It's 2 O'clock. Do You Know Where Your Husband Is?

The 2 O'clock Club's Neon Marquee, best seen at night.

  In the mid 1800's, East Baltimore Street was not unlike much of the architecture on that street and throughout the city prior to the Civil War, being architecturally populated with four story commercial buildings.  By 1855, at 416 E. Baltimore, an auctioneer by the name of Samuel H. Gover determined to have a home for his auction gallery.  Interspersed with auction events, the hall was often used for public meetings. From 1860 for nearly four years, it was known as Apollo Hall and then Metropolitan Hall and then, between 1873 and 1891, it was known as Turner Hall.

  By 1892, the local chapters of the Grand Army of the Republic or "GAR" (a fraternal organization composed of veterans from the triumphant Union Army, US Navy, US Marines, and Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War) deemed it as their "Grand Army Hall" between 1892 and 1903. The GAR National Headquarters was rotated among various U.S. cities, however, unfortunately never was hosted by the City of Baltimore.

  The 1904 Great Fire of Baltimore was akin to an Etch-a-Sketch to much of the architectural and cultural landscape of the city.  Despite the tragedy, the original owners had high hopes and rebuilt to the original height.  Little would they know that their desire to build this building would be effectively sowing the seed for a cultural milestone within the U.S.

Harold Lloyd's Silent Film
 "Safety Last", 1923

  It was at this location where Marion Scott Pearce, motion picture pioneer, and his partner Philip J. Scheck (their firm here in Baltimore, known as Pearce & Scheck, originally built the Hippodrome Theater) operated their first theater in 1908, the Amusea (which first opened in a little room at 404-406 East Baltimore in 1906), showing some of Baltimore's first public showings of silent films.  The nickelodeon originally contained 75 seats operated 15 minute long reels non-stop for 12 hours daily but, due to the tremendous popularity of "moving pictures," they expanded to a 275 seat capacity auditorium and included "polite" vaudeville into their schedule of entertainment offerings.  You can read more about Mr. Pearce in the 1912 book "Baltimore: Its History and Its People," of the Lewis Historical Publishing Company.

  From the Amusea, they introduced the rather novel experiment of "talking pictures" which became interspersed with other venues - it was quite possibly the first instantiation of this concept in America.  In those days, these 'sound' movies were merely voice actors behind the screen who attempted to synchronize their voices and sounds of gunfire or other action with the silent visual screen display.

  According to the 1974 book "Headley's Exit: A History of Movies in Baltimore," when Pearce and Scheck began to have financial issues attempting to run the Hippodrome, they sold the Amusea to Milton Caplon who promptly changed the name to the Clover and expanded the seating capacity to 375.  By the 1930, the theater along with its environment on Baltimore Street became increasingly cheap and dirty.

Sol Goodman advertisement,
circa late 1930s

  In 1936, an enterprising Jewish man by the name of Solomon Goodman and his wife purchased the theater and opened the "2 O'Clock Club" which produced vaudeville and burlesque shows. By the 1951, Goodmans had pushed the envelope such that a Baltimore Sun article reported that Liquor Control Board was "horrified" over police descriptions of their floor shows.  In that instance, the club had its license suspended for 10 days due to a dancer named Zorita who it was reported during the "final part of her act the dancer held a snake close to her body and went through several indecent motions."

A 2 O'Clock Club Matchbox Cover
Featuring Blaze Starr, c1960
(Courtesy: Hakes.com)

  The 2 O'Clock Club became most known through the efforts of a particular stripper and burlesque star by the name of "Blaze Starr" who, according to The Selvedge Yard blog, was born Fannie Belle Fleming and commanded the stage with a voluptuous 38D-24-37 figure.  Blaze began performing at the  club in December 1950 and soon Mr. Goodman became her personal manager.  He eventually sold her the club in 1968 and over the next four years, Ms. Starr worked to elevate the reputation of The Block.  While she owned it, in addition to the building housing a burlesque theater, it housed an envelope factory, violin factory, and a gypsy shop.  So far, the 2 O'Clock Club is still alive and kicking, a remnant of Baltimore's illustrious and tawdry past on a slowly vanishing, somewhat seedy, section of town near Baltimore's Finest back doorstep.