THE FOLLOWING RECEIVED FROM VISITOR ED STAWSKI. ED IS REQUESTING INFORMATION ON TRENTON'S MUSICAL PERFORMER, "COUNT FELIX." SOMEHOW I ASSOCIATE THE COUNT WITH THE "CENTANNI RESTAURANT (AND BAR?" ESTABLISHMENT IN THE BURG, BUT I MAY BE WRONG. THANKS FOR VISITING, ED, AND FOR SIGNING MY GUESTBOOK.
ED WROTE:
Read all your articles. Terrific. Looking for more info on Count Felix. edstawski@verizon.net
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS: tglover320@optimum.net
"Count Felix" was Felix Nowicki.
ReplyDeleteWas his place at Rusling and Division St or Rusling and Anderson? Pretty sure it was on Division and Ruusling -- the southwest corner. Looks like an empty lot there, now.
The Count used cigars as his trademark. He played what I believed was a Hammond B3 up on an elevated stage, surrounded surrounded by an oblong bar.
He new almost every song popular for forty years by heart or had the sheet music -- about a ton of it, He challenged you to stump him. I asked for "Don't Bring Lulu" and he knew it, in 1968 or thereabouts.
Felix played rather well. He could sing with his cigar stuck in a nostril, inhaling and blowing smoke at the same time.
He was a real jokester, and even had a microphone in the rest rooms IIRC so all could hear.
The menu included hotdogs cooked in beer served with sourkraut and pickled eggs and the usualTrenton fare.
The barroom was decorated with paintings of clowns -- many of them being Emmett Kelley. My Dad even had a picture on the wall of a record tuna he caught back about 1960 or so.
When it was my tern to drink after turning 21, I headed right to Count Felix's place.
His motto was "Thanks Alot! You're in!" He was a showman that claimed to have taught Ernie Kovacs everything he knew -- but everybody in the 'Burg said that.
Bill, currently from San Jose, CA
The Count made potato pancake on the first snowfall every year. His brother Eddie tended bar. It was fun place!
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