BOOM! POP CULTURE CHRONICLES
By Mike Olszewski
Congratulations to this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Pat Benatar and her husband, native Clevelander Neil “Spyder James” Giraldo. Giraldo spoke about the Hall, family life and charity work in the July 2021 Northeast Ohio Boomer cover story.
The Hall has been a flashpoint for discussion since the day the building opened, especially when it comes to who gets inducted. This year was no different. Why would Giraldo be inducted when the albums are all under Pat Benatar’s name? How is it that Fleetwood Mac was inducted without Bob Welch, the guy who penned and performed on two of their earliest hits? (A legal dispute may be a key point there.) Who’s Ian Stewart, and why was he inducted along with the Rolling Stones?
Well, Stewart and Giraldo have a lot in common. Both were vital components in the early and continuing success of their respective bands — Stewart as a charter member and keyboardist for the Stones (who took a back seat because he didn’t fit their “image”) — and Giraldo had a close working relationship, crafting hit after hit with Benatar from their debut album on. There are plenty of other examples, and even former board members of the Hall question it.
Kudos also go to Sue Csendes, whose influence has had a great impact across generations. Csendes is a fixture on the Northeast Ohio music scene as a long-time radio voice and due to her work with The Agora and Belkin/Live Nation.
COVID hit the local music industry hard, and when restrictions eased up a bit, it inspired Csendes to sell music-related items directly to the public. The result was the “Music and Friends Garage Sale,” a marketplace where the public could support the area’s pop culture.
There were concert photos from Anastasia Pantsios and Janet Macoska (who’s also been featured in this magazine), classic posters from John Beres, Beatles memorabilia from Steve Madonna, and vinyl, vinyl, vinyl. Word of mouth brought more than 1,000 people to the first event at Jacobs Pavilion two years ago, with some vendors saying it helped them pay rent and buy groceries.
Csendes recalls, “I thought this would be a one-and-done event. Then vendor friends were interested in doing another one, especially since our industry still wasn’t back by May 2021. While I thought it would be fun to turn this into a yearly event, I never really thought I could do it, but clearly, I’m rethinking that. I would like to expand it a little bit every year and keep it music-centric, which I think is key.”
Csendes doesn’t make a dime from the event (it costs her money) but suggests folks attending this year’s event at the Music Box Supper Club donate to a local musicians’ relief fund. “Music and Friends” continues to grow and Csendes keeps getting called back for another encore.
Finally, a couple of months back, noted cartoonist Tom Batiuk featured something in his popular Funky Winkerbean strip that brought a smile to Boomer readers. It featured a collector of Cleveland TV memorabilia displaying, among other items, Captain Penny’s railroad engineer outfit. Batiuk knew, as did our readers, that former WEWS employee Bob Seeley carefully archived Ron Penfound’s outfit before returning it to Ron’s son, Matt. Batiuk ended his 50+ years of drawing Funky Winkerbean at the end of 2022.
BOOMER TRIVIA:
Last issue, I mentioned a suburb’s elaborate Christmas display that was featured in a Hallmark movie. The town is Bedford and the movie is “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” There’s an aerial drone video on YouTube that shows the town square’s lavish holiday decorations.
For next time, Chin’s Restaurant was a long-time favorite in Cleveland, but it also gave a new name to a Hollywood star who performed there. Name that star.
