Laura Leivick's Take On Bob Dylan's December 5 Show at the Beacon

Photo courtesy Laura Leivick

I recently learned that O. Henry, the short story writer who made twist endings famous 120 years ago, used to get ideas for stories by hanging around busy hotel lobbies and eavesdropping on conversations. I identified with this because I, too, have had a number of blog posts triggered by things I overheard.

So it is that I enjoyed the opening of lines of Laura Leivick's lively review of Dylan's show last night at the Beacon Theater on the Upper West Side. The veteran writer (NYTimes Magazine, WSJ lit critic, Rolling Stone copy editor, etc.) and lifetime Dylan fan (how many of us began with Bob's first album) shared this review of the December 5 concert.

* * * *
ONE MORE TIME AROUND
Tonight, after the Dylan concert at the Beacon, I heard two guys in the 20-30-something age range, who had seen the show, having a manic exchange about how amazingly Bob's work defies age. "He could be 30," exclaimed one who looked like he might be 30 himself. Oh, yeah? That kind of stagecraft--not to mention the setlist--was built over a lifetime.

It was a great concert no matter how you slice it, though it took me a while to catch on. The opener was puzzling--Bob singing "Things Have Changed," great! but playing electric guitar--why? (If it's because he can, well, I guess that's as good a reason as any.) Soon enough, however, he was building up a head of steam, and by the time he reached the final encore, he was tearing up the place. I saw a bank of scofflaws, their cameras a-blazing; people were dancing in the aisles, even the skinny spaces between rows of seats. Near the stage, a girl with blond bobbed hair bopped so joyfully I thought Bob should put her in a wheel barrow and wheel her down the street.

I got off to a slow start--I was jarred by the volume of the new drummer, Matt Chamberlain, and thought his sound lacked variety for a few songs. Or maybe the acoustic balance was off (or my hearing was, or where I was sitting was a problem—tho’ mid-orchestra should be good).

But by the time Bob was singing "Trying To Get To Heaven," accompanying himself on piano, I had recovered. Tony Garnier played the violin. If that doesn't open the door, nothing will.

Next up, the night's power-packed versions of "Pay in Blood" and "Early Roman Kings," and then the mood changed utterly and we got "Girl From the North Country" with Donnie Herron's haunting, Irish-inflected fiddle. Best version I ever heard. I held my breath.

Photo courtesy Philip Hale from previous show.

I guess I should note that the stage didn't resemble a supper club tonight, as it has during other Beacon runs, and the band wasn't dolled up in matching dinner jackets. Bob was dressed fancy for the occasion and wore no hat. The stage was set up so that when he left the piano he could easily and quickly be center stage singing and playing harp or guitar.

I was sort of embarrassed by "Not Dark Yet," which Bob sang from center stage with Herron on pedal steel. I'd call it corny--the pause between "It's not dark yet" and "but it's getting there" struck me as pure melodrama. However, the hard truth is it's Bob Dylan singing his own song about (his own?) mortality, so that's that.

The last four songs and the two encores left us all screaming. Hope we'll reconvene next Fall.

* * * *

Thanks, Laura, for contributing your insights here. Rich! What a privilege we've all had who took advantage of the opportunity to catch one or more of the shows on this fall's chapter of the NET.

Tonight (if you're reading this Friday) is the last of 10 performances in the Big Apple, with a final punctuation mark for this leg of the Never Ending Tour at The Anthem in Washington DC Sunday evening. If you can find a seat, take advantage.

Related Links
Another Review of Last NIght's Concert, by Johnny B
Dylan at the Beacon--Philip Hale Shares Why Fans Keep Coming Back for More
A Brief Glance at the Life of William Sydney Porter, a.k.a. O Henry 
Spotlight on Writer and Expecting Rain Contributor Laura Leivick
Start Spreading the News: Dylan Still at the Top of His Game in the Big Apple

The Beacon in New York Typifies Dylan's Love of Theaters

Yes, it's the Beacon. Photo courtesy Nelson French.

Nelson French, Duluth Armory board member whose brother lives in the Hibbing home Robert Zimmerman grew up in, sent me a number of photos last week of the Beacon Theater where Bob Dylan performed in November.

For those unfamiliar with the layout of the city that never sleeps, The Beacon is a historic theater on Manhattan's Upper West Side at West 74th and Broadway. It's a handful of blocks from the Museum of Natural History to the Northeast and the Dakota, where John & Yoko lived, to the Southeast.

Entering the Beacon. Courtesy Nelson French.

The Beacon has nearly 3,000 seats, opening as a movie house in 1929, the earliest days of the Talkies. The Marx Brothers's Cocoanutes and Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail, his first film with sound, were released that year. Today the theater is a live entertainment venue owned by the Madison Square Garden Company.

