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The Arcadia
of old, in the heart of St Patrick's Parish, has been raised to
the ground. Many of us have had halyson times in this world-renowned
dancing venue. Perhaps you would like to drop us a line on your
particular memories. We
are preparing an article for future publication and all memorabilia,
photos, or anecdotes are most
welcome*. Please e-mail mail@stpatrickscork.com
*The
contributor's permission will be sought before publication, and
all materials will be returned on request.
The following article is reproduced with permission from "The
Northside Folklore Project" and first published in "The
Archive" Issue Number 8, by authors Maureen O'Keefe and Francis
Quirke.
Credits are also due to the sponsers of "The Northside Folklore
Project"........FAS, Northside Community Enterprises and, University
College Cork, Department of Folklore and Ethnology.
This
famous Lower Road landmark is now just a memory, but lives on the
hearts of Leesiders....
The
Arcadia, more fondly known
as ‘the
Arc', was a famous Northside Cork dance hall on the Lower Road.
Many people went in single, met their true love there and went on
to marry. Michael Prendergast
opened it in 1924, first as a roller-skating rink, which
wasn't very successful. That option was tried twice more, the last
time in the 1970's. It had several owners over the 79 years; first
Michael Prendergast, who died in 1937, then his son
Michael Junior, who died at the great age of 93 on
Valentine's Day. 1984. His son Peter also ran the Arc for many years,
coming up with the idea of the Blue Room, where it cost two shillings
to get in and hear jazz musicians play on Sunday nights.
The Prendergasts
owned the Arcadia for 61 years before selling it in 1985 to CIE,
who used it as a social club. the Arcadia became the first temple
of sound in Cork and hosted many great acts, like Molly
O'Shea's band in the 1930's or later on Pat
Crowley.
Evening
Echo journalist Vincent Power
captures the atmosphere of the Arc's 1950's and 60's glory
days in his book, Send 'Em Home Sweatin'.
Peter Prendergast frequently had a thousand tickets sold before
the box office opened on a Saturday night. Dancers got lifts from
all parts of the country to the Arc: ‘On Sunday evenings in
the early ‘60's queues formed from 8.30 pm outside the doors
of ballrooms all over Ireland, where the air smelled of Old Spice
aftershave and Sweet Afton cigarettes..... Crowds who have waited
patiently for two hours on the street descend on the box office.....
The Clippers
(The Clipper Carlton Showband) are in town and no one wants
to miss them. By 9 pm Peter is at the mike to make the formal introduction:
‘Ladies and gentlemen, the stars of our show tonight, the wonderful
Clipper Carlton!' Down by the Riverside
is the band's signature tune, a favourite in Cork. The Clippers
are an antidote to the rather staid orchestras that dominate the
dance hall circuit. They are unlike any other band in the country....
In
the early ‘50's The Dixies came
on the scene playing jazz in Shandon's
Francis Hall on a Saturday Night. The would pack the
place out. Word got around about The DixieLanders,
as they were called then, and instead of trying to compete with
them at the Arcadia, Peter decided to book them as a relief band
who would come on before headline bands like the Clippers. It was
in the Arc in 1958 that the Dixies learned their trade. They would
listen to the other bands' performances and take some tips from
them. They would practice the bands' songs and sing them louder
and better the next Saturday night. For six weeks on a trot in early
1958 the Dixielanders played at the Crawford Technical School Hall
to help out the Marine Students, dancing was from 8 pm to 11 pm,
the admission was 2/6p. This brought a new generation of dancers
and 'bobby-soxers' to big-time music. Dixies' founder
Sean Lucey told us that's what it was all about, copying
other bands and making it their own. Soon they had a bigger audience
than the headline bands.
We
asked Sean how they came to go professional and Sean replied that
he was talking to Brendan Bowyer
of the Royal Showband, who said ‘You should go pro,
the money is great, I have £10,000 saved already!' Sean says:
"Hearing that story, and with Peters persuasion, we decided
to give it a shot. The only one who didn't want to was our lead
singer, so we auditioned for a new vocalist, that's how Brendan
O'Brien came to join as singer an rhythm guitarist in
1961." Peter Prendergast put 100% effort into the band, coming
up with unique ways to advertise them, just as he had with the Clippers
in the ‘50's. When the Dixies arrived back in Cork at about
6 in the morning after a gig, it was not unusual to see the light
on in the Arc, where Peter would be working away on new ideas to
promote them. In October ‘63 they became the first showband
to make personal appearances in Paris and Rome. Peter knew that
nobody would believe that they had performed in these places, so
he took postcards of scenes such as the Eiffel Tower and St. Peter's
Square and superimposed the band's picture on the cards. He posted
the cards to DJs and columnists back home. The postcards confirmed
it was not fiction.
The
Arc opened six nights a week; admission ranged from one shilling
and threepence to ten shillings on a special night such as the
Muskerry Ball. The most famous events were
the Cork Farmers' Union dance, the Stephen's Night party, and of
course the New Year's Eve dance where there were streamers, hats
and presents hanging from the ceiling. In the ‘40's and ‘50's
you had the; lads with their bicycles. On a busy night, the bicycle
park inside the lower door was usually packed. "Would you like
a crossbar home?" was a popular pick-up line, which usually
answered with acceptance or a snort of refusal. If he were a gentleman
he would lay his coat on the crossbar for the lady to sit on. Dancing
styles ranged from the foxtrot and quickstep to the Charlston, rumba,
tango and jive. In the early ‘70's The
Four Tops and Rory
Gallagher played there, as did
U2 later. It was a huge status symbol for aspiring
acts to appear there - if you could make it in Cork, you could make
it anywhere.
Many
people went to visit the old place while it was being demolished,
some even taking bricks for souvenirs. Member of the various show
bans also went. We asked Sean Lucey and Brendan O'Brien how they
felt about the place being demolished. Their reply was, "Very
sad to see the place go, but it hasn't been the same since the mid
‘80's it had its time". Peter Prendergast had asked Sean
and Brendan to buy the Arcadia in 1982. When asked if it would have
made a difference had they had more insight into the building's
destiny they replied, "No, it would have cost too much to insure.
By the ‘80's showbands were gone, discos and pubs were the
'in' thing. It would have never taken off second time around"
It
seems like every Cork person went to the 'Arc' at one stage or another,
from the 1920's right through to the ‘90's, and all have fond
memories of it. Today the great dance hall is just rubble, the site
soon to be a forty-eight unit block of student apartments with an
underground car park.
Note: there are some wonderful articles about Northside
Cork of long ago produced in ‘The Archive'. Parishioners, particularly
those who are abroad might wish to take a nostalgic journey into
the past and this can be done by logging on to ...............................
www.ucc.ie/research/nfp
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