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Larry Jones interview

2024.41.317

Video recording of Larry Jones recounting post-WWII culture changes and his memories from the 1940s-1950s.

Childhood1909 Big Pavilion -1960

Winthers, Sally

2024.41

Found in Collection

To view this recording, scroll down to the bottom of this entry and click the blue web link. This video was created by Saugatuck-Douglas History Center volunteers or was donated to the Center in a good faith effort to preserve local history. If you feel this content should not be available to the public — or have additional information that will add context to this interview — please contact the SDHC Archives at [email protected].

Jones, Larry Paul 1939-

Shack, John

Aug 27, 2009

56

DVD version

5 in

5 in

AWS/VidArch SSD/DVD originals drawer

90 Mixer/Octagon HouseGotham (boat) -1943Jones, Frank Harley 1902-1943Jones, William Reese "Billy" 1927-1943Constantine, JohnBig Pavilion 1909-1960Shutter, HerbByfield, Herb A.Schreckengust, Bud c1938-2003Goshorn, Stanley 1939-2005

Also mentioned in the interview: Details of liquor laws. Four bars in the Big Pavilion: The Dock, the Marine Room, the Ozark Room and the service bar. Stocking cookers with cases of beer. Details about the bar layouts and sized of the crowds. Running out of glasses. In 1952-53 the Dock was underwater, so the owners put in the Ozark Room with red cedar paneling like their property in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Serving steaks to and spilling cream corn on celebrities Johnny Desmond the singer. Musician Jens Jensen hailing him as Swing Shift Manager. Going to Ross Phelps' hardware store, next to Funk's newsstand, to buy eight boxes of D-Con to kill rats. Elsa Ulbricht and the Beau Arts Balls. Theory that if the town had allowed the Big Pavilion to serve alcohol in the ball room, the enterprise would have been profitable. Trip to Chicago with his best buddy Stanley Goshorn to meet the owner of the Aragon Ballroom, who described how the cocktail lounge allowed the operation to be profitable. How after the war the Big Pavilion crowd got rowdier so Saugatuck Village government would not allow alcohol served in the ballroom. Police officer Bud Schreckengust using his "master psychologist" skills to calm rowdy behavior. Movie "Marjorie Morningstar" (book by Herman Wouk) captured his let-down feeling and loneliness after Labor Day. His siblings were Harold Leon, Harmon Maxwell, Theron Hugh, Joy Ruth, Larry Paul (himself), and Beverly Loretta.

04/05/2025

06/18/2025