in a much bigger hurry here and don't often take the time to talk and get to know each other. We met the general manager of the hotel and he also was a very good friend to us. In our travels, it has been very rare for a general manager of a large operation to have time to for a friendly visit with the band. 

This warm friendly way did not end with just the staff, we would travel across the bridge at the end of the evening and meet Becky at Zena's lounge in downtown Louisville and listen to some great regional blues bands and everyone in the place was friendly. I remember meeting Zena, and on more than one occasion  listening to her tell me about Louisville and how she has been in business for decades. She recommended we take a drive up the river to Madison, Indiana if we wanted to see a great old river town.

A picture of Zena aka Mary Jean Zena in her cafe.  A longtime hangout for the arts community the wall is filled with signed publicity photos of many well known performers.

The band would end and we would usually make one more stop before the night was over. This was to Jake's bar. A couple of blocks away from Zena's was this tiny little bar  surrounded by the tall buildings of downtown Louisville. You would enter and right away spot the man named Jake sitting behind the bar with a gleam in his eye. A warm friendly little place that attracted the "one last drink" crowd. Looking around the first thing you would notice is the shrine on the wall celebrating the career of Frank Sinatra. Yes Jake is one of Sinatra's biggest fans. Not long into it,  the music would come on with a loud but beautiful rendition of "Fly me to the Moon" or "Strangers in the Night". Of course, what would you expect. The crowd consisted of young and old all crammed in for that last drink and to be rocked away by the "chairman of the board" on the jukebox. Behind the bar was a sign that said "pouring since prohibition." Indeed, as we got to talking with Jake we found he really had been a part of the Louisville night life for that long. He wore his years well and you could detect his love of people and life in his smile. 

Here we are with Jake and Becky with sounds of Frank Sinatra bouncing off the walls.

We traveled back to Louisville for the next two summers and found the same wonderful experiences awaiting. In our three summers there we explored the area. Among other things, we visited Fort Knox, The Louisville Zoo, attended the Kentucky State Fair,  made the trip to Madison several times, and enjoyed the hospitality immensely. We were born and raised in a river town that was very similar to Louisville. The Quad Cities is laid out much the same, with communities on both sides of a big muddy river (the Mississippi). Most of the summer events center around the river and the riverboats and the culture dates back to the early 1800s. Much different from South Florida where a house older than the 1960's is rare. After so many years in Florida we have come to realize that the charm of the old river towns is a big part of our past. Our trips to Louisville certainly served to awaken many old memories for us. I spent most of my days walking and jogging along the waterfront and across the bridge and remembering. 

Click to visit Madison, Indiana

We made a decision not to travel back to Louisville in 2001 and beyond mostly because of our business in Florida. This was a very difficult decision to reach. Those folks with names like Becky, Pam, Pam, David, Snooky, Daryl, etc. will remain forever etched in our memories. And undoubtedly the Louisville experience will be another one of those gems you collect along the way of your life. You know the ones that matter the most, the people!

We finished out the summer with a trip to our home in the Quad Cities to visit family and friends and then back to Naples. The fall was slow at first but one thing was beginning to happen for us. The dinner dances that we both hoped to make a business out of were starting to trickle in. We were putting some dates on for the upcoming season.  The Blue-Eyed Bear was still in a sales slump and the inevitable downsizing occurred in October.  Julie and several other production artists were laid off indefinitely. I freelanced  most of my stuff working mainly at home and stayed on with the company for about another two years. The time it took for the company to finally close down. The last I heard, Ri still has a web site and paints in her garage retailing small orders. 

Julie was kind of sad to see her painting job go, because she really liked having an artistic job and really enjoyed painting ladies fashion wear.  But we both had a feeling that there was something more important around the corner. It has been our experience that everything happens for a reason. The reason came a very short time later. In response to a classified add in the paper Julie applied for a teaching position with Daye Music in Naples. Teaching, mostly kids, piano. She had taught many years earlier in Illinois and assumed that she would not return to it again because it was a pretty unstable way of making a living back then.  I think I made the point that we were very accustomed to "unstable" after all these years in the music business. And that it would be a great thing if it worked out because she would be doing something she has a true interest in. She got the job at Daye Music which ultimately became the Southwest Florida Music Academy.