Just one page from local historian Tony Pacelli’s 1987 book “Past and Present” is full of memories. Pacelli wrote a nostalgia column for the Recorder.
Pacelli recalled actress Lucille Bremer, an Amsterdam native who lived on Forbes Street and then in Rockton growing up. Bremer became a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and was a dancer at New York City’s Club Versailles. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producer Arthur Freed spotted Bremer and signed her to a movie contract.
She made her screen debut as Judy Garland’s sister in “Meet Me in St. Louis” in 1944. She also teamed with Fred Astaire in the MGM musical “Ziegfeld Follies.” Later she appeared with Astaire in “Yolanda and the Thief.” Her film career ended by 1950 and she died in 1996 in California.
City native George J. Newkirk told Pacelli that when the circus came to Amsterdam, he and other local children used to sit on a wall at the foot of Vrooman Avenue and watch the parade go by. He remembered seeing Buffalo Bill driving mustangs pulling a wagon. Movie cowboy Tom Mix was behind Buffalo Bill on Mix’s famous horse Tony.
Newkirk said he practically lived at the Orpheum Theatre on Market Street, especially enjoying serials starring Ruth Roland, Pearl White and the two-gun cowboy, William S. Hart.
Another topic was a tribute to two Amsterdam polka bands of the 1930s and 1940s. Paul Kay’s band had John Rackowski on piano, plus musicians Dan Conti, Ed Klobukowski, Steve Bassel, Steve Adamowski, Joe Krupa and Sam Santo. Santo played banjo, not a common instrument in a polka band. Pacelli also mentioned Walt Krupa’s band with Krupa’s brothers Joe and Ralph.
Pacelli remembered World War II Victory Gardens developed in Amsterdam by the Ciskanow brothers—John, Vincent, Charles and Joseph. The land was in the East End near the Mohawk River, north of the old city incinerator. A spring on the land was used to water the plants.
USING VEGETABLES
Paying customers in old Amsterdam did not hesitate to show their disapproval of substandard performances at the city’s Opera House.
O’Neil’s Grocery was on the north side of Main Street in the late 19th century, opposite the Opera House.
According to historian Hugh Donlon, Opera House patrons loaded up on discarded vegetables before show time and showed disapproval by hurling rotten tomatoes at the stage. In his book “Annals of a Mill Town,” Donlon wrote that the hard to please Amsterdam audiences made the city a prime spot to try out Broadway shows.
The East Main Street facility was first called the Neff Opera House in 1882. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was seen there, featuring a street parade with real bloodhounds. John Philip Sousa’s band played the house, as did presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan and boxer John L. Sullivan. In 1887, George H. McClumpha took over management of the facility.
Part of the Opera House was transformed into Lurie’s Department Store in the 1900s. Donlon wrote that when Lurie’s was torn down in the 1970s, a chandelier from the Opera House was found along with theatrical posters still glued to the stairways.
MEAL TICKET
Amsterdam native Richard Ellers of Ohio is on a mission to find an Amsterdam meal ticket. Orsini’s Royal Restaurant, for example, offered a meal ticket for $4.50 that was worth $5 in food in the 1930s and 1940s. Ellers would borrow the ticket to make a copy or be happy with a photocopy.
CORRECTION
The artist who restored the murals in Amsterdam’s Post Office in 1974 was misidentified in a recent column. The artist’s name is Luci Suhr of Amsterdam.
