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Olson later
became one of Texas’ most sought after portrait photographers.
And like so often happened while the Balinese construction was going
on, Maceo had an afterthought.. He told Olson to wire the downtown
Studio Lounge so that the performances from the Balinese could be
sent through dedicated telephone lines to an equally elaborate speaker
system there for the dinner guests to enjoy.
The Balinese's opening date was set for New Year's Eve 1941, with
the Governor of Texas, W.
Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, as the guest of honor.
And to headline the opening, Maceo picked Toni Hart, a popular big
band vocalist from New York, who later became an Evangelical minister
and instant wedding chapel owner in Las Vegas. And there would be
two bands B Phil Harris and Val Olman. You may have never heard
of any of them, but this was big time, believe me.
Sam Maceo told the architects and contractors that by December 7,
1941, the renovations were to be totally complete so they could
be formally previewed by the Maceo family. To show them what his
fancy sound system could do, just after lunch, Olson piped the music
from the CBS radio network through it. Things were going fine until
the music stopped.
The announcer
began giving the shocking news that Pearl Harbor had just been attacked
by the Japanese air force.
An immediately pensive Sam Maceo left the showroom and went to the
bar where he sat quietly by himself for about an hour. And then
he walked through the building and out to the street without saying
a word to anyone, not even to the members of his family. All started
wondering if the grand opening scheduled for just twenty-four days
later would be cancelled.
Sam Maceo stayed in seclusion until a few days before the New Year's
Eve grand opening. Apparently no one knew what he was thinking.
And then one afternoon, he walked into the showroom, collared Quadri
and Nordstrom and shocked everyone when he went into a rage about
how much he hated the design of the bandstand. It would have to
be completely torn out, redesigned and rebuilt. "Don't worry
what it costs, I'll pay. It must be exactly right!" he told
them. "The opening will have to be postponed," he added.
At 9 o'clock on the evening of January 17, 1942, a huge crowd of
invited guests, all dressed in formal attire, came to see the latest,
and what would turn out to be the most famous, of the pier's transformations,
the Balinese Room.
Over the next 10 years, the entertainers who made the Balinese Room
famous - stars like Myron Cohen, Sophie Tucker, Larry Storch, Spike
Jones, Vaughn Monroe, Jack Fina, Carmen Cavallero, Duke Ellington,
Edger Bergan and Charlie McCarthy, and Phil Harris and Alice Faye
- would start to die, one by one. And for some reason show business
couldn't replace them. And because of that, the Balinese Room started
down that road, too. Then Sam Maceo died. He was 57. His nephew
Anthony Fertitta stepped in to front the organization.
And that's when Galvestonians had confirmed what they had always
suspected - that there was only one Mr. Balinese, one Mr. Studio
Lounge, one Mr. Hollywood Diner Club, and one Mr. Sui Jen. He was
Sam Maceo, and when he died of cancer in1951 at Baltimore's Johns
Hopkins Hospital, it didn't take long to realize that there was
one man on this earth who no one could replace, not even Fertitta,
even though like Maceo, Fertitta was good looking and had plenty
of ability.
It is impossible
for me to conceive that there could ever have been a person who
was a guest at the Balinese Room, even if only once, who didn't
find that place and occasion as one of the most memorable and important
of his life.
And the stylized and beautiful island life of which it was the cornerstone,
the trendsetter, hasn't even begun to be the same since.
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