One for the books
Reader Comments
I loved the Peabody! It was the kind of place you could go, know no one and wind up knowing everyone. my fiancee and I took my daughter there for her 18th birthday (when the drinking age was 18) and we had a great time. She still remembers it and talks about how at the end of the evening we took the guitar player home…to his house! We sang ourselves hoarse and laughed the night away. It is such a shame that it is gone..like so many other things.
Tom,
If you have that picture in digital format, (if not you would need to scan it) you could upload it to photobucket.com and post a link.
I would love to see more photos of “the Stube.”
- h nicole anderson
San Lorenzo, California
In the mid ‘60s there was a young woman who played the piano with her cat perched above the keyboard, and led the singing. I have a picture of her on the job, but I don’t know how to post it. I remember Rose checking IDs on the way in, and Dantini’s magic tricks…
I loved that place!
The name of the guitar player came to me, Michael Hedges. At the time, he was a Peabody Conservatory student.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hedges
He died in 1997 when his car failed to negotiate an S curve in Mendocino County and plunged down a cliff.
h nicole anderson
san lorenzo, california
I got my start there as a folksinger, I guess it was 1975. Rose started mt at $15 a night but I soon got a raise to $25. I went on to big and better things in Austin, Texas, then finally San Francisco. There was another guitar player who played there the same time I did who became quite famous, can’t remember his name at the moment, he also wound up in California but met his end some years ago when his BMW failed to negotiate a turn on the Pacific Coast Highway.
I lived on the 2nd floor, across the hall from composer John Williams. It was my first apartment when I started art school in 1966. I had met Rose about a year earlier when she agreed to sell my paintings in her shop. The money really helped me scrape through. The food was simple but fairly good, especially the Reuben, but the real attraction was the atmosphere… if not the air.
I remember tending bar downstairs in early 1980 when I was 17. This place was one-of-a-kind. Sure was surprised to see it gone when attempting to visit, in 2006.
I used to work at The Peabody Book Shop as a young man trying to get a job playing music. I remember Dantini along with Eddie Mitnick,the in-house piano player. I worked behind the bar until Rose finally gave me a chance to perform on a few occasions.
“Those Were the Days” was definitely in my repertoire along with Bob Dylan & Cat Steven’s songs, so your friend may have heard me lead the crowd. A gentleman named Charlie, who smoked a pipe, ran the bookshop and Johnny (Rose’s son) was always good for some kind of curious comment. I loved the place, though it was a little like being in a dysfunctional family.
Going down those front steps,(you had to duck your head)was like stepping out of time. You were entering a strange place where neither sight nor sound had any dimension…You were entering…
The Peabody Book Shop & Beer Stube!
I visited the Peabody Book Shop and Beer Stube in 1968, while based at Ft. Holabird. Went back in 1982, and found the same magazines in the same place I left them in 1968. A great memory, and I’m sorry it is on hiatus…and hope it will return.
