Contents
AVH Around the World
Boston Magazine
Reading: Oct 16, 7 PM
Odds and Ends
AVH Around the World
by Tom Owen
The name Victor Hugo has been used for an assortment of food related businesses over time. Currently we know of a couple.
There was the Victor Hugo Wine Cellar in Buffalo, NY. Apparently it is no longer in business but the building is a National Landmark. There's a Victor Hugo Restaurant somewhere in Edinburgh, Scotland. Appropriately enough, there’s a Victor Hugo Cafe on the Channel Island of Guernsey -- still in business and rated as one of the best places to eat on the island.
The Victor Hugo Restaurant we found out most about was at 223 N. Beverly Drive in Hollywood California and was somewhat well known in the 1930s and 40s. It was owned and managed by Victor Hugo. As to what his relation to the French writer may be, we have yet to find out.
The Victor Hugo Restaurant was a hot spot to dine and dance at; a favorite of move stars and lovers of big bands. An article in the April 19, 1937 issue of Life Magazine has pictures of Basil Rathbone's 11th wedding anniversary party. It was a costume party and among the attendees were Mr. and Mrs. Edward G. Robinson, Jeanette MacDonald, Dolores Del Rio, and Marlene Dietrich.
On a 1937 radio program hosted by Benny Goodman, it was called "one of the most famous restaurants in the world." Also on that program were Jack Oakie, Robert Benchley, and Judy Garland.
Lloyd Nolan and his wife dined there in 1945.
On one famous occasion in 1939, jazz guitarist Charlie Christian (who died just three years later at the age of 26), auditioned by lugging his equiptment onto the stage during a Goodman appearance. Goodman, who was uninformed and unenthusiastic about the idea, asked Christian to play a song he thought would be unfamilar to the black artist. Instead Christian's performance had the audience cheering and clamoring for more. Goodman hired him after that.
Another time the Harry James band with its singer Frank Sinatra were playing an engagement they had scratched up when the nightclub they had been booked for burnt down. Alas, after two weeks Hugo fired them all. In a 1945 fan magazine article, purportedly by Frankie, he overlooks that fact and only expresses appreciation for having played at such a famous venue.
We currently have a feeler out to the Beverly Hills Historical Society to see if we can find out more about this operation. Any help or information on other Victor Hugo operations around the world is always appreciated.
Boston Magazine
Yay! Boston Magazine voted AVH Best of Boston: "Best Used Bookstore". Thanks to the editors, the readers, our customers, Blue Bart, all those who helped move the bookshop to it's fabby new location (353 Newbury), Johnson's Paint, the Newbury Street League, Victor Hugo, Robert Loius Stevenson, and all the other authors who have made this store what it is today, was last |
year, and will be in the future: "the Black Hole of Newbury Street, because once you walk in, it's almost impossible to extract yourself". --Boston Magazine
Reading: Oct 16, 7 PM
Venerable Newbury Street hot-lit-spot Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop will host a reading in celebration of Trampoline: an anthology (Small Beer Press) edited by Kelly Link (author of Stranger Things Happen) in the Third Floor Johnsons Art Gallery on Thursday, October 16, 2003, at 7 PM.
Link, a former AVH staffmember who now lives in Northampton, MA, will team up with three Boston-area authors who will each read part of their contribution to Trampoline.
The authors are: Alex Irvine, “Gus Dreams of Biting the Mail Man”
Greer Gilman, “A Crowd of Bone”
Vandana Singh, “The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet”
Refreshments will be served and there will be art to admire.
Trampoline contains 20 astounding stories by authors such as Carol Emshwiller, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Glen Hirshberg, Samantha Hunt, Shelley Jackson, Maureen McHugh, and many more.
A PDF flier for the reading can be downloaded here. Odds and Ends
AVH is now occasionally featuring items on eBay. Email us mailto:books@avenuevictorhugobooks.com to find out more.
Lots of new fall books are here.
As are lots of more interesting used ones.
Welcome (back) to Boston, students. Now go and register to vote, thanks. |
