By Bruce Klauber
When George A. Hamid, Jr., who ran the Steel Pier and the Million Dollar Pier from 1946 to 1975, got out of the entertainment business at the shore, he could have easily rested on his considerable laurels and elected to live in the past. After all, this was a man who brought the most famous performers in show business history to the Pier for 30 years. But he had no time for nostalgia.
Years ago I asked him the whereabouts of Steel Pier memorabilia such as posters, backstage photos, booking schedules, and assorted collectors’ items. His simple answer was, “Most of that stuff is gone. My interests are today and tomorrow.”
However, given that this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the summer season, and one of the four biggest holiday weekends at the shore along with Labor Day, July 4, and Easter weekend, it seems fitting to scour the entertainment vaults and see just what stars were headlining at the Pier on Memorial Day weekends past. Given Hamid’s disinterest in things past, the list of Memorial Day headliners is far from complete, but each one we do know about is a story in itself.
In the 1930s and 1940s, the big swing bands were, in many cases, the headline name attraction. In 1938 there was no bigger name anywhere than clarinetist/bandleader Benny Goodman. On the weekend of May 29, 1938, the Goodman band starred at the Pier’s Marine Ballroom. That stand was important historically, as Goodman’s star drummer, Gene Krupa, left the band several months before this date, and in fact, as reported in these pages previously, premiered with his own band at the Steel Pier on April 16 of 1938.
The jazz press was on hand at the Marine Ballroom that weekend in large numbers, just to see how Krupa’s replacement, the great Dave Tough, would fare with the band of the King of Swing. The press loved Tough, but agreed that he was no Krupa.
The orchestra of trombonist Tommy Dorsey was widely known during the swing era as “the General Motors of the band business.” That name inferred that Dorsey not only treated his band like big business, but along with Goodman and Glenn Miller, was one of the most popular anywhere.
On Labor Day weekend of 1939, Dorsey visited the Pier; but his star vocalist, Frank Sinatra, would not join him until several months later. The long-forgotten Allan DeWitt was Dorsey’s male vocalist until the arrival of Sinatra. Note that Sinatra’s first appearance at the Pier was with Harry James’ band on Easter weekend, 1939.
The Ink Spots were one of the most popular vocal groups in history. The Spots’ recording of “If I Didn’t Care,” sold an astounding 19 million copies. Often cited by music journalists as one of the musical forerunners of doo-wop and rhythm and blues, The Ink Spots reportedly packed the pier over the 1942 Memorial Day weekend.
Pier records simply don’t exist for the rest of the 1940s and most of the 1950s, although we do know that frequent visitors included Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Dinah Shore, Jimmy Durante, Perry Como, Billy Eckstine, Alan King, Louis Armstrong, Burns and Allen, Danny Kaye, the Andrews Sisters, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, and mostly all of the big name bands.
The year 1958 represented a turning point for bookings at the Steel Pier. Whatever his personal feelings about it were, Hamid just couldn’t ignore rock and roll.
The first rock booking on record that we know of was a relatively tame one: Bill Haley and His Comets, a group still going strong after turning the music industry upside down with their 1954 version of “Rock Around the Clock.” In the ballroom was a big band led by a regional favorite, bassist Lee Vincent, and featuring one of the great trumpet stylists in jazz, Bobby Hackett.
The Haley booking at the Pier went very well, and the success of rock couldn’t be ignored. On Labor Day weekend, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 of 1958, the Pier brought in Ricky Nelson for two days. Note that the others on the bill were The Four Preps and comic Henny Youngman. They really weren’t necessary. The youngsters came to see Ricky Nelson, and they came out in record numbers. There were 44,221 people at the Pier to see the show, which set an all-time attendance record for the Pier.
The tide had turned. In the ensuing years, Hamid booked rock and rock-oriented groups like The Everly Brothers, The Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits, Peter and Gordon, Sam the Sham and The Pharaohs, The Supremes, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder and his group, and “single acts” that included Chubby Checker, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, and even Wayne Newton.
The Turtles hit the Pier stage on Memorial Day weekend of 1967, likely playing their hits including “Happy Together,” “You Know What I Mean,” and “She’s My Girl.” The group, with many changes in personnel, still tours today as a part of the “Happy Together” tour.
The Grass Roots, first formed in 1965, sold a lot of records, and George Hamid saw fit to book the group during the 1972 Memorial Day weekend. The Roots’ No. 1 recordings included “Let’s Live for Today,” “Sooner or Later” and “Midnight Confessions.” Sharing the bill with the Roots, believe it or not, was cabaret singer Lorna Luft, daughter of Judy Garland and Sid Luft, and Liza Minnelli’s half-sister.
Though there were Pier bookings post-1972, things were never the same once Hamid got out in 1973, although he did lease the Pier from the new owners for two more years.
Things were never the same in Atlantic City, either, but the good news is that the Steel Pier is still thriving as an amusement pier with great rides, plenty of food and drink, games, and the famed, 227-foot Ferris wheel, which the Pier simply calls, “The Wheel.”
The Steel Pier is a wonderful place for families to celebrate the 2024 holiday weekend, and it’s been a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday since the day the Steel Pier opened on June 18, 1898.
Bruce Klauber is the author of four books, an award-winning music journalist, concert and record producer and publicist, producer of the Warner Brothers and Hudson Music “Jazz Legends” film series, and performs both as a drummer and vocalist.
