Harkness Heights O! My Harkness Heights

Posted on March 25, 2009 by admin

—by Mollie O’brien

I am a proud resident of the Harkness Heights neighborhood. The grandeur of its name belies its size. It’s a small neighborhood by Denver standards (its boundaries are 44th to 41st and Lowell to Federal) and lots of people make fun of its name and its allusions to greatness. But its a comfy area and we all pretty much know each other thanks to a really good neighborhood association which exists mostly to raise money for a big picnic each summer, luminarias on the winter solstice, and various Denver charities.

In the early 80s my future husband and I lived for 3 years in Wash Park in a falling down apartment across the street from the Candlelight Tavern. About the best thing about the place (other than the fact that every time a new leak turned up in the ceiling the landlords lowered the rent $25/month) was that the famous Benny cooked at the Candlelight. This was in his early culinary days and you could get a T-bone dinner complete with his incredible refritos, chilies, and tortillas for $5. When our apartment finally got to the point of being too dangerous to live in we realized it was time to move. Culture shock abounded when we realized there was no way we could afford to live in a normal building anywhere nearby so we started looking beyond the expensive yuppie boundaries that contained Wash Park.

One day we decided to drive past Federal on Speer just to see what was up there. Friends told us it was full of gangs and street crime but we went anyway and immediately found a wonderful 2 bedroom apartment with a great backyard and off street parking all for $375/month. It was $100 more a month than we’d been paying but just outside our front door was the looming sight of Mr. Twister and all that Elitch Gardens had to offer.

The girls growing up in harkness heights

The girls growing up in Harkness Heights

Our Wash Park friends while reluctant to see us they go encouraged us to visit them when we “were in town.” And so we were off to the wilds of Northwest Denver.

We moved the end of April to 35th and Utica and were soon delighted to find that we were invited to a “neighbor night” at Elitch’s of which we naturally took full advantage. (I’m sure that was a ploy of Elitch’s – the first night the park was open to the public the noise from the park didn’t die down until well after 1am.) That spring brought us knowledge of other North Denver earthly delights such as the vintage Dolly Madison shop at 38th and Tennyson with their waitresses right out of central casting, all the cool old taverns (the Music Bar, the old Billy’s Inn, Rosa Mia’s and Luigi’s on 35th), and the dear little parks like the one we called Wolfe Street Park because there never seemed to be any kind of sign identifying it otherwise.

In 1986 when we became parents for the first time we decided it was time to move to a house. Things were still relatively cheap up here but, we were musicians and not earning a whole hell of a lot annually and so we ended up buying a nice little place on “the other side of Federal” where we lived until another adorable little baby girl came along and we needed yet a bigger house. This time we moved into our current bungalow on Irving in Harkness Heights.

The first week we were in our house at least 3 neighbors came by with cookies and cakes, to say hello, to welcome us to the neighborhood and, I’m sure, to size us up. This latter bit can be attributed to the fact that one of the people who lived in the house before us was, shall we say, considered a bit of a neighborhood problem? Within a month’s time we had more babysitters available than we’d ever known across Federal and there were 2 babysitting coops to join. If we ever needed help moving a piano, fridge or sofa all we had to do was go down the alley a bit to see who was working outside that Saturday and we had a ready and smiling moving crew at our disposal. It was all pretty sweet.

Since then our neck of the woods has become trendy – maybe too trendy for some. We love, though, having a really good burger joint nearby (the reinvented Billy’s Inn), Sunflower Market, banks that know us, oldtimers who still bring muffins and treats to new neighbors, the tall kid on the bike with all the gizmos who curses loudly to himself as he rides by, the new stop sign (well, not that new really) at 41st and Irving, Taza De Cafe, all the people who are out and about on a warm weekend day, the blizzard potlucks and our impromptu year round traveling cocktail parties. We even notice some smiles on the faces of the Safeway checkers in their new digs and we begrudgingly acknowledge and have eventually accepted the huge new chateaus just north of our border.

