AN HISTORICAL Emography of a FOLK-REVIVAL VENUE in NORTH AMERICA, 1958-1968
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CLUB 47: AN HISTORICAL EmOGRAPHY OF A FOLK-REVIVAL VENUE IN NORTH AMERICA, 1958-1968 BY O MILDRED L, WHN, B.A. A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in parti-ai fdFïhent of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of FoMore Memonal University of Newfoundland St. John's Newfoundland National Lib rary Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Your fiie Votre raiérence Our Ne Norra reierefce The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Libraq of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/^ de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The adorretains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenivise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation, ABSTRACT This thesis presen ts an his torical ethnography of Club 47, a siwcantcultural icon of the folk music revival in the United States in the Iate 1950s and 1960s. Qub 47 existed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1958 to 1968 and was the best-known coffeehouse in New England. Club 47 was instrumental in helping to create a community and a market for commercial folk music by se~ngas both the prïnapal breeding ground for new talent in the area, and as the showcase for the best performers and the many genres that the folksong revivai had to offer. While it was the music aspect of the club that was best known, performers and audiences came together at the 47 as much for its soaal organization as for its music. A critical factor that distinguished Club 47 from other revival venues was its membership policy, instituted upon its incorporation as a nonprofit educa tional organiza tion, which led to its communal ownership and govemance. Throughout its evolution, Club 47 both influrnced and reflrcted musical and soaal developments locally, regionally, and nationally, including the revival's eventual integration into mainstream musical forms and the 1360s counterculture. As a contribution to the field of folkloristics, this thesis considers the music culture of one group of people over a 10-year period and approaches Club 47 hmits grassroots as a fieldwork-based history. 1seek to contextualize and synthesize the experiences and observations of the scene's diverse partiapants within the scholarly purviews of folksong and folk custom, as well as within folksong-revival and New England sociocultural history. My findings suggest that the revival helped to usher in a new American cultural period and, through appeals to tradition, hinctioned as soaal sanction for breaking old patterns and creating newer ones. As part of a cultural transformation, Club 47 participants, like their folksong revival counterparts in other scenes, were creator5 and innovators of new musical texts. These texts, when approved as art fom, alluded to continuity with the past and utilued the matenais of the present to preserve and transmit th& creations into ever-widening ardeç. ... The artist must employ the symbols in use in hk day and nation, to convey his enlarged sense to his fellow-men. Ralp h \Valdo Emerson "ktt'-1 841 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My academic training taught me to keep scmpulous notes, which now stands me in good stead for acknowledging the many people who generously contributed to my research. Each of them helped a dream become reaiity. In addition to these individuals, I want to acknowledge the institutional financial support of the Memorial University of Newfoundland. From the School of Craduate Studies, 1 received a specïal bursary in Fa11 1990 and hdingfor a two-year graduate assistantship in the Memorial University of Newfoundland Foikiore and Language Archive (MUM?LA). 1am also grateful for a bursary h-om the Department of Foiklore from April1991 to April1992. A conference-aid award hom the Graduate Students Union helped to defray expenses to attend the 1990 Amencan Folklore Society meeting in California, where I gave my first paper on Club 47. Institutional support in the form of staff assistance and research materials came kom the American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congres, Washington, D.C.; the Belmont and Watertown [Massachusetts] public libranes, especiaily the latter's Hunnewell research room; the Boston Public Library; Harvard University's Widener Library; and the Queen Elizabeth II Library a t Memo rial University. in addition, MUNFLA provided cassette tapes and a tape recorder throughout field research. Faculty mernbers in the Department of Foudore were enlightening and engaging teachers within and outside the seminar room and engaged in numerous and