August 22, 2007 4:15 PM
Dear Julia and Poydras,
I’m 66 years old now but when I was a little girl my mom took me shopping on Canal Street often and we would always “do lunch” at a beautiful restaurant called Glucks (if my memory is correct). It was so elegant; I felt like a princess eating there. I think it was on Royal Street but I’m not sure. Could you tell me where it was and what’s there now? It is a very fond memory of my mom and I having a mother-daughter day out! Some history on the restaurant would be great, too.
Janice Huff
Avondale
Gluck’s was located at 124 Royal St., just off Canal Street. Gluck’s and the Gallery Circle Theatre, both of which were housed in the historic Merchants’ Exchange, were destroyed by fire. Within months, in late April 1961, the gutted Merchants’ Exchange was demolished. The Holiday Inn French Quarter now stands on the site.
Norfolk, Va., native Sam Gluck was the man behind the Royal Street restaurant you so fondly remember. According to his obituary, Gluck came to New Orleans in 1914 to serve as district manager of the Thompson restaurant chain. About four years later, he started his own business and opened the Royal Street eatery. Sam Gluck sold the business in ‘56.
Sam Gluck died in July 1961; only a few months after his popular Royal Street restaurant had been torn down. His widow, Florence Stover Gluck, died in June ‘67.
Dear Julia,
Would you please tell me how many newspapers were published in New Orleans between 1931 and ‘33? Also, which ones were delivered in the morning and which in the afternoon?
Myrtis Kern
Metairie
Unless you intend to count small-run ethnic, political or special-interest newspapers, many of which have faded into obscurity without ever having been documented or preserved for posterity, I believe the number you are seeking is “four.” Between 1931 and ‘33, there were four general-interest local newspapers in New Orleans. Both The Times-Picayune and Morning Tribune were morning papers while New Orleans States and New Orleans Item were the evening papers.
Dear Julia,
About a month ago, I went to the Basin Street Station in New Orleans. It was the first time I had seen it and was fascinated by the music written on the walls by famous musicians.
Was this an actual station and when was the last time it was used for that purpose?
Patricia Brauen
Metairie
The Basin Street Station, at Basin and St. Louis streets, was once the freight office building for the New Orleans Terminal Company and Southern Railway. Built in 1904, the freight office remained in use until being vacated in ‘75. The Valentino family purchased the property in late 2003 and has worked extremely hard to adapt the building to its current multi-function use that includes the visitors’ information center you saw during your recent trip.
Although it was never a railroad terminal, the renovated Basin Street Station features a facade styled after the Southern Railway station. Built by famed architect Daniel Burnham, the Southern Railway Terminal stood along the median at Basin and Canal streets from 1908 to ‘56.
Dear Julia and Poydras
They are fixing to move an old house in Jackson and we found a yardstick with the name: Jaubert Bros., Inc. / Wholesale Jobbers and Importers. / Dry Goods and Notions. / 200-206 Magazine St., Cor. Common, New Orleans, La. Any information?
Edwin L. McGehee
Jackson, La
Born in France, brothers Fortune, Marius and Clement Jaubert began their wholesale dry goods and notions company in the late 1880s. First located in a building at the corner of Chartres and Canal streets, the business moved around 1902 to the corner of Magazine and Common streets. Although the firm survived for many years, its founders were not so fortunate.
Clement Jaubert was the first of the founding brothers to die. Not long before Marius Jaubert’s Feb. 1917 death from an extended illness, brother Fortune Jaubert was killed in an eerily modern-sounding freak accident. He was driving along St. Charles Avenue just as someone was running amok with a gun. Unintentionally caught in the ensuing crossfire, Jaubert was hit by a stray bullet and died.
In a 1937 newspaper advertisement the firm ran in honor of its 50th anniversary, Jaubert Brothers boasted that the firm was still family-run, having passed from its founders to the second and third generations. The firm was also proud of its profit sharing policy and let its audience know that Jaubert paid bonuses to its employees for each of the four previous years.
Dear Julia,
The Internet and other sources on New Orleans history advises that New Orleans is known as the “Big Easy” relating to a dance hall dating back to the 1920s.
Ask Poydras if he can remember the exact year that New Orleans, my wonderful city, was officially named the “Big Easy.”
I seem to recall some sort of ceremony back in the 1970s or ‘80s commemorating this event. Am I dreaming?
Mary Mangaracina
Covington
Mary, here in my condo we refer to Poydras as “Little Easy” and even that’s an exaggeration of his daily energy output. “Big Lazy” might be more appropriate.
Yes, you’re dreaming. The city of New Orleans has never made the popular slogan its official nickname. If it were truly official, the city council would have published an ordinance decreeing it to be so.
Regardless of whether or not the term “Big Easy” refers to one or more nightspots, it can be difficult – frequently impossible – to ascertain the precise location of such an establishment or to know with total certainty when the place was in business. An old jazz club might be known by the name on their sign but be listed in city records and directories by the name of its manager or landlord. Many such places were rented or leased; the taxpayer or owner of record must not be rashly assumed to be the club manager.
Despite plenty of research we don’t know the origin of the term but we’re still looking. Maybe Poydras can help ... when he wakes up.
Dear Julia,
Enclosed is a picture of our unknown lady who’s quite lovely, detail right. She was given to my father after the death of one of his clients. He had asked about her identity while on a visit to prepare taxes and he was told that the unknown lady had been hanging on the wall of the family home so long no one alive knew who she was anymore.
He was quite surprised when the unknown lady was left to him in his client’s will and refused to take her. However, she was delivered to him at work with the message that she was now his. He gave her to me because she “fit” my plantation home. My husband and I hung her in our bedroom where she does indeed fit.
I have seen an oval portrait of the same lady three times now on TV. Once was on the TV show Charmed and twice on HGTV programs. I always wondered who she might be and since she survived Hurricane Katrina in St. Bernard, could you please try and identify her?
By the way, does Poydras have anything to do with the return and increase of wild parrots in the Meraux area?
Gayle Buckley
Meraux
Gayle, Poydras doesn’t approve of wild parrots. He says they stay out late boozing and womanizing and get into too much trouble.
I have some good news for you, though. Your lovely lady, her hair adorned with fruit, is not a Carmen Miranda prototype or some sad Southern belle whose identity has faded into obscurity. She was born Johanna Maria Lind (1820- ’87) but the world knew her as opera singer Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale.
The image in your possession appears to match an 1846 oil painting of Ms. Lind. Executed by the artist Edouard Magnus, the portrait hangs in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.