THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408190285
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
If you're at least 50, you won't have any trouble relating to a WHRO-TV special, ``Gone, But Not Forgotten.'' Even if you have no direct memory of the sights of the 1940s and '50s in this region, you'll enjoy seeing how it was around here.
Appropriately, a preview of the public television show was held Tuesday night at the Commodore, Portsmouth's restored art deco movie house that originally opened in the 1940s.
The guests were those who either appeared in the film or contributed photos or motion pictures.
The film is loaded with Portsmouth scenes and Portsmouth people.
Harvey Johnson Jr. talks about his father who designed the historic Attucks Theater in Norfolk.
Sydney Gates, one-time manager of the elegant Loew's State Theater in Norfolk, remembers theater doormen wearing gold braid and ushers in spiffy uniforms who took patrons to their seats in the fancy first-run movie houses.
Gates, of course, was part of the family that also operated the Gates theater in downtown Portsmouth.
Zelma Goodman Rivin, whose mother opened The Famous in 1916, recalls the hustle of downtown Portsmouth and the origins of the woman's store that closed in 1991.
Asked about the name of the store, Rivin said her mother never could explain it.
``My father wanted to call it the Belle Shop, naming it after my mother and making a play on words,'' Rivin says on camera. ``But she said she didn't want that.''
So why The Famous?
``We never got any more explanation from her other than `So we called it The Famous,' '' Rivin said.
Retired Virginian-Pilot and Ledger-Star photographer Mike Williams has a speaking role as well as many photographs in the show.
His pictures of downtown Portsmouth are a strong part of the film.
``Some of the ferry pictures are mine, and some of the streetcar shots,'' he said.
J.C. Twine, once captain of the Portsmouth ferries, also speaks in the film. He remembers ``packed ferries'' during the World War II era and the six-minute runs across the harbor.
Dorothy Briggs Wylie recalls her father, a ferry boat captain who refused to go through the Downtown Tunnel for years after it opened.
She tells of the day she had him in the car and just headed through the tunnel. Captain Briggs, she said, never said a word and on the other side, when she mentioned they had just gone through the tunnel, he ignored her and simply said, ``Dorothy, you're a good driver.''
The film shows a lot of ferry boats, streetcars and trains.
The WHRO film also zeroes in on beachfront amusement parks. Who does not remember the train excursions to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront or taking the streetcar to Ocean View? As a very small child, I came from Elizabeth City on church-sponsored excursions.
Later there were different sorts of excursions, when couples would crowd into a car for a trip to dance away the night at the Surf Club and the Cavalier Beach Club.
Famous big bands were regulars at Oceanfront clubs, where the dance floors were exposed to the elements. I remember one night, when a storm must have been blowing up the coast, dancing on a wet and slippery floor to the music of Sammy Kaye.
Some of the most telling footage in the film was shot during tea dances at the beach clubs, where men were required to wear not only shoes but coats and ties. That really shows how times have changed!
Some things, however, don't change.
For instance, Mike Williams notes in the film that Portsmouth loves a parade.
``It's a parade town,'' he says.
It still is. From the Memorial Day Parade, the state's oldest continuous effort, the Fish Bowl parade, to the Christmas parade, they are an attraction to people of all ages.
Baseball and the Frank Lawrence Stadium as well as other Portsmouth activities also are shown in the film.
``Gone, But Not Forgotten'' is billed as ``a heart-felt tribute to great old places where we used to go to have fun.'' It's an excellent record of some recent history in this region.
Maybe WHRO-TV will do a series if this first one is well-received.
I bet they edited out many pictures and interviews that could make at least one sequel. In fact, Mike Williams probably has enough photographs to make another one - mostly about Portsmouth - all by himself. by CNB