MIKE PORCO arrived in NYC Feb 2, 1933

Yes, yes…It's become well known that Mike Porco was once one of the baddest ass characters from the 1960's Folk and Blues Revival. He owned and ran Gerde's Folk City and what makes it more unbelievable is that he never took the stage in his club to perform, he never recorded music and he never wrote songs. But what a baddass!!

Why??
Because he was the honest club owner in Greenwich Village. From what I hear, the only one. His fair treatment of all musicians kept them coming back for work year after year. People relied on Mike for work and he kept the doors open for 20 years thusly providing crowds with top shelf entertainment.

He is remembered fondly for a thousand other reasons. That's just one of the topics that will make POSITIVELY PORCO the most feelin'est goodest film you will ever partake in when you see it in 2016. The film stars Mike Porco and Gerde's Folk City. All his good friends report the whole truth to me on film and in the process, tell and teach me what it's all about.

Oh, and there's a ton of music that came out of Folk City. Hard to believe that a carpenter/cabinet maker from Calabria would one day be credited with practically inventing the 'Open Mic' free-for-alls that we so commonly see today. New York's Greenwich Village didn't have one until Charlie Rothschild, Robert (don't call me Shapiro) Shelton and Mike came up with the idea.

''Call it a Hootenanny,'' they said.

Here's Mike reciting the rules for the open mic:

The story of the Hoot….that's another story.

What most people don't know is that Michele Porco had a most unwelcome start to his life in America. Despite that, he 'made it.' 

I'm positive he didn't envision, that in 1985, the City of New York would proclaim September ''Folk City Month'' and that he would be the Pope of Greenwich Village during his time there. And I'm sure he didn't think there would become a not-so-distant correlation between he, Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson.  

yes, the actual SS Conte di Savoia

It all started with a journey on the Conte di Savoia. Mike Porco stepped foot in America 82 years ago today. Reports of his shadow went undocumented.

Below is my first 'Mike Porco Report.'

THE OPENING ACT HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD

 I always thought is was over-the-top-cool that Mike Porco was friends with John Lee Hooker to begin with. John Lee Hooker would be at the bar if he wasn't on stage. And Dylan watched every move Hooker made when he was closing the show. The performers had to do 2 sets each night, except for Fridays and Saturdays where they had to clear the club for 3 shows each. Dylan-Hooker-Dylan-Hooker-Dylan-Hooker in one night.!!!!!!!!!!!!

"There were earlier nights, at Izzy Young's Folklore Center on MacDougal Street and out in East Orange (where Dylan played Jimmie Rodgers's "Southern Cannonball"); later, there was Carnegie Hall, and the gone-electric boos at Forest Hills. But Gerde's was the official coming out, the start."

That, a quote from this LIVE FROM NEW YORK piece from New York Mag. 

http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/music/features/5287/

Some new details given....setlist, Hotel Dylan stayed at....nice touch. Accurate and tight paragraph in a New York nutshell. Couldn't have done it better myself. (Of course I can. It's my fucking blog, and what I say goes). But in a New Yorker's 'voice,' this paragraph says: Don't question whether Dylan starting at Gerde's matters. It matters, trust me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The HuffPost got the word out in their entertainment section yesterday:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/11/bob-dylans-first-new-york-city-performance_n_3060900.html?#slide=1233155


Dylan's opening act night at Gerde's was the "Opening Act heard 'round the world!"
Dylan's fan base, like the universe at this moment, continues to expand into regions unknown. They all learn, sooner or later, that he shot off like a rocket from Robert don't-call-me-Shapiro Shelton's review of the week of shows at Gerde's Folk City.

Mike Porco's copy in a menu sleeve