HAWKERS AND SHILLS

I never took a class in Psychology in High School or College, and yet I learned a very important psychological lesson early in life. The odd thing is that I learned it first at the Old Howard Burlesque Theater in Scollay Square. Between the strippers and the comedy acts a Hawker would appear on stage and announce that vendors would be passing among us in the aisles selling boxes of salt water taffy candies. “In each in every box was a guaranteed prize. Please stand up and reveal your prize when you open your box…. you sir in the balcony.” Someone would stand and reveal a beautiful gold watch. You in the back, what did you find….a beautiful gold ring, you on the left…a beautiful gold bracelet etc.

The boxes of candy sold out immediately. Of course when everyone opened their box.. there was a prize… a cheap plastic toy with a made in Japan label. By time everyone realized they had been taken the lights had been dimmed for the next act and the Hawker and his Shills were long gone.

That psychological technique for selling products is in use every day on television. Hawker: “Caller… you bought our product.” Caller: “Yes for myself, my daughter, my sister and my aunts.” Hawker:” Today’s Special Value, Hot Pick, Never again at this price is selling out. Only 200 left..don’t be left out.” I know the callers are not Shills but in a way they are.

I bring this up today because this is “Black Friday” ..the day when frenzied shopping occurs. There are some real savings to be had but then again there are some that are not. The Psychology for selling and shilling are very much in practice today as when I first learned it 60 years ago. I leave you with this final thought “Buyer Beware”

Mother Teresa

Earlier this year the Vatican sainted two popes, Pope John Paul II and John XXIII. In the case of Pope John II the normal process of canonization was shortened to hasten his Sainthood. No one question that both Popes were deserving of the honor…. but what of Mother Teresa. Pope John II recognized her charitable works and started the process to Sainthood in 2003. Now in 2014 she is in some sort of limbo, somewhat close but not close enough according to Catholic rules and regulations.

She established The Missionaries of Charity, providing help to the poor, the sick, and the homeless around the world. Mother Teresa won the Nobel prize in 1979 for her work with the poor. In addition she won the 1971 Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and the 1971 Nehru Prize. Pope John Paul II was an avid supporter of her work.

In Calcutta marking Mother Teresa's birth anniversary, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim admirers joined in common prayers for her speedy canonization. How many today could make that claim? Social media has been known to make changes where change is overdue. I suggest we here on Facebook start that process.

Please click “Like” and share this post. Perhaps this will be the catalyst that hastens a long overdue Honor for a real Saint.

JOE AND NEMO

Next To the “Old Howard “burlesque theater in Scollay Square was a restaurant known as Joe and Nemo. It was famous for its hot dogs. This was the original location. It would later branch out to other locations when it was torn down during the 1960’s Urban Removal frenzied period. It was then that all of the remaining establishments in the Square were torn down to make room for the new City Hall and the vast wasteland in front of it.

It was here where I ordered and got my first alcoholic drink. I felt so grown up. I was still in my teen years and wondered if I would be carded and refused. No worry—they were willing to serve anyone whose chin could reach the bar.

The square had become seedy and run down by the 1960’s. However it was teeming with life and vitality. You could always tell when the fleet was in. The sailors dominated the landscape. Many a sailor left with a tattoo as a remembrance of Boston.

City Hall won all kinds of architectural awards, but I have never been in a more cold and concrete walled fortress. Even the late mayor Tom Menino wanted to tear it down and move to the waterfront.  He had the right idea.

SCOLLAY SQUARE

The area we now know as Government Center was originally Scollay Square. In its heyday it was bustling with hotels, restaurants, tattoo parlors, small commercial establishments and two burlesque theaters—the Casino and the Old Howard. The acts at the theaters were primarily vaudeville in nature. The strippers would “bump and grind” their bodies across the stage and the comedians would cause great laughter with their double entendre jokes. If you saw “The Nance” with Nathan Lane recently on TV you will know what I mean.

As a rite of passage a young teenager had to visit the theaters before he could call himself a man, so I did. Honestly, by today standards the stripers were tame in comparison with what you can see on cable TV these days. The comedians were a riot and many of them made successful careers in the early days of live television--- Jackie Gleason, Fred Allen, Milton Berle, Jimmy Durante, to name a few. The strippers became famous in their own right---Ann Corio, Sally Rand, Gypsy Rose Lee, come to mind. My favorite of all was a performer who called herself Rose La Rose. She wasn’t a bump and grind stripper but rather had an act that could raise the emotions of a young teenager—if you know what I mean—enough said.

