The Holiday House-Pittsburgh Mob Supper Club

For anybody outside the Pittsburgh/Youngstown/Cleveland area, this place was the Copacabana of Pittsburgh. Many memories, the Rat Pack, Tony Bennett, Connie Francis etc all performed here. If anybody has any experiences there, please share on this thread.

http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmo...y#axzz3eqLn3L5e

Poor Connie Francis. She was a Goddess in my house when I was a kid. Her picture was right in between Pope Paul's and Sinatra's. And I'm not even kidding .

My parents just went to see her a few years ago in Pittsburgh...I could still see my Nonna in her mapine singing Mama in Italian...the good ole days

This song will be immediately recognizable to "Goodfellas" fans, even though they blew it and left it off the soundtrack. It's playing during the introductions scene at the Bamboo Lounge (Jimmy Two Times, Pete the Killer, et al.).

In the film they used they used the original version, recorded by Mina (the Italian Streisand), for "La Dolce Vita." But I'm posting Connie's version. And even if you don't speak Italian, it will move you. And like I said, you'll remember it from the Bamboo scene in "Goodfellas."

Il Cielo In Una Stanza

True memories

im older than P.B. and Oscar. i can tell you between 1958 and 1964 you couldnt turn on the t.v. and not see connie francis. she was on every variety show plus american bandstand. she was truly great. today she would earn a billion dollars.

I'm almost 56, Faffy. Anyway, as it stands, Connie outsold every female performer in the world from roughly '58 through '64. By today's standards, yeah, she'd be worth 500 million easy.

Although I'm only 38, I still remember sleeping at my grandparents house every Saturday night. 7pm was Lawrence Welk and then Connie Francis and Dean Martin records until midnight.

im 63 this year. her father was a tough old sicilian. kept a close eye, and tight rein on her.

Held her back. Should've let her marry Bobby Darin. He was doomed to die young anyway, but her life would have been a lot happier.

yep, very tight rein. not sure if darin and her would have worked. that marriage may have curtailed her career.

You guys see the movie Beyond the Sea?

Probably not. You know, Hollywood and all. But I'm talking short term, she would have been a little happy, which was something that alluded her most of her life (happiness). And in her autobiography and in a Youtube interview as recently as 2011 or 2012, she called not marrying Darin the biggest mistake of here life.

Of course, after all that, her brother got murdered for being a rat, she had a terrible pill problem, and the big one, being raped and tied to a chair like an animal, ruined her for years. More than likely forever. Success aside, she didn't have a charmed life.

Tremendous talent, sad story.

yes i saw it. thought it to be kinda "campy" , not realistic enuf. darin's life was a great story line, dont think the movie was serious enuf.

Judy Gardner was another tortured soul.

you mean judy garland

Not to mention that Spacey was just too old to play the part. Bobby died at 37. Spacey was an "old" 44 when they filmed. So the parts when he was supposed to be in his 20's were ridiculous. He looked like Kate Bosworth's father.

But to be fair, it was Spacey's obsession with Darin that finally got that film made. He had the rights from way back in the mid-'90s when he would have been much more age appropriate.

I still enjoyed the movie, I'm sure the book on Darin is much better.

So did I. It had it's charm in a campy kind of way, especially when Spacey sang "Artificial Flowers."


There are several. David Evanier's is THE BEST, by leaps and bounds. It's called "Roman Candle."

Five Stars from PB. Read it and get back to me .

i agree with you PB. one thing that hurt the movie was the movie "RAY" being out about the same time. it over whelmed the Darin movie.

I'll order it next week, I'm halfway through a book by sports biographer Peter Golenbock called Wild, High & Tight: The Life & Death of Billy Martin. Truly the best sports biography I've ever read and I'm only halfway through.

will have to check it out.

I know you're a Yankee fan PB, the stories in this book are hilarious as well as very sad. Great insight into how those guys lived in the 1950's-1960's.

I'm a Mets fan. But I don't hate the Yanks, and I love their history, so I'll check it out. Plus, I remember Martin's funeral like yesterday. One of the biggest I've ever seen. And it's funny because I just mentioned how I ended up a Mets fan YESTERDAY:

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthr...true#Post849371

WTF? A Bronx guy venturing into Queens? The 69' amazin' Mets. Billy Martin IMO was the best baseball mind in history. I love his tombstone, it reads: "I may not have been the greatest Yankee to put on the uniform but I was the proudest." After reading a few other books on Billy and halfway done with this one, you'd understand how Billy couldn't function without the pinstripes.

billy was a great manager, no doubt. but his clutch play in world seris games gets overshadowed.

Definitely THE place to go for any celebration,be it birthdays,anniversaries,proms,romantic dates,etc.
In 1963 my parents took me and my older sister to the HH for her 16th birthday. I believe it was either Connie Francis or Abby Lane headlining. At the age of 7 ,I could care less about "my parent's music".

As a side note,I'm sure you've heard the story about Liberace's near death experience when he suffered kidney failure from absorbing dry cleaning chemicals from his costumes into his body.
It happened backstage at the HH,on the night after the JFK killing.

You hit the nail on the head, Billy wasn't a great player, he was a scrappy, playmaker and always came through when it mattered. Best manager in my lifetime...up there with LaRussa.

I did read that somewhere...

Joke:

Why was Liberace buried face down?

...So his friends could say goodbye!

Q. How do you turn a fruit into a vegetable?

A. Have a tiger drag him offstage.

And yes, many in my family spent nights and weekends there...especially the fellas. I spoke with a friend this morning whose dad was a top dog in Pittsburgh for 50 years...he told me he remembered being at Kelly Mannarino's funeral when Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were standing in the receiving line. LaRocca and Tony Ripepi had them back to their homes for the weekend. Dino grew up 30 miles west of Pittsburgh, he came back to town often to see family & friends. Lots of great acts at the Holiday House and Dean Martin used his influence to send people to sold out shows.

Oscar, how do you know about the holidsy house? Monroeville was quite the spot.. Along with the Holiday House was the Esta Esta, Moio's Bakery, and the Hotel where wiseguys would go to hold court and take the dughters along for "father-daughter day," this was actually the idea for a scene in the sopranos.. Moio's is still open today, some of the canol and sfogliadell around.. Are you from around than?