The Velvet Forum

Firstly thanks to velvetfan for posting the details about this video about the Summit High School, New Jersey. I think it warrants a thread on its own so i've started a new one so pics of the hall can be saved. This 3.5 min film gives some nice clear pans across the stage & hall.

I have always loved seeing inside the venues that the VU played and this is the first time I have seen this auditorium ? its much bigger than I was expecting. No arty bohemian basement just a standard gently sloping brightly lit wooden walled school hall, some screen grabs below. Finally thanks to the makers & producers of this short its a lovely piece of work with professional standards and good presentation.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/visiting ... ced,82633/

This is an interesting report, but has anyone verified that this auditorium was the room in which the show was held? I'd always understood it to have been in a stand-up room, and now wonder, seeing that the school has a dedicated auditorium with permanent seating, if it might not have been held in the gymnasium.

This reminds me to mention an interesting article about the other act on the bill that night, Forty Fingers:

http://tinyurl.com/dyqknzs

Note that this doesn't get the actual article, only a ordering page for issue #31 of Ugly Things, in which it appears. Deena Canale, however, includes an excerpt on her (Velvets-named) website, which offers a stunning addition to the Fingers's VU relatedness:

http://tinyurl.com/cuzxulz

I was just re-reading the account 'I Was A Velveteen' by Rob Norris and it does mention it being in "the Auditorium" twice (as does the poster), a stage and there being a curtain which went up. Yes it does mention people standing in front of the stage but there is plenty of room in front of that stage, in any case you can see those seats are modern in the video so it might have had a different seating arrangement.

Yeah, guys - it's been 50 years or so. Chances are it has undergone SEVERAL renovations.

Here are some pages from the 1965 yearbook for Summit High. The auditorium looks pretty similar. I couldn't find the desired yearbook for 1966.

http://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Sum ... 95#page=37
http://www.classmates.com/yearbooks/Sum ... 95#page=42

The links may take you to the pages 37 & 42 themselves.

bleach wrote:I was just re-reading the account 'I Was A Velveteen' by Rob Norris and it does mention it being in "the Auditorium" twice (as does the poster), a stage and there being a curtain which went up. Yes it does mention people standing in front of the stage but there is plenty of room in front of that stage, in any case you can see those seats are modern in the video so it might have had a different seating arrangement.

I reckon I'm going to have to do some reimaging of the mental pictures I've made of this show!