Unfortunately there was an organization in Boston called the “Watch and Ward Society” that was hell bent in closing down the theaters. “They corrupted the minds of our youth” they explained. J.F.K was a frequent visitor and he turned out all right. They did succeed in closing down the Old Howard. The Boston Police filmed a show in 1953 and a judge was convinced enough to shut it down. It never reopened. The ironic thing about the Society it had the reverse affect that it intended. When they banned a book from sale in Boston the publishers were ecstatic, it guaranteed a complete sellout. They advertised it nationwide as a book “Banned in Boston”.

There was strong sentiment to save the Old Howard from demolition in the Urban Renewal frenzy of the 1960’s. Before it was a burlesque theater legitimate drama was featured. John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin performed there. Someone set fire to it. While discussions were held to restore it the wrecking crew came in and leveled it to the ground. End of discussion.

Today there is a vast wasteland in front of City Hall Plaza. No one knows what to do. I have a suggestion for the City. Erect a new burlesque theater and bring back the vaudeville acts. It would be a good use of the space.

 

EPA JOURNAL 1977

A friend of mine was throwing out some boxes when he discovered an old EPA Journal from 1977 when I was acting Director of the Water Management Division at the Regional Office in Boston. The subject matter was “Would you spend more to make your drinking water safe?” A recent program on WGBH showed how we have clean water to drink today, but explained that was not the case 150 years ago. Catch the rerun. It is most interesting. This is what I had to say in 1977. Hope it is legible.

THE RIDE FROM HELL

My father never owned a car. Why would he. He could walk to any place in Southie and if he had to go farther afield there was a wonderful bus and subway system that could take him there. In the 1950’s I worked the night shift with my Father at Joe’s Spa. After closing the restaurant we would head for home. My Father was 39 years older than me. He was in his mid fifties and I was a teenager at the time. Up East Broadway we would head at a pace I couldn’t maintain. I’d fall behind then race to catch up, time and time again. When we got home at 2:00 A.M in City Point near the L St. Bathhouse he would stop and tell me to take in deep breaths of the wonderful sea air. All I wanted to do was to get into my bed. He loved to walk. No wonder he lived to be almost 103.

Sometimes we would get an offer for a ride home. If the bakery delivery guy ended his route at the Spa then he would make the offer. I should describe the van he drove. Basically it was a large high box on wheels. It had no seats except for a stool like seat for the driver. But get this, it had no doors. That way he could make his deliveries without wasting time opening and closing doors. He thought of himself as an Indianapolis race driver. The major difference was the van’s center of gravity was much higher than an Indy race car. As he drove at break neck speeds around the corners his van would barely keep all of its wheels on the ground. My father and I held on for dear life. It was a white knuckle ride from hell. He literally got us home in minutes.

I often had nightmares of being thrown from the door less van. Even today I get chills talking about it. I wish my father had refused those rides.

HOT FUDGE SUNDAE

Before I was old enough to work behind the counter at Joe’s Spa I was put to work in the back near the walk in cold storage area. My job was to make the hot fudge topping that the Spa was famous for. My uncle Jim was the expert and it was he that put in the various ingredients. My job was to stir the “pot” (really a huge pickle barrel type container). He would show up at certain intervals and add huge blocks of chocolate, sugars, vanilla and God knows what else. I would start in the early morning hours and finish sometime in mid afternoon. When the product was complete there was enough hot fudge topping to last most of the summer season.

When I graduated to behind the counter I took pride in the various sundaes I dished out to the adults and children that came into the Spa . The banana split was my specialty. A banana split down the middle placed in an elongated dish with two scoops of vanilla ice cream surrounding a scoop of strawberry in the middle. Topping it off was whipped cream , strawberry sauce, chopped nuts and a cherry on top. But back to the hot fudge topping I had labored over in the back.

It was a Sunday when a gentleman had come in and asked a special favor. His wife was quite ill and was lying in a hospital bed in the Carney Hospital just down the street. He just had come from there and his wife felt she couldn’t leave this planet without having one last hot fudge sundae from Joe’s Spa. Could I make up a special container and add an extra layer of hot fudge. Of course I would.

The banana split may have been my specialty but for at least one day it took back seat to the hot fudge sundae I had prepared.