Who OWNS Gerde's Folk City?
Trademarks aren't what they used to be
😎 I’m not one to beat down on the little people. But some people are so weak and pathetic that they’ve earned a little ridicule.
In a nutshell, I showed up in late 2009 bright eyes and bushy-tailed calling and DM’ing everyone associated with Folk City. In a short time, I shifted to organizing the 50th Anniversary concert because NO ONE had done fuk all about Mike Porco or Folk City since it closed in 1987. The last owner- READ: the guy who closed Folk City- told me that he wanted me to HOLD OFF on all my plans because he was going to organize HIS OWN 50th, a theatrical off-off-off Broadway show and simultaneously PUSH to get Gerde’s Folk City nominated for the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame.
In the words of Roger Waters….WELL, WE’RE STILL WAITING!!!!!!!!
I have been able to do more for Mike Porco’s good deeds and his good name without their blessing or partnership. He’s also a horrible exclusionist because I wasn’t a dick rider for the guy that closed my grandfather’s club.
There were three people who bought Folk City. Rob, his wife and a guy named Joe. I met them all once at the Folk City exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. Joe was a sweet guy. The wife said half a word to me. It was almost 10 years ago.
Along the way, people (MUSICIANS) that I bonded with would ask me (as if I knew) WHAT DID ROBBIE DO WITH THE MONEY from the 25th Anniversary concert in 1985???
They asked me (as if I knew) why didn’t Robbie spend the money to soundproof Folk City in 1986 when the landlord asked him to?? He’d still be open.
They asked me (as if I knew) why didn’t Robbie open up a new location on East 3rd with the money he raised from the 25th Anniversary Concert as promised?
They asked me (as if I knew) what happened to the historic items left behind (ledgers, professional act sign in books, mics and ephemera) from such a piece of New York City?
He bought Folk City lock, stock and barrel for $50-60K in 1982. Mike never trademarked the name Gerde’s Folk City. Robbie did and he felt that it gave him rights to Gerde’s entire history and by extension what I was doing for Mike and Folk City. He censored a MIKE PORCO wikipedia page that I spent time on making and linking to his.
In the 80s, he told jack Hardy that Folk City was no longer looking for ‘entertainers’ if you can believe it. He stopped booking the acoustic bread and butter that made Folk City FOLK CITY.
It doesn’t matter who owns Folk City’s trademark. As I said in a previous post-
EVERYBODY OWNS A PART OF GERDE’S FOLK CITY!!! Thanks to me, Mike and Folk City have a modest SEARCHABLE presence on the internet.
Not only that, but it seems that his trademark ‘license’ has EXPIRED🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
🚨🚨🚨🚨 (Losing game show noise) WHOMP, Whomp whaaamp…………….
FAQs
What is/was Folk City?
"The Mecca"~ Richie Havens
"Our Headquarters"~ Carolyn Hester
"Like no place else in the Village"~ Suze Rotolo
"The perfect school"~ Steve Forbert
"A mythical place"~ Jack Hardy
"A cauldron of creativity"~ Terre Roche
"A home for dreamers"~ David Massengill
"The preeminent Folk club in America"~ Bobby Dylan
"Gerdes was the starting point of it all"~ Maria Muldaur
"(Folk City) has a certain kind of goodness that transcends everything"~ Ramblin' Jack Elliott
"Folk City was where original singers came to sing"~ Suzanne Vega
"Gerdes meant more to me than any club I ever played in all my lifetime"~ John Lee Hooker
"Folk City was the only place that was really open and encouraging"~ Emmylou Harris
"Folk City was THE folk club"~ John Hammond Jr
"(The place) to get exposure in front of audiences and learn how to work out your songs"~ Roger McGuinn
"The place I would really call home. It WAS my home"~ Judy Collins
"Gerdes was the heart of it all. The ultimate in hip. It was the real thing"~ Joan Baez
"Because of Folk City I developed the act I have now. Gerdes meant independence for me"~ Jose Feliciano
"Folk City was IT"~ John Hammond Sr
"It was THE place to go"~ Lenny Levine
"Folk City meant there was life beyond MacDougal St"~ John Cohen
"It freshened up American life for the better"~ Danny Kalb
"The best parent a person could have"~ Carolyne Mas
"The 60s happened here"~ Maggie Roche
"I got to see John Lee Hooker and Dylan for a dollar"~ Annonymous
Back in 2010, I was a complete unknown. “Somebody said Mike Porco’s grandson is in the audience.”
To which a reply might be, “Mike Porco!? I haven’t heard his name in 15 years! Haven’t seen him since 1990. WHERE IS THIS GRANDSON?”
I would barge right in to your backstage, your dinner table, your apartment…whether you liked Mike or not…I barged in, Anyway.
NOW I LIVE HERE ON SUBSTACK
POSITIVELY PORCO is the definitive documentary film made about New York City's first Folk Music cabaret, GERDE’S FOLK CITY.
Filmed to enlighten even the most staunch Folk Revival enthusiast and historian, the Gerde’sFolkCityDoc, POSITIVELY PORCO, is the story of FOLK CITY OWNER Mike Porco and the club a thousand musicians called HOME.
MIKE PORCO was instrumental in, literally, setting the stage for the music revolution of the '60's. (Pun…meaning he cut the wood and nailed together a custom stage for his restaurant)
During Mike Porco’s stewardship (1960-1980) the KING OF CLUBS hosted early performances by a constellation of Folk and traditional music stars. Many American radio standards and Civil rights anthems were ofttimes heard by the public at Gerde's Folk City for the first time.
A list Folk City's distinctive fraternity of aspiring young artists and legendary recording stars borders on myth.
