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There is a lot of free outdoor music every week on Five-Mile Island. The most venerable venue is the open-air Lou Booth Theater on Second Street in North Wildwood. There is music there at 8 p.m.Thursdays and Saturdays.
Fox Park in Wildwood proper, across from the convention center, hosts shows on a less regular basis and the best way to find out and who’s playing is to check out one of the free local papers that lists music.
The other place for free outdoor music is the cool new Centennial Park across from the Port Royal Hotel on Ocean Avenue in Wildwood Crest between Palm and Forget-Me-Not avenues. It’s the Crest’s 100th anniversary, thus the name for the park, which features a bandstand under a canopy and the letters that form the word “CREST” in ocean blue on the poles that support the blue and white canopy.
A few weeks ago, I saw a smoking Chicago tribute band there and as the twilight faded and a full moon rose behind the bandstand. It was the perfect place to be as a cool night breeze blew away the last of the day’s oppressive heat. Shows at Centennial Park are 7 p.m. Saturdays.
Part of the entertainment at every Centennial Park concert is the dancing of a guy I took to calling “Disco Pete.” He looks to be in his late sixties or early seventies, even with slicked back black hair, wears high-top Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars, black shorts, and a blue Superman T-shirt. The mother of a friend who was sitting near me said he used to be the mayor of Wildwood, which would have been cool, except I found out from another friend who used to hang with him that he’s a retired Wildwood Crest police sergeant and his brother was once the mayor there. See how rumors percolate? Whatever, Disco Pete is still one fine dancer and could easily be elected the Mayor of Terpsichore.
My favorite show so far this summer was at Lou Booth Theater (named after Mary Lou Booth who was a prohibition rum-runner under the name “Lou Booth”). The Carmen Dee Orchestra was there, and I felt in the mood for some swinging big band music, and that’s what I got — a full taste of Basie, Ellington, and even some older stuff like Glenn Miller.
And then things got even better. Carmen Dee, a South Philly guy himself, took the microphone and introduced another South Philadelphian who has quietly become a legend among music insiders — Billy Ruth, a funeral parlor worker who has made a career out of singing like Frank Sinatra.
Ruth, a lanky guy who sports a Sinatra haircut, came out wearing a cool orange shirt, the sleeves turned up, and tailored off-white trousers. Ruth has studied Sinatra’s phrasing, gestures, and verbal idiosyncrasies, and has incorporated them into his own vocal stylings. His voice doesn’t have the timbre of Sinatra in his golden years, nor the surprising range of Old Blue Eyes, so the result is a good singer singing like a great singer. He swings like Sinatra, and has the same nearly total rapport with his audience. It amounted to a wonderful set of music and Ruth was rewarded with a totally deserved standing ovation.
Afterwards, he hung around the bandstand, amiably chatting with anyone who wanted to say hello, while the Carmen Dee Orchestra broke down. A nice ending for a great night of music.
All for free, outdoors and down the shore. What could be better?
