On Sun, 2 Jan 2005, William H. Magill wrote: > On 02 Jan, 2005, at 10:59, Wilma de Soto wrote: > > The Beatles played there in 1964 on their first American tour. One > > would > > think that would be a point to keep the building. The Stones also > > played > > there one one of their first American tours. I am not certain, but I > > venture that many other famous people either played there or spoke > > there. > > But you will note that once those acts became famous, they never > returned to Convention Hall, it was just too small.
Different sized venues are appropriate for different purposes or different acts. BTW, the figure I saw for Convention Hall was somewhere on the order of 13,000+ seats; it's possible they may have removed some seating over the years in minor alterations though. > > By that measure, one of the most important historical locations in the > city is the old Second Fret on Sansom Street. Not only did it host Phil Question: Is the 2nd fret the building at 1904 Sansom with the colored terra cotta front that was a soul food luncheonette until the PPA bought up that row of buildings. I've only been here 24 years, so I don't know first hand, but the Daily News did a piece in the March 15, 2004 edition where they wrote that this was the case. On the other hand, the same DN article, by Jonathan Takiff, gave the street address as 1902 Sansom, which is a rear extension of the Sophy Curson shop. > And let's not forget the now abandoned Academy of > Music, home of that famous "Philadelphia Sound," yet to be re-created > in the new Kimmel Center. Actually the Academy is far from abandoned; the Kimmel controls the Academy of Music and is staging Broadway musicals there. http://kimmelcenter.org/broadway/ In fact for that reason, the Kimmel fought against a Tax Increment Financing package for Clear Channel's proposal to renovate the Boyd Theatre. They feared that with CC's stated intention to also program Broadway shows at the Boyd, the Academy would lose out. Kimmel President Janice Price was visibly distraught in testifying against Tax Increment Financing for the Boyd at a City Council hearing in November 2003. Of course since Kimmel Chairman Dan Whelan also sits on the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, which has to sign off on any proposed TIF, the TIF was DOA anyway, as the SRC failed to act on it. Cheers, Jayfar -- PhilaDeco.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://PhilaDeco.com AIM: PhilaDeco Committee to Save Convention Hall fax bank http://www.hallwatch.org/faxbank/conventionhall/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
