Guide to the Papers of Bill Green, 1930-1989
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Papers of Bill Green
- Creator
- Green, Bill (1907-1988)
- Collection Number
- MSS#204
- Extent
- 1 cubic feet (2 boxes and 5 shelf volumes)
- Date
- 1930-1989
- Abstract
- Bill (William C.) Green was the owner and operator of a premier nightclub in Pittsburgh, "Bill Green's Terraced Gardens and Casino," from 1930 to 1952. The "High Spot of Pittsburgh's Night Spots," boasting of indoor and outdoor dance floors, stood as a hub for the swingers of the Big Band Era. The records consist of personal items, advertisements, correspondence, financial material, newspaper articles, publications, souvenirs, business stationary, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous materials.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Sponsor
- This finding aid has been encoded as a part of the Historic Pittsburgh project a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Funding for this portion of the project has been donated by the Hillman Foundation.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
Biographical Sketch of Bill Green (1907-1988)
Bill (William C.) Green was the owner and operator of a premier nightclub in Pittsburgh, "Bill Green's Terraced Gardens and Casino," from 1930 to 1952. The "High Spot of Pittsburgh's Night Spots," boasting of indoor and outdoor dance floors, stood as a hub for the swingers of the Big Band Era. In 1953, Green transformed the property (at Route 51 and Lebanon Church Road in Pleasant Hills) to "Bill Green's Shopping Center" and delved full-time into a career in real estate development as chairman of the board of Bill Green and Company.
Bill Green was born in Pittsburgh in 1907 to Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas H. Green. At the age of four, Bill moved with his family to Jefferson Township where he attended the Allegheny County Public Schools, graduating from Knoxville High School in 1920. Green first worked as a civil engineering assistant building trolley lines in Bermuda. He later became a mill worker for National Tube Company until 1929. In the fall of 1930, Green took over the operation of a barbecue stand from his father at the Route 51 location, one mile from their home. Though Green's initial venture of a Tom Thumb golf course failed, the barbecue stand, originally called the Pleasant Hills Country Club, prospered enough by 1931 to require expansion of the dining room to add 120 seats to the 15 that had previously existed and the building of a screened-in veranda. In 1933, Green demolished the stand, leveled off the terraced gardens, built an entirely new construction with a pavilion stage and dance floor, and changed the name to simply, "Bill Green's." After rain cancelled a highly publicized Paul Specht performance, Green, in 1934, built the indoor club, adding 700 covered seats to the 1000 under the stars. Leo Cathe, a Cleveland architect, renovated the club in 1936, adding a seven- colored indirect lighting system that earned the club praise for its design. Charles S. Slater designed the cocktail lounge added in 1949, including a 26-foot bar canopied by a uniquely curved ceiling construction.
Throughout the years in operation, Bill Green's enjoyed a reputation of quality service and brought many performers from the national circuit to Pittsburgh. Among only some of the noteworthy are Lawrence Welk, Ted Weems, Eddie Howard, Earl Vernon, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, The Ink Spots, Tony Pastor, Jack McLean, Rudy Vallee, and Bobby Meeker. The club also became a means by which local artists could gain national publicity when, starting in 1936, two radio stations, WCAE and WWSW, broadcasted live performances coast to coast, four times a week. Local artists who benefited from these broadcasts included: Sammy Kaye, Tommy Carlyn, Baron Elliot, Benny Burton and Clyde Knight. Bill Green's nightclub was also utilized for proms, weddings, holiday parties, club functions, and banquets.
Through the spotlight of Master of Ceremonies, Green enjoyed tremendous personal popularity and became a local celebrity in his own right, appearing frequently in local social papers. On several occasions, Bill Green's club made legal news. Among the offenses, in 1937, Green pleaded guilty and was fined $300 for operating slot machines, escaping license revocation due to his aid in convicting an alleged racketeer. In 1939, Green paid a $900 fine for serving liquor to minors. Also in 1939, Green won $19,000 from a Common Pleas Court jury in a suit against the county for property damage done during the expansion of the Route 51 interchange. In 1949, Green acted against the imposition of a cabaret tax on the sale of liquor and entertainment. As president and founder of the Night Club Owners Association of Allegheny County, Green fought the 10% tax on the grounds that working people could not afford the extra burden and that the government had proven with the overseas performances for troops that entertainment is a necessity.
In 1950, Green built the Arena Theatre, hoping to lure television viewers from their living rooms. Despite the quality of live performers and programs, the theater only lasted one season in the summer of 1951. Under the management of Sam Hendelsman and the direction of Morton DaCosta, actors Edward Elliot Horton, Katherine Meskill, Arthur Treacher, Kay Francis, Joan Blondell, Bert Wheeler, Judy Holiday, Lillian Gish, and Ruth Chatterton, among others, appeared under the canvas circus tent.
1953 brought the realization of what Green called a 15-year dream: the construction of a shopping center at the nightclub location. Boasting of modernity, the center included 42,000 square feet of space for 13 stores, including a Kroger supermarket, Sun Drug's largest store to date, and parking for 400 automobiles. Plans also included room for the nightclub to operate on a smaller scale. During the construction the center fell victim to AFL picketing against a neighboring construction, halting deliveries temporarily. With construction of the shopping center, Green turned his career to real-estate management and transformed the J.J. Gumberg Company, of which he was the former executive vice-president, into Bill Green and Company with himself as president.
