In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 184: Vampire Rabbits, Overhyped Athletes & Vanishing Restaurants(2-26-2025)

 

The last full month of winter is almost over, but we’ve got plenty of nostalgia to keep you warm! Episode 184 brings back childhood chills, cardboard heartbreak, and the flavors of restaurants we wish never closed.

📖 Bunnicula: The Vampire Bunny That Bit Into Our Imaginations – A bloodsucking rabbit? The Bunnicula series had just the right mix of humor and horror to captivate Gen Xers and older Millennials. We’ll revisit this beloved (and slightly spooky) children’s classic.

⚾ Overhyped '90s Athletes Who Ruined My Baseball Card Collection – If you grew up in the '90s, you probably got burned by the hype train. We’re looking at the athletes who were supposed to be legends but left collectors (and fans) disappointed. Were any of these guys in your stash?

🍽️ The Rise and Fall of Casual Dining Chains – Some places seemed like they'd be around forever… but then they vanished. This week’s Top 5 covers some of the most missed discontinued restaurant chains. The twist? A few might be making a comeback!

🕰️ This Week in History & Time Capsule – A jazz-infused journey back to the very first jazz records and how they changed music forever.

Hit play and step into the time machine! 🚀

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Helpful Links from this Episode

• Purchase My New Book Cape Cod Beyond the Beach!
• In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide(2nd Edition)
• Hooked By Kiwi - Etsy.com
• DJ Williams Music
• KeeKee's Cape Cod Kitchen
• Christopher Setterlund.com
• Cape Cod Living - Zazzle Store
• Subscribe on YouTube!
• Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog
• Webcam Weekly Wrapup Podcast
• CJSetterlundPhotos on Etsy

Listen to Episode 183 here

In My Footsteps Podcast Episode 63: The Paddock of Hyannis; Old School Telephone Problems; Movies That Remind Me of My Sisters; Brattleboro VT

 

In MY Footsteps Podcast Episode 49: Garbage Pail Kids, The Columns of West Dennis, Best Christmas Season Toys, Southern Shores NC

 

In My Footsteps: Nina Finds Grampa In Heaven

(Based on a vivid dream I had the night my Nina died. I'm presenting this like an illustrated short story. All photos used are my own, or creative commons/public domain. I hope it brings you hope and happiness)

    A bright shapeless entity floats toward the gates of heaven. It is Nina in her spirit form. She moves toward the gates but is beckoned toward a small building to the right. She enters and a man behind a counter welcomes her to heaven. His only distinguishing features are that he is thin with short dark hair.

    The interior of the building is very similar to a dry cleaning business. There are countless outfits in garment bags on hangars that seem to go on forever despite the building not have appeared to be so big from the outside. He explains that before she enters heaven she has a choice to make. As it is heaven for everyone Nina is allowed to choose the exact appearance that she takes upon entering.

    The man presents her with a digital book. Inside it are images of Nina from every possible time of her life. He explains that she gets to flip through the images, much like swiping through photos on a smartphone. Once she gets to one that she likes he will retrieve that outfit for her. Nina swipes along, eventually settling on a the version of herself that she wants to wear for eternity. It is difficult to know the exact age she has chosen but it is likely sometime in her 30's or 40's.

    The man behind the counter asks her if she is sure and Nina says yes. Once in agreement he thanks her and says he'll be right back. He returns with the garment bag that matches the form Nina chose. She enters the outfit much like entering a sleeping bag. The man 'zips' it up essentially allowing Nina's spirit to begin running the body. After this she is told that now she may enter heaven. She exits the building as the gates to heaven slowly open.

    Immediately we are taken to a narrow, slightly curvy cobblestone street. It feels similar to England in the 1880's. It is dusk and it is misty but not in an eerie way. The street is lined with lamp posts that give the surrounding area an orange glow due to the mist.

    Nina walks down this street as if she already knows where she is going. There is no looking around in wonder at this street in heaven. After rounding a slight curve she stops at what must be a nightclub as there is the faint sound of music from inside. A large imposing bouncer stands outside a heavy wooden door with a thick vertical handle. Nina stops and before even saying hello the bouncer breaks his menacing stare and smiles.

    'We've been expecting you,' he says. At this point he swings the heavy wooden door out toward the street allowing the searing energy of the music to fill the street. It is a up-tempo jazz song with a man singing. Nina enters and stands at the back of the club. It is packed with people dancing.

    People look at Nina and slowly a chatter builds among them and it heads toward the stage. By the time the up-tempo song ends the singer on stage has been told of who has just entered the club. He smiles and looks off into the dark crowded club. It is Grampa. He knows Nina is there and begins to sing a slower song, one that he knows she wants to hear him sing.

    As Grampa sings very slowly the crowd of people begins to part like the sea. Nina is beaming with a bright smile and she nods in thanks to those allowing her to move toward the stage. Her walk is more of a float as she makes it across this massive dance floor near the end of Grampa's song to her. They stare at each other as the vocals end and the music slowly fades.

