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Gaslight Square Saint Louis, Missouri 1953-1972

Gaslight Square was a compact thriving entertainment district that was far more notorious than Bourbon Street at the time. Original music was everywhere and the streets were lined with packed clubs and restaurants., and after hours coffeehouse discussion still remembered in the new millennium.

Founded by the beatniks of the early 1950's, it was a time before orbiting satellites, the Internet, cell phones and mass electronic media. This generation began questioning traditional majority values in art, literature, and political self expression. Like New York's Greenwich Village, a central hub of The Beat Generation, Gaslight Square in St. Louis supported and helped construct this important alternative American scene. Writers Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg and others traveling coast to coast would make that delibrate stop in St. Louis to witness Gaslight Square.

Gaslight Square was one of the coolest and hippest neighborhoods on earth. Many top entertainers such as The Smothers Brothers, Lenny Bruce, Miles Davis, Barbra Streisand, Jackie Mason, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Woody Allen, Dick Gregory, Jack E. Leonard, and Phyllis Diller, graced the stages of Gaslight Square early in their careers. The area boasted of live jazz, poetry, great food, Irish dancing, and street cars. It would take a half hour to go 2 blocks by car. Gaslight Square was truly a unique hot area of sophisticated entertainment.

Then Gaslight Square died. This focal point synthesized into a phenomenon that burned brightly for just a few years, was then allowed by lack of political will, police protection, and public apathy to fade, to dim, and to die.

Not a trace of Gaslight Square remains today, aside from the website: www.gaslightsquare.org

Two documentary were produced about Gaslight Square within the last several years. "Gaslight Square The Forgotten Landmark" (Bruce Marren/2002) explores the history by the people who developed the area. Includes interviews with the Smothers Brothers, Jay Landesman, Bob Kuban, and many others.

"Gaslight Square The Legend Lives On" (Bruce Marren/2005) looks at the influence it had on the city, uncovers relics, and what has happened to it today. Includes interviews with Phyllis Diller, Billy Peek, Jonnie King, and many others.

Sources www.gaslightsquare.org,

Documentaries: "Gaslight Square the Forgotten Landmark" (2002) Gaslight Square The Legend Lives On" (2005)