From DangerousMinds.net: “Vincent Price is on sparkling form in An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe, in which the Master of Horror presents his unique interpretation of 4 tales by “the most original genius America has produced” – “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Sphinx”, “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”. Directed by Kenneth Johnson, who later created the classic series V, this is a classic TV adaptation from 1970, capturing Price at his electrifying best.”
Destination was popular resort during era of segregation
Carr
By Mary Gail Hare (The Baltimore Sun, October 13, 2011)
Decades ago, a trip to segregated Ocean City presented far too many challenges for African-American families. Instead they went to a sandy peninsula near Annapolis, known as “the beach,” for a day’s outing.
Carr’s Beach — its proper name — offered swimming, picnics and entertainment. Many recall performances by up-and-coming stars such as Louis Armstrong, James Brown and Ray Charles, who, while touring on the Chitlin’ Circuit, stopped at Carr’s, one of the few local venues open to black entertainers of that time.
“I remember it was the closest we could get to the water,” said Delores McIntyre, 79, a lifelong city resident. “The water was so clear and there was great entertainment, especially Ray Charles.”
Carr’s Beach map
*** More on Carr’s Beach ***
Ella Fitzgerald at Carr’s Beach
Sarah Vaughan at Carr’s Beach
“Remembering Al Brown (1929-2009)“
In an article celebrating the life of Baltimore musician Al Brown (“The Madison”), the August-September-October 2009 issue of the Blues Art Journal referenced Brown’s gigs with his band the Tunetoppers at Carr’s Beach, where stars like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan also performed:
Locally, aside from the Royal Theatre, there was also another uniquely summertime venue considered as part of the national “Chitlin’ Circuit,” Carr’s Beach in Anne Arundel County. Located at the mouth of the Severn River off Edgewood Road on the peninsula across Back Creek from Annapolis’ Eastport district, Carr’s Beach was home of the concert series “Bandstand on the Beach,” which was hosted live over WANN-AM (one of the first stations in the U.S with a black oriented format) by legendary disk jockey, Hoppy Adams. Moreover, the site (now the Villages of Chesapeake Harbour condominiums), a blacks only, 20 acre resort and amusement park, had an open air dance pavilion which could accommodate several hundred people. Although this sprawling complex was owned by a consortium of Afro-American businessmen in Baltimore, it was overseen by the late producer (Ru-Jac records), Rufus Mitchell, who was longtime a major mover and shaker in the Baltimore music scene. “Yeah, we appeared a few times at Carr’s Beach, especially after our hit record, but we had our own favorite Sunday afternoon spot and built in fan base for years at Beachwood Park. It was run by a Reverend Smith and down the same neck of the woods [in Pasadena on the Magothy River]. What I remember most, though, is coming home and being stuck in traffic on [Governor] Ritchie Highway and wondering if we were ever going to make our Sunday night gig,” said Charles with a chuckle. (Larry Benicewiz, Baltimore Blues Society)
Gone But Not Forgotten
This popular and often requested Maryland Public Television documentary, narrated by columnist Dan Rodricks, takes a nostalgic look back at places in the Maryland region that are physically “gone but not forgotten” in memory.
A segment on Carr’s Beach is included, as well as Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre, Baltimore’s streetcars, Carr’s Beach in Annapolis, White Tower Restaurants, Royal Theatre, Pimlico Hotel, Gwynn Oak and Carlin Amusement Parks. (Maryland Public Television, original production 1994, 60 minutes)
By Michael Yockel (Baltimore Fishbowl, 10/13/2011)
Scott Huffines (48) and Tom Warner (54), founders and editors, Baltimore or Less
…Scott Huffines and Tom Warner operate decidedly outside the mainstream media, cheekily celebrating the outré, the odd, the outlandish, and the odoriferous about their native city. While a handful of local feature-oriented websites labor predictably to establish some manner of misguided hipster cred, Baltimore or Less, launched in mid-2010, instead effortlessly plucks and then posts what Warner, a librarian in the Enoch Pratt Central Branch’s Sights and Sounds Department, terms “the unknown or unusual or serendipitous charms of Charm City.”
Recent original items include Warner’s waggish essay on the relentless misspelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s middle name as “Allen,” notably by the should-know-better MPT. The site also judiciously aggregates media stories — local and national, past and present — that probe Baltimore’s sometimes dogged, sometimes hangdog sensibility. “We pre-digest weird Baltimore-related news that most people aren’t interested in, and regurgitate it like mama birds feeding their young,” explains Huffines, a Web development specialist for the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Anesthesia.
Click on “Baltimorons” or “Pranks,” for instance, from the site’s extensive archives, and discover what Huffines calls “insane tidbits,” such as “Iggy Pop recorded a live album on Pulaski Highway; Babe Ruth got sick injecting a serum made from sheep’s testicles; and a stunt balloonist drank six beers, and then fell a half-mile to his death in Highlandtown.”
Not everything comes across as Baltimore Babylon, though. BMoL plays nice, too. One example: Jackie Nickel’s (Huffines late newspaperwoman mother) endearing story about Essex-based, crab-eating social group the Ancient and Honorable Nobles of the Hardshells.
Bonus: The site brims with pertinent videos and audio components, including a “Baltimore Soundtrack” that features jaunty, decades-old Natty Boh jingles and the long-gone Baltimore Clippers minor league hockey team’s rah-rah theme song.
“Scott and I are archivists of sorts,” says Warner, “and we’re interested in what makes Baltimore such a unique place, its balance between the profane and the mundane, the highbrow and lowbrow — particularly the lowbrow.”
Continue reading “Baltimore’s media insurgents are changing the face of journalism in Baltimore” at Baltimore Fishbowl.