Many years ago, before our kids were of school age, a friend of mine in the music business in Nashville told me that if I moved there I’d probably be really successful. I could do lots of session work, maybe even get discovered and become famous. There were many reasons why I chose not to do that and sometimes I wonder what would have become of me if I had packed the family up and moved there. As it was, I’ve been lucky enough to play all over the world and have done plenty of gigs that lots of people can only dream of. I’m always so happy to come back home to 42nd and Irving and I can’t imagine moving now.

After all, I get to play with my husband at our very own neighborhood festival, the wonderful Sunnyside Music Festival; there are people who come up to me in the grocery store and say hi because they know I’m a singer; the little kids in Harkness Heights know me because I’m the voice of the Stegosaurus in the kids’ TV show The Big Green Rabbit; and friends and neighbors ask me to sing for their parents’ memorials and, now, their kids weddings. I’m really famous, right here in Harkness Heights, and that’s all that matters to me.

B50 Note: Ruth Wiberg, in her book Rediscovering Northwest Denver (originally published in 1976 and available from Amazon), says that Harkness Heights “was probably named for Charles Harkness, an early owner, who is listed in the city directory of 1874 as a candle manufacturer.” The neighborhood is also the home of the Denver Victorian Playhouse, which was built in 1911 as the Bungalow Theater (with a 100 seat theater in the basement). As Ruth Wiberg notes, it “is one of the few theaters in the world to have presented everything Shakespeare wrote.” Mollie O’brien is a singer who has lived in Harkness Heights with her husband, Rich Moore, for over 20 years. More information on her music is available on her website, mollieobrien.com.

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B50 Happy Hour at El Camino

Posted on March 21, 2009 by admin

Join El Camino and Buckfifty to celebrate the work of Tracy Weil and share in some Denver “City Spirit”. Tuesday, March 24th, from 5 to 7pm. Buckfifty PBR’s, Chips & Salsa, and introducing a new Lala for a new century — the T-La.

El Camino is located at 3628 W. 32nd Avenue in Highland. Visit elcaminotavern.com for more information.

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remembering city spirit, part 2

Posted on March 19, 2009 by admin

—by Mona Lucero

every summer, city spirit would host fashion shows from the years 1994 to 1996 (not sure what years they were exactly). denver fashion designers always looked forward to showing their designs. there were as an amazing variety of fashion being shown. the designers themselves and the models came from many different points of view and walks of life.

in one show, you might see uzi designs (they sold their designs and other fetish-wear on colfax and pennsylvania, garden girl dresses (a retro-look if memory serves me right), ladybug clothing (fashion-forward), nur jewelry (the models would wear african-inspired headwraps), sugar twist kids (club kids who made everything they were wearing including their very high platform shoes which made them tower above everyone else in the show) and my own designs. at the time, i used the fashion shows to force me to come out with new lines on a regular basis as i was beginning my wholesale business. my big designs back then were candy-colored fake fur jackets, hats & bags and mini a-line skirts (some things never change!) and little mini-dresses with contrast vinyl banding at the empire waist.

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i’m sure all the participating designers were working really hard beforehand and when everyone arrived and dressed in the basement of city spirit, there was a lot of excitement in the air. each “posse” would check out what everyone else was wearing. you could always count on uzi to make a big scene even before the show. they would undress without modesty and make a lot of noise doing it. my models were pretty girly so they would scurry to dress behind the portable doctor’s screens that we used as dressing rooms.

someone from the restaurant would come down, i think i remember the owner, susan wick coming down once, and try to get everyone’s attention and finally announce that the show was about to begin. before you knew it, the room had emptied and the show was on. while waiting to go on, the groups of fashion models would wait behind the restaurant.

once my models told me they were ready to get into a scrap with the sugar twist kids in the alley because they were dissing my fake fur clothes. it was definitely a competitive atmosphere at times but i think everyone enjoyed the competition and vying for the audience’s attention.

