Did you Know Tony Bennett Once Sang In The Wildwoods?
Did you Know Tony Bennett Once Sang In The Wildwoods?
Did you Know Tony Bennett Once Sang In The Wildwoods?
From the 1950s through the 1970’s Wildwood was known as the East Coast’s Little Vegas. Many famous performers such as Elton John, Kiss, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes and Ella Fitzgerald would travel down to Wildwood to perform.
By 1955 Wildwood had some of the best clubs on the East Coast such as The Starlight Ballroom, The Bolero, The Rainbow, The Riptide and The Hurricane. Chubby Checker first did his twist here (1959) and Haley and his Comets performed their hit “Rock Around the Clock” in Wildwood. (1955).
Atlantic City wasn’t anywhere near it’s casino/entertainment power house it is today so if you wanted to be found by record labels it was Wildwood where you wanted to be.
In 1957 a 31-year-old lounge singer, Tony Bennett, made his way to the Wildwoods. Bennett had a few hits under his belt at this time such as “Rags to Riches” and “Because of You.”
He opened at the Bolero on August 23rd 1957 with two shows nightly. While we don’t know for how long he performed in Wildwood, we can assume he sang that full weekend, about six shows.
What makes this interesting is that Little Richard was performing right down the road at Ben Martin’s Mardigras around the same time.
Which show would you had gone to back then?
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