sometimes obsessive discussions about folk revivals in general, and the "great boom" and Club 47 in particuiar. They are John Ashton, David Buchan, Diane Goldstein, Martin Lovelace, Peter Narvaez, Jerry Poaus, Larry Small, Paul Smith, Gerald Thomas, and John Widdowson. Herbert Halpert contributed bibliophilic discussions and general inspiration kom his days in the New Deal's Works Progress Administration, surely having collected analogues of some of the songs Sung at Club 47. Department secretanes Sharon Cochrane and Karen OrLearysorted endless pieces of mail from informants and home They &O smoothed my way through the univenity bureauaacy, in addition to keeping a benevolen t eye on me, as did Eileen Collins, who exchanged lively conversations on the Newfoundland/Boston connection. Fellow students who understood the finer points of graduate-student life and gave me the benefit of their wisdom were Pat Byrne, Anna Guigné, Philip Hiscock, iMelissa Ladenheim, Jarnie Moreira, Ranald Thurgood, and Silas Ward. 'Ihanks, too, to Jennifer Hoiiett, Jeannie Myrick, and Sue Vardy. Also to Dorothy Latreille, teduiically not a student, but very much a member of the department. Friends in StJohn's who proved that there is Me outside academe and beyond the '60s were Sarah Carter Baron, Madeleine Fiorent, AIanna Greene and Robin Smith, Tom Mills, Graham Sliorrocks, and Ab Stockwood. Folkiorist Mends and colleagues wlio deserve more than a tip of the hat for their help and mentoring were William Bettridge, Dillon Bustïn, George Carey, Burt Feintuch, Tim Lloyd, Linda Morley, Kathy Neustadt, ~VarthaNorkias, Betsy Peterson, Bob St. George, Pat Turner, and Eleanor Wachs. Ed Orser and John Solomon Otto from American Studies helped me to look at American culture in new and different ways. Thanks also to Paul Stokinger for a crash course in computer literacy, beginning with the on/off switch. He also saved me from certain ruin when my draft manuscript disappeared after a power failure and my computer was sent home in disgrace. My 0th- computer whiz, Laura Roberts in Cambridge, showed me how to translate my diskette to paper, for which 1am forever gratefd For hospitality and good cheer during fiddwork on two coasts, 1want to thank Kathieen and Gary Ahrens for putting me up in June 1990 while 1sweated through research in Washington; David Rubinstein and Margo Schein in San Francisco in October 1990 and January 1992; and Earl Crabb, Genny Haley, and Annie Johnston in Berkeley in January 1992- During my research trip to Washington, several people were partidarly hdpM and encouraging. Saul Broudy made available his extensive address book, whidi included more than a few Club 47 folks; Bob Cantwd initiated a provocative discussion on folk revivals his torically and regionally; and Joe Hickerson provided background on former Club 47 perfomers, and on the LIiT [Massachusetts hstitute of Teduiology] Outing Club and other Cambridge institutions. Thanks also to Alan Jabbour for the "launching lunch." Back in Newfoundland, my supervisor, Neil Rosenberg, did a heroic job keep hg me on schedule and focused on the topic at hand, for which he deserves an extended round of applause. He generously shared insights and lively debate about folkloristics and historiography, as well as sharing his own experiences and anecdotes of btuegrass, the great boom, and of manv of the musicians who were my informants. With good humour, he frequentlv tempered my geocentric notions about Cambridge, Boston, and New England. He even tried to persuade me that there is Me west of Dedham and, to parody another old Boston joke, that there's more to Berkeley than its being three thousand miles from the coast. Loving gratihide goes equally to my St. John's housemates, Diane Goldstein and Anna Brown, who opened their hearts and their home to me and showed me the folkways of Newfoundland. They are now part of the extended family. niey deserve special treats for their fortitude and patience during the writing of this thesis, especially during near-daily blizzards in winter 1992, when they shared my passion for Iate nights, Coronation Sireet, and chocolate and ducken. Heartfelt tibute &O goes to Ca thy Rickey, Paul Smith, and the feline Phido for helping to provide a sotial life and much-needed haven beyond the overpass. They proved that graduate school is, indeed, a broadening experience. As a willing guinea pig for their foodways research, 1should have heeded the first proverb I learned in MUNFLA: "If you want to be thinner, diminish your dinner." Fellow student Tecwyn Vaughan Jones also took a holiday from the "real world" to retum to graduate school at midlife and always had a sympathetic ear and heart-as a hiend and as a fellow Corne From Away.