once you got through the restaurant, there was a runway on the sidewalk where people were sitting in chairs. a lot were fans of the designers, but there were a lot people walking through on their way to the bars in lodo and they were in a for a big surprise but they seemed to love it. there was a lot of hooting and hollering.

in the second year, the show had gotten so much word of mouth, that it was necessary to open another space next to the restaurant. the music was eclectic and you never knew what was going to play next. most of the modeling was more like dancing. occasionally, a person from the audience would get up and groove on the runway. the craziest moments were always provided by uzi. they would feature models in diapers or with whips and i remember hearing from a few shocked but amused audience members that the uzi people were whipping onlookers.

i learned a lot from doing those shows. i’ll never forget clio ortiz’s work. it was my second fashion show ever and she had about a dozen gorgeous black models, all in “body-conscious” red dresses with black hats. it was a lesson in branding for me and i knew i had a lot to learn and i did! thanks, city spirit, tracy weil and especially susan wick for so generously hosting such fun fashion extravaganzas!

B50 note: Mona Lucero is a fashion designer and proprietor of Mona Lucero Design, located at 2544 15th St, Denver, CO 80211. For more on City Spirit, read part 1 of the story…

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Walabi’s 1982

Posted on March 18, 2009 by admin

—by Donna Stephenson

In 1982, I was a bar fly. Six days a week, my friend Janice and I went to Walabi’s at 22 broadway. We’d meet around 9 pm after our jobs; Janice was a tele-marketer or somesuch and I worked days at my parents hardware store. We’d dance for hours, stopping to only to smoke, pee or to take a quick hit from a warm beer. Occasionally we’d ask guys to dance. But Janice was my main partner, we’d rigorously hop up and down for hours to music that sounded so good and so original and was wholly homegrown.

We were accepted as regulars pretty quickly, by the bands and friends-of-bands, and most importantly by the bouncer and doorman, Jim Scott. I was just 21 and pretty naive about things. Jim, a black guy at well over 6 feet tall and older than us, kept an eye out and became a friend. He ministered good advice — “Donna, don’t drink your beer with a straw” — and tips on who was good to hang out with and who was not so great. And he’d see us safely to our cars.

Most of the music was new wave with some rock-a-billy and punk. We’d wear un-breathable plastic pants in black or red with anything tight on top. We’d park on Broadway, lock the car and walk as fast as we could to the safety of the club. We’d pogo all night in short heeled ankle boots and leave at closing to go have a 3 am breakfast at Reed’s on 8th and Speer. Whether Reed’s was a gay and drag place all the time or just late night I don’t know, but Janice was hopelessly in love with one of the regulars so we’d go and eat eggs and drink coffee before going home to start all over again the next day.

I left for art school late in 1982, leaving the town and all the music I loved. I plastered my Kansas City dorm room with flyers from my time at Denver clubs, memories from nights at Walabi’s, Straight Johnson’s and the Mercury.

My favorite bands were The Pink, The Aviators, and The Rock Advocates. Great nights were also spent with the Astrobeats, Crank Call Love Affair and the Rotisseries — I don’t remember seeing anything I couldn’t dance to.

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B50 Note: Walabi’s closed its doors in 1985. Show flyers are courtesy of Trash Is Truth, where you will find images of hundreds of flyers from concerts in denver between 1977 and 1986. Donna Stephenson (formerly van horn) is an artist who lives in Denver. Her most recent exhibit was at Ironton Studios; her work can be seen on her website, donnastephenson.com.

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The Jonas Brothers (Real and Retro)

Posted on March 15, 2009 by admin

— by M Thornton

Buckfifty has become my biography, the story of Denver before I arrived, the story of Denver that I live, and the story that gives credence to the Denver of the future. Here’s one more tidbit, and I hope it connects me to you, to the place, to the community that is built on the stories, the gospel of its residents, because the stories are forever changing, thanks to the chroniclers and listeners.

