Gambit New Orleans- June 14, 2011

Page 8

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NEW ORLEANS KNOW-IT-ALL

Questions for Blake: askblake@gambitweekly.com

HEY BLAKE, ON THE WALL OF 516 GOV. NICHOLLS ST., THREE STORIES UP, IS A FADED TEXT THAT READS “A. BOTSAY/BOX FACTORY.� IT’S NOT ENTIRELY LEGIBLE. WHO WAS BOTSAY AND WHAT KIND OF BOXES DID HE MAKE? WONDERING

DEAR WONDERING, Before the street was renamed after Gov. Francis T. Nicholls, it was Hospital Street for 180 years. And 516 Hospital St. was the residence and business of Alexander Botsay, a pioneer cigar box maker of the South. It was about 1860, just four years after arriving in this country, that Botsay introduced the cigar box industry to New Orleans. Before that, cigar boxes were imported. Botsay came to New Orleans in 1856 from Budapest. He was a revolutionary when the Hungarians fought for their freedom against Austria. He married in New Orleans and had a large family and a successful business. When the Northern blockade cut off supplies to New Orleans during the Civil War, Botsay saw an opportunity. He bought up old cigar boxes and reworked them for his trade. He did well, receiving as much as 50 cents per box. Botsay stayed active in his business well into his eighties. He died Dec. 22, 1913. HEY BLAKE, IS THERE A CONCERT TAPE OF JIM MORRISON’S LAST PERFORMANCE WITH THE DOORS IN NEW ORLEANS ON DEC. 12, 1970? PETE

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Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > JUne 14 > 2011

The hisToric New orleaNs collecTioN PreseNTs

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DEAR PETE, Back in 2005, I wrote that The Doors’ keyboard player Ray Manzarek was looking for a tape of the last concert. Then I received an email from George M. Friedman, which I will share with you in its entirety: “I received word that your column had had some inquiry about the lost tape of the Doors concert at the Warehouse, Jim Morrison’s very last performance. The tape isn’t lost. I’ve had it in a safety deposit box for several years. I was a stage manager at the Warehouse during that and most of the shows at that classic venue. The tape is in two-channel stereo,

having been recorded by ‘Stagehand Bob’ on the same machine he used for just about every early show at the Warehouse. “My recollection is that I came upon the tape when Beaver Productions moved its offices out of the Warehouse, Uptown into a building at the Riverbend. The Doors tape, along with a stack of other Warehouse show tapes, were cast off and left behind as debris during the move. The rest of the tapes may have been destroyed. I regret leaving behind the Jimi Hendrix tape. “At some time along the way, I spoke with a gentleman named Sugarman, who

The faded business sign is still visible on the French Quarter building where Alexander Botsay lived and sold cigar boxes. PHOTO BY KANDACE POWER GRAVES

represented himself to be a manager of the Doors. Mr. Sugarman said that the keyboard player had only a curiosity interest in that night’s rendition of ‘Riders on the Storm,’ if I have that song’s name right, but had no real interest in acquiring the tape, Jim Morrison’s last performance notwithstanding. “The Doors shows back then were chaotic, but the Warehouse performance was more music than theater. An exception to that would be at the very end of the show, when Morrison, who was wacked near a stupor that night, suddenly jumped up, grabbed the microphone and then smashed it right through the floor of the stage. What an ending to a great show. Nobody knew it when it happened, but the music indeed was over when they turned out the lights and the Doors left the stage.� The Mr. “Sugarman� referred to was Danny Sugerman, the manager of The Doors, who died in 2005.

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