    Grampa steps down from the stage and takes Nina by the hands. They speak softly to each other but the words are not clear. Grampa looks back toward the band on the stage and gives them a nod. They break into a mid-tempo song as Nina and Grampa begin to dance. Slowly we pull back from them as the crowd begins to fill in around them.

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Storyville

     Cape Cod and Jazz, the two go together like peanut butter and jelly. The beautiful peninsula and the popular music genre have been connected throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries. The Columns in West Dennis was well known for its jazz during its 1970’s heyday. However there was a spot which rivaled it as far as sheer talent which appeared there. For a few brief years during the middle of the 20^th century one place shined brighter than all others when it came to Cape Cod jazz and that was Storyville in Harwich.

    Storyville may have opened its doors along Pleasant Lake in Harwich in 1957 but its legacy goes back much further to the waning years of the 19^th century. In 1897 the original Storyville was opened in New Orleans, Louisiana. As jazz was in its infancy a district of the city was created by Alderman Story to house the new music. Years later accomplished musician George Wein would open his own Storyville in Boston. Wein, who would gain fame for creating the Newport Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival, made it his mission to bring the most talented jazz artists to play at his Boston locale. With his success at Storyville-Boston secure Wein planned his next step.

    In 1956 Wein spent the summer in Wellfleet playing music at local nightspots with his close friend Paul Nossiter. It was during this time that he fell in love with Cape Cod and decided that it needed a permanent spot to showcase jazz. He found a perfect spot in a former Cape restaurant. The Robin Hood Inn gained fame during the 1920’s as a Prohibition-era spot being built atop the filled in remains of the Cape’s first cranberry bog owned by Cyrus Cahoon and designed by his cousin Alvan.

    Wein would purchase the former restaurant-turned-inn the following year. Although he added a wing to the home to bring its capacity from 300 up to 600 people he kept much of its medieval interior charm. Storyville-Harwich would set the tone for its all too brief existence on its very first night. It was on July 4, 1957 that the Cape’s hottest jazz club would debut with none other than Louis Armstrong playing two long sets to a raucous crowd. The opening season would see other legends of the day such as Dave Brubek and Erroll Garnor stopping in to ply their trade for week-long engagements. The first season at Storyville would be a huge success, a harbinger of things to come.

Storyville Menu (Worthpoint.com)

    Initially the establishment would serve only drinks to its patrons. However with the rousing success of the opening season Wein decided to serve food as well, hiring a chef and maître d’. Opening night saw throngs of people waiting three hours for their dinners as Wein and Nossiter were not restaurateurs. Though they had the ‘hippest menu’ complete with steaks, ribs, chicken, lobster and more, the foray into serving food lasted only a month as they served high quality food for reasonable prices, losing money on the venture.

    Despite that failure the musical acts continued to be what drew the people. Stars like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Pee Wee Russell, Benny Goodman, Sarah Vaughan, and others would make the trip over the Cape Cod Canal to the woods of rural Harwich to entertain the masses during the ten-week summer season. However the supernova that was Storyville could not be sustained.

The Circus Room of the Bradford Hotel where Storyville-Boston was located in 1959. (Boston Public Library)

    In 1959 the star power was still there with mainstays like Armstrong, Vaughan, Garner, and others returning. However it was a double-edged sword. In order to bring in such acts they needed to be paid, yet there was only so much that Wein and Nossiter could charge people to get into Storyville. This meant that the club was not making much, if anything, in terms of profit. It was around this time that George Wein began being stretched too thin with his commitments to the Newport Jazz Festival, Newport Folk Festival, as well as other projects. He simply could not devote as much time and energy to his Harwich spot.

    In 1960 the star power of the musical acts would wane. As the big names of jazz began to get nationwide exposure Storyville was not able to afford to bring them in to play anymore. Customers had been accustomed to the big names and when they became fewer the business went as well. Wein sold his Boston Storyville location after the 1960 season. It ran for another season under new management before closing for good in 1961. This left Wein to run his Harwich location for one more year.

    Despite the impending end of the establishment the 1961 season still managed to attract megastars like Duke Ellington, Erroll Garner, and Louis Armstrong. However the death knell for Storyville came when the wildly popular Kingston Trio failed to sell enough tickets for a July show and canceled. The rising cost for acts and ticket prices was a combination too powerful for Wein and Nossiter to overcome. Storyville was shuttered after the 1961 season. The building itself would have another chapter, being renamed The Red Garter. The name would be changed again to Your Father’s Moustache due to a copyright problem. It was badly burned in a fire later in the 1960’s.

George Wein in 2009 (Infrogmation/Wikipedia)

    The building was torn down. Your Father's Moustache reopened in Dennis Port in the same building as Improper Bostonian. In the 1970's the site of the former jazz club became home to a housing development roughly in the area of Prince Charles Drive. George Wein continued to be a force in jazz, running the Newport Jazz Festival into 2020. He is still going strong at age 95. As for his contribution to the jazz scene on Cape Cod the only thing left behind is Storyville's legacy of great music.

