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I just played a favorite DVD of mine, a classic from 1983 called Vacation. There is a great scene where Chevy Chase gets dressed up in a ridiculous leisure suit and white shoes to prowl a stereotypical 1980s era Holiday Inn lounge. The place is packed with women (including a spectacular 29 year-old Christie Brinkley) and live entertainment. Just then it occurred to me, what the hell happened to all those Holiday Inn genre lounges? Did they die off as Baby Boomers aged? Was the demise of polyester as a babe magnet wardrobe spell doom to the hotel lounge? There has to be some reason why they went from the hottest social gathering spot to gathering dust.
Recently I was on a trip to Northeast Ohio and visited one of those hotels frozen in time around 1965-1970. If it were in Palm Springs it could be called mid-century modernism and people would flock to it in but in the college town of Kent Ohio, the University Inn on Water Street is just plain old. However, on my visit I learned that back in the early 1970s the rooftop of the University Inn was hopping with a restaurant and lounge with live entertainment. The place enjoyed an upscale Kent State professorial crowd that was 11 floors above the "Hell no, we won't go" undergrads who frequented the bars north at Water and Main Streets. No longer.
A night before flying back to the West Coast I heard an even more surprising story at the Sheraton- Cleveland Hopkins. A generation ago atop the Sheraton Hopkins hotel was a huge nightclub called The Final Approach. It had mood lighting with runway-like blue neon leading from the elevators to the lounge. The final approach had a wrap around bar, panorama windows overlooking the airport, a dance floor and a stage for live entertainment where a famous Cleveland group called the Bruno Brothers performed countless times. The businessman with the silver hair relaying the story seemed to miss that era as we sat in a near empty pseudo sports bar in the airport hotel called Amelia's.
Do any of these hotel entertainment lounges still exist today? This question is probably addressed for the U.S. forum members. If you need any lounge music time machine inspiration, listen to this incredibly corny song by an artist known as Jerry Vale (born Gennero Luigi Vitaliano.) The song is You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (selection number 15). Click it on the MP3 list: Free Music: Sings The Great Italian Hits by Jerry Vale - Rhapsody Online
Caution: Take two Asperin before listening. Between the crooning and the vocal glissandos it is just painful! :biggrin1::biggrin1:
Recently I was on a trip to Northeast Ohio and visited one of those hotels frozen in time around 1965-1970. If it were in Palm Springs it could be called mid-century modernism and people would flock to it in but in the college town of Kent Ohio, the University Inn on Water Street is just plain old. However, on my visit I learned that back in the early 1970s the rooftop of the University Inn was hopping with a restaurant and lounge with live entertainment. The place enjoyed an upscale Kent State professorial crowd that was 11 floors above the "Hell no, we won't go" undergrads who frequented the bars north at Water and Main Streets. No longer.
A night before flying back to the West Coast I heard an even more surprising story at the Sheraton- Cleveland Hopkins. A generation ago atop the Sheraton Hopkins hotel was a huge nightclub called The Final Approach. It had mood lighting with runway-like blue neon leading from the elevators to the lounge. The final approach had a wrap around bar, panorama windows overlooking the airport, a dance floor and a stage for live entertainment where a famous Cleveland group called the Bruno Brothers performed countless times. The businessman with the silver hair relaying the story seemed to miss that era as we sat in a near empty pseudo sports bar in the airport hotel called Amelia's.
Do any of these hotel entertainment lounges still exist today? This question is probably addressed for the U.S. forum members. If you need any lounge music time machine inspiration, listen to this incredibly corny song by an artist known as Jerry Vale (born Gennero Luigi Vitaliano.) The song is You Don't Have to Say You Love Me (selection number 15). Click it on the MP3 list: Free Music: Sings The Great Italian Hits by Jerry Vale - Rhapsody Online
Caution: Take two Asperin before listening. Between the crooning and the vocal glissandos it is just painful! :biggrin1::biggrin1:
