1979

Bring on the Pink One
February 21
ProJo scribe Tony Lioce got in hot water when he dared to tell the truth about the the refurbished Biltmore. Max Alexander got the scoop.

Last Thursday afternoon the Providence Journal-Bulletin bounced reporter Tony Lioce from his four-night-a-week column and so magnified an ongoing rift between reporters and management. Editor-in-chief Charles Hauser said Lioce, who chose to return to his old Newport desk instead of taking a city beat, was released from the column after a six-week trial period; but reporters at a special meeting held Friday afternoon speculated that the real reason for Lioce's demotion was his controversial Biltmore story last Tuesday.

"Welcome to the Biltmore! P.S. Bring Money -- plenty," read the headline, and an unflattering portrayal of the new, elite hotel followed.

The Journal-Bulletin Company, a privately owned monopoly, has a $250,000 share in the Biltmore. When asked if the story influenced the decision to reassign Lioce, Hauser replied, "Good God, no!"

. . . Meanwhile, sources at the Journal indicate staff writer Mark Patinkin has been offered the column.

Swinging genius party
March 21
Rudy Cheeks headed to the Venus de Milo, "a little bit of Vegas transplanted to southern New England," to take in the Providence Newspaper Guild Follies. A splendid time was had by all.

Apparently the other 1,100 ticket holders had the same idea we did: get there early for a good seat and TWO FREE DRINKS. One quick trip around the joint and I realized it was celebrity city -- Senator Pell and Julie Michaelson exchanging pleasantries on a couch in the lobby, Eddie Beard shadowboxing in the men's room, Claudine Schneider radiant in 1971 vintage India Import togs, Mayor Cianci doing the Buddy (a dance similar to the Virginia Reel in that it features a lot of hand-tugging) . . . I spotted Sal Mancini of hardware and local political fame doing the Buddy just a few tables from ours. I bet [Leo's owner John] Rector a drink that he was wearing white shoes. Rector saw me the drink and raised me two that he had on a white belt as well. As it turned out, we were both wrong, so we settled on Rector buying me a drink.

A clean "dirty" theater
April 4
There's one on every block these days, but 20 years ago "exotic dancing" lived up to its name. Jim Mitchell went to West Warwick to experience the Palace Theater.

While the neighbors struggle along, the Palace dashes ahead, rising rapidly to the top of its class. The Palace may soon be the Burlesque Capitol of the East. The Atlantic City of stripdom. The Carnegie Hall of exotic dancing. If John Tavone gets his way . . . Smut peddler, pornographer, Sodomite, corrupter of morals, sex merchant, pig -- John Tavone has been called them all. It doesn't bother him. The Palace is his business, his life. It's legal; it's profitable; and it's his. He only wants to be the best at what he does. He seems to sum it all up best himself:

"My only crime is that not everybody agrees with me."

If you can make it there . . .
April 18
Ben Mondor acquired the Pawtucket Red Sox in 1977. He quickly turned the AAA franchise in a first-class organization. John Crisologo and John Rufo met the man at McCoy Stadium.

The new owner rebuilt the team and restored the confidence of the greater Pawtucket community. "At first nobody wanted to know me, now people are calling us," he said. Ben has also established a good working, and personal, relationship with his ballplayers. "Let's put it this way, the boys give me a party at the end of every year. I'm the only owner who ever got a party from his own ball club." He continued, "These kids lead a gypsy life. Pawtucket offers them a sense of stability. They know that when you come to Pawtucket, you've got it made."

Changing tides
July 25
Newport is booming once more, but Tom Gannon noted that there was a bit of a lull in the City-By-the-Sea at the end of the '70s.

Gone is the pleasant optimism of 1974 and '75 when Newporters really believed they could reap the benefits of the New Tourism without paying the price; gone is the spontaneous sense of play, replaced with a kind of frantic energy reminiscent of Cape Cod on a bad night. Now the wharf is as much a stockyard as anything, and whatever collective spirit the young, unkempt crowd may generate is penned in by ropes and brown-uniformed guards who strictly enforce the Black Pearl's monument to bad grammar: "No Alcoholic Beverages Pass This Point."

Nuclear power
October 17
Andy Webb was among the 3,500 members of the Clamshell Alliance who traveled to New Hampshire to protest at the Seabrook nuclear plant. His report:

We join forces at the home of a resident ally, forming columns four abreast. We march down railroad tracks, turn through the woods and cross a company road into a storage area and head for the fence. But up ahead, we are being routed, our columns now evenly round a human pylon urging us to move together. The police curse and shove with their sticks, spraying Mace. We stop and amass on a grassy knoll at the edge of the storage area; our fringe is lined with police. Standoff.

But on signal the machines sweep in, Macing and prodding with sticks. They are worked up, some bellowing at those who resist like enraged bullmen. A woman passively resisting is picked up by two uniforms, a stick through her belt loop, and carried off. Even reporters are Maced and clubbed.The police have taken off their badge numbers, securing anonymity.

Beaten back.

Birth of the blues October 31
Bob Angell recalled the birth of the Tombstone Blues Band in a piece about their Halloween night reunion.

Twelve years ago this month, entrepreneur Bob Bovi hired a young blues 'n' folk singer called Ken Lyon to entertain at Bovi's Tavern in East Providence as a solo act.

The ads read: "KEN LYON -- musicians invited to sit in."

Mark Taber, a pianist of the first order and steeped in Otis Spann since 1957, first joined Ken on stage . . . then a bassist . . . a guitar player . . . Slowly but slowly the thing fell together 'til one night, after hours, sitting 'round the bar, they came up with the name Tombstone Blues Band. "And I had to start paying all of them," laughs Bovi.

Till death do us part
November 14
Jean Rawson's story on the plight of battered women in Rhode Island contained this telling passage:

In Rhode Island, the 8,000 women suffering physical abuse in the home each year have difficulty getting aid from the state. Ann relates her experience: "At one point I went to Welfare to ask for help when I was 17, and they said, `You're either the property of your parents or the property of your husband until you're 18 years old, and we're not going to do anything.' " . . . Ann's story underlines the attitude of policemen like Captain Milton P. Wilson, a detective chief with the Providence Police Department, who told a Journal-Bulletin reporter in 1977, "Battered women are not a prevalent problem as far as I'm concerned. I feel a good marriage counselor could take care of the husband/ wife thing better than we can."

Boo-Who
December 12
In the wake of the trampled-fan tragedy at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Mayor Cianci pulled the plug on a Who date at the Civic Center. Peter Donahue reported on the flap.

Ever since the 1968 Sly and the Family Stone melee at the Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence City Hall has waged a tug-of-war relationship with rock concert promoters. Last summer's Bad Company concert at the Civic Center, with its trash and broken bottles littering the Civic Center's premises, invited a maelstrom of criticism from local merchants, civic officials, as well as the community. Cianci threatened to ban "acid rock" concerts but later relented.

A week ago last Monday, only hours after the tragedy, Cianci conferred with Public Safety Commissioner Sanford H. Gorodetsky over the matter. Gorodetsky agreed with the Mayor: under no circumstances would the Who concert at the Civic Center be permitted . . .

With that, Cianci became the mayor of the only city to cancel the Who.

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