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Previous Blog Posts:

In My Footsteps: My 2020

In Their Footsteps: New England History - Edward Rowe Snow

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Panama Club, Hyannis

As nightspots on Cape Cod go there are few which can rival the history or the legendary status that The Panama Club earned it its time. In the days before the Melody Tent, or even before the West End Rotary existed, the Panama Club was drawing in the masses in huge numbers to an area which at the time was not yet an epicenter for after dark fun. It put Hyannis and jazz music on the map on Cape Cod and Southeastern New England.

The story of the Panama Club began shortly before World War II landed on America’s front step. It was a time shortly after the worst of the Great Depression had subsided. In those days there were very few places for young people to get together and have a good time. That would change with the arrival of Antonio Caggiano from Boston in 1937. In 1941 he, along with his son Reynold would open the Panama Club near the end of Main Street. Decorated in red and white velvet this would usher in a new era of nightlife on Cape Cod. It was the first swinging jazz club.

Postcard from the 1950's looking east down Main Street with Panama Club on the right.
Courtesy of Sturgis Library

Though the father and son owners would also operate other businesses, Rennie’s Lounge in Hyannis and Rico’s Restaurant in Centerville, the club on Main Street would forever etch their names in Cape history. Their Panama Club would be a hotbed for the youth of Cape Cod, guys and girls dressed to the nines looking to meet up. Couples and those who had never laid eyes on each other alike would pack together on the small dance floor and get their feet moving to lively swing music.

Not very long after bursting onto the scene the Panama Club became an escape for locals after news hit of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Those who were in the club learned of the news inside, some rushed home while others stayed. The establishment did not close though and it was packed again the next day with some even bringing their own beer with them. The events of Pearl Harbor and the Panama Club would become the subject of a popular fictionalized play written by Larry Marsland of Chatham in 2006.

Looking down Main Street from a similar vantage point as the above postcard.

The Panama Club would become the jumping off point for Cape Cod’s First Lady of Jazz Marie Marcus who first graced their stage in 1943 when she was still billed under her maiden name of Marie Doherty. She teamed up with Alma Gates White to form the ‘Piano Maniacs’ playing the Panama Club as well as the Coonamessett Club in Falmouth. While performing at the Panama Club Marie would meet her future husband, trumpeter Bill Marcus.

The bar at the club was always packed with beer being the drink of choice, selling for seventy-five cents, while shots of whiskey cost sixty cents. For those who did not wish to travel to the busy club there was another way to listen to the live music being performed there. This was thanks to the occasional live radio broadcasts being transmitted from the Panama Club. However so crowded did the club become that during one show in 1943 legendary WOCB DJ Vern Coleman, then only seventeen, had to set up his equipment and broadcast the night’s live music from underneath a table. The radio broadcasts would remain a fixture throughout the 1940’s.

As the decade passed the club became the place to be, World War II did not damped the business. Everyone from celebrities, to soldiers at Camp Edwards, to the average everyday worker made their way to the end of Main Street. Those who worked in the businesses nearby would get off of their shift and walk down to enjoy a drink and a chat. Many local would become well known due to their playing at the Panama Club including pianists Mike Markaverich and Marion Cahoon who would teach piano at the Cape Cod Conservatory of Music for three decades. The joint would be jumping until midnight after which people would pour out of the Panama Club’s several exits. Some would wander down The Byway alley winding behind the club, while others would simply congregate in the streets. The crowds were so large that during its heyday it was said to look like a mini Times Square outside after.

Where Panama Club once stood on Main Street.

The Panama Club would gain perhaps its most famous regular in the form of summer resident and future President of the United States John F. Kennedy. The course of history was changed inside the walls of the club in September of 1944. It was shortly after the Great Atlantic Hurricane had hit the Cape that Kennedy and two female friends paid a visit to the Panama Club as they enjoyed it and also it was one of the first places to reopen after the storm. It was during a break between dancing where Kennedy first mentioned his desire to become a politician, specifically a potential run for Governor despite only being twenty-seven years old at the time.

In the 1950’s the Panama Club would see some changes. In June 1953 the Caggianos would sell the establishment to former Uxbridge Inn owner John Cornelia. There would also be competition in the form of the Catalina Club which opened at 654 Main Street. The club would continue its run for a few more years before closing in the late 1950’s. The building would be torn down in 1972 and as of 2018 the site of the former Panama Club is occupied by a Dunkin’ Donuts. Only memories and scant images remain now of Cape Cod’s original swinging jazz club, luckily Larry Marsland’s play brought some light back to this lost icon.

View my previous blog posts: In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - Bassett's Wild Animal Farm
                                                In My Footsteps: Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts

Cape Cod Sunsets 2020 Calendar available at Zazzle here: Cape Cod Sunsets 2020

Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com

My 5th book, Cape Cod Nights, is on sale at Amazon.com and through Arcadia Publishing