The Jonas Brothers of Denver

Back in 1974, after a fleeting separation from a girlfriend in Chicago, the college girl I could have fun with, like hitchhiking downtown from college, before missing our post-college marriage, I moved back to Denver, and found a job near my apartment in Capitol Hill, at Jonas Brothers. I became a taxidermist apprentice, for six months, and told the students whom I teach now about that experience, and they all agreed that this was a story that would endure me to people everywhere — that’s probably because they have not dealt with wild animals in their lives, and neither had I. (I typically use this experience to shock high schoolers into imagining that at one time, in this far outpost of civilization, game trophies mattered.)

Jonas Brothers hired me because I responded to an ad in the paper, I passed a polygraph, and I was interested. The fur salon on the first floor of the building at 10th and Broadway featured a standing polar bear, one of the last to be legally hunted and stuffed. (This polar bear looked so much better than the shaggy ones I grew up seeing at the Denver Zoo.) It no longer could claw or kill, but the magnificence of this creature suggested a wild habitat, where people could nonetheless safely purchase real fur coats. This was my introduction to taxidermy.

Once I started working around these people who devoted their lives to capturing the animal instinct, the bizarre nature of this old world craft never bothered me. The professional taxidermists who worked on the upper floors sculpted trophies made to mimic the wild haunts of the animals whose hides arrived through the alley door. Crates were unloaded, with hides that needed stretching, and skulls that required stripping in cauldrons of chlorine.

I would unpack an elephant foot, and over days of spraying it with water and tamping sand into it with a compactor, the foot would eventually regain its posture. We would add a circular plywood form to the inside, and top off the foot with a padded seat. An elephant foot stool. We would place the skulls of antelopes into a gigantic vat of bleach, where the final remnants of life would be stripped away, issuing ivory skulls a month later, to which we added missing teeth before we mounted them on a wood plaque. I learned about mixing epoxy glue to cement the dentures in skulls. I searched for missing incisors from drawers of teeth, catalogued by animal. My days were interesting indeed.

The taxidermists that worked at Jonas Brothers were the best of a dying breed, as they worked to make animals look as wild as possible, in their natural habitats. But safaris were on their way out, as wild game faced extinction, and so these craftsmen toiled as artists, scarcely making a living wage, without doing side work.

Did you know that fish lose their color once out of water? Fish trophies are painted to enact the real catch. Once while I was there, a hippo or rhino — they are both big game — died in one of the American zoos, and these artisans joyfully welcomed a new cast of the animal, that would better reflect how the beast would stand in nature. They would clothe it in hides from the next big game hunter. The taxidermists that I knew only watched PBS programming, Wild Kingdom at that time, constantly studying animals in their habitats, to better capture the life-like motions for their real-life resurrections.

One time I brought my older sister through the gallery of animals to be shipped out. I thought that she would enjoy petting a tiger, but I’m not sure that she thought that I was anything but weird. I broke my ankle wrestling with a friend after a night of drinking, and another worker at Jonas fixed me up with a deer hide cover for my cast, that lasted the length of my working there. I didn’t see my future there, but those taxidermists impressed me no end for their love of animals, and their devotion to capturing beasts at their best.

I finally got a job on the Colorado and Southern railroad, as a gandy dancer on the track gang, yet another step back in time, another step back into a Denver that too often is ignored. The Jonas Brothers’ building still stands at 10th and Broadway, and members of the family still stuff game animals in Louisville, in a business that has been around since 1908. I suppose that “stuff” is not the proper word — maybe recreate and celebrate; and so we compose our legends of Denver.

B50 Note: According to this article published in People Magazine on April 19, 1976, Jonas Brothers was then “the largest taxidermy business in the world.” The article goes on to explain that once a year, at the “Hunter’s Dinner”, Jack Jonas would serve his guests a delicious and diverse menu, including a combination of gnu, elephant, warthog, hippopotamus, python, and other exotic delicacies.

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