BALTIMORE, MD – On October 2, Baltimore police shot and killed former Vamps and Skin & Bones bassist Steve Mach, 52, in his South Baltimore home after he allegedly pointed a pellet gun at officers responding to a distress call. According to the (pre-paywall online subscription) Baltimore Sun, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi stated that the police received a call shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday evening “from a person inside a house in the 3600 block of St. Victor Street in the Southern District, saying that another person in the house was armed.” That person turned out to be Mach’s roommate, who was concerned for his own safety; when responding patrol officers entered the Brooklyn house, they found Mach sitting on his bed with a weapon they claim he was asked repeatedly to put down. When Mach turned to face them with what turned out to be a pellet gun, he was shot by four-year veteran officer Joseph Schanamann (who was involved in a prior shooting from 2009 when a police dog attacked him). Mach was later pronounced dead after being taken to a local hospial. As per department policy, Schanamann is on routine administrative suspension while detectives investigate the shooting.
There’s been an outpouring of grief among friends of victim Steve Mach, stretching from Baltimore to New York City, where he worked for years as a lighting tech at the famed CBGB’s rock club. Before that, he played in a few glam rock bands, including a local group called The Vamps.
“It’s a shock to us all,” said Jackie Luther, who worked with Mach at CBGB. “He was a very gentle person. I can’t see this happening – it’s very out of character.”
Luther said Mach had moved back to Baltimore a few years ago after the death of his mother. He was an animal activist who worked with BARCS, the South Baltimore animal rescue shelter, and owned several cats, she said. He did not have a criminal record here.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said officers were called to Mach’s home in the 3600 block of St. Victor St. after his roommate called police to report that Mach was armed and said he was fearful for his own safety. Officers entered the home and went upstairs, where they found Mach sitting on his bed. The officers demanded that he drop a weapon he was holding – police describe it as a pellet gun that resembled a .45 caliber handgun – and fired at least one shot when he refused to comply.
“You have to follow police commands, especially when you’re holding a weapon in your hands,” Guglielmi said.
Fans quickly created a R.I.P. Steve Mach Facebook page for the departed Baltimore musician. Friends posted information stating that Steve Mach had no living family and were “asking everyone to please help so that he may have a proper burial.” Until a donation memorial fund website is set up, donations can be made via PayPal using Duchess627@aol.com.
I had never heard of Steve Mach or his bands (Charm School aka Skrap, Pillbox, Skin & Bones – a band he formed in New York in the ’80s with Billy Idol’s former drummer – and local glamrockers The Vamps, aka Vamp City, who played a reunion show last December at the Recher Theater in Towson) until I was clued to his identity by local musician Adolf Kowalski (nee Ross Haupt of Thee Katatonix), who said he was attending his memorial service. But apparently the Vamps – formed in Baltimore in 1982 and later relocating to New York City and morphing into Skin & Bones – were a big deal in the ’80s in their respective glam-metal circuits (Girard’s and Maxwells here; Cat Club, Limelight and The Ritz in NYC). The Vamps/Vamp City line-up was: “Johnny Vamp” (Johnny Vance) on lead vocals and harmonica; “Jimi K. Bones” on lead Guitar, “Pete Pagan” on rhythm guitar; Gregg Gerson on drums; and Steve Mach on Bass.
Skin & Bones
Guitarist Jimi K. Bones, who played with Mach in both the Vamps and Skin & Bones, talked to Love-It-Loud.com regarding the tragedy and paid tribute to his close friend as follows:
“I met Steve Mach when I was seventeen-years-old. He was standing in his basement covering himself with fog from a dry ice machine he had just made out of an old fifty-five gallon drum and dryer hose. I thought to myself, “I’ve got to be in a band with this guy”.Steve and I worked together over the next twenty years in several successful bands. We first came together in The Vamps, which later morphed into Skin & Bones. We travelled to Europe and all over the States, having one crazy moment after another.
Steve was one of the funniest guys I have ever met. Politically incorrect, outrageous, and was brilliant. He is a light that will truly be missed by many. I am honoured to have had called him a friend. Rest and Rock in Peace!
A memorial benefit show was scheduled for October 23 at the Surf City Bar & Grill in Perry Hall, with support from numerous local bands (including various members of The Ravyns, Face Dancer, The Vamps and, yes, Adolf Kowalski) as well as the NYC Punk Collective.
Surf City hosts the "We Love Steve" memorial benefit
There are a bunch of videos for Mach’s various bands on YouTube, including one for the Vamps on the Baltimore late-night television dance program Shakedown – a show Kowalski’s Katatonix also appeared on (Shakedown was also one of John Waters’s favorite shows):
Steve Mach was also revered across the Pond, as UK music magazine Black Velvet (www.blackvelvetmagazine.com) published an obit for him, “R.I.P. Steve Mach” (October 5, 2011). Small wonder, as Skin & Bones moved to England in 1990 to record Not A Pretty Sighton Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor’s Equinox label. Released in 1990, the album was engineered by Mike Fraiser (Aerosmith, AC/DC) and co-produced with Taylor (later of Power Station).
Finally, as fans and friends alike shared their shock, outrage, condolences, memories, and love on Facebook and other social network sites, Darlene Harris – manager at BARCS, the South Baltimore animal rescue shelter where animal activist Steve Mach worked – updated supporters about the status of Mach’s only surviving family members: “As far as Steve’s cats they are right outside my office, have been fully vetted and are being given tons and tons of love…I will not let ANYTHING happen to his cats, and am working to get them to good homes where they will be loved as much as Steve loved them.”
Harris added perhaps the perfect coda to the Steve Mach tragedy when she concluded, “In the midst of sadness, I have found beauty in meeting so many wonderful music and animal lovers. Thank you, Steve, for adding these amazing people to my life.”
