They’re back! On Sunday, we lit our 27 holiday windows with portraits of the many great neighbors, shop owners, and dogs (lots of dogs…) we’ve met since moving to South Philadelphia in 2012.
So, if you’re dining or playing near the “Singing Fountain” between now and New Year’s Day, we hope you’ll check out our windows at East Passyunk Avenue and Tasker Street.
(Our first holiday window display in December, 2013.)
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It was the last weekend of November, 2014, and we were celebrating our new holiday display: 26 lighted photos of South Philadelphia celebrities – drawn from our star-packed 1960s photo album – looked down from our windows onto E. Passyunk Avenue and Tasker Street.
(And, yes, everyone from Bobby Rydell and Fabian, to Al Martino and
Joey Giardello, will be back in our windows in January, 2016.)
Feeling festive, we headed out to Stogie Joe’s Tavern for a square pie with sausage and broccoli rabe.
It was the perfect choice: Stogie Joe’s Passyunk Avenue building once housed the gym where boxer Joey Giardello trained, and Joey was among our window celebrities.
But, like everything related to Art Tavani’s magical South Philadelphia photo album, the coincidences didn’t end there….
“NICE LOOKING MUSSELS!”
Soon we were comparing appetizers with the people at the next table.
“Be sure to check out our holiday windows on your way home,” we told them. “We’ve got everyone from Bobby Rydell to Fisher and Marks up there!”
(Singer and dancer Al Fisher, left, was the semi-straight man to comedian and jitterbug champ Lou Marks)
“Fisher and Marks?” one of the men asked. “I’m friends with Lou’s son!” Continue reading
When a friend gave us a fabulous photo album crammed with Philadelphia area nightlife photos from the 1960s, we had no idea how to identify the hundreds of celebrities, politicians and “just plain folks” in its pages.
But that’s before we learned that – while the rest of the world operates on six degrees of separation – Philadelphians know just about everyone in this city of neighborhoods.
“HE’S A BUM….HE’S FROM BROOKLYN!”
Early on, we took our album slide show to the South Philadelphia Older Adults Center and the Charles Santore Library, both on Passyunk Avenue and both filled with longtime residents. (And many thanks to Older Adults program director Deborah Hoffer and librarian Jeanne Hamman for setting up those shows.)
Audience members identified everything from South Philly’s Venus Lounge to middleweight world boxing champion Joey Giardello, whose life-sized statue stands on Passyunk Avenue.
(Joey Giardello, left, and Rubin “Hurricane” Carter before their legendary 1964 bout. That’s Arthur Tavani, the original owner of the photo album, at center.)
Unexpected Philadelphia 