In the INDIE FILM, Bob Porco (ME), Mike's grandson, undertakes an ardent personal odyssey, seeking out and sitting down with those living treasures that launched a global music paradigm shift from a street corner in Greenwich Village.
It's an inspiring tale of a DEPRESSION-ERA immigrant- and the musicians that he met later in life- who answered their COLLECTIVE CALLING to be a part of the 1960’s Folk and Blues Revival together.
The FOLK MUSIC stars themselves tell the astounding history of Gerde's and Positively Mike Porco.
https://bobporco86.substack.com/p/documentary-on-mike-porcos-folk-music
The interviews that I conducted in 2013 and 2014 include
BRUCE LANGHORNE
JOHN P. HAMMOND
ARLO GUTHRIE
TERRE ROCHE
BARRY KORNFELD
DOMINIC CHIANESE
VINCE MARTIN
IZZY YOUNG
BOB PORCO SR.
ANGELO PORCO
GEORGE GERDES
SONNY OCHS
PEGGY DUNCAN-GARNER
LARRY ‘RATSO’ SLOMAN
ROB STONER
ROD MACDONALD
HAPPY and JANE TRAUM
ERIK FRANDSEN
ERIC ANDERSEN
JOSÉ FELICIANO
DELORES DIXON
DAVID MASSENGILL
MIKE PORCO was making sauce and mixing drinks in a restaurant on 4th Street while, in the same small room, American music history was being made.
ALL FORMS OF 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN MUSIC WERE SHOWCASED TO OTHER MUSICIANS AND AFICIONADOS.
This never happened before on such a scale. The unique convergence of individual paths could never create more of an impact as 1960.
Some may say that Mike Porco’s life was full of historic moments. It's true. He and his club were witness to legendary events during the 1960's Folk and Blues Revival AND the revival of the revival in the 1970s. His name didn't become as well known as some of his friends like Tom Paxton, Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie and Joan Baez but, soon, MUSIC LOVERS and FANS will recall his name in the same breath.
FOLK SCARE scholars already know the PORCO NAME well.
In 1960, thanks to Izzy Young Gerde’s became New York’s FIRST Folk Music cabaret. The OPEN MIC, then called the HOOTENANNY, was invented weeks later.
Brother John Sellers, The Clancy Brothers, Rev Gary Davis Cisco Houston, Dave Van Ronk, Oscar Brand, Vince Martin and Carolyn Hester helped Mike establish Gerde’s as an authentic room for PROS to perform for a salary.
In 1961, Troubadour Cisco Houston played his LAST gig there. That same week, Cisco offered some time for a 13 year-old Arlo Guthrie to take the stage for the first time ever.
Later in 1961, Colorado’s Judy Collins played her first NYC gig. A month later, Bob Dylan played his FIRST pro gig at Folk City.
In 1962, Phil Ochs and John Hammond gained top billing as pros and were signed to Vanguard Records RIGHT THERE at Gerde’s.
In 1963, José Feliciano showed up and was exposed to a wider audience leading him to become one of the world’s largest bi-lingual artists EVER.
In 1964, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel chose Folk City to be their first gig with their given names. (They had a record published as ’Tom and Jerry’ as teens)
Maggie Roche told me “the 1960s HAPPENED there at Folk City.”
In 1969, Terri Thal got Maggie and Terre Roche exposure at Folk City’s Hoot. That year, Emmylou Harris moved up from Folk City waitress to opening act.
ONWARD
In 1975, fourteen years after his rocket to fame, Bob Dylan used Folk City to launch the first ALL-NIGHT incarnation of the Rolling Thunder Tour.
THOUSANDS of artists were hired to play Folk City during Mike Porco’s twenty year reign as proprietor.
In 2015, at B.B. KING’S, I accepted Mike Porco’s induction into the New York Blues Hall of Fame.
🤌🏼 👀
🤌🏼Do ya love Rock and Roll?
🤌🏼How about Folk Rock?
🤌🏼How about The Blues?
🤌🏼Americana?
🤌🏼Singer songwriter???
🎼🎼 Ever wonder where all that came from?
Try imagining a place where it was always safe and warm for the stray musician during the Folk Revival of the 1960s.
EVERYTHING was going on there. As long as you were the best at what you did, you got hired. Jazz and comedy were welcomed again in in later years.
Yet the Hootenanny on Monday’s allowed space for A COMPLETE UNKNOWN amateur to perform on the same stage.
Folk City became a good luck charm for artists and bands.
Into the 1980s, bands like Sonic Youth and 10,000 Maniacs call Folk City their first BIG booking. Lucinda Williams came. Suzanne Vega, Joan Osbourne, Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplanski, Carolyn Mas, David Massengill, Rod MacDonald, Frank Christian…ODETTA still came around. Folk City didn’t belong to anyone any more. It was EVERYBODY’S.
Mike Porco’s good karma has made its way into the modern day over two decades after his death. Because of his selfless effort, my task of making the definitive documentary film on Gerde's and Mike has been made a lot easier. IT IS ASTOUNDING AND AVAILABLE HERE:
https://bobporco86.substack.com/p/documentary-on-mike-porcos-folk-music
You’ll also get access to the Fiftieth Anniversary Concert filmed in 2010:
https://bobporco86.substack.com/p/gerdes-folk-city-fiftieth-anniversary
If Americana Radio is your spirit animal, you deserve to gift yourself the four-hour film. Subscriptions are forever until you leave.
📱💻🖥
✅Make a Substack account
✅Subscribe to Bob Porco’s Substack
✅Subscribe for paid to watch the GerdesFolkCityDoc!!!