The Benn Theatre - SW Philadelphia `1950's

About the time Richard Nixon rolled up Woodland Avenue in southwest Philadelphia trying to gather votes for Dwight Eisenhower, I was working at the old Benn Theatre on that same boulevard. In the mid to late 50's it was a sometimes crowded, sometimes unsafe street depending on the day or night, how much you've had to drink or who was carrying a gun within a 20 foot radius of you.
     

At 16, I was as tall as I am now at 75 so, they put me on the gate as usher/security. Give you an idea of what the neighborhood was like, management gave me a choice of weapons to carry for protection. It reminded me of an old Arizona joke amongst bar tenders: coming in to their bar, they frisk you for weapons. If you don't have one, you get one. 

During my time here, "Rock around the Clock " debuted here to sold out crowds and two riots, a gang fight involving knives, me and the police. I won. Hopalong Cassidy dropped by. He became my personal hero. Nixon rolled by the front door, as did JFK. In those days, after 6 pm, the crowds went " to the theatre" dressed in suits, just like they did when traveling on airplanes. The manager's name was Kessler who dropped out of sight. Years later I saw him again when he booked passage in 1962 when he left for France on the S.S.France, the flagship of the French Line. The picture above was taken in 1960. It was a gentler time then. Black was black, white - white. Very few shades of grey, we asked questions back then and got straight answers, not like now when everything we hear is mush. The sad part of today is the air is so filled with meaningless words, we can't see the sky anymore. 

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Losing Control of America

   It feels like it. I am a man from the last century. Remembering when Dwight Eisenhower was in charge, one felt safe, covered, relaxed, and settled in a way of life that was comfortable in a work - life - religious routine that progressed through t terms of political stability.

   Ike called a meeting of his "Board" chatted with his supervisors, asked them ' hows it going boys?" took a day or two to go around the table, told them to go back to work with the admonition, " keep in touch, and no surprises, please. 

   And he went back to a clumsy press conference and a golf game. Except for ending the Korean War

as he promised he would, a bout with ileitis and a stay at an Army hospital in Denver, his service to the country was exemplary. Everybody loved his steady hand and the feeling that everything was going to be ok. 

   When the economy sagged for a bit, he made an announcement that everybody should go out and buy a refrigerator or stove. We all did. The suppliers groaned under the demand. 

    Today, our president is overexposed on television. Each day, he appears with different messages on differing subjects that appear to change, flip-flop and counter each other from day to day. It's impossible to count on a consistent message, plan or policy that the public can count on, coming from the White House. The president's hired hands are equally inconsistent. Elements of the national media have fallen to calling the chief executive of our current government, " amateur." The current government has, in some domestic circles been labelled, " bush league." One is caused to wonder if such bad form is anything but purposeful.

    Few if any corroborate what he insists are his dictum's from day to day, which must leave spokespeople, line workers and certainly political pols in a state of confusion. With the constant state of shifting sands on foreign and domestic policy for what was once the greatest nation on earth, is it any wonder the bad actors of the world are shifting tanks, planes, guns, murder and death around the globe at a frightening pace. The lunch organizer of south Chicago seems to be in over his head on the world stage, showing up at the G-8 summit in Europe chewing gum.

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