Not the grandeur of The Beacon or The Roxy.
For Ritz in Hibbing you head over to the high school.

Reading about the Beacon brought to mind how Bob Dylan's early life was undoubtedly touched by the movies. When the Zimmerman's moved from Hibbing to Duluth in 1947 his uncles--Max, Julius and Sam Edelstein-- built the Lybba theater at 2135 1st Avenue. The theater, incidentally, was named after Bob's grandmother Lybba Edelstein. The theater closed in 1982 and has since become the Sunrise Deli.*

Growing up going to the Lybba may have in part been behind Dylan's surprise move to purchase the Orpheum in Minneapolis in 1979. Dylan would have been nine when The Gunfighter came out starring Gregory Peck, one of my own favorite old-time Westerns. Gregory Peck appears years later in the Dylan song "Brownsville Girl" on his album Knocked Out Loaded.

Well, there was this movie I seen one time 
About a man riding 'cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck 
He was shot down by a hungry kid trying to make a name for himself...

Peck played the role of Johnny Ringo, a gunfighter who was tired of being on the run, never able to settle down because every kid show-off wanted to make a name for himself... Alas. Dylan was more likely to have seen this at the Lybba than years later on Saturday Night at the Movies on television. He very likely saw Moby Dick there as well, another Gregory Peck feature film, when he was 15, a novel itself would later be cited in his controversial Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

* * * *

Inside the Beacon. Courtesy Nelson French.

Inside the Beacon. Courtesy Bev Martin.

* * * *

The 1977 termination of Dylan's marriage to Sara may have contributed to his returning to Minnesota for a season. His interest in the power of theater birthed in him a desire to purchase the Orpheum which was itself birthed in 1921 on Hennepin Avenue, the main drag in Minneapolis.

I can't say how much time Dylan spent in Minnesota at that time, but I know he had a place on the Crow River west of Minneapolis next door to his brother David. On one occasion a friend of mine at that time had a dentist appointment and was in the waiting area a while. When he went in, he saw Dylan getting his teeth worked on in one of the other rooms there. Proof once again that all these stars we admire are just as human as we are.

* * * *

A Brief History of the Edelstein Family and Hibbing Theaters 
By David Edelstein* 

The story begins around 1922. My grandfather Julius was a poster hanger at the Victory Theater that was on First Avenue about three blocks from the Homer Theater. The Homer Theater was next to the Homer bar. Today the Homer Bar is still open and there is a building next door with an awning — it may have been the theater but my Dad isn’t sure — it may have been in the empty lot to the left. My grandfather Julius and his first cousin Louis Deutsch worked at the Garden Theater until about 1929. 

At that point talking movies came out and the Garden closed due to the cost of sound conversion. They had amateur night at the Garden and Frances Gumm (Judy Garland from Grand Rapids) and her sister came over and performed in 1927. 

Louis Deutsch moved to Virginia and owned the Granada. The Homer and State Theaters were owned by MACO (Minnesota Amusement Company — part of Paramount Publix, I believe, until the divestiture mandated by a Supreme Court case). In about 1936 Julius and his brother Max decided to reopen the Victory. 

Around 1939 MACO offered Max and Julius the job of running the Homer and they closed the Victory. The Garden was converted to the Gopher around that time and they also ran the Homer. There were other people running the State Theater at that time. Ticket prices at the Homer were 15 cents, Gopher 30 cents and State 40 cents. 

Max Edelstein also ran one of the Chisholm theaters with Bob Berquist and may have been a part owner. In 1948 the famous Paramount case was decided by the Supreme Court and the studios had to divest themselves of the theaters they owned. Around this time the Lybba opened, it was originally built in cooperation with MACO, but they weren’t playing fair, so the family split the Lybba off from them. The State and MACO were bought by our families in 1964. 

Things are looking up. Inside the Beacon. Photo courtesy Nelson French.

As for other places to watch movies, Nelson French sent these additional remarks: "I don’t know who originally built the Hibbing Drive-in, but the family bought it from Stan McCullough about 1967. Mann Theater Corp. from Minneapolis bought the State, Lybba, MACO and Granada theaters around 1978. We held onto the Hibbing Drive-in until 1980 and I think it was torn down in 1985."

Ah, but those were the days.

* * * *

* David Edelstein was son of Mel Edelstein, who owned and managed the State and Lybba Theaters, and later went on to manage the Orpheum in Minneapolis for Dylan and his brother David.

Here's one more  beautiful theater where Dylan has played, the Cadillac Palace in Chicago. This one was built in the Roaring Twenties, and it looks like a jewel.

Related Links
The Beacon
The Lybba 
The State
The Orpheum
Hibbing MN Bob Dylan Walking Tour
Dylan Still at the Top of His Game

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Listen to the music.