Green continued to live in the limelight. As the social chairman for the Greater Pittsburgh Board of Realtors, Green arranged their 1961 Golden Anniversary Ball featuring his old friend, Sammy Kaye. Named chairperson of the 22nd Annual Awards Dinner of the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of Industrial Realtors, Green organized a dinner and entertainment at the Duquesne Club. Bill received several awards and honors throughout the years. In 1944, the American Legion of Pennsylvania awarded him the Distinguished Service Certificate; in 1949, Boys' Town, Nebraska named him Honorary Citizen; and in 1950, the American Veterans of World War II awarded him a Certificate of Merit.
Bill Green married his "high-school chum", Mary Dean, whom he met in 1931, in the choir of the Zion Lutheran Church on Route 51. Bill's uncle, Dr. William Nies, pastor of Mt. Zion Lutheran Church in Detroit, performed the ceremony. Bill and Mary had two children: Mary Ann Langholz (b. 1932) of Columbus, Ohio, and William Jr. (b. 1935), who also met his wife in the choir of Zion Lutheran Church. Mary Ann attended Capital University where she became a poster model for Lutheran education. William Jr. graduated from Purdue University in 1957 and worked as a salesman for Proctor and Gamble in Greensburg, PA. One of Bill Green's sisters, Kathryn "Kitty" C. Green, worked alongside Mary Green in the club as a cashier. During Bill's service in the U.S. Navy from 1945-1946, Mary and Kathryn assumed operation of the club. After Kathryn's first marriage (1938) to Rollin N. Walters ended, she married Jack Fina, the nightclub's orchestra leader. Bill Green died of Alzheimer's Disease on January 26, 1988.
Scope and Content
The records consist of personal items, advertisements, correspondence, financial material, newspaper articles, publications, souvenirs, business stationary, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous materials. Personal materials are arranged at the front and include awards and diplomas, Green's funeral guest book, news clippings of family and friends, and miscellaneous items.
The wealth of the collection is found in the scrapbooks. Five books dating from 1930 to 1961 contain newspaper clippings, photographs, correspondence, personal souvenirs, and other miscellaneous items. The first (1930-1936) opens with clippings about a shooting at the barbecue stand and includes articles on performers Bobby Meeker, Earl Vernon, Baron Elliot, Joe Schafer, and Dick Barrie, and correspondence with Earl Vernon, Dick Barrie, and others. The second scrapbook (1936-1938, 1950) continues to trace the appearances at the club of stars such as Dick Barrie, Anita Boyer and Sammy Kaye, correspondence with Dick Barrie and others, special events at the club, and scripts from WCAE broadcasts. The third scrapbook (1937-1942) continues to document club activities including advertisements for the club and for performers such as Jimmy Joy and Sammy Kaye. The fourth (1949-1952) and fifth (1950-1961), in addition to club documentation, also contain personal souvenirs relating to Green's children, Baldwin High School events (c1950), greeting cards, and vacation mementos. The fourth also contains a script autographed by Lawrence Welk.
The publications have been divided into local and national categories. Among the local publications: an incomplete run of The Pleasant Hills Patriot (1941-1948); random issues of The Bulletin Index, a weekly Pittsburgh magazine (1937, 1944, 1946); Town Talk, a weekly Pittsburgh entertainment guide (1945); a yearbook of the Pittsburgh Night club Owner's Guild (1946); the Charette, Pittsburgh's journal of architecture (1949); a photocopy of a mention of Green's night club in Pittsburgh's Holiday magazine (1949); two issues of The Cloverleaflet (1953); a Pittsburgh Pirates 1960 World Series Program, scored; newsletters of the South Hills Country Club (1978); and several pages of "Nite Life", torn from Town Talk magazine (c1940s); and miscellaneous others. The national publications include: Metronome (1938); Dance Topics (1947, 1948); and Lawrence Welk's Sweet Notes of Friendship (1950).
Loose newspaper articles and advertisements have been photocopied for preservation and are arranged alphabetically by topics related to the club and theater, musicians, and the shopping center. Full-page newspaper advertisements pertaining to the shopping center are arranged separately as oversized material.
The correspondence (September 1935-November 1961) includes three signed letters from Lawrence Welk (1947-1948), postcards to and from Bill Green, wartime letters regarding Bill's service and his support of American servicemen, and thank you notes from club patrons.
Financial material is scarce. Included are figures from the 1940s written in pencil indicating the number of patrons and staff, a receipt from Kaufmann's Department Store from 1931 listing the rental of a few home items, and counterfeit checks accepted at the club. The researcher may want to consult club menus and the audiotapes as additional sources of financial information.
The collection also contains programs and menus, both signed and unsigned, from the nightclub and advertisements, invitations and tickets. Stationary items from Bill Green's night club include: business cards, postcards, envelopes, writing paper, match books, and Victory Garden canning labels. Among the miscellaneous materials are assorted business cards, the Constitution and By-laws of the Pittsburgh Night Club Owners' Guild, and two "Bill Green's Dated Events of World War II Maps."
Arrangement
The Bill Green Papers are arranged alphabetically by folder title.
The Bill Green papers are housed in two archival boxes and 5 shelf volumes.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These materials were received in one accession in 1995.
Acc. #1995.0170 Gift of William Green, Jr.,(Papers).
Preferred Citation
Papers of Bill Green, 1930-1989, MSS# 204, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Theresa Casebeer and Kim Fortney on February 6, 1996.
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Doug MacGregor on May 24, 2001.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.
Subjects
- Bill Green's
- Bill Green's Arena Theatre
- Bill Green's Casino
- Bill Green's Shopping Center
- Bill Green's Supper Club
- Bill Green's Terraced Garden
- Green, Bill (1907-1988)
- Carlyn, Tommy
- Kaye, Sammy
- Meeker, Bobby
- Weems, Ted
- Welk, Lawrence
- Music halls (Variety-theaters